Head for the European House of Authors in Ixelles to find out more about TheGreenShot and meet Véronique Pevtschin, co-CEO alongside Max Hermans. The start-up established its business here, taking the opportunity to work in this ideal environment. Originating in the world of cinema, the business has gradually extended its sphere of activity to the entire entertainment world.
"TheGreenShot was initially created to meet a financial need," explains Véronique Pevtschin. Max, its creator, was working on major international co-productions. He found the lack of visibility in budget management appalling; it would have been better to have a real-time view of what were often substantial expenditures."
Starring: the carbon footprint
His solution was a mobile app enabling production team members to quickly report all data relating to their services and expenses.
- For production, this meant faster and more transparent control of expenses.
- For teams, it meant better real-time visibility of salaries and improved responsiveness from managers.
- TheGreenShot's strength is its ability to store very detailed and precise data, so valuable for the financial management of shoots, as well as for calculating their carbon footprint.
"When we started up, this last point didn't interest many people," admits Véronique Pevtschin. So, we made sure to improve our operational and financial offering, while increasing the visibility of the carbon footprint. Our aim was to make it obvious, and to create a kind of 'instinct' about it, in the same way that we 'instinctively' assess the monetary value of consumer goods, or estimate the quality of a home on the basis of its EPC.
Today, everyone has to register their carbon footprint. We've shown that it's possible to perform the operation automatically, rather than assigning someone to the task. Thanks to our algorithms and AI, we can refine and personalise this calculation, and ensure it evolves in line with changing standards. The real-time connection between the carbon footprint and financial data also enables users to save money by choosing more sustainable solutions, without curbing creativity. Having precise information leads to taking precise action."
A success story...
The concept was tested on around ten films before the start-up was officially launched. "We were ready in February 2020, just when the world came to a standstill," confides Véronique Pevtschin. TheGreenShot was finally launched in June 2021, even before the end of the pandemic, at the Cannes Film Festival because Annette, the opening film, was one of the app's pilot films." Things have come a long way in just three and a half years: from starting out with four people, the team has grown to 68 members. The start-up's turnover leapt from €350,000 in 2022 to €3,000,000 in 2023 and over €7,000,000 in 2024. TheGreenShot now has a presence in Brussels of course, but also in Boom as part of the Entertainment hub opened by Tomorrowland, as well as Paris, Bordeaux, Lyon, New York, Atlanta, Los Angeles and Vancouver. The start-up has also expanded its activities from the film and TV industry to the events and live performance sector. Last summer, TheGreenShot's planning module was used for all of France Télévisions' coverage of the Paris Olympics.
...with some ups and downs
But not everything is as simple as it seems. "It's true that we've experienced impressive growth, both organically and through acquisitions and partnerships," explains Véronique Pevtschin. "OOVIIZ in France, which created a scheduling and management application for temporary entertainment workers, and Earth Angel in the USA, which specialises in providing sustainability services and support for productions and studios. Their creators, Nathalie Idiart and Emellie O'Brien, have become our partners.
But we've had to deal with the Covid crisis, the Hollywood writers' strike and, more recently, the fires in Los Angeles, where we have a team. We've also devoted considerable resources to R&D up until now. That's why we're still a start-up. We're not profitable yet and hope to break even this year."
The co-CEO discusses resilience in the face of political, financial and climatic uncertainty, an essential aspect of entrepreneurship in today's world. She insists on geographical plurality as well as operational diversity, which is not always well perceived by investors. "They clearly prefer single-product companies likely to win everything, over companies like us that are present in several markets, with different ways of approaching their customers. However, we are very attached to our diversity, as it allows us to offset any drop in income that may occur in one of our business sectors. Our structure is undoubtedly a little more complex than that of classic start-ups, but apart from that, we face the same challenges as they do."
An original profile
It's true that, with a management team made up mainly of people in their thirties, forties and sixties, TheGreenShot is an exception in the world of start-ups. "We learn a lot by mixing with others," says Véronique Pevtschin, smiling. "We wonder whether we're legitimate and what we bring to the structure, questions that the younger professionals don't ask themselves. But at the same time, we have an interesting way of understanding technology and its impact." Not to mention the years of experience that bring so much to the company.
Véronique Pevtschin, a cybersecurity engineer by training, successfully tried her hand at entrepreneurship at an early age, before joining the European Commission and then a major IT company in Italy. Returning to Belgium to invest in a fledgling start-up was a difficult decision, but one that came at just the right time: "I was questioning whether I should stay in Puglia, a region of Italy whose economy had been devastated by bacteria that destroy olive trees, and I longed for an activity that would reconcile my skills with environmental concerns," she explains.
hub.brussels, the ultimate point of reference
Although she noted that things have changed a lot since her first entrepreneurial experience, when there was no talk of social media or investors, Véronique was amazed by the hub environment she discovered on her return:
"The hub.brussels teams are very receptive, skilled and flexible. They provide support and spot opportunities that might interest us. We were able to count on them to prepare pitches for investors. But above all, they provided us with invaluable assistance on the international stage, helping us to obtain grants and gain access to various export programmes. They helped us join the Europe Creative Media programme, and within the programme we're now working on three European projects that are really fundamental to our growth. They also opened the doors to hub.brussels' international network, which is really significant for us. Now, we don't hesitate to call on the New York or San Francisco offices to help us solve any problems we face on location. hub.brussels has become our point of reference whenever a question arises, and I'm sure I still haven't discovered all the resources they have available."