Why do many of our graduates end up starting their own businesses? To find out, we spoke to two enterprising alumni who are now running fledgling hospitality consultancies.
While it’s undoubtedly true that a majority of Glion’s alumni graduate towards ‘traditional’ roles in the upper echelons of the hospitality and luxury industries, a good proportion are increasingly seeking a different kind of challenge.
Starting your own business can be a leap into the unknown and requires patience, hard work and a genuine belief you have something different to offer. It also means having the confidence to go it alone, something our entrepreneurial graduates seem to have in abundance.
Two such graduates – Léa de Chambure and Caterina Malorni (pictured left and right in our main image) – followed similar paths while at Glion and beyond and have since decided to take the plunge by launching their own hospitality business consultancies.
Both took time out of their busy schedules to chat to The Insider about their post-graduation journeys, their ambitions and how a Glion education helped set them on their chosen trajectories.
The Insider (TI): What inspired you to become a hospitality consultant?
Caterina Malorni (CM): The truth is it came naturally. After more than six years working with hotels, including a start-up group, people started coming to me asking for help and guidance. It started with small tasks initially but soon turned into larger projects. That’s what gave me the confidence to take the leap of faith, leave the comfort zone of receiving a monthly salary and finding clients and projects that would inspire me.
Léa de Chambure (LdC): I’d returned to France from New York and was working as an Expansion Manager that was a mix of strategy and operations. The company then turned its attention to raising funds instead of expansion and my role disappeared. I decided I had enough different experiences under my belt that I could combine and start doing what I love about the hospitality industry by myself. And that meant starting a consultancy.
TI: Can you tell us more about your consulting businesses?
LdC: Mine was launched in 2024 and is called 75K Hospitality, which is named after the zip code for Paris (75000) where I am based. This reference to the French capital pays homage to the French ‘art de vivre’ – the art of enjoying yourself – which is the ultimate purpose of the businesses I help. I like to think of 75K Hospitality as a project management studio that helps entrepreneurs open, structure or scale their businesses, depending on the stage they’re at in their development. The added value is that it acts as their strategic and operational right-hand. It’s aimed primarily at hospitality and social impact organizations and so far I’ve helped a range of international companies, including restaurants, culinary start-ups and the hospitality supplier for the Paris 2024 Olympics.
CM: Materia, the Latin word for ‘matter’, specializes in designing hotel concepts and experiences from idea to launch. This includes branding, positioning, conducting feasibility studies and designing the operational structure to deliver those concepts. I work mainly for independent clients with capital whose dream is to create unique places and experiences to inspire communities and with medium-sized companies looking for an alternative approach.
TI: What are your ambitions for your consultancy?
CM: Creating and inspiring more experiences that will give the travel and tourism industry the weight and depth it once had. As I heard recently: “Travel is a privilege, not a right.” So I would like to communicate this through all my projects and ensure travelers move with purpose and for the right reasons when they do so. I’d also like to expand into experiential and community-based projects.
LdC: I’m still in the first year of the business, so while of course I have ambitions, for the moment, I’m concentrating on business development. As I said earlier, I see the company as a project management studio with different project managers who specialize in different fields. So in the short term, I need to establish the business, create a structured team and acquire more clients. Longer term, I’d love to scale up and start working with international organizations on cross-border projects.
TI: What have been the main challenges you’ve faced so far?
LdC: Setting my own business apart from the competition. And I’m proud of the fact I have achieved that by identifying more as a project management studio that turns advice into concrete actions than a classic advisory consultancy. So taking a step back and really defining what I did was my first challenge. But one of the biggest – and one that’s not uncommon for start-ups – is finding those first clients. I’m lucky to have a network to help me do that, but it’s an ongoing challenge and I’m still waiting to land my first full-service end-to-end client.
CM: For me, it’s defining the scope of the consulting – which is still ongoing! Each project reveals your strengths and weaknesses, which are sometimes not what you expect. There have been instances where I’ve carried out tasks for the first time ever and found myself naturally drawn to them even though I had never done them before. Similarly, there are areas I felt comfortable with because I have plenty of prior experience but I find I no longer want to focus on. What’s helping is honesty. As young entrepreneurs, we’re often scared to say ‘no’ because we fear we might lose business. But in the end, if you’re true to yourself and you do what you’re passionate about, it really makes you stand out and helps you deliver outstanding work.
TI: How did your Glion education help you overcome the challenges you have faced?
LdC: I think the network is a big part of it. Anywhere I’ve traveled and worked, the Glion network has helped me a lot and presented opportunities. And I believe it’s the entire experience, rather than the specific courses, that makes you into the person you are. While I remember entrepreneurial and F&B courses I really liked, I think the overall experience and the networking opportunities are what I’ve taken away from Glion and what have helped me deal with the challenges I’ve faced.
CM: For me, it’s the mindset that Glion instills in students. You learn how to be professional from day one. Being at Glion taught me how to speak to people I didn’t know, introduce myself and dress for the occasion. These are all things you don’t appreciate when you are 19, but they really helped me position myself and stand out in front of employers. Of course, the curriculum was important for teaching me what I needed to know to work in this industry, but I think the professionalism has been more significant.
TI: How important were your internships in preparing you for your professional life?
CM: They gave me a deeper understanding of the dynamic world of operations and brand identity, which have been essential throughout my career. I did my first one in at the Ritz-Carlton in Barcelona and the second at the newly launched EDITION in Miami (see photo below). I was particularly intrigued by Edition’s strong brand identity, which extended to every inch of its experience – and from both a guest and employee perspective. I decided I really wanted to be part of EDITION after graduation, so joined its management training program in London and spent a further four years with the brand afterwards.
LdC: As well as giving me exposure to working life, my internships helped me decide I wanted a career that combined operations and strategy. Because I really couldn’t see myself working solely in one or the other – I wanted more of a transversal role. My first internship was at the Mandarin Oriental in Geneva, which gave me a great insight into hospitality operations. After that, I worked in administration and revenue management at the Grand Beach Hotel in Miami. It was my first experience of working in the US, enabled me to develop contacts there and led to me working in New York after graduation.
TI: Finally, do you have any advice for Glion students considering a career in consultancy?
CM: If you want to embark on an entrepreneurial journey, don’t be scared. If you’ve worked hard at Glion, you know more than you realize. But my main advice is to define your product well before launch. That will save you from a lot of unpleasant experiences.
LdC: I would echo that. The important thing is starting with a clearly defined offering. That was one of my biggest challenges when I started, so I’d recommend taking the time to fully understand your product and how it’s different from what else is out there before you launch.
- If you are a graduate or member of the Alumni Association of Glion and would like to work with Caterina or Léa, you can contact them at cm@materiahospitality.com and lea@75khospitality.com
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