10 Things You Didn’t Know about Jean Charles Samuelian
Jean Charles Samuelian is a French entrepreneur. Currently, he is responsible for running an insurance company called Alan that he co-founded. Said company is planning to challenge some very well-established competitors, so it will be interesting to see how it fares under Samuelian’s leadership in the times to come.
1. He Is French
Samuelian is French. This is unsurprising because he has the compound name Jean-Charles, which is not an uncommon occurrence in France and other French-speaking countries. It is interesting to note that such compound names are considered to be a single name rather than two separate names. As a result, some examples incorporate a second component that tends to be used for the other sex, with one potential example being Jean-Marie and another potential example being Marie-George. However, the gender of a compound name is always determined by the first component rather than the second component.
2. Based Out of Paris
Currently, Samuelian is based out of Paris, which makes sense considering his stated intentions for his insurance company. For those who are unfamiliar, Clovis I was the one who chose Paris for his capital, meaning that it has been a center of the region since before the establishment of the Carolingian Empire. Never mind the splitting of said empire into West Francia and East Francia, which became the basis for the Kingdom of France and the Kingdom of Germany. Nowadays, Paris remains a cultural, economic, and political center of France, thus making it a very popular choice for up-and-coming tech companies.
3. Is a Member of the French Institute of Actuaries
It is interesting to note that Samuelian is a member of the French Institute of Actuaries. In short, actuaries are professionals focused on both the measurement and the management of risk, thus making them very important for a wide range of businesses in a wide range of industries. For instance, insurance companies couldn’t function without actuaries, not least because they can’t even set the right prices without the actuarial work on the relevant risks.
4. Has Two Master’s Degrees
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Samuelian is very well-educated, as shown by how he holds not one but two master’s degrees. One would be a Master of Science from the École des ponts ParisTech, which started out for the purpose of educating civil engineers but has since expanded to offer a much wider range of offerings. Meanwhile, the other would be a Master of Business Administration from the Collège des Ingénieurs, which specifically exists for the purpose of helping engineering graduates with finance as well as other topics in business administration.
5. Sees Good Health As a Basic Need
Apparently, Samuelian and the rest of Alan see healthcare as a basic need, which isn’t that uncommon of an opinion. Traditionally speaking, the basic needs are food, water, clothing, and shelter. However, it is very common for more modern lists to include resources such as education, healthcare, and sanitation. This makes sense because the basic needs are supposed to be the minimal resources needed to ensure someone’s physical wellbeing in the long run, which are a bit more complicated than just food, water, clothing, and shelter.
6. Believes In User-Friendliness
Speaking of which, Samuelian and the rest of Alan also believe that people should have convenient access to healthcare because it is a basic need. To this end, they are intent on developing user-friendly tools, thus empowering interested individuals to live in a healthier manner without having to make as much of an effort. Suffice to say that this can make for a pretty appealing marketing pitch, particularly for people who are fed up with more Byzantine insurance companies.
7. Has Raised Quite a War Chest
So far, Samuelian has managed to raise quite a war chest, as shown by an announcement that it had raised another €40 million in February of 2019 on top of the €35 million that had been raised beforehand. Some of this has happened through his insurance company’s efforts. However, the rest has come from investors on their own initiative. In any case, more funding is always a good thing for an upstart, particularly for one that happens to be as ambitious as Alan.
8. Says That Alan’s Mission Is an Advantage In Securing Talent
Samuelian has stated that Alan’s mission to change the nature of health insurance in the European Union is an advantage in the insurance company’s efforts to secure new talent. This makes sense because people aren’t pure economic automatons, meaning that a sense of purpose can do a great deal to motivate them. Besides this, Samuelian has also credited Paris for making it easier for his insurance company to tap into an international talent pool.
9. Plans to Expand Throughout the European Union
It is no secret that Samuelian is intent on expanding Alan’s operations beyond France into the rest of the European Union. To an extent, he will be helped out by the fact that Alan’s status as a French insurance company will make it easier to expand into those markets. However, the different countries that make up the European Union do have different rules for their insurance industries, meaning that there are still significant barriers that will have to be overcome before his expansion plans can succeed.
10. Was Close to the Breakeven Point
In February of 2019, Alan was apparently already very close to the breakeven point, which is presumably something that helps a lot under current circumstances. Basically, there are a lot of up-and-coming companies that run at a loss for a significant period of time before they can become profitable, meaning that they are reliant on investors who believe in their profit-making potential to provide them with more funding in the meantime. However, that funding tends to dry up in hard economic times, which can be brutal for up-and-coming companies that don’t have enough stockpiled cash. Companies that are closer to the breakeven point have a major advantage in that they aren’t losing as much money, thus enabling them to continue operating for that much longer.
