10 Things You Didn’t Know about Nicolas Julia
Nicolas Julia is one of the co-founders of Sorare. For those who are curious, this is a fantasy football game, which stands out to some extent because it uses Ethereum-based blockchain tech. Currently, Julia is the CEO of Sorare, thus making him one of the more notable names attached to the project.
1. Went to a Grande Ecole
Education-wise, Julia went to one of France’s grandes ecoles. These are institutions of higher education. However, grandes ecoles are separate from public universities under the French system. Generally speaking, they are smaller, more focused, and more selective, so much so that most examples take in just a few hundred students on an annual basis. In contrast, public universities have much bigger student bodies, not least because they feature multiple faculties covering multiple fields.
2. Went to Ecole de Management de Lyon
To be exact, Julia went to the Ecole de Management de Lyon, which is considered to be one of the best business schools in the whole of France. Perhaps unsurprisingly, said school started out in the city that can be found at the confluence of the river Rhone and Saone. Something that played an important role in its rise. After all, waterborne transportation was much more efficient than landborne transportation in pre-modern times, meaning that such locations would have been natural hubs for entire regions. Even now, Lyon is important, as shown by how it is the third biggest of the cities that can be found in France when measured on the basis of population size.
3. Was an Exchange Student at Hanken School of Economics
Speaking of which, Julia spent an exchange semester at Hanken School of Economics. This is a notable business school as well. To be exact, Hanken School of Economics can claim the honor of being the oldest business school in northern Europe, having started operations a month before the Stockholm School of Economics. The first of the school’s two campuses is situated in the Finnish capital of Helsinki. Meanwhile, the second of the school’s two campuses is situated in the coastal city of Vaasa, which is home to a huge portion of the country’s Swedish-speaking population.
4. Studied Economics
Interested individuals should have no problem guessing that Julia spent a fair amount of time studying economics. Yes, he went to a business school. However, economics can be very useful for decision-makers within a business. For example, microeconomics can help interested individuals make sense of their choices as well as their customers’ choices. Similarly, macroeconomics can help interested individuals make sense of the environment in which their business operates.
5. Studied Management
Having said that, Julia’s main subject of study was management, which can be described as the administration of businesses as well as other organizations. It requires an understanding of multiple fields. For example, a manager needs to understand accounting to some extent because they won’t be able to make sense of financial documents without that knowledge. Similarly, a manager needs to have a solid set of social skills because they will be responsible for entire groups of people by their very definition. Having said that, it is very much possible for managers to specialize, not least because the field covers such a wide range of topics that no one can hope to master every single one of them within the span of a single lifetime.
6. Based Out of Paris
Julia has been based out of Paris and the surrounding region for quite some time. Of course, this would be the capital of France, which is a center of the arts, sciences, and finance for the country and beyond. As such, interested individuals should have no problem guessing that it is a popular place for tech companies, which can’t just set up wherever they want because of the need to consider their access to educated personnel as well as other critical resources.
7. Started Out as a Consultant
Initially, Julia seems to have started out as a consultant for Eurogroup Consulting, which is a consultancy of considerable size that operates in 16 countries. He worked his way up from Junior Consultant to Senior Consultant before eventually entering the ranks of the management. In any case, consultancies provide a valuable service. After all, not every business has access to all of the expertise and experience that they need to solve their problems, meaning that there is a real need for outside help from time to time. For that matter, an external perspective can be quite valuable in its own right.
8. Is Trilingual
It seems safe to say that Julia was helped out in this regard by the fact that he is trilingual. Naturally, he is capable of speaking French. On top of that, Julia has a professional competency in both English and Spanish, both of which are very widely-spoken languages. As such, his linguistic capabilities enable him to work well with more people than otherwise possible. Something that is always important in the world of business.
9. Has a Longstanding Interest in Blockchain Tech
Regardless, Julia seems to have had a longstanding interest in blockchain tech. For proof, consider the fact that he was once the Vice President of Operations for Stratumn, which is a platform that helps interested individuals create enterprise-level blockchain apps. For a lot of people, blockchain is synonymous with cryptocurrencies. However, it is important to remember that while cryptocurrencies are reliant on blockchain tech, the latter is by no means limited to this single use. Otherwise, there would be a much smaller number of parties seeking to tap into its potential.
10. Runs a Sports Management Game
Of course, some uses of blockchain tech are less serious if not necessarily less profitable than others. After all, Julia is now running a fantasy football game involving the running of a virtual football team. So far, Sorare seems to have made a fair amount of progress. This can be seen in how it has managed to raise millions of dollars from Ubisoft, professional footballers, and other interested investors. Furthermore, this can be seen in how it has managed to sign official contracts with both notable clubs and notable leagues.