Granting prime access to the world’s most sought-after experiences.

Anne-Christelle Pérochon wraps up the second fundraising round of her premium dining concierge app, Bim. The service is designed to secure priority access to the most sought-after restaurants. Here's the portrait of the woman who set out to create a seamless connection between great tables and discerning clients.

When she walks into her bright Parisian offices, the whole team greets her with an enthusiastic “bonjour.” The startup vibe is unmistakable. At just 23, Anne-Christelle Pérochon dove into entrepreneurship with an app that makes booking at top restaurants effortless, while ensuring the latter a carefully curated clientele.

The idea struck in Tokyo: “I had an epiphany in one of the world’s gastronomic capital, home to 150,000 restaurants, ten times more than Paris. Getting a table was impossible unless you spoke Japanese or booked weeks in advance. It was obvious: the solution had to be digital. I knew that digital innovation could make every step of guest experience as magic as dining itself” she recalls.

At the time, no one was combining unwavering curation, availability notifications and priority access. Less than a year after launch, Bim had already partnered with 1,300 of Paris's most praised restaurants, and brought them 65,000 gastronomy lovers.

“As a young woman, I had to grow a spine to be taken seriously in such a male-dominated environment. In the beginning, I had nothing, I started from scratch. It really took grit to push through.”

If 2016 was the year of building, marked by an initial €800,000 fundraising round, then 2017 was about of preparing international scale. “As a young woman, I had to grow a spine to be taken seriously in such a male-dominated environment. In the beginning, I had nothing, I started from scratch. It really took grit to push through.”

But the young entrepreneur is resourceful, even obsessive, by her own admission. In her extensive research before building the first prototype of the app, she was stunned to find nothing like what she envisioned already on the market. “I jumped in because I deeply understood both clients expectations and restaurants' need, and I passionately cared about both.”

It’s not the first time she’s chased what others might call impossible. As a child, she wanted to become an eye surgeon because the profession struck her as “the most complicated thing out there, so of course it interested me.” By the age of 10, she invented a geography board game with her father, an economic visionary and university Professor, she still wonders why it was never marketed. “I’ll ask him about it next weekend," she laughs.

Anne-Christelle has always moved quickly through life. She could already read, count and write before starting first grade. With parents who traveled the world, she was taught lessons on the move. "Basically, planes and hotels were my classroom before the age of seven," she recalls.

Gastronomy and Travel
Growing up between Paris and Bordeaux, and traveling widely across the globe, only deepened that passion. “These two passions go hand in hand. Traveling is the chance to be immersed in a culture, and gastronomy is often the first gateway into it. To me each meal is the opportunity to discover a universe of its own, personal and cultural.”

“My vision for ‘premium dining’ comes from my love of gastronomy and profound respect for restaurateurs. Honest gastronomy doesn't have to be fancy, just excellent food and genuine hospitality.”

A Demanding Boss
She doesn’t have a designated office at Bim. She prefers moving from team to team, but when it comes to the company’s direction, her vision is crystal clear. While she gives her team autonomy, the epicurean entrepreneur holds them to the same high standards she sets for herself. “I care about nurturing potential. The first question I always ask is: ‘Did you do your best?’ If the answer is no, then we reschedule the meeting”.

To recharge, she runs four or five times a week. Often at dawn or late at night. “To clear my head and gain perspective.” But truth be told, she never truly switches off. “I'm just heart and soul in what I do," she adds almost as an afterthought.

“I'm just heart and soul into what I do."