Being a Founder Associate at Alan

The Founder Associate program offers Europe’s most unique and high-impact internship, where exceptional talents drive Alan's mission to revolutionize healthcare

Founder Associates join Alan for ~6+ months, either during their gap years or end-of-year internships, with the purpose of learning and delivering on transformative projects. Working directly with senior leaders, they spearhead strategic initiatives from fundraising to M&A, product launches, and international expansion. 

This unique program allows them to gain unparalleled exposure, while contributing to Alan’s mission of empowering everyone to live a longer, healthier life. Meet Pierre Alexandre Boulay, Adrien Sarg, Joachim Lis, Alix Boyer de La Giroday, Antoine Bieler, Juan Pablo Briceño and learn more about their job and how they are helping build the world’s most member-centric healthcare company.

With additional perspectives from ex-FA’s Hugo de La Marlier, Marie Humblet-Vertongen, Louis-Auguste Bacot !

Alix: Founder Associates have an incredibly transverse, we're like swiss knives: we support Founders and Senior Alaners on a wide variety of topics, ranging from high-level strategic projects to hands-on organizational matters. 

At the beginning, you touch base on lots of different topics, but you’ll progressively (and quite organically) specialize on a project you enjoy. The beauty of the FA team is the diverse range of backgrounds we have so everyone finds a project geared to their interests and strengths, whilst also having the opportunity to tackle projects that challenge our current skill set. 

For instance, Antoine is currently working on developing a well-being digital feature to expand our health offering, while Joachim is supporting strategic planning through the preparation of the board meeting, and exploring a new vertical expansion opportunity. Juan-Pablo is conducting an in-depth analysis of our core AI-powered clinical solutions. On my end, I am focusing on internalizing a key aspect of our service component and in parallel working on a new healthcare project that will expand Alan's impact on personal and proactive health.

Founder Associates also perform sort of recurring tasks (~15% of our bandwidth): preparing some external interventions and strategic meetings for Jean-Charles, coordinating the preparation of board meetings and letters to shareholders, organizing internal events… Those “run” tasks are very interesting to dig into the company’s performance and understand its dynamics. In the end, the position is both horizontal (you basically learn to be a founder) and vertical (you go very deep on certain verticals). 

Juan-Pablo: It’s hard to describe a typical day as no two days are ever the same! 

It’s usually always a mix between working on long-term topics that have great strategic implications but no firm deadlines (meaning we need to be good at setting ourselves objectives) and working on short-term tasks or coordinating projects. 

I optimize my schedule by blocking deep strategic work throughout the day, while tackling quick wins in between. Some weeks flip to pure intensity mode though - like during board meetings or campaign launches - where rapid responses become the priority!

Antoine: It’s obviously great to have the opportunity to work across the organization. We get to see nearly everything within the company and to really understand how it operates. In addition to interacting with Jean-Charles and Charles on a daily basis, we cooperate with lots of people including very senior Alaners, so it’s a great opportunity to learn! 

Having worked 2 years in M&A and consulting before joining Alan, what really sets this experience apart is the level of responsibility we get. We’re not only exposed to many different things, we get to have a super tangible impact on all these things and that’s what makes it incredible. People really expect us to participate in discussions and strategic reflections, and value our input. The level of responsibility we have at Alan this early on in our career is unheard of elsewhere. 

Adrien: I am currently leading an exciting market exploration initiative for potential international expansion, focusing on a high-growth region with significant untapped potential. In this role, I've structured our strategic approach by conducting comprehensive market analysis, evaluating healthcare infrastructure, regulatory frameworks, and competitive dynamics. I've also developed detailed business cases to identify where we could create distinctive value through our tech-first approach to healthcare and insurance. Now we’re meeting a lot of local stakeholders to explore potential go-to-market, it’s very exciting. 

Marie: Where to start ? During my internship, I led several strategic projects, with one of my main initiatives being the organization of the first Alan's Customer Advisory Board (CAB). We structured the program to gather insights that could shape Alan's product direction. I also worked on M&A opportunities, including the wave.ai acquisition, contributed to our Series F funding round, and looked into improvements to our teletransmission systems.

Joachim: Some of the latest projects I’ve been working on are focused on the strategic corporate governance aspect of Alan. My role involves preparing comprehensive board materials, coordinating executive events with key industry leaders, and developing shareholder communications. I've also conducted strategic analysis for potential growth opportunities and partnerships in the healthcare technology space.

Louis-Auguste: My main project was launching and building Alan Walk from 0 to 1, Alan’s first steps into gamification. The focus was clear, build it in less than 6 months with a dedicated and dynamic team (we were only 3 at the beginning!), with the following motto: 'Taking care of your health should be rewarding and fun.' While my role was quite transversal, I was, for the first 4 months, the sole designer on the project, designing the first version of Alan Walk, conducting research interviews with members, iterating, driving discussions, and so on. 

Hugo: During my internship, I had the opportunity to support the founding team in launching Alan Canada. I was involved in a wide range of areas, including product development, strategy, and operations. This meant working on everything from go-to-market strategies and business plan modeling to building a website and applying for the insurance license. It felt like launching a new company from scratch, but with the invaluable mentorship of an experienced team guiding me every step of the way! In addition to this broad experience, I also took on a more analytical project. I worked closely with the insurance team to develop new offerings in the disability revenue stream. This required me to dive deep into data analysis, assess market competition, and navigate complex regulations to ensure our success.

Those are only a few examples but it gives you an idea of the range of topics a Founder Associate can own and the intellectual stimulation you get from working on so many fascinating themes !

Pierre-Alexandre: So many things! Given the nature of the internship, you learn on an extreme variety of topics, including mainly things I had never dealt with. The exposure you get as an FA makes the learning even more robust, quick and transforming as you have the chance to support very talented and experienced community leaders (Paul Sauveplane, Fabrice Staad, Augustin Mine and many others). The best way to learn new professional skills is to work closely with the top of the notch. I truly believe that is what this internship is all about and I continue being astonished and positively surprised by the skills and leadership of the people I’m working with on a daily basis. 

The skill I improved the most is definitely my ability to synthesize, organize and present my work. You have to be super rigorous and efficient when asking for support or explaining your thoughts, given their busy schedules. The most senior Alaners are highly benevolent but will challenge you hard on the why and the how. Alan gives you some solid frameworks to be successful at this complex exercise.

Louis-Auguste: This experience confirmed my strong appetite for design and product, and that nothing is more exciting than building health-related products to improve the health of our members. And of course, collaborating with Alaners who helped me grow was also invaluable! Being exposed to so many topics, having the freedom and opportunity to work on exciting projects, working with talented stakeholders, getting precious feedback, and always being challenged, will definitely push you to the next level. 

Marie: I've learned a lot during this internship. The most significant development has been in my strategic thinking abilities - working on strategic projects like the Customer Advisory Board, M&As, and funding rounds taught me how to approach complex problems and think at a more systemic level. I also learned the importance of taking full ownership of projects, from initial conception to final execution, as well as how to give feedback and coach/assist fellow colleagues. On the technical side, I picked up valuable skills in SQL for data analysis and Figma for design work, which helped me be more autonomous in my projects.

Alix: I would not say there’s a typical profile. We try to follow as much as possible one of our principles that says that we should “hire people and not roles”. We’re looking for gifted people that display a strong desire to learn and to take on responsibilities, and a strong alignment with our mission. 

Business and engineering profiles both have so much to offer and complement themselves incredibly well. Of course, as Founder Associates, we work on strategic topics so having some business sense helps a lot but it can be learned! 

For example, Hugo, Marie and myself are all engineers and have all found a way to thrive in this environment. Despite the more corporate aspect of the CEO internship, the skills you learn with an engineering background are incredibly valuable and transcribable to this job. 

Joachim: Again, possibilities are very varied here as well. Obviously gap-year students come back to school - and I am sure that their academic choices are significantly influenced by what they experienced at Alan. 

I think that the FA internship is a great opportunity for potential entrepreneurs to test their motivation and learn how to grow a company, before launching their own. Finally, we have seen a few former Founder associates who stay or come back to Alan in a different role as a full-time job. For instance, Louis-Auguste stayed on after his year long FA role as a design engineer, and Marie is our new 🇫🇷 GM associate! 

For those who love statistics, here are the numbers. We’ve had 30 founder associates since the start of the program! 🌟 Amongst them:

Louis-Auguste: This experience as a Founder Associate was transformative and incredible on so many levels, in terms of learnings, possibilities, impact, and pace. Overall, taking a step back after one year as an FA, I saw a real shift in the way I create, build, think, and collaborate. When I joined Alan, I could never have imagined what I would experience as a Founder Associate - getting so much trust, having so much impact, and, of course, doing what I love!

Jean-Charles: I find it super incredible to have super smart young people given the opportunity to learn really fast and to have an impact on our company. That is the proof that a student with potential can do lots of things and have tremendous impact in a company. As everything we do in the company, I tested it first with one intern and realized that the more I asked him to help on several subjects, the more ownership I could eventually give him. When well coached and trained, you can really give interns full projects. I think that I would have loved that position myself when younger, as it would have helped me to be a better entrepreneur. It is an enriching opportunity to exchange with leaders. That’s super cool to see interns growing and seeing their impact.

If you enjoyed this blogpost, cannot wait for your next challenge and feel like Alan should be your next adventure:

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