Basketball player Axel Toupane, an investor influenced by the NBA

Rotate not towards the basket, as usual, but towards entrepreneurship. This is the goal of French basketball player Axel Toupane, who, although he is pursuing his international sports career, is mobilizing his rich network to help startuppers. A first step before, perhaps, himself wet the jersey. In any case, it is preparing far from the spotlight, with training and financial operations. He invested in Heex Technologies, a young growth at the origin of a software brick aimed at optimizing data management by autonomous cars. He even became its ambassador, allowing him to establish contacts with personalities.

An American dream inviting entrepreneurship

Axel Toupane’s nascent interest in entrepreneurship gradually took shape over the course of his sports career. SIG Strasbourg is the club that formed him when he was young. It is also the one who gave him his first professional opportunity. “I did four seasons there in pro A [la première ligue nationale, N.D.L.R.], coached by the coach of the France team Vincent Collet ” , remembers for Maddyness Axel Toupane, who confides that he therefore cherished the hope of playing, one day, in the NBA in the United States, the Grail for any basketball player. Ambitious, he presented himself at 21 for the draft in 2013 – the annual event that is, for American and foreign high school students and academics, the gateway to the prestigious league – before retracting. He tried his luck again the following year but was not selected by one of the 30 NBA franchises.

Not enough to stop Axel Toupane, who has resources. He finally signed a contract with the 905 Raptors in Toronto (Canada), a D-League club affiliated with the Toronto Raptors. “When you have an atypical journey, you must necessarily be hungry to get there” , he analyzes retrospectively, relating a “Kind of daydream” in his words. It is probably this state of mind that led him to engage in an analysis of the environment in which he was evolving during this period. “There is a whole business surrounding basketball” , he supports, claiming to have always been pushed “To curiosity by [son] dad “. After short stays at the Denver Nuggets (Colorado) and Milwaukee Bucks (Wisconsin), the French full-back joined the New Orleans Pelicans (Louisiana), in 2017, to compete “About thirty matches”

During these American experiences, Axel Toupane frequents basketball players who already have ideas. This is particularly the case of the Congolese Bismack Biyombo, also born in 1992 and French-speaking. In contact with them, the French realized that the NBA is sport but also a hell of a business. “He explained to me his approach, inspired by other great players such as LeBron James, which consists of capitalizing on his name to make a brand of it” , indicates Axel Toupane, specifying that “The NBA itself encourages players to develop” such a strategy. This is what prompted the Frenchman, after his American incursion, to apply this logic to his return to Europe. From 2017 to 2020, he played for Žalgiris Kaunas (Lithuania), Olympiakós (Greece) and Unicaja Málaga (Spain). This is also the period when he made his very first investments.

Play your network

Axel Toupane first plays fidelity. By choosing to put a ticket of 50,000 euros in Heex Technologies, from the birth of the company in March 2019, the athlete helps friends entrepreneurs. “I met Axel through basketball when I was younger, says Bruno Mendes Da Silva, president and founder of the startup. My club was not so far from his, when he was at the Clermont-Ferrand training center ” – his father Jean-Aimé Toupane, himself a former player, then coached the Stade Clermontois Basket Auvergne. But in business, showing good feelings isn’t the most important thing. Axel Toupane was coached by one of his former Denver Nuggets teammates: Mike Miller, who has himself invested in a number of startups. “Believing in the project is crucial. And I quickly believed in Heex’s promise. I am connected to new technologies and the autonomous car is a bearer of hope ” , thus notes the pragmatic basketball player.

Investing, especially with relatives, also represented the opportunity to learn more in the field. “To enter the ecosystem and create a business card” , as he puts it so well himself. “Axel sometimes comes to the office when he’s injured and can’t play. So we delegate missions to him so that he forges an entrepreneurial culture ” , details Bruno Mendes Da Silva, who says he assured his friend that he “You need as much ambition to be successful in this field as in basketball”. Before explaining: “The greater the effort provided, the greater the turnover at the end of the day”. Axel Toupane knows how to be discreet, without losing sight of the need to advance his pawns. And its notoriety allows it to widen the circle of relations of Heex Technologies. “I recently presented the project to Tony Parker, so that he could consider investing in his turn” , he explains. An attempt that has not yet succeeded according to Bruno Mendes Da Silva: “It wasn’t the right time for him, but such a meeting wouldn’t have been possible without Axel. “

Putting the values ​​of sport into practice

At 28, Axel Toupane has not finished experimenting. After Heex Technologies, he invested in the haute-couture house Mazarine. The athlete also undertakes a resumption of studies. “Basketball practice didn’t allow me to go to college when I was younger. After the baccalaureate, I only followed a summer training at HEC, he explains when he is currently pursuing a master’s degree in management at EM Business School at a distance. Somehow you can say that I did things backwards. I went into the field before knowing the theory. “ To start your own business, eventually? “I exclude nothing” , says the basketball player, who advises at this time of preferring to focus on launching a program of his own design and intended for high school students aged 15 to 18.

His goal : “Transmit a work ethic and a network, while learning the basics of entrepreneurship”. Enough to complete the school curriculum by taking advantage of basketball, since all practice this sport. The first promotion was created in July 2020 and benefits from around ten sessions throughout the year. “Each participant must develop, on paper, an entrepreneurial project. Sports entrepreneurs also intervene to explain how they set up their company ” , specifies Axel Toupane. Aware of the common points between the entrepreneurial challenge and the practice of sport, the athlete wants to make young people understand that they “Have in them what startups are looking for” – namely from “Resilience and a sense of sacrifice” , on its own terms.

To companies, he sends a message: “We have to awaken athletes, they have gold in their hands. “ And to joke about it: “My wrist hurt when I worked at Heex. I’m not used to writing all day anymore, but the mentality will always make all the difference. “ Axel Toupane has sharing in his heart and determination in mind. It was this character trait that prompted him to participate in a test with the Golden State Warriors, the San Francisco, Calif., Club in December 2020. “A health glitch” hastened the end of this budding collaboration, but the basketball player has already returned to the United States to try his luck in the NBA again. Between two dribbles, he hears well “Continue to write essays” about entrepreneurship. Before considering a second professional life in this direction when the time comes.