Urone, a Paris-based microenterprise founded in 2022, provides consulting and support services for higher education institutions and public bodies working with young entrepreneurs. From the outset, the company has operated hybridly, combining advisory expertise with flexible digital practices to serve clients across Europe. By embedding digital tools into its operations, ranging from project management and client engagement to content creation and data handling, Urone illustrates how small, service-oriented firms can scale, remain cost-efficient, and foster innovation without the overhead of traditional office structures.
Advisory expertise meets digital agility, a French micro‑enterprise on a mission to support entrepreneurship
SME real life experiences of going digital
Abstract
Founded in 2022 by Elina Cohen-Peirano, Urone is a microenterprise (TPE) active in the consulting and business services sector, with a focus on education and entrepreneurship. The firm supports higher education institutions and public organisations in developing programmes for young entrepreneurs. This is done by helping design hubs, incubators, and mentoring schemes, and by working with local authorities to build ecosystems that link education, business, and community. It also delivers workshops and bootcamps on themes like female entrepreneurship, youth innovation, and intrapreneurship.
Young people show a high level of interest in entrepreneurship - nearly 40% indicate a preference for self-employment - but only 5% of youth in the European Union and 9% in the OECD were working on a start-up over the period 2018-22. In fact, based on latest OECD estimates, youth entrepreneurs account for about 11% of the total number of “missing entrepreneurs” in the EU and the OECD1 (OECD/European Commission, 2023[1]). Urone positions itself at the intersection of education, entrepreneurship, and digital transformation.
The company operates in a hybrid model: it has no fixed office but combines an international team of 5 people working mostly remotely with regular in-person engagement. Day-to-day collaboration is managed digitally, reducing costs, improving sustainability, and preserving flexibility. At the same time, the team meets clients face-to-face and holds in-person meetings to strengthen relationships and build trust, ensuring that personal interaction complements the efficiency of remote work.
Externally, the broader economic context has been difficult: inflation and budget constraints reduced spending capacity among clients, slowing commercial activity. In France, OECD data show that inflation surged in 2022–2023, eroding real incomes, while persistent deficits (around 5 % of GDP) and high debt forced tighter fiscal choices. Business confidence and investment also weakened, further dampening demand (OECD, 2024[2]; OECD, 2025[3]).
Internally, like many young firms, Urone has faced challenges in integrating new digital tools, but also in convincing clients to transition to new digital practices. Early on, some partners resisted adopting digital platforms, preferring traditional methods. The rapid emergence of AI also raised questions about appropriate use, data handling, and consent. In anticipation, the firm developed clear guidelines and internal policies to reassure employees and clients.
From its creation, the company opted to operate without a fixed office, a model that brings important benefits but also creates challenges, notably the risk of weakened human connection. Designed from the outset as a multicultural and international team, Urone found remote work a natural choice, with additional advantages including lower costs, improved work-life balance, and greater sustainability. However, the challenge of maintaining human connection is widely shared: the latest OECD D4SME Survey shows that 41% of respondents report increased isolation as a result of digitalisation in the workplace (Bianchini and Lasheras Sancho, 2025[4]). This reflects wider OECD evidence that SMEs adopting digital work practices often face challenges in maintaining employee engagement and social cohesion, underscoring that digitalisation is not only a technical but also an organisational transformation (OECD, 2024[5]). Urone addresses this by fostering a culture of trust, holding regular check-ins, and emphasising transparent communication to sustain team cohesion, while also organising in-person meetings to strengthen relationships and build trust.
From its inception, Urone adopted a digital-first strategy:
Communication: Slack is used to separate personal and professional exchanges, ensuring security and healthier work-life balance.
Project management: Notion serves as the central platform for internal organisation and client follow-up.
Content creation: Canva, Adobe tools, and AI applications support communication materials, benchmarking for client projects, and optimisation of website and LinkedIn content.
AI integration: The company established a charter for AI use, allowing it only for external-facing tasks (e.g. LinkedIn posts, client benchmarking). Sensitive data is anonymised before being processed.
Hybrid collaboration: International staff rely on digital platforms for daily operations, complemented by monthly in-person meetings to maintain cohesion.
Further, Urone takes a proactive approach to digital security. The firm enforces robust password management policies, avoids transmitting sensitive information through insecure channels such as SMS, and engages a dedicated cybersecurity advisor to ensure the protection of its email accounts and overall digital infrastructure.
A digital security charter is part of employee onboarding, ensuring GDPR compliance and responsible data management. Employees must read and approve the charter in their first week, reinforcing accountability. Urone’s introduction of a digital security charter and continuous training align with the D4SME Pledge directly responds to challenges identified in the latest OECD D4SME Survey, which found that while digital tools become more pervasive in SMEs’ business processes, there is still a gap in the knowledge, means, and skills needed in the area of digital security (Bianchini and Lasheras Sancho, 2025[4]).
Digitalisation has significantly enhanced Urone’s efficiency, sustainability, and resilience:
Reduced costs and environmental impact by replacing travel with digital collaboration.
Improved productivity through digital drafting tools, enabling the delegation of repetitive tasks to AI and freeing time for strategic work.
Increased visibility and client outreach via social media and digital communication tools.
Supported resilience during economic slowdowns, as digital tools enabled continuous operations at minimal cost.
Finally, Urone demonstrates how a young, entrepreneur-led business can leverage digital tools to address major challenges such as high operating costs, limited resources, and geographical barriers, as she leads an international team. By adopting a lean, remote-friendly model and making strategic use of digital platforms for visibility and collaboration, Urone has scaled its activities efficiently while keeping costs under control. Beyond its own growth, it also serves as an example for fellow young entrepreneurs and SMEs, showing how embracing digitalisation and “phygital” tools can drive innovation, boost competitiveness, and unlock new market opportunities
As a student, Elina Cohen-Peirano, founder and CEO of Urone, took part in The Break: an EU-funded initiative launched by the Spanish Government under the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), in collaboration with the School of Industrial Organisation (EOI) and Impact Hub Madrid, which offered networking opportunities, peer learning, mentoring, and project-based collaboration with local SMEs in the tourism sector. Selected among 400 participants from over 3 000 applications, Elina was also the youngest entrepreneur in the programme. Elina notes that her participation in the programme proved valuable for Urone. Its hybrid format inspired the company’s remote operating model, while the peer-learning opportunities and multicultural environment equipped her with the skills needed to lead the firm.
Further, Urone also received the Prix Pépite by the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research (Ministère de l’Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche) for student entrepreneurship (Ministère de l'Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche, 2025[6]), including EUR 2 000 in financial support. This funding was strategically invested in marketing activities, website development, and strengthening Urone’s social media presence, laying the foundations for its external visibility and brand identity.
Elina also took part in the OECD-EU Youth Entrepreneurship Policy Academy (YEPA), which has been a policy-learning network bringing together policymakers, youth entrepreneurship networks and organisations, social entrepreneurship networks, programme managers and researchers (OECD and the European Commission, 2025[7]). Its goal is also to strengthen youth entrepreneurship policies and programmes by raising knowledge about the barriers faced by young people in entrepreneurship and facilitating peer-learning on success factors in youth entrepreneurship policy. The YEPA provided her with an international platform to exchange with peers and policymakers on the challenges and opportunities facing young entrepreneurs, further enriching Urone’s approach and reinforcing its role as a driver of innovation and youth-led entrepreneurship.
OECD (2021), The Digital Transformation of SMEs, OECD Studies on SMEs and Entrepreneurship, https://dx.doi.org/10.1787/bdb9256a-en.
OECD (2021), SME Digitalisation to Build Back Better, https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/docserver/50193089-en.pdf?expires=1650895216&id=id&accname=ocid84004878&checksum=53749B8E6D032F7C164B559578354381
References
[4] Bianchini, M. and M. Lasheras Sancho (2025), “SME digitalisation for competitiveness: The 2025 OECD D4SME Survey”, OECD SME and Entrepreneurship Papers, No. 68, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/197e3077-en.
[6] Ministère de l’Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche (2025), Prix Pépite, https://www.enseignementsup-recherche.gouv.fr/fr/prix-pepite.
[3] OECD (2025), OECD Economic Outlook, Volume 2025 Issue 1: Tackling Uncertainty, Reviving Growth, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/83363382-en.
[2] OECD (2024), OECD Economic Surveys: France 2024, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/bd96e2ed-en.
[5] OECD (2024), “SME Digitalisation to manage shocks and transitions: 2024 OECD D4SME survey”, OECD SME and Entrepreneurship Papers, No. 62, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/eb4ec9ac-en.
[7] OECD and the European Commission (2025), Youth Entrepreneurship Policy Academy, https://yepa-hub.org/.
[1] OECD/European Commission (2023), The Missing Entrepreneurs 2023: Policies for Inclusive Entrepreneurship and Self-Employment, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/230efc78-en.
← 1. If young people aged 18 to 29 participated in early-stage entrepreneurship at the same rate as “core age” men aged 30 to 49, there would be an additional 812 000 youth entrepreneurs in the European Union (EU) and 3.6 million youth entrepreneurs in OECD countries.
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