Welcome To The Jungle is, quite simply, an anomaly of its kind. Here is a platform that has refreshed recruitment methods across the job market in recent years, whilst establishing itself as a cross-channel brand, online and in print, well worth reading to keep up with the best of French business and start-up culture. Based in a building in the heart of Paris, Welcome To The Jungle and its 120-odd employees are led by an engaging sneaker-wearing duo: Bertrand Uzeel and Jérémy Clédat.
On a slightly chilly summer morning, he is the first one we meet over a coffee. At 35, Bertrand Uzeel doesn’t look much like the conventional image of a successful boss: an Australian biker cap, tattooed knuckles like a pirate, a background as a sound engineer, and cinema dreams in mind. Very much a new king of the jungle!
At the start of the Welcome To The Jungle adventure, there was this idea that recruitment in the corporate world was far too austere…
When you attend a recruitment fair, which offers a fairly broad snapshot of the job market, everyone is dressed identically. It’s just like walking through La Défense in the morning and seeing all those people in grey suits coming off the top of the escalator. Everyone is in a suit, really. It’s an absolute dress code.
With Jérémy Clédat, co-founder of Welcome To The Jungle, we went to one of these trade shows one year to give a short talk. I found myself in a suit too, as if I’d been conditioned by the setting and the situation, whereas I usually live in jeans and a t-shirt. It was as though my subconscious had told me to blend in with everyone else.
If you’re talented with a distinctive style, I think it’s easier to make a lasting impression
Just before the conference started, I began to feel uneasy. I wasn’t comfortable in my suit at all. It wasn’t me. So I swore that at future trade fairs, I would dress the way I wanted. In the years that followed, when I went on stage in my t-shirt, I told myself that I had to be exceptionally good to hold the audience’s attention. It felt as though I was starting at a disadvantage. That’s where we are.
But mind you, if you’re talented with a distinctive style, I think it’s easier to make a lasting impression. Just look at Steve Jobs at Apple: the man was a genius, and with his turtlenecks, shapeless jeans, and bulky trainers, he created a signature style that everyone remembers today.
Did this “disadvantage” really work against you?
I think my style was a hindrance, yes. When we were raising funds, some of the more traditional VC funds we pitched must have thought we were clowns when they saw us. The same thing probably happened with a few of the banks that gave us a meeting. It would have been easier to get started if Jérémy and I had worn a suit, like everyone else.
My tattoos certainly didn’t help either. During our first meetings with the Welcome To The Jungle board, I wasn’t entirely comfortable. I kept my hands under the table. Just because I say people should take me as I am doesn’t mean it’s easy. I put immense pressure on myself; I’m always terrified of looking like a clown, of being seen as someone with nothing to offer except his look and his tattoos. Unfortunately, I think all of this is a rather French issue. In the United States, a guy in a tank top and sweatpants, covered in tattoos from head to toe, can easily catch an investment fund’s eye simply because he tells them he has the best idea in the world and will do whatever it takes to make it happen. In those cases, there’s no problem at all. They trust him. For Anglo-Saxon funds, what matters above all is the idea and the ambition behind it. Appearance comes second.
Where does this French austerity come from, in your view?
In the corporate world, there has never been any desire to change anything. Proof is, on any big company’s website, the careers page for job listings is like the poor relation—dull old photo, lack of colour, completely obsolete. Clothing is the same story. There’s a kind of cultural complex that makes people think they’ll sell a PowerPoint deck better in a suit and shirt. You need a sort of armour to sell better.
We live in a country that cherishes tradition and has a particular idea of what elegance should be. I’m not saying a suit is worse than jeans; I’m saying it takes all sorts. I’m saying the other camp—the suit camp—must accept that someone who doesn’t dress like them is just as credible when pitching something.
At the same time, if the suit is a corporate cliché, isn’t there also a cliché on the start-up side?
Start-ups are all driven by a kind of mission. These companies want to reinvent everything: tech, environmental impact, employment. And that applies to style, too. We tell ourselves we can work in something other than a suit, to the point where it becomes a mantra and a cliché. Some overplay the creative look just to show they aren’t corporate in the slightest. You absolutely have to wear a t-shirt, an overshirt or work jacket (preferably Hast), slightly loose jeans, cool trainers—Veja, for instance—and, naturally, cycle to work.
The majority of start-up founders are upper-middle-class professionals who studied in preparatory classes and business schools, often from good backgrounds, and who, in their own way, have also been conditioned by these environments.
Let’s say people started to loosen up a bit. Those with a more traditional style started wearing hoodies during our Zoom calls.
Let’s be honest, we embody a bit of all that at Welcome To The Jungle. We’re a company of bobos. People here look a bit similar. That’s just how it is. I’m certainly not saying that wearing jeans makes you better, just as I’m not claiming that to run a successful business, you necessarily need a large open-plan office and a table football. Some people are more comfortable in a suit, in small offices, and that’s perfectly fine. The most important thing is staying true to yourself, not chasing cool at all costs. Some companies are made for people in suits, and they work brilliantly that way.
When you’re a start-up, is it easy to hire diverse people?
It can be tough. I sometimes flinch myself when I see someone who looks like they haven’t made an effort. It’s easy to take it as a lack of interest from the candidate, almost as an insult. You have to move past that and set that feeling aside. You have to try to get to know the person in front of you, and that isn’t always easy. I’ve seen people with an unbuttoned shirt or scruffy clothes who were actually brilliant, absolute geeks. The only thing that matters is figuring out whether the person will be an asset to the company.
Are there any eccentrics at Welcome To The Jungle?
There are still some, yes, and thankfully so. We have very stylish people who would blend right into the most fashionable spots in New York. We have hard rockers clad in leather who truly own it. On the production side, there are streetwear guys who love showing it too, and it suits them. I’m not saying it’s a permanent show, but people like showing where they belong. I think that’s rather healthy. And above all, everyone works! When our clients visit our offices, they’re often disappointed. They expect an extraordinary world, a sort of zoo where people skateboard down the corridors holding soda cans and hanging out. No, here, people work. It’s studious.
Did styles change with lockdown?
Let’s say people started to loosen up a bit. Those with a more traditional style started wearing hoodies during our Zoom calls. They work just as well like that, and I think they realise they can now dress that way at the office too.
Lockdown helped open up a few minds, I think. You feel good in sweatpants, you feel good in a chambray shirt, you feel good in a hoodie. That said, I’m not entirely optimistic either. It’s like that guy coming back from Bali swearing to everyone that he’ll only eat seeds and pray to Krishna every morning. I’m not sure it’ll last very long. Normality will almost certainly take over again. People will revert to their old habits. I can feel it.
When you were very young, you dreamed of becoming a pianist. Before launching Welcome To The Jungle, you worked as a sound engineer. What about your style? Has it always been the same?
I didn’t have any style to begin with. For years, I had no money, scraping by on music, producing tracks for free to get my name out there, and I didn’t have the means to build any sort of wardrobe. On top of that, I only worked with studio rats who couldn’t care less about fashion and wore the same old Led Zeppelin t-shirt for twenty years. That didn’t help.
When I started earning a living in my late twenties, I started taking an interest in clothes. To fill my wardrobe, I drew inspiration from what I saw in magazines, picking up ideas for brands and silhouettes. Very quickly, I adopted a standard, yet high-quality look.
It’s like anything in life: once I got into it, I never stopped. I love it. I couldn’t be any other way today, whatever I’m doing—whether it’s brainstorming ideas for Welcome To The Jungle or, as will soon be the case, acting in a web series and performing a one-man show on stage. This look, this versatility in how I present myself, with my trainers, my jeans, my shirts (Hast of course!), is what defines me most today. If Welcome To The Jungle keeps growing, I hope to stay the same. I’ve found myself.
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Photo credit: Laurence Revol (thank you)