During my recent trip to Paris, I met Sophie Vu, a dynamic businesswoman. She founded a concierge and property management company for tourist rentals. She also owns a beautiful apartment. It is a perfect example of Haussmannian architecture. During my stay at her place, we had the opportunity to discuss many topics. This single mother, active and comfortably settled in the 17th arrondissement of Paris, offered me an enriching perspective.
Her mixed origins, with a Vietnamese father and a Parisian mother, were not always easy to live with. However, throughout life, she acquired many adaptive skills through these adverse times. After exploring many careers, she decided to focus on property management. Recently, she partnered with her daughter to pass on these life experiences.
SeeChangemakers reached out with some questions for Sophie Vu. These are the responses in both English and French as well as audio en francaise.
THE INTERVIEW
SCM: Sophie, how did your parents meet? What is your history here?
S.V.: My parents met each other in Paris. My father came from Vientiane in Laos, where he lived after his family emigrated from Hanoi in North Vietnam. He came to France to pursue a higher education in Engineering. He finally graduated from the École des Ponts et Chaussées, one of the top five engineering schools in France. There, he met my mother. So, I was born in Paris from an improbable Oriental variation of Shakespearean love story.
Living in any country as a mixed-race person is never easy. You are always a bit of a stranger. At the same time, you are somewhat at home everywhere. I know quite well what everyday racism is; I experienced it for much of my childhood. I was the only one “of my kind.” It wasn’t very comfortable, but in the end, it made me more resilient to hostile environments. That’s a definite asset in our world.
SCM: What motivated you to explore this type of career? How many years have you and your daughter, Appoline, been working in partnership doing property management?
SV: I devoted most of my professional career to new technologies, such as service outsourcing, network infrastructures, and electric bikes. By nature, I am interested in everything new. I see the incredible potential of new tools to improve our world and our lives. For example, these tools generate efficiency by industrializing tedious or low-value tasks. The unlimited access to more diverse information allows us to push the boundaries of our current knowledge. This can then open up other talents by freeing ourselves from material constraints.
As a development director, I had the opportunity to combine strategy and operations. The first steps were conceptual: identifying new markets and trends, defining a strategy to address them. Then came the design of suitable services or products, the business plan. Finally, I would convince the management committee to invest in these projects. And if they did, we moved into the operational stages. These included partnership agreements, reorganizing the company, and training employees. We also defined commercial objectives and technical services. Additionally, we created internal and external communication plans. These were undoubtedly real adventures, but I was missing one thing: creating my own company.
It so happens that I have a very large apartment. My children having grown up, I had several free rooms. I was heating and living alone in a 200 m² apartment. We talk a lot about sustainable development, but isn’t it above all about sharing existing resources? That’s how I became an Airbnb host, and I loved it. I love Paris. Sharing this passion is a pleasure and perhaps even a calling. Welcoming travelers is a wonderful opportunity to share my love for Paris. It gives them the chance to experience a unique and authentic Parisian life.
Things happened naturally. Airbnb quickly offered me the opportunity to become a co-host. They offered concierge and rental management services for owners wishing to delegate these tasks. Building on this success, “Étinceler à Paris” was born. My daughter, Appoline, joined us two months ago. I see this step as a unique opportunity. It was a method to pass on to my child much more than material things. I shared with her values, skills, and know-how. This partnership included a project and her witnessing ambition in a tangible real-world way.
SCM: You have a deep appreciation for your French culture here in Paris. Tell us two areas that interest you the most about Paris and why?
SV: I sincerely believe that French culture is exceptional. We are both the country of the Enlightenment, secularism, rationalism, courtly love, Impressionism, haute cuisine, and the art of living. Our unique history has given us this beautiful republican motto: “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.”
It is to this history, to this motto, that we owe having a generous social and health protection system. This system is not only the best and most egalitarian in the world, but also the least expensive. We also have free education for all, which includes higher education.
We are the country of solidarity and equal opportunity. Even the poorest have the right to the best care for free. Those who lose their jobs are financially supported until they find another. Likewise, we protect against life’s accidents and strive to integrate people with disabilities.
Thus, French culture is a complex mix of humanism, flair, refinement, excellence, hedonism, and aesthetics. No other culture embodies so many contradictory demands at once, except perhaps Chinese culture.
It is this complexity and richness that can be found everywhere in Paris, in its highly diverse urban planning, its cultural life, exhibitions, operas, ballets, theater, the diversity of museums, but above all its timeless beauty, present at every street corner if you pay attention, the rare quality of the light that makes every stone sublime…
SCM: You have managed to become a strong, independent self-made businesswoman. Of course, you inherited this manor from your parents but you have really built an incredible reputation and strong business all by yourself. What advice would you give other women looking to take this path?
SV: – Never entrust your dreams or ambitions to others. They belong to you; achieve them by and for yourself. Cherish and preserve your independence at all costs.
– Remember that even the best plan, no matter how well prepared, is destined to fail, but it will offer you unexpected successes in return, which you must seize.
– As my Buddhist father says, “Life is impermanent; the good news is that misfortune doesn’t last, the bad news is that neither does happiness.”
– Be flexible, be agile, welcome defeats as the seeds of victory, and bounce back. Life gives and takes away; focus on what it gives.
– There are no failures, only lessons we don’t want to learn.
Much gratitude for my collaborators and interviewee, Sophie Vu.
If you would like to see more about Sophie Vu and her business – LINK HERE
Thanks to PHOTOGRAPHER, Alla Parimovich!! Find her TRENDING photography on INSTAGRAM
Plus a big shout-out and thanks to Zoe Allemand for the audio transcriptions! Find her PODCAST on SPOTIFY plus see her INSTAGRAM