Culture is future » Innovation and digital

CULTURAL START-UP OF THE WEEK: DesLettres

Next-up on our online cultural entrepreneur series, the Forum d’Avignon would like to introduce the start-up: DesLettres, digital edition of fascinating letters. Everyday, DesLettres send on smartphone or through e-mail a fascinating letter or mail, giving a refreshing perspective on the day’s news and notifications, through the unveiling of private letters sent by famous people of the arts or the history. 

What is your project/idea/start-up?

Digital editor and multi support media, DesLettres wants to bring modernity to the edition of famous letters through the digital interface, thus spreading to a large audience accessible literature and culture, restoring the pleasure of reading fine texts … now on screens. DesLettres aims to widespread the fantastic treasures of letters, incredibly rich with emotions, sense and meaning, with such an astonishing variety in the styles and topics, mixing human secrets and history and unveiling the talents of those writing with their hearts and talents, like any of us. Besides, have you noticed how much we write and read all day long, and even more since the digital revolution?

Victor Hugo, David Bowie, Frida Kahlo, Gandhi or Colette : all of them invite you on DesLettres to discover their intimacy, emotions and secrets, the moods and challenges of their times. Original texts of these personal letters are presented with pictures of the correspondents, introduced with a brief editorial on the context, and timed with an indicative length of reading measured from 1 to 5 minutes. Everything is designed to encourage reading in mobility, so that in just a click and with your smartphone, your waiting moments become fine cultural moments, whilst in the metro, in a line or in a waiting room, or juts having a drink at a terrace or a bar.  

What challenges do you face in your development?

Our community of readers is on a fast track, growing everyday, and we are diversifying our offer, to increase the visibility of letters as a reading pleasure, whilst staying close to our readers’ expectations and sensitivity. Our community of readers is our first asset, with 230.000 unic visits/month on the website, 35 000 subscribers to the newsletter, 33 000 Facebook fans. In addition to our first partnership with key medias such as the Huffington Post, editors as Le Robert or websites like Allociné, we are pleased to announce this year a strategic partnership with the Foundation La Poste (French Mail), through the sponsoring of the free mobile application DesLettres that has already been downloaded more than 30.000 times, and will enable the diffusion of original treasures form their own collections. And now, our letters are invading Paris ! In a few days, the new mobile application Des Lettres « Paris Capital Letters » will be released on all the new digital bus stop stations powered by JC Decaux in partnership with them and the City of Paris. Thanks to geo localisation, people will be able to download exciting letters written in conjunction with the place where they stand, out of a digital map flagged with letters symbol all over the map of Paris. They will also be able to enjoy an enchanting city guide to discover Paris with a new eye, through the reading of famous letters. Finally, our online shop offers fine objects and original editions, to stay in touch with the pleasure of reading beautiful letters, all of them in co-creation with our faithful readers. 

For you, what does it mean to be a cultural entrepreneur?

Our team is native from the digital and the Internet, we believe that digital behaviours and digital tools represent a huge opportunity to widespread the practice of reading fine cultural contents. Our mission of cultural entrepreneurs is made of hard work and passion, pragmatism and long-term vision. We want to stay close to our readers and provide unlimited access and opportunities to connect and reconnect to culture through digital. 

Photo Credit © DesLettres

Follow DesLettres on… Website, twitter, Facebook, Apple Store, Androïd Store

The web series : we’re interviewing cultural start-ups – Contact us!

As part of its web series on cultural entrepreneurship, the Forum d’Avignon is proud to present each week exciting stories on cultural start-ups.

This project is part of the Forum d’Avignon’s on-going work, in line with its 2015 agenda, on the ‘hybridization of economic models in cultural and on the manifesto on cultural entrepreneurship in creative industries (to be published soon).

To participate and promote your cultural start-up on the Forum d’Avignon’s website: please send to the address forum-avignon.org@orange.fr:

• A photo (website/founders/logo) in HD
• A video link presenting your project
• A short answer (2-3 lines, in English and French) to the following three questions:

                        - What is your project/idea/start-up?

                        - What is your current challenge?

                        - For you, what does it mean to be a cultural entrepreneur