SABAH SAYS… Nicolas Dalais : “I want to see young people running startups”

For many of you reading today, you may recognise the surname in the title of this week’s feature as the family behind the highly successful CIEL Group here in Mauritius, whose main business activities include sugar production, textiles and investment. I came across Nicolas Dalais and his work when looking for a co-working space a couple of months ago, and was impressed that this was a man who had taken a risk by venturing out into the world and carve his own niche, rather than easily following a ready-made one. Last week, I had the pleasure of sitting down with him for a chat about his life, his businesses and Mauritius on the whole and it was certainly an enriching and inspiring experience.

Having recently celebrated his 27th birthday, Nicolas is the man behind Jugaad, his own architectural business, and more recently The Hive, which is a collection of co-working spaces across the island. To begin with, I was interested to know why he decided to follow his own path and not go into the family businesses. He confessed that a lot of confusion occurred in the beginning, but he always knew he wanted to do something more creative. Despite struggling between business administration and management and his love for architecture, eventually he decided that he should at least try to do what he wanted to do and thankfully, the risk paid off. Now, his architectural career is booming!

The inspiration for the second business came about through his architectural projects, a concept whereby he would try and convince his clients to open co-working spaces, as it’s the ‘new way of working’. Eventually something clicked and he decided that this would be something he would have to launch on his own in Mauritius – and so, The Hive was born.
In terms of his architectural career, I asked him if there are any standout projects that he has worked on so far. He explained that his company is currently the main urban planner on the Cap Tamarin Smart City project and that this is one of the most interesting and exciting projects he has worked on to date; a project which is helping to create new lifestyle and living concepts in Mauritius. Humbly, he conceded that he is very happy doing what he does for a living and that his best investment is definitely The Hive, which is opening doors to an eco-system that will enable him to invest into other projects and startups too.

Looking at the business landscape on our island, I was keen to find out whether he could see anything particularly exciting or innovating taking place. He opened up and said, “I think there is a lack of creativity in startups and businesses – there are not many, too, and I don’t know why. I think Mauritians are very creative people but they don’t have people that empower them and believe in their ideas…”

Keeping in line with this, I went on further to ask him what his advice would be to young people here who want to start their own businesses and he declared,
“Get out of your living room, meet people, and share your ideas. Don’t keep your ideas just for yourself - you won’t go anywhere. Share! Say okay, how can we work on this together? There is so much opportunity out there when you meet people. Your business could grow and change with just one meeting!”

I have met a lot of Mauritians and indeed, I have found that they are unwilling to share ideas, which is somewhat a problem. Nicolas felt the same way and said that one of the main problems is that although the Government is trying to help through initiatives such as SMEDA, they are putting their buildings and organisations in the wrong places. Furthermore, he believes that the lack of urban planning and strategies will have a negative impact on the people who will not be able to access the help that they need. In contrast, he lauds the private sector, which is doing a great job with incubators but young startups do not have the money to access such places either. The solution must come from the Government and private sector working hand-in-hand for the betterment of young entrepreneurial-minded people - “Regenerating cities with incubators for start-ups could be a great solution,” he concluded.
Moving away from business, Nicolas recently became a father to a little boy and happily told me that this was the proudest moment in his life; a moment in which he realised that everything he was building went far beyond just himself.

He revealed that fatherhood has been a wonderful experience and helps him to plan his day more effectively. He has been managing fatherhood and the businesses quite well, although sometimes he does get home quite late – however now that he has a son, he says once he is home, he easily switches off from work and gives his undivided attention to his little family.
As our conversation began to draw to a close, I was keen to know what he thought the future of Mauritius would look like. He expressed, “I want to see Mauritius in 10 years with young people running startups, young people investing in property. I think the emphasis is on young people – young, fresh people bringing changes.”

What about his own future? As a man who loves his homeland, he doesn’t see himself leaving the island, but rather enjoying the best of different lifestyles right here – a great, urban lifestyle in the week and a more disconnected, rural lifestyle during weekends. He also revealed that he would love for one of his projects to be geared around social housing, as he thinks this is something that smart cities really need to integrate, in order to create jobs, cohesion and the mixing of different groups of people that would never normally come together – something that I am definitely supportive of!

All on all, I found Nicolas to be a warm, passionate and humble man who really cares for his country and his fellow citizens. He is open, honest and is certainly someone who, I believe, the younger generation could look up to. I wish him the very best in all his endeavors and look forward to seeing his future projects come to life.