A Varoise at Matignon to promote female business leaders

Miss Var 2025. Sara Guillaume Zumbiehl can now claim this title. At least when it comes to the business world. Without a sash or tiara, this Fréjus native, resident of Pourrières, is the departmental winner of the "101 Women Entrepreneurs" competition. On June 16 and 17, she represented the Var region at Matignon, along with one hundred other female business leaders from all over France, all received by Prime Minister François Bayrou.

A distinction she owes to the creation of Foodelles, a scientific program that links mental health and nutrition, available in app form, and whose strength is to "take the opposite approach to traditional diets, by focusing on the psychological, emotional and behavioral dimensions." The objective: to soothe users' relationship with food, without promising weight loss. "The idea," explains the founder, "is that if you feel good about what you eat, your weight regulates itself to move towards your ideal weight, regardless of whether it corresponds to a size 36 or 42!"

Well surrounded

While she surrounded herself with a scientific committee made up of four doctors and around thirty expert practitioners to build a course dedicated to "putting an end to the yo-yo effect" , Sara Guillaume Zumbiehl also drew on her own experience.

Mother of two little girls aged 8 and 5, the forty-something has experienced the pangs of a difficult—but not pathological—relationship with her body and diet since adolescence. "I've been a customer, " she says, "of several diet apps, but the results were never lasting. Because everything they offered focused on the 'what' (weight) and not the 'why'."

In a particularly competitive sector, she therefore chooses to take a tangent. Literally.

Two years ago, the big leap

Because until now, Sara Guillaume Zumbiehl's path seemed all mapped out. More than twenty years ago, with her baccalaureate in hand, the Var native left the region to study in Paris. First in a preparatory class for literature, then in business school. After graduating from Essec, she began her career in London, in digital marketing at BetClic. Two years later, back in France, the young woman joined Cap Gemini Invent, the company's consulting subsidiary. She stayed there for eight years before joining Agorastore, a specialist in industrial reuse.

"It was these bosses who inspired me to start my own business." She started two years ago after leaving her job. Work on Foodelles began at the end of 2023, and the app was launched just a year later, in December 2024. It now has some 10,000 downloads, in a "freemium" version, meaning 70% free and offering subscriptions.

Roller coaster and new targets

"Of course, it was a bit more of a roller coaster than a salaried job," says the entrepreneur, "but I was supported by incubators that allowed me to not be alone."

The next stage of the app's development should lead to a name change, particularly to broaden its target audience to include men and to be able to support it with more general mental health professionals. "I have a real ambition for my business, which I want to see grow and become profitable!" The spotlight on "101 Women Entrepreneurs" should contribute to this.

"101 women entrepreneurs" as many ambassadors

For the past two years, the Ministry of Gender Equality and the Fight against Discrimination has been organizing the "101 Women Entrepreneurs" competition with BPI France. It is part of the "All Equal" plan. Each department in France is represented, with the winners becoming ambassadors for female entrepreneurship, encouraging other women to get involved.

In addition to the ceremony, attended by the Prime Minister—François Bayrou this year, Gabriel Attal last year—participants benefit from 48 hours of workshops, conferences, and discussions to develop their businesses while maintaining their values. They gain contacts and receive advice on financing, business strategy, and even digitalization of their businesses.

Last year, it was Brignolaise Angélique Bodino, head of the "Bocaux d'aqui", who represented the Var.