Syos turns 10 in 2026. To mark the occasion, we wanted to look back on the story of the brand, one year at a time. Let's start where it all began: 2016.
NUMA, our crash course in building a company
While Maxime was preparing his PhD defense, we had to put together a video to apply to NUMA, at the time the leading startup accelerator in Paris. During the interview, we had to convince them we were already a solid team that had been working together for a long time — they only took seasoned teams. We got in.
We spent the summer learning everything about starting a company. We also bought our first 3D printer, set up right in the middle of the open space. Meanwhile, we invited musicians down to the NUMA basement to test our first 3D printed saxophone mouthpieces.
Our first article in Le Monde
It was at NUMA that we landed our first article in Le Monde, one of France's largest national newspapers. We were genuinely excited. The journalist insisted we make a custom mouthpiece for an artist he had chosen himself, and who had never worked with us before: Géraldine Laurent.
The catch was that Géraldine had no desire to change mouthpieces — so no particular request to pass on to us, which made the exercise a little tricky. Many thanks to her all the same for playing along!
Syos officially founded on Charlie Parker's birthday
It was during our time at NUMA that we officially founded Syos, on August 29, 2016. A rather fitting administrative coincidence: it's also Charlie Parker's birthday.
Back then, our logo looked like this (I designed it myself…).
And here's what our saxophone mouthpieces looked like at the time. They've come a long way since!
2016 was also the year I received the Norbert Ségard prize. Awarded by the Denise and Norbert Ségard Foundation (under the aegis of the Fondation de France), it supports young engineers and PhDs under 35 who launch innovative technology companies — a meaningful recognition for the project in its early days.
Jazz à la Villette and the Herbaliser night
I have vivid memories of my first Jazz à la Villette, in 2016. I met a lot of musicians there, and I particularly remember the evening with The Herbaliser. The poor guys had run into travel trouble and arrived just as the opening act was starting, without even getting to soundcheck.
Despite all that, Andrew and James took the time to try the mouthpieces, loved them, and decided to play with them on stage right away! A great night. James Morton's mouthpiece has evolved a bit since then, and he still plays on it today.
Le 104, and connections that still last today
At the end of the year, we moved into the incubator at Le CENTQUATRE-PARIS (the “104”). Located in the 19th arrondissement of Paris, the 104 is a public arts venue that hosts artist residencies, exhibitions and concerts, and runs 104factory — one of the rare startup incubators fully embedded inside a cultural institution. The perfect home for a company sitting at the crossroads of music and technology.
That's where I first met Daro Behroozi and Dayna Stephens, two musicians we still work with today.
A dense first year, then, one that laid the foundations for everything that followed. More in 2017.
