Archive for 2012
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5 Best (worst) VC holiday greetings
December 18, 2012I’ve often remarked how U.S. venture capital firms are miles ahead of European VCs in their strategies and execution. Mercifully, there is one so-called ‘best practice’ in Silicon Valley that has not really caught on here in Europe: the one-upmanship in releasing humorous holiday parodies. Here are 5 standouts over the past decade (caveat viewer: [...]
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Giving thanks
December 11, 2012The atmosphere surrounding France’s VC and startup ecosystem over the second half of the year has provided ample opportunities to dampen one’s spirits. Between the dearth of stock market liquidity, the potentially devastating fiscal policies of the new government, VC’s who behave more like overpaid lenders than risk backers, and the general macroeconomic malaise within [...]
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Saying Oui, Maître
December 10, 2012An excerpt from the brochure distributed at LeWeb12 under France’s Say Oui campaign. Am I the only one troubled by how the recommended legal steps to create a business in France outnumber by 10-to-4 the steps on business feasibility ? [...]
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Musings on advanced urban ecosystems
December 4, 2012For the second time in a month this weekend, fortune had it that I caught one of the brand new trains on RER B. I’ve long suspected that one of the reasons that keeps Paris below other world-class cities in various rankings (such as the recent 11th out of Startup Genome’s Top 20 Startup Ecosystems) [...]
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Moody Blues in France
November 27, 2012It has been a demoralizing 10 days for France in its standing in the business world. A week ago Friday, The Economist published a damning report on the parlous state of France’s economy with a cheeky cover story calling the country The Time-Bomb at the Heart of Europe. Then on November 19th, Moody’s downgraded France’s [...]
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Scaling your startup successfully into the States
November 20, 2012Nic Brisbourne of DFJ Esprit wrote a great piece last week called, “The smart way to expand software companies to the U.S.” I won’t rehash the whole post but definitely recommend you read it. While Brisbourne’s advice is geared for British startups, much of it is relevant for France as well. His money shot is [...]
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Infographic: HTML5 mobile gaming
November 18, 2012Many mobile game companies still choose native iOS or Android as their first route to market, only to discover that it’s very challenging to stand out among hundreds of thousands of other games in the traditional app-stores. There is, however, a viable alternative approach that is quickly gaining interest worldwide: HTML5. BoosterMedia has released a [...]