'technology' Category
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Musings on conference moderators
March 17, 2015Does anyone else feel like we’re on tech conference overload in Europe these days? It feels to me like we’ve reached the saturation point. Of course, not all tech conferences are the same. What makes a great conference? Pardon the cliché, but I would have to say, ‘the people’. Specifically, the speakers/panelists, followed by the […]
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My 5 takeaways from MWC 2015
March 7, 2015Here are my five takeaways from the Mobile World Congress 2015. Read these for a day 1, 2, 3 recap of the Congress. With nearly 100 thousand delegates, MWC is undisputably the world’s largest mobile conference and a can’t-miss event… unless you’re into innovation, then go to 4YFN, which takes place the same week (props […]
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Introducing the European FinTech RUDEscape
February 24, 2015Wow, the appetite for FinTech in Europe is booming, with VC funding reaching dizzying heights. It’s not just Europe, by the way. A recent visit to Bangkok confirmed that even in the emerging startup ecosystem of Thailand, FinTech is hotter than a spicy som tam salad (more on that later). With the entire sector representing […]
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How LINE is turning Instagram into an ecommerce app in Thailand
February 17, 2015On a recent exploratory visit to Bangkok, I witnessed first-hand a consumer shopping behavior that absolutely blew my mind and underscored how the West does not have a monopoly on business model innovation. Incidentally, my secret for glimpsing generalized consumer behaviors in a foreign country is to eschew the convenience of taxis or Uber in […]
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Negotiating your compensation, part deux
February 10, 2015When I first moved to France fourteen years ago, the joke among educated expats was that the best way to get hired for a job in France was to apply for one in which you possessed direct experience in the exact same sector but for lower pay. This is admittedly a slight exaggeration, but back […]
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Dear LaFrenchTech: Let’s never stop learning
December 16, 2014Arguably at one point the hottest tech conference on the European continent and still undisputably one of the top tier events, LeWeb took place last week and brought leading international entrepreneurs and investors like Phil Libin, Hiroshi Mikitani, Kevin Rose, Yossi Vardi, Tony Conrad, David Hornik, Jeff Clavier, and Fred Wilson to Paris. The conference […]
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My five takeaways from LeWeb Conference
December 14, 2014The sharing economy is already impressive, and we ain’t seen nothing yet. Bitcoin has fallen out of favor, for now, and hence is probably a good contrarian play. Japan tech is the ultimate contrarian play. Expect the unexpected when a French politician takes the stage. Meditation is the new black turtleneck in Silicon Valley. […]
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European entrepreneurs: Beware the Silicon Valley travel trap
December 9, 2014There seems be a growing trend in startup communities throughout continental Europe that I find a bit fatiguing. It has to do with the plethora of consultants offering to organize tailored travel packages for young tech companies to global tech hubs, usually Silicon Valley. Consultants are like ants: they usually show up when there’s a […]
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Is investing in gaming like betting on Hollywood?
November 18, 2014On a recent trip to Tokyo, I met with a handful of business partners and investors in the mobile gaming sector, one of my investment themes over the past few years centering on European endeavors in this space. A familiar debate comes up every time: Is mobile gaming as a sector still investable? Has mobile […]
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Why Asian startups should prioritize Europe
November 17, 2014In my travels for work I’ve had the honor to meet hundreds of inspiring entrepreneurs from all over the world. Setting aside China, and in a gross over-simplification, domestic markets in East Asia could be characterized as either i) mature or ii) emerging (Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, in the former; the rest of Southeast […]
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What I think about when I think about mobile gaming
October 21, 2014When people inquire about my investment strategy, I explain that I try to structure my investment thinking around themes or theses. Readers of this blog will recognize that one of my favorite investment themes over the past few years has centered on the value chain of mobile gaming. Often, I visualize aspects of a theme […]
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Mobile payments in the West, a primer
October 14, 2014Last week Square raised a new $150m in equity financing led by the Singapore government fund, valuing Jack Dorsey’s mobile payments juggernaut at a rumored $6 billion. Also recently, Amazon launched a Square competitor, Tim Cook announced the iPhone 6 and Apple Pay, and Paypal reclaimed its independence from eBay. And that is just in America. […]