'venture capital' Category
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2016 Will Be The Year Of The European Entrepreneur
January 4, 2016Making predictions are hard, especially about the future. I may be underestimating the time horizon, but for me the trend is unmistakable. The European entrepreneurial ecosystem is poised to enter the major leagues, and I predict that this will happen in 2016. Our vieux continent already boasts a burgeoning collection of tech unicorns, with the […]
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VC internship opportunity 2016
January 3, 2016Happy new year! I’m recruiting an intern again, but before we get into that, I’d like to publicly thank my prior interns, whom I like to characterize as heroes: 2012: Robert Kelley 2013: Nilanjan Basu 2014: Jerry Yang 2015: Junjie Peng Each of the four arrived at my office with no VC experience, but more […]
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Europe’s tech IPO market: Where’s Santa?
December 10, 2015Just when it felt like the market for European tech IPOs was opening, the events of the past few weeks have dashed those hopes. Days after Deezer announced the delay of its initial public offering, HelloFresh drew the same conclusion. In France, the only notable IPOs of late were Amundi and ShowroomPrivé. The asset management […]
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VC Shenanigans, Chapter 1 (of Volume I, Book 1…)
December 3, 2015“Never a dull moment,” one on my favorite co-investors would like to quip. After practicing the business of venture capital for almost a decade and a half now, I’ve witnessed my share of moments that were anything but dull. Someday I’ll write a book, I used to think to myself. Maybe someday. But until then, […]
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An ode to the expat
November 11, 2015I spent a fair bit of my childhood in a very comfortable expatriate life overseas, but once I entered the workforce I never really felt inclined to become a proper expat in the original sense of the term. Growing up as an expat kid couldn’t be more cozy. Generally, the parent’s multinational company, at least […]
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A global, dream team workforce that doesn’t cost a cent
November 3, 2015Fans of Elon Musk know that in addition to his primary projects of Tesla and SpaceX, the seemingly tireless Musk has also espoused the construction of a hyperloop. The hyperloop is a vacuum-like transportation pod that if successful, could whisk passengers from say, San Francisco to Los Angeles in just over half an hour. Pretty […]
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Is France prepared to make the sacrifices necessary to foster the innovation ecosystem it claims to want?
October 28, 2015Open Innovation, the Year of Innovation, Young Innovative Enterprises, etc. we cannot stop talking about innovation. But we also should acknowledge that innovation comes with certain demands. For example, innovation requires flexibility. For companies to be innovative, they must be agile. Lack of agility is one of the reasons large established firms are caught flat-footed […]
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Imagining the future of food
October 20, 2015What will the future of food look like ? On the one hand, the world is facing a food crisis. Roughly 1 in 9 people lack enough food to eat, while pressures are mounting from population growth to climate change. At the other end of the spectrum, the developed world’s expectations are growing increasingly sophisticated. […]
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How to stand out in your LinkedIn connection request
October 19, 2015It has practically become a cliché now: somebody jokingly tweets out some variation of the following: “logs in to LinkedIn. sees you have XYZ unread notifications. logs out of LinkedIn (sigh)” It’s a tired joke in the Twittersphere, but I can feel their pain. Without exaggeration, it seems like I receive 50~100 new LinkedIn connection […]
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My two favorite perks of the Loi Macron for French startups
October 13, 2015Following much debate and anticipation, France’s Loi Macron was finally adopted into effect in early August, during a period when many people weren’t paying too much attention. The Macron Law (inheriting not coincidentally the namesake of the Economy Minister whose ideas inspired it) is technically called the law “for growth, activity and equality of economic […]
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Beyond Robots, France and Japan Launch Year of Innovation
October 6, 2015It was an honor to participate in France’s governmental delegation to Japan to launch the Year of Innovation between the two countries. Seriously, I’m not being sarcastic. It’s true that I like to mock government initiatives in innovation, and my first reaction to the ministerial invitation to serve in the official kick-off of FrenchTechTokyo was […]
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Préparez-vous pour Dash Camp 2016
October 2, 2015Pour la troisième année consécutive, on m’a accordé des places pour amener une délégation française de 5 startups privilégiées au prestigieux Dash Camp au Japon. Dash Camp représente la conférence de référence en Asie qui facilite les échanges entre les entrepreneurs innovants et les dirigeants des grands groupes tech japonais. Elle est pertinente pour ceux […]