'linkedin' Tag
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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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The sun is rising again
May 21, 2013As I have crowed many times in this space before, Japan is demonstrating renewed energy and enthusiasm in the tech sector. Mobile gaming giants like Gree and DeNA, explosive social networks like Line, and e-commerce leaders like Rakuten, are inspiring success stories for France which recently began venturing abroad. Now Japan’s overall economy seems to […]
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More on the Zombie VC theme
May 14, 2013Exactly ten days ago the yearly ritual of ‘Woodstock for Capitalists’ took place. Also known as the annual shareholders meeting of Berkshire Hathaway, this may well represent the only public company’s shareholders meeting whose promise of attendance can be the sole reason for investors to purchase a share of its stock. Of course, another reason […]
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Euronext’s SME Marketplace
May 7, 2013Last week NYSE Euronext announced the imminent launch of an “SME Marketplace.” Managed by a dedicated subsidiary set up in France, it will have its own brand, operating budget and team. It is hard to understand exactly what this means. Judging from the Euronext press release, the initiative appears to represent more of a hierarchical […]
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Silicon Valley’s secret sauce
March 19, 2013Over the past few weeks in this space, inspired by Fleur Pellerin’s current government initiative to replicate Silicon Valley, I’ve recapped some of the history of the region and reconsidered the wisdom of attempts to reproduce the Silicon Valley model elsewhere. I submit that trying to imitate Silicon Valley is futile. However, France’s government and […]
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Voulez-vous Yahoo ?
March 12, 2013A worrying phenomenon is brewing among a handful of French companies that are using the brouhaha at Yahoo! as an excuse to forbid working from home. Unless you’ve miraculously escaped the tireless media coverage, you’re aware that Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer announced last month that she was abolishing the firm’s work-from-home policy, saying that to […]
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Why I’m enthusiastic about HTML5
February 26, 2013I find that my best venture investing tends to happen when I structure my thinking around investment themes or theses. One current thesis I hold is that HTML5 will usher in a democratizing force comparable to the advent of web itself. It almost sounds like I’m overstating the obvious when I think about it like […]
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The Valley of Heart’s Delight
February 19, 2013Spot quiz: What region is formerly known as the Valley of Heart’s Delight ? Here’s a hint: it’s not Blackstone Valley in Massachusetts, nor is it Berlin, East London, and especially not Saclay, France. A swathe of apple orchards and orange groves spanning Santa Clara County in Northern California is what gave Silicon Valley this […]
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Percent vs. value
February 12, 2013At a conference the other day a fundraising advisor I know approached me about a prospective investment opportunity. The opportunity, a project in the mobile analytics space, fit well within our invest domain of interest. I was intrigued and listened attentively as the intermediary explained the product, the market need, the company’s progress to date, […]
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State of the [French VC] Union: Bleak
February 5, 2013Last summer I wrote a piece about how France’s Retail VC funds were facing bleak prospects (Retail VCs: Pivot or Perish). With the jury now in from 2012’s fundraising cycle for these vehicles, it unfortunately appears that my August piece proved ominously prescient. By way of refresher, Retail VCs are the venture capital firms whose […]
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The importance of blogging for entrepreneurs
January 29, 2013The entrepreneurs with whom I work closely are familiar with my repeated encouragement that they blog on a regular basis. Perhaps encouragement, as my portfolio companies might suggest, is too soft a word; unrelenting nagging is more like it. I’ve often felt like a lone voice in the wilderness on this topic, at least in […]
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Vacances à volonté
January 22, 2013“Impossible, that would never work in France; don’t be so idealistic,” chided my friend with a dismissive wave of the hand. With a storied career rising through the ranks of a CAC40 firm and more recently a business owner, my friend knew a lot about managing people in a French workplace. We were discussing a […]