'linkedin' Tag
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Ode to the salesperson
January 15, 2013For the bulk of my portfolio companies, this is the time of year that I brace myself for a dip in financial performance. While the reasons differ, the effect in Q1 is similar. In the web and mobile companies whose products follow consumer buying patterns, the short month of February translates directly into fewer days […]
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Courage to vote for courage
January 8, 2013Last May we elected a new French president largely based on his extent of ‘normalcy’. The recent U.S. presidential election revolved around the issue of business acumen rather than inspirational leadership. Not to mention last week’s embarrassing punt by the U.S. congress on the fiscal cliff resolution when what would have really made sense would […]
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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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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 […]
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Another internship opportunity at Truffle Capital
November 15, 2012If you’re interested in experiencing first-hand the daily grind of working in Venture Capital, I invite you to consider becoming an intern at Truffle Capital. Here’s a summary of the position. Requirements: a dynamic and entrepreneurial individual with aspirations to spend 6 months working in a VC fund authorized status in French university to qualify […]
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What Gallois’ report means for tech startups
November 13, 2012Last week the French government’s Commissaire général à l’investissement, Louis Gallois, released his eagerly anticipated diagnosis on France’s competitiveness to the Prime Minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault. Encompassing six major themes and 22 specific proposals, the Pacte pour la Compétitivité de L’industrie Française is both sweeping in its analysis and prescriptive in recommending solutions. Gallois begins by […]
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Japan’s renewed appetite for Europe?
November 6, 2012The Rude VC disappeared to Japan last week for a combination of business meetings and some spiritual recalibration. I return refreshed and pumped up. Pumped up because the country that the West likes to deride as the one of the “lost decade” is demonstrating a renewed appetite for expansion abroad, especially in the tech sector. […]
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Inspiring leaders crack the agency problem
October 23, 2012Of the multiple traits that distinguish inspiring leaders, I submit that the fundamental undercurrent relates to their ability to crack the agency problem. The theory of the agency problem, or more accurately, agency costs, represents the inherent misalignment in the relationship between an agent and a principal. Agency costs arise when a company’s employees (the […]
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The power of immediate feedback
October 16, 2012Probably the best recruitment I ever made when I was running my internet real estate startup was of a salesman named Bob. I stumbled onto Bob by accident and hired him in a daze of desperation after a disastrous experience with a previous salesperson. Bob was coaching high school football when I met him, and […]