LeCamping has kept the bar pretty high over the past few years when it comes to inviting key movers and shakers to their events: serial entrepreneurs & investors from around the world have passed through; however, their latest event might top them all. LeCamping has arranged for Bernard Liautaud, an entrepreneur turned VC at London-based Balderton Capital to come hear pitches from Paris-based startups.
For those who don’t know Balderton, it’s one of the largest Venture Firms in Europe, with around $2 billion funds under management -they’ve invested in companies like Bebo, wooga, Wonga, YOOX, MySQL, and Betfair. Their most recent French investments include Vestiaire Collective,  an online community and market place for luxury second hand fashion goods.

But let’s get back to the point.

If you haven’t already wiki-ed Bernard Liautaud, you might recognize the name as the French founder of a little company called Business Objects back in the 90s. Business Objects sold to SAP for $6.7B, the third largest software acquisition at the time – and probably, the largest acquisition of a French tech company ever. The man is so important he’s even received the Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur (think of it as being knighted, but better).
Liautaud, who will be visiting La Cantine on May 3rd from 14h30 until 16h30, has extended an open application to any and all startups who wish to pitch him (for 15 minutes!) – Startups can apply on OHours, and the final decision will be made 24 Hours before the event starts.
Future events from LeCamping can be seen here – most notably Vente-Privee founder Jacques-Antoine Granjon.  LeCamping is currently accepting applications to Season 3 of its six-month accelerator program – this past seasons ‘Campers’ have been to LeWeb, been represented at SXSW, and some ex-campers have gone off to Accelerators in the Silicon Valley and Boston.