Archive for July 2012
Rude VC: Selling Early, and other opinions on the Digg acquisition
Remember Digg ? Less than six months after radical innovator NetVibes caved in to Dassault Systèmes for 20m€ and almost five years to the exact day after navigation firm Webraska lost its way into the arms of Sanef, the social news sharing site Digg was sold to Betaworks for a reported $500k. This sum represents just a fraction of […]
Return of the French Google Tax: New Government, Same Nonsense
France is now saying it will enforce what’s been dubbed the “Google Tax” [FR], a sort of customs tariff on web products and services sold from anywhere outside of France. Previous governments have tried coming up with a way to apply VAT on digital purchases from foreign companies, from a song on iTunes or an […]
Le Mash Up Teaches Startup Students The Art of The Pitch
Le Mash Up has long since been a favorite event of mine. The event focuses on educating students about the startup ecosystem, while bringing students from different backgrounds together to find internships, meet startup icons, and learn about startup problems. The group just announced their upcoming event, which will take place July 24th, and will be […]
11 French Business Associations urge French Senate to innovate now!
Eleven business associations, many of which represent the interests of the tech sector, published and presented yesterday to the French Senate their ‘Three urgent measures for innovative companies’. One of their principal propositions is the establishment of the EIC classification (Entreprise d’Innovation et de Croissance, in English, Innovative Growth Company), which would bring together the […]
SongPop: Where Cloning Good Design can take you
SongPop by Freshplanet now crossed over 2M DAUs, and is on a trajectory to reach the top 10 of Facebook games. The Android and iOS app aren’t doing too bad either. Its growth and design are strongly reminiscent of Draw Something. Rewind a bit, and you have a game called “we are music” launched at least a […]
Quandora: The Quora for enterprise
Quandora co-founder Andreea Barroca, who lived in Bucharest, Paris, San Francisco, and now divides her time between New York and Paris, gives us a fresh perspective on Enterprise Content Management (ECM), an underestimated part of the IT industry. Enterprise Content Management, briefly, is the management of the thousands and millions of documents that float around […]
Rubbing the magic lamp, LoungeUp transforms hotel customer service.
Let’s start with me: make my wish your command. Magic lamps equipped with blue genies, unlimited wishes, and all that. What would I ask for first? Enhanced customer service that is a social experience. Differentiating one hotel from another is no longer based on towel softness or pool access, it is based on meeting the diverse yet […]
[Breaking] Peugeot cuts 8K jobs in France – Not As Lean as They Claimed.
Peugeot announced this morning that they will be cutting 8 000 jobs in France, primarily in the closing of a factory in Aulnay, just outside of Paris. The story is being covered widely and being tied together with President Hollande’s “difficulties” as president. The company’s CEO, Philippe Varin commented on the “seriousness” of the cutbacks, stating […]
CapGemini's new study redefines the Digital Shopper
I am about to launch my new E-Commerce business in a few weeks, thus I screen everything I see that touches on this subject and even more though when it covers Fashion as a market segment. When I saw this new study published by my former colleagues of Cap Gemini “the Digital Relevancy” I first […]
Index Ventures Summer Party on the Criteo rooftops
Yesterday evening, Index Ventures hosted a summer party on the top of Criteo’s new office building, located just across the street from the Theatre de Paris. The party welcomed a fair amount of Index VCs from their offices in Geneva & London, as well as some of the head honchos. The event also featured some […]