Mark Bivens
Rude VC: 5 French startups I can’t live without
You live by your tools, as the old saying goes. Of course, the corollary says that you can also die by your tools (MS Outlook comes to mind…). It’s a rare occasion that I find such a productivity enhancer that I adopt it for regular use. In the spirit of this past Sunday’s fête nationale, […]
Rude VC: The misplaced pride of no marketing
I heard it again just the other day during a startup’s pitch. “We’ve done no marketing, and look how much we’ve accomplished,” boasted the founders of the venture for which they were trying to raise money. Imagine what we could do if we spent money on marketing, was the intended implication of what they were […]
Rude VC: Tech Designers – Hurry over to London by July 10
No, this is not an encouragement to would-be fiscal exiles or pigeons. Nor do I have any specific conference or startup networking event in mind as I write this. In fact, the reason has nothing to do with tech, at least not in a directly obvious way. It’s about an art exhibition. Specifically, Shiro Kuramata, […]
Rude VC: Part 2 of the Alternext liquidity conundrum
Last week I wrote a fairly critical piece about France’s IPO market for tech firms. Specifically, I claimed that the Alternext, which is the main market on which VC-backed tech firms can go public in France, does not represent an adequate avenue for sustained financing and liquidity potential for these firms. Rude maybe, but surprisingly […]
Rude VC: 3 broken arrows of growth capital in France
The other day during a stimulating conversation with five of French tech’s movers and shakers, the subject came up about the challenges facing high-potential tech firms in need of growth capital. Setting aside the Yahoo/DailyMotion debacle for a moment (which I fear will carry disastrous long-term consequences for cross-border m&a, one of the three ‘arrows’), […]
Rude VC: Open up the French Open
On Friday my colleague and I walked by a shop window at lunchtime that displayed a large flat screen televising Roger Federer’s match at Roland Garros. We were immediately struck by the abundance of vacant seats in the stadium during the match. Granted, it was a Friday afternoon (heaven forbid the French cut out work […]
Rude VC: Governments’ bite of the Apple
There has been a lot of gnashing of teeth recently about Apple’s alleged dodging of paying taxes on tens of billions of profits from 2009~2012. Incidentally, that’s merely what the U.S. government deems it forfeited. Apple of course pays a paltry tax bill in France, despite the fact the France remains the world’s third best […]
Rude VC: The sun is rising again
As 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 […]
On Zombie VC funds in France
Exactly 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 […]
Rude VC: Euronext’s SME Marketplace
Last 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 […]