Rude VC on Triathletes and Entrepreneurs
Even though I suck at them, I’m a big fan of racing triathlons. This past weekend was chock-full of exciting events. Right here in Paris the French Triathlon Federation held an olympic distance with the swim portion in the oh-so-propre Seine. Other notable races over the weekend included the Long course Challenge in Roth, Germany […]
#1Seed: London money investing in seed-level French startups
Money’s tight for startups in France – or so Journal Du Net claims it will be – accelerators don’t give out the 100K that they do in the US, France angel groups like Keiretsu France charge startups 1000s of euros to pitch angels who won’t and don’t intend to invest in tech startups, and French […]
Rennes-based startup Tocea raises €300K to clean your code
Tocea offers enterprise-class, hardcore code analysis and improvement tools that aims to reduce your “Technical Debt”. What’s “Technical Debt”, you ask? It’s a term for the consequences you pay down the road for the coding shortcuts you take today. Researchers spend a lot of time obsessing over these concepts, that try to determine for what […]
Micropayments on the rise in Europe
Hi-Media Group and Harris Interactive have released their “Micropayment Barometer” which seeks to measure the progression of micropayments globally and, particularly, in Europe. For the European part of the barometer, 4k internet users across France, Germany, Italy, and Spain were included. The main finding of the study was that micropayments are pretty widely and increasingly […]
Jaxspot proves that inviting your First 1M Users is as easy as 1, 2, 300K
If you haven’t heard of Jaxspot it’s time to expand your horizons-or platforms. Playtouch, the makers of Jaxspot, developed a multi-platform game providing users with increased accessibility and mobility in a market already inundated with addictive online games. The app can be downloaded and played on a computer, 3G or 4G phone, tablet computer, TV […]
Rude VC on the Board of Directors: Control vs Support
Admittedly, I still have a lot to learn about how to be a good boardmember. It’s still early days into my second career after selling my company and becoming a VC. I haven’t even witnessed a full decade-spanning macroeconomic cycle, which is a prerequisite for a venture capitalist to become an experienced practitioner. I am, […]
Rude VC: How do VC's calculate valuations in Europe?
The question I am asked most frequently by European entrepreneurs I know is: “How much is my company worth ?” I’ll pull a Henry Kissinger and answer a slightly different and more precise question, which is that of how VC’s in Europe calculate valuations of tech companies. Even if it’s more precise, the answer still […]
Web2Day Wrap-Up – Fleur Pellerin, Collaborative Consumption, & $22 Billion
I had the wonderful pleasure not only to be a media partner, but to speak at Web2Day in Nantes last week, and the first thing I’d like to say is that, once again, Nantes punches above its weight class. This two-day event featured startups from all over France, speakers from all backgrounds, and they even […]
Rude VC: To IPO or not to IPO? – Going public in France
Forgive the bastardization of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, because when it comes to French tech IPO’s, one could argue that MacBeth is more appropriate (“Double, double, toil and trouble. Fire burn and cauldron bubble…”). In my last two columns we reviewed the basics of IPO’s and examined some of the challenges that venture-backed companies like Facebook confront in […]
French Sovereign wealth fund announces Digital economy represents 25% of economic growth
FSI (Fonds stratégique d’investissement) France’s strategic sovereign wealth fund announced this week that the digital economy currently represents 25% of France’s growth over the last three years. According to FSI this will result in a an eventual revolution in sthe make-up of France’s economy as they estimate that the digital economy’s percentage of overall GDP will […]