Chroniques
The Hierarchy of VC Bloggers (just for fun)
Nic Brisbourne, veteran VC and Founder of Forward Partners, posits that everyone should be a writer. It’s not difficult to understand such a sweeping assertion coming from a writer of Nic’s calibre. I largely agree, not necessarily for everyone, but that most people purporting to work around innovation should look for some way to regularly […]
How to negotiate your compensation (with a French angle)
As a new year begins, the time is appropriate to prepare for an annual professional assessment. This should involve an introspective self-assessment, to reflect on one’s professional ambitions and career trajectory (a process I strongly endorse, at least one a year). For salaried workers in France at all levels, the yearly assessment usually also involves […]
European entrepreneurs: Beware the Silicon Valley travel trap
There seems be a growing trend in startup communities throughout continental Europe that I find a bit fatiguing. It has to do with the plethora of consultants offering to organize tailored travel packages for young tech companies to global tech hubs, usually Silicon Valley. Consultants are like ants: they usually show up when there’s a […]
What I think about when I think about mobile gaming
When people inquire about my investment strategy, I explain that I try to structure my investment thinking around themes or theses. Readers of this blog will recognize that one of my favorite investment themes over the past few years has centered on the value chain of mobile gaming. Often, I visualize aspects of a theme […]
Reliability is a USP in France
This past weekend, Rude Baguette held its Startup Job Fair, third in the series. By all accounts, the fair proved a rousing success, and I commend the Rude Baguette organizers for their heroics. From what I understand of this event, it in many ways encapsulated the current state of affairs of the French tech ecosystem, […]
RudeVC summer reading list 2014
Reader feedback on past editions has prompted me to produce another summer reading list this year. The criteria for reaching this list are not strict, but the guiding principles for the selected books are: i) to have some connection to startups, technology, VC, or Europe; and ii) to not be too heavy or intensely intellectual. […]
Why French startups should consider Far East Asia
When I first arrived in France from Silicon Valley over ten years ago, I regularly received business plans from French startups that were limiting their sights to the French market. The few that spoke about international expansion would have a line in their financial projections for revenue in year 5 from Belgium or francophone Switzerland. […]
There’s no such thing as a free lunch (unless you’re in France)
Years ago wandering the side streets of Leuven, Belgium I stumbled across some graffiti that read, “Franz Ferdinand Found Alive: WW I A Mistake.” I’m not sure if this mischievous street tag represented the original expression (the phrase was often cited and later even titled a chapter in a book by Ned Lebow who revisits […]
99/1 is the new 80/20
The game industry’s largest convention, the E3 Expo just took place. Reportedly, one of the highlights of the show was a demo of a new game called Adrift on the Oculus Rift platform. Adrift simulates a reality in which the gamer finds himself floating above the Earth alone on a decaying space station seeking out […]
Scalability hack: think concavity instead of convexity
Scalability may well represent one of the most overused words in startup financing discussions. VCs use the word (and I’m guilty of this) as shorthand to refer to a startup’s ability to grow dramatically enough to deliver outsize returns to the investor. I like to simplify it as a joke that there are three kinds […]
How I pitch “La French Tech”
I’m blessed to have the opportunity to travel a fair amount, and the people I encounter often ask me about the state of the French tech ecosystem. Admittedly, sometimes I’m the one who first puts the topic on the table, but I only share my pitch with those who are interested. Furthermore, calling this a […]
Withings launches Pulse 02 & adds Blood-Oxygen tracking
Withings announced the launch of their new latest activity tracker, Pulse O2, an overhauled version of their first activity tracker, which they launched last year. Like the Withings Pulse, the Pulse O2 tracks your sleep, your movement, and your heart rate; however, the new Pulse O2 also tracks your blood-oxygen using oximetry, i.e: estimating the level by shinging […]
Should you take payments in Bitcoin?
Getting paid is always the most important part of keeping a business afloat and, if you are to believe the local companies, getting paid in France can be even more of a challenge given some companies’ lackluster payment practices. So it falls upon us to make payment as simple, and as frictionless as possible. The […]
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RudeVC: There’s a party goin’ on [not] here
. There’s a party goin’ on right here A celebration to last throughout the years So bring your good times, and your laughter too We gonna celebrate your party with you Kool & The Gang probably did not have the stock market in mind when their hit song reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 […]