European Founders at Work
European Founders at Work is a very interesting book. It is the perfect complement to Founders at Work, particularly for the European dimension. One comment though, I noticed 8 UK projects out of a...
View ArticleStart-Up of the Month: Kandou and the Investors
Here is my new “Start-Up of the Month” chronicle, published by EPFL. 22.04.12 – Which investors trusted their money with Kandou? This startup, active in the high-tech domain, knows how to find...
View ArticleEdouard Bugnion at EPFL: back to Switzerland!
If you do not know Edouard Bugnion, you can read the article I had published in 2010, a Swiss in Silicon Valley. Edouard was at EPFL last week and gave a great technical talk about VMWare and...
View ArticleStart-ups hiding six feet under
Here’s my 4th contribution to EPFL‘s “start-up of the month” 03.06.12 – The fear of failure probably explains the absence of a “European Google”. Whereas, on the other side of the Atlantic, start-ups...
View ArticleThe State of Innovation
After my summer break, I received mails from friends and colleagues, all related somewhat to new (in fact old) trends in innovation. Thanks to Jean-Jacques, Andrea, Will and Martin . The four articles...
View ArticleA Quiz to New 2012 EPFL Students
Each year, I have a small tradition of giving a start-up-related quiz to new EPFL students. Here it was: I was in Helsinki last week and there, the chairman of Nokia gave a talk. “The world is in...
View ArticleNew rankings of the best technology clusters: the USA still leads.
There are so many articles, studies about technology clusters or ecosystems that I am not sure exactly why I write this. The only explanation is that I have read a couple of simultaneous studies, all...
View ArticleFailure is a learning experience
This is my third article in the journal Entreprise Romande (and thank you to them for editing my work and for the opportunity given to talk about topics that are dear to me.) Every entrepreneur knows...
View ArticleSafe choices aren’t always good choices
I am reading I’M Feeling Lucky – Falling On My Feet in Silicon Valley by Douglas Edwards. I thought it might be just another book about Google. It is not. The lessons are amazing. And I will come back...
View ArticleThe Swiss innovation model: is it the best?
Very interesting presentation by the newspaper Le Temps and Xavier Comtesse about innovation in Switzerland (compared to the USA). (Thanks to Pascal for giving me the link ). The article is entitled...
View ArticleVenture Capital in Europe and in the USA
A very short note on an excellent presentation by Jean-David Chamboredon, partner with ISAI fund, entitled Funding Innovation in Europe. I particularly liked two slides that show the success rate of...
View ArticleAnnaLee Saxenian, Migration, Silicon Valley, and Entrepreneurship.
Shame on me! How is it possible I mention so little AnnaLee Saxenian in this blog, as well as the importance of migrants in entrepreneurship? I had shortly mentioned Regional Advantage in Silicon...
View ArticleIn Innovation Quest, Regions Seek Critical Mass
Very good article by the MIT technology review about technology clusters: In Innovation Quest, Regions Seek Critical Mass. Nothing really new, but it shows again and again how difficult it is to build...
View ArticleThe Capital Sins of Silicon Valley
People who are close to me are sometimes (often?) tired of my enthusiasm for Silicon Valley. It is well known that the creative energy in innovation is quite unique and the resulting value creation...
View ArticleStanford will invest in companies founded by students
“The prestigious American university Stanford will now invest in start-ups.” Thus begins an article in the newspaper Le Monde. The author, Jerome Marin, is rather negative about this decision, as the...
View ArticleThe Startup Kids – a film that any wannabe founder should watch!
Movies may become a better way to communicate about start-ups & entrepreneurship than books or blogs. It’s something Neil Rimer had told me when I published my book. It is true there has been a...
View ArticleThe Dream of Silicon Valley
This is my translation (well Google translation) of a very good article I read in newspapers La Tribune de Genève (pdf here) and 24 heures (pdf here). I am not sure I have the rights to do such a...
View ArticleThe Immigrant, Factor of Creation
Here was my last column in 2013 for Entreprise Romande, with a subject that is dear to me, the importance of migrants. The paths of innovation and entrepreneurship are paved with a myriad of dilemmas....
View ArticleEurope, wake up!
This is a short text I wrote in 2012, and my friend Will from Finland had made comments about it which I added. Thanks! I read it again this morning and thought it might be worth publishing it now…...
View ArticleSomething rotten in the Silicon Valley kingdom?
I have already recently discussed the difficulty Silicon Valley has in talking about or dealing with politics, for example in The promise of technology. Disappointing? and even more in Silicon Valley...
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