Visit of Google

Google and the Googleplex were our last visit into the Silicon Valley. Two women from the Human Resources welcomed us: Vicky Wang and Michelle Nguyen who are in charge of the MBA program.

They organized a meeting with six speakers: The creator of Google Earth, a project manager, two other people from the Human Resources. The first “Googler” explained the innovation and entrepreneurship process within Google (to launch new applications and even new products). It was very interesting to see how easily an idea can grow up in such an environment where creativity is enhanced.

At Google, every single employee has 20% of his time devoted to work on an innovative project that is out of his scope of competences. As a result, every single one kind of works for the R&D department.

We also talked about competitors; the speakers answered explaining that Google pay a very close attention to the customers’ reaction. They permanently adapt their offer, following the expectations of the market and advice from their clients.

They also gave us an explanation about their HR process and policy.

Then, they gave us a tour of the place. Every one has been impressed by the open spaces and how easily every one has access to everyone. Everything is done to encourage interaction between people, and to enhance the pleasure of working. From food to massage and Jacuzzi, everything is free! The food court is just an impressive melting pot of chefs!

Google sounds like employees’ paradise!

Meeting with John Bautista

John Bautista met us at the office of Orrick in the Silicon Valley.

We remind you that Orrick is the 5^th largest US law firm in France. Orrick is specialized in M&A. The company works with around 600 companies, almost with start-up beginning at Day 1. They help them to raise capital and develop.

 

For example, they have been working with companies such as :

-         Facebook,

-         Second Life,

-         The re financing of Eurotunnel,

-         Microsoft

-         Cisco.

 

First, he made some comments about entrepreneurship in France. He said that there is a big problem with labor regulation that doesn’t encourage entrepreneurship at all. In the Silicon Valley, merit is based on economy when in France it is based on seniority.

But, some advantages of Franceare not well promoted, for example, this is easier to build a company in Francethan it is in the UK.

His conclusion about entrepreneurship in Francewas these trends were pointing in the right direction and that is the reason why the fact that some investors from the Silicon Valley invest abroad nowadays was not the case 2 years ago.

 

Then he explained why in the Silicon Valley, entrepreneurs’ first move is to go to see their lawyer when in France people go to see founders. This is because in California, the lawyer is used to meet entrepreneurs; as a result, the lawyer knows the community, he will help him to find right people to help him raising money and to help him to start his business. Legal issue are low, the point is networking.

That is why first meetings with a law firm are free and then, if they think you have potential, they will not ask for money but for a participation of the company. Those low fees are made to help company’s success.

In those law firms, they do everything to keep low costs. For example, they have a “ready to go form” to create companies so they don’t have to do X times the same job.

 

Before answering to Q&A, John gave us his advices for entrepreneurs:

-         The objective should be to start a company with as less money as possible;

-         The entrepreneur should be very careful on how to select your team;

-         You have to be sure you know your competitive environment;

-         It’s very important to partner up with an experienced entrepreneur, that shows how well you can generate attention;

-         Do not be shy, go right to see the person you need to talk to;

-         Listen to your customers

 

 

During the Q&A part, we talked about different point:

 

Cleantech, it is a very wide industry. Companies in this field have the most of chances to be found if they have opportunity to become big. Trading energy is an area that has lot of possibilities.

Meeting with Nova Spivack from Twine

Nous
avons été très bien reçus dans cette startup basée non pas dans le sud de la baie mais à San Francisco même. Twine a bien d'autres points dedifférenciation par rapport aux autres start-up web que l'on peut
trouver à l'heure actuelle dans la baie.

Tout d'abord son CEO, Nova Spivack n'est pas un jeune aux dents longues tout fraichement sorti de Stanford, mais un pionnier du web, qui en 1994 fonda la première agence web au monde: EarthWeb. Son introduction en
bourse en 1998 fut la première IPO dans l'histoire d'Internet pour une entreprise B-to-B. Lors de la première cotation elle fut aussi la 6ème plus grosse croissance de l'histoire du NASDAQ (+247%). Ce bouddhiste
trentenaire est définitivement un CEO atypique dans la Silicon Valley. Ingénieur spécialisé dans l'intelligence artificielle, diplômé de philosophie, chercheur autour des technologies du web sémantique, diplômé de l'International Space University, école appartenant a la NASA, il a déjà voyagé dans l'espace. Depuis Nova Spivack est redescendu
sur terre pour créer Twine et blogger à ses heures perdues.

Le CEO est un élément très important dans le succès d'une startup mais son équipe et son business aussi. Mais alors qu'est ce que fait Twine de si génial? Et bien c'est très simple, Twine centralise des informations, les lie entre elles, les catégorise, trouve des concepts communs, bref enrichie l'information, la rend plus intelligente. Sans
rentrer dans toutes les fonctionnalités que Nova nous a présenté, ce qu'on peut dire de ce produit c'est que ses possibilités d'évolution sont très très ouvertes. Une information plus intelligente signifie aussi des
publicitées plus ciblées et on le voit aujourd'hui avec Google, le contrôle de la pub sur internet est un métier qui paye très bien. Nous avons eu le droit à une démo en live de Twine avec la création du
premier Twine en langue française, le logiciel a très bien répondu même si le "module FR" n'a pas encore été activé et ne devrait l'être que dans 1 an.

En plus de la démo live de Twine, Nova Spivack nous a aussi offert une visite des locaux de Radar Networks. Ils comportent tous les éléments indispensables à toute start-up de la Silicon Valley qui se respecte :bonbons dans la salle de réunion, tableaux Velleda remplis de toutes sortes de pensées d'employés, salle de jeux garnie et Wii et autres Playstations, et bien sur employés souriants et motivés, apparemment enthousiasmés de travailler sur un projet si attrayant. Il faut dire que le charisme de Nova Spivack n'y est pas étranger : le temps de notre visite, il a su nous communiquer sa passion et sa vision, et même les moins informaticiens des étudiants ont su apprécier et comprendre les enjeux qui se cachent derrière ce que le futur du Web nous réserve.