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 Stan Christensen

Stan Christensen is the managing director of Arbour Advisors.

« Getting to yes » is the main book on negotiation that Stan recommends.

The students of the master “Innover et entreprendre” from ESCP have been received in his office. Stan gave us a lecture about negotiation.

Here are the key points of the talk:

 

How to direct a successful negotiation?

1/ Use objective criteria, outside standards that are objective and fair

2/ Forget about negotiation tactics (doesn’t work for long term relationships)

3/Never bluff unless you know how to deal with the consequence of the bluff

4/ Treat the other party fairly, people will always remember your behavior towards them

5/ Be fair, that will give you a good reputation, lead to a good relationship with the other party, which is the best for long term relationships and your personal brand

6/ Always know what is the alternative, brainstorm the options together with the over party

7/ In order to meet both sides interests, understand what are the other party’s interests (since they may care about different things that you do)

 

Stan’s best advices for successful managers are:

1/ Be aware of your weaknesses

2/ Do not be afraid to hire better people than you

3/ Be super open (transparency about salaries for example could be a good thing)

4/ Never lie about anything

5/ Always get things done. Identifying the problem is not enough; people have to come up with solutions to solve the problems.

 

This talk was the first talk the student of the master “Innover et Entreprendre” (MSIE) from ESCP received during their study trip in the Silicon Valley. They have all been impressed by the energy Stan was generating when he was giving his lecture.

Google

Google, Inc. [gugœl] est une société fondée le 27 septembre 1998 dans la Silicon Valley en Californie par Larry Page et Sergey Brin, auteurs du moteur de recherche Google. Google s'est donné comme mission « d'organiser l'information à l'échelle mondiale et de la rendre universellement accessible et utile ». Google forme un vaste conglomérat d'entreprises interreliées, comprenant entres autres YouTube, Gmail et Google Maps.

Début 2007, Google valait quelque 160 milliards de dollars à la bourse de Wall Street. Google possèderait le parc de serveurs le plus important du monde avec environ 450 000 machines réparties sur plus de 25 sites de par le monde^[1].

Depuis 2001, Eric Schmidt en est le PDG (CEO). La société compte environ 16 000 employés dont la plupart travaillent au siège mondial : le Googleplex à Mountain View.

Sur la période s'étalant de juin 2000 à novembre 2004, le moteur de recherche Google aurait indexé plus de 8 milliards de pages Web, 1 milliard d'images.

 

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG and LSE: GGEA) is an American public corporation, specializing in Internet search and online advertising. The company is based in Mountain View, California, and has 15,916 full-time employees (as of September 30, 2007).^[3] It is the largest American company (by market capitalization) that is not part of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.^{[citation needed]}

Google was co-founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin while they were students at Stanford University and the company was first incorporated as a privately held company on September 7, 1998. Google's initial public offering took place on August 19, 2004, raising US$1.67 billion, making it worth US$23 billion. Through a series of new product developments, acquisitions and partnerships, the company has expanded its initial search and advertising business into other areas, including web-based email, online mapping, office productivity, and video sharing, among others.

In 2006, "google" came in second on Merriam-Webster's Words of the Year^[4].

 

Source: www.wikipedia.org

Nous vous recommandons de jeter un coup d'oeil à l'article de wikipedia sur Google qui est assez complet: http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google 

 

Cynthia Wagner Weick

Professor, Management and Neven C. Hulsey Chair in Business Excellence

1990, Professor of Management Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania, 1986; M.S., Ohio State University, 1980; B.S., Ohio State University, 1979.

Expertise: Management of Technology; Strategic Planning; Product Innovation; International Market Entry Strategies; Commercial Development of Biotechnology.

Cynthia Wagner Weick's expertise is in strategic planning for technology-based business and products, and in international as well as domestic market analysis and development. She currently teaches courses in Strategic Management and Policy, Management of Technology, Product Innovation and Global Business. Her research focuses on international strategies in commercial biotechnology. She also serves as Director of Pacific's Invention Evaluation Service.

Dr. Wagner Weick has professional experience and academic training in both business administration and biology. Her work has required travel to Asia, Europe, the Middle East, South America, and the former USSR. She received her Ph.D. in Business Administration in 1986 from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and her B.S. and M.S. from the Ohio State University. Prior to joining the faculty of the University of the Pacific, she was in strategic planning and new business development at Pioneer Hi-Bred International. She has also been a technology consultant to the United Nations Development Program, and a Research Scientist at Battelle Columbus Laboratories, where she evaluated new technologies for industrial and government clients.

Source: http://web.pacific.edu 

Red Herring

Red Herring, Inc., founded in 1993, is a media company whose mission is to cover innovation, technology, financing and entrepreneurial activity. Its staff of award-winning journalists tell readers what's first, what matters and most importantly, why.

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Red Herring is dedicated to thorough research, relevant metrics deep financial analysis, in-depth reporting, crisp writing and thoughtful debate. We are a skeptical, intelligent and trustworthy source of information in technology business. Our primary obligation is to provide the most relevant, honest and independent information and analysis to our audience, with the conviction that an exceptional editorial product is the best catalyst for success and the best way to serve our advertisers and investors. Our content is original, compelling and actionable for industry executives and entrepreneurs.

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Source:www.redherring.com