A big thanks to the organizing team

Gaetan Gachet, Director IT Industry

Karim Bentahar, Trade Advisor

Farid El Baraka, Trade Advisor

Alicia Kenworthy, Trade Advisor

Sarah Miller, Trade Advisor

Julien Molesin, Junior Trade Advisor

For information about next French Tech Tour, feel free to contact

gaetan.gachet@ubifrance.fr – +1 415 568 4573

 Be it through augmented reality eyeglasses, innovative back-typing solutions, 3D mice, or new coding languages, we hope the companies you met gave you an appetizing glimpse into the innovation coming from Europe.  Based on their success, it shouldn’t be long until we’ll all see them again. To put things in perspective, here are a few figures from the week:

-          800 applications downloaded

-          40 candidates

-          15 partners selected the finalists

-          7 day program

-          20+ hours of coaching

-          150 meetings in 3 ½ days with 60+ large IT companies

-          2 networking events specially dedicated to FTT companies with more than 500 people attending

Yet for all you witnessed “on stage” or in meeting rooms, there was a whirlwind of activity taking place behind the scenes. As we gather footage from the week and begin to reflect and plan for next year, we’ll be posting many of the highlights here.

                Stay tuned.

                A très bientôt,

Come and meet with the 15 most promising French High Tech companies as selected by more than 50 world leaders in Technology: Adobe, Apple, AT&T, Cisco, eBay, Fujitsu, Google, Intel, Microsoft, Nokia, Qualcomm, Sony, Sprint, Symantec, Verizon, Oracle, HP, RIM, Samsung, LG, McAfee, Electronic Arts, Panasonic, SAP, Autodesk, Stanford, IBM, SanDisk, Verisign etc

The night will start with pitches of the companies which will be followed by a discussion with a guest panel of entrepreneurs and VCs who will discuss about 

” Panel – Breaking into Silicon Valley

Mastering Savoir Faires and Avoiding Faux Pas”

We will finally have the honor to introduce our guest speaker

Jean Baptiste Rudelle

 CEO at Criteo

French Tech Tour 2007 Alumni

“Coming from Europe, how to make your move successul” 

You will also enjoy the unique and friendly environment of Quadrus Conference Center (Menlo Park) where we will host a cocktail/dinner.

Event information:

Wednesday June 9th, 2010 6pm – 9:30pm

6pm-6:15pm Refreshment will be served

6:15pm-7:30pm: Companies Pitches – Panel – Keynote Speaker

7:30pm: Cocktail reception

Quadrus Conference Center – Menlo Park 

Directions to Quadrus: http://www.quadrusconference.com/directions.html

The happy few who will come to the Silicon Valley from June 4th to 11th are :

• ActivNetworks
• AlphaUI
• Arkamys
• Avob
• DelfMEMS
• EcoVadis
• LASTER Technologies
• Lexip
• LYaTiss
• MLstate
• Mobilegov
• Mobile Distillery
• Prim’Vision
• Relaxnews
• UbicMedia

We also want to congratulate and thank the 24 other candidates who unfortunately won’t be able to make the trip.

Stay tuned for news about events that will be organized during the French Tech Tour, THE week that Silicon Valley turns French!

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

The applications have been sent to our American Partners for their review.

A quick reminder of how it will work: the 15 companies having secured the most meetings will be given the opportunity to come to San Francisco for an intensive week of training, networking, meetings, and pure immersion in the Silicon Valley ecosystem.

The selected companies will be announced on April 15th. Until then, keep in touch. We’ll continue publishing articles and videos on this blog, to help you prepare for this year’s edition.

Good luck and see you in June!

     As the application process winds down, and in preparation for your trip in June, we thought we’d begin to explore Silicon Valley for you, by conducting video interviews with some of its key actors. Last weekend, we sat down at Epicenter Café in San Francisco with British entrepreneur, technologist and consultant Ben Metcalfe. Described by Robert Scoble as “one of the best devs in the world,” Ben has extensive experience advising companies on product development, open platform strategy, and developer relations. Most recently, he’s been working on building his own start-up: Plato’s Forms.

     We invite you to listen and learn from the excerpts below (you’ll also find a rough transcript of the most important points), as Ben talks a little about his own experience, and advises European companies on the Do’s and Don’ts of doing business in the Valley. To learn more about Ben, you may visit benmetcalfe.com/blog.

How did you get started?

I moved to America with the view of doing startups and founding a startup, but […] for the last 3 years I’ve been a consultant, I’ve worked with a number of companies, I’ve worked with MySpace on their developer platforms, I also spent time working with Loic Le Meur on Seesmic, and I’ve also worked with Orange Telecom…

American vs. Foreign companies?

To me, Americans are foreigners! I’ve enjoyed the ability to work with American institutions like MySpace and some other start-ups I’m an advisor to, but also to work with companies where I understand their European perspective, such as with Seesmic.

Top 3 mistakes made by foreign entrepreneurs?

You need to be very clear whether you’re looking to move your company here and be based here, or whether you’re looking to have an office and a presence, or whether you want a biz dev person here, or to move your organization here…

As somebody who’s been through this, you also need to be clear on what your visa situation is. Get a lawyer, get one that’s based here… and pay a reasonable amount. Don’t pay top dollar, but don’t go stingy either.

Don’t underestimate the importance of building up a network before you move here.

How do you establish a network?

Assuming you’re a founder/cofounder, and assuming you’re coming into the internet/start-up environment and you’re looking to go international, than coming to Silicon Valley at least once or twice a year is very, very important. Base a trip around events, but also look for companies you might want to work with, or if you’re using APIs, meet the companies you’re working on top of. Get to know people, the spirit here is once you get to know people, you very quickly get sucked into knowing more people as they introduce you to your contacts. To get here without doing that first is just setting you back in terms of time. Even if you’re early stage, just get to know people.

Say I secure a meeting with a company, what should I keep in mind?

First, one thing is that people are a lot more open here and talk a lot more about their ideas, whereas in Europe we’re more secretive.

By being open, people will say “hey, I know what you should look into!” In Europe, we’re often very secretive and suspicious that people are going to rip off our ideas [...] so many people are doing stuff out here, that nobody is going to rip off your idea.

Another thing important is the level of optimism. Unless your idea is totally crazy, and in fact, even if it is, people won’t rip it apart, they’re very positive and optimistic.

How do I pitch my company?

I think it’s important to have a number of different pitches very carefully honed and refined… A very one is the “hey”, you’re in a coffee shop and you want to quickly show someone what you’re doing. Getting out your smart phone and having a 2 min. video that within 30 seconds shows what you’re doing is a really clever thing, and a lot of start-ups out here do that. […] It takes time to build, but it’s really powerful for casual situations.

Of course, if you get the opportunity to talk in public, at SF New Tech for example, clearly explain your value proposition and the problems that you’re solving. Don’t talk about the technology, even if the tech is cool, frankly, out here, when we’re looking at technology, we’re thinking about solving a problem. Unless you’re in a developer environment people don’t really care.

Just a friendly reminder that the deadline for submitting applications to the French Tech Tour is Monday, March 1st.

To help you write the most compelling Executive Summary possible, we’ve put together a video that goes over the key points. By following these guidelines, you will maximize your chances of securing meetings with our American partners.

We would also invite you to read this article by Garage Technology Ventures: Writing a Compelling Executive Summary. The advice they give pertains to Executive Summaries addressed to potential investors, but the main ideas are still valuable. Simply replace “idea” and “investors” by “product” and “clients.”

As always, feel free to contact us with any further questions you may have.

Good luck!

Karim

En direct depuis les locaux de Parisoma à San Francisco, nous évoquerons également les éléments attendus dans vos dossiers de candidature (notamment Executive Summary et Meeting Request).

Cette visioconférence sera retransmise sur le site justin.tv (le lien exact sera communiqué prochainement ici) et à La Cantine (151 rue Montmartre, Passage des Panoramas, 12 Galerie Montmartre, 75002 Paris).

Pour rappel, seules 15 sociétés françaises seront retenues par les partenaires pour faire le voyage dans la Silicon Valley en juin prochain. Les candidatures sont attendues avant le 1er mars !

Merci à notre partenaire Silicon Sentier pour sa contribution à la tenue de cette réunion.