The past, present and future of French Internet entrepreneurship!
With apologies the French Internet Entrepreneurs I have not met yet.
As part of my whirlwind tour of the world, I spent a few days in Paris last week. On Thursday evening I threw a dinner party with most of the French Internet entrepreneurs I knew at Noura, a good Lebanese restaurant.
The discussion was intense and fun with tons of ideas, laughter and dreams flying around. There was palpable energy in the air as we remembered the bubble days and shared our dreams about the future.
On the picture you can see from left to right: Fabrice Boutain, Mark Oiknine (standing), me, Aymeric Chotard, Patrick Robin (standing), Bertrand Pulles, Julien Babin, Antoine Mermet et Michel de Guilhermier. Gael Duval took the picture.
Only Marc Simoncini (Meetic) and Yseulys Costes (MilleMercis) could not make it.
It’s interesting to see how all the “old” Internet entrepreneurs have essentially stuck to their guns and are all still on the Internet:
- After selling Imaginet, Patrick Robin is just starting 24h00.fr a luxury item discount store where items go on sale for only 24 hours
- After selling PageFrance, Fabrice Boutain is running Anxa.com a premium self-help service company
- After selling the online ad agency Alpaga, Gael Duval recently created a new online ad agency Un77.com
As for the others, Michel de Guilhermier runs Photoways, the Snapfish equivalent of Europe. Aymeric Chotard has been with 2xmoinscher.com for over 6 years and recently sold it to Les 3 Suisses. Julien Babin and Antoine Mermet recently left Meetic and Google respectively to create Keyade.com, a search engine marketing company.
Bertrand Pulles was a bit the exception as he has been working for France Telecom since selling his company to them in the bubble days.
As for Marc Oiknine, he’s a former entrepreneur and now venture capitalist with Atlas Ventures.
All in all, I was humbled by the energy, talent and vision that everyone around the table had. As Michel puts it: “Without a doubt the numerous talents here tonight will create Web 3.0 once the Web 2.0 bubble bursts! We live in a blessed period: the market is here, money as well, there are countless opportunities, go for it!”
For a different take (in French) on the dinner, see Michel’s blog: http://micheldeguilhermier.typepad.com/mdegblog/2006/09/diner_dentrepre.html
I should have mentionned that there is one ineluctable conclusion from the picture: the Internet needs more women!
Thanks Fabrice for throwing this dinner ! It was fun and we are going to change the internet world again
together 🙂
Looking forward to the next one in NYC, Paris or HK.
A comparer avec cette autre photo de famille du Web 2.0 français : http://altaide.typepad.com/jacques_froissant_altade/2006/04/web_20_franais_.html
My associate is a woman ! and we work in internet !
C U !
Hi Fabrice, I love your blog, I’ve been popping over ever since I heard your podcast on venturevoice.com Being involved in a start-up myself it’s great to just soak up a bit of entrepreneurial energy from other people sometimes.
I’d love to hear about any online resources you (or your readers) may be aware of, that offer supportive networks for start-ups. (especially in the UK)
Z’ETES PAS TOUS MORTS ? VERY FUNNY PIC BY THE WAY… LOOKING AROUND I ENDED ON THAT BLOG AND THIS IS GREAT FUN FOR ME, IT REMINDS ME THE GREAT DAYS BUT ALSO THAT WE ARE STILL IN THE FUTURE. A L’ATTAQUE.
[…] had the pleasure of organizing a redux of my last entrepreneur dinner in Paris in September 2006. I am happy to report that French entrepreneurship is alive and […]