Altaide Valley

Mobile GeekTrip Tour: #2 Romain David

Romain David
Originally uploaded by Mathieu Ramage

Romain works for Lumos Labs, a SF company based developing Lumosity, a fast, fun and effective way to take care of your brain.
The concept of Lumos Labs are pretty simple:

• Scientific brain training games
• Improve memory and attention
• Feedback and tracking
• Full workout in only 10 minutes

Lumos Labs has raised $3Mio in 2008.
Romain joined the Company to head mobile development, which is something he really knows. I met Romain last Summer during TechCrunch August Party, and we met then several times.
I knew he had significant experience on mobile through his position at Orange for more than 5 years. Not only, we had the opportunity to talk about iPhone applications because now Lumos Labs run 2 games on AppStore:
- Memory Matrix
- Speed Brain
I tell you, those games are really addicted: I played with Memory Matrix (which is free of charge, Speed Brain is less than $1), very simple, can't stop!
The potential is big, and Memory Matrix has reached some top positions in Spain, France or Speed Brain in the US. Health industry is a large business...
We can compare those applications to successful games available on Nintendo DS... but so cheaper, and online! The AppStore is definitely a digital revolution in how to consume gaming as other examples...

The funny thing is that those 2 games have been developped... by a company based in France.
Copy that?!

Experience from people like Romain (not really expatriates, he's a very local guy!) are very helpful for French entrepreneurs thinking to localize in Silicon Valley. And understand how things are moving here!

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• Test Your Brain with Memory Matrix (appscout.com)
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I want to help you launch your company!

Success Happens Here
Originally uploaded by leefly

Well, I just received this email from Jason Calacanis reminding me that TechCrunch50 is on its way...

"I want you to launch your new company at TechCrunch50 this September
in San Francisco.
Not only that, I want you to win the competition and take down the
$50,000 grand prize!"

Wouaou! I want that!

French startups, listen, this is your chance! My first client in Silicon Valley have been selected last year after we visited Jason in Santa Monica. You won't have any regret if you can make it, this is such a great experience and a great exposure...

But... ARE YOU READY?!
I mean, are you really ready? And not: do you consider yourself ready!
Your website, the product, the pitch, the Exec Summary...
No, you're not exclusive in this market. Yes, you have dozens of competitors somewhere in Silicon Valley.
Yes, you have talent, a great idea, you believe in your team. No, nobody's waiting for you here in San Francisco Bay, in US market.

I told that already several times, I strongly believe in European entrepreneurship, in French "savoir-faire". I've build my business on this vision, to facilitate localization in Silicon Valley. But after more than a year spent here, going in many conferences, discussing with experts, listening to some local gurus, there's some work to be done to make first shot... the beginning of a succesful story here. My hope, my objective!

So applying to TechCrunch50 is one thing. Get some advice and meet some guys here could be helpful...
Let me know! We'll go through some helpful steps!
Oh yeah... please no "me-tos" or "twitter-no-money" like. Something solid, with monetization, you see?!

To subscribe to Jason Calacanis newsletter: click here. You don't know Jason Calacanis? Come on...

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• Announcing TechCrunch50 2009 (techcrunch.com)

Finovate Startup 2009: where Financial Technology Innovators Gather!

FinTech startups have their own show! I really agree to the fact that innovating financial technology startups have more than their own challenge: being successful, monetize... Usual stuffs...

I think there's potential for some revolution when you see such not controlled economic disasters like "Subprime earthquake" in the US, "Crazy Trader Affair" at Societe Generale in France, and I can remind Madoff scandal  or other Parmalat use case in Italy.

There will be some 32 demos with all those presenters, like Lending Club with a promising "social lending network where credit-worthy borrowers and individual investors come together to provide value beyond what traditional banks can offer" I already know, or discover Wesabe which develops a money management tool through collective intelligence...

Giving more control et regulations on financial transactions? Encourage alternative systems, to give more options and control to people on the ground? 

Well let's see some innovations, and have a look on this amazing initiative coming from Europe, Twollars.com ... which is not a new opportunity to talk again about something around Twitter (oh no!), but to me a good example to think about a new currency model. Behind the line of this smart project, there are some tracks for next revolution maybe?!

Silicon Valley Venture Capitalist Confidence Index

Mark Cannice from University of San Francisco has built a "quarterly Silicon Valley Venture Capitalist Confidence Index is based on an on-going survey of San Francisco Bay Area/Silicon Valley ventures capitalists. The Index measures and reports the opinion of professional venture capitalists in their estimation of the high-growth venture entrepreneurial environment in the San Francisco Bay".

Copyright Mark V. Cannice, Ph.D. 

Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship 
Executive Director/Founder, USF Entrepreneurship Program 
University of San Francisco 

Questions about this study or related issues should be addressed to the author at Cannice@usfca.edu. 

This kind of tools is just to be considered as a trend, but not as main criteria to make decision on starting to look for investors. Of course.

Investors are key on entrepreneurship, there's no significant development for a startup without any package. But they're really specialized in some sectors, and as entrepreneur raising fund, you have to find the right one, or the right partner to make your time not wasted and start a good story.

And there's not a specific moment to do that. Crisis or not, it's always the right moment to go through it. You're the only one to know.

One specific comment from Igor Sill of Geneva Venture Partners on this report I found interesting...

“As bad as things seem today, I anticipate a recovery back to the norm in 2010, for both 

venture investing and the IPO market.   I expect a very difficult 2009, but recognize that a down market cycle is the best time to invest in promising startups when valuations are reasonable and market testing of solutions tend to provide a true ‘litmus test’.  We know that there is no recession on innovation, and great companies and ideas have always emerged from troubled times.” 

And this one from Bruce MacNaughton of Crosslink Capital  : 

“The combination of the poor economy combined with little innovation at big companies leads 

many bright entrepreneurs to follow their passions, and the best companies get built by following 

passion.” 

Got it guys?!

Finally, this from Bryant Tong of Nth Power who stated, “The Clean Tech sector continues to be one of the few bright spots in venture capital for early stage investors.  With billions of government money targeted in this area, R&D will be robust and new and promising technologies will be the result.”.

I have few things to tell regarding this. Soon.

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Mobile GeekTrip Tour: #1 Skout.com

Skout is a perfect startup to begin a tour dedicated on mobile in Silicon Valley. Why? Founded in 2007 by Kristian Wiklund, initially called Wichro, dedicated to develop a social network application on mobile (product so called Zkout), the company turned to become now Skout and is now running its core business as a location-based dating application... Business model issue has certainly been one of the reason, and there are a few mobile social network having some trouble at the moment in Silicon Valley. This company has already learned to react and adapt its strategy to be more potentially successful in raising fund to develop the company as it should be.

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• Thanks To Skout, You Can Now Flirt Online Even When You Go Outside (Exclusive Video) (techcrunch.com)
• Skout Out: Real Time Dating Across Screens in Bars and Club (ubergizmo.com)
• DEMO: Will singles use Skout Out's kiosk for mobile dating? (venturebeat.com)
• Location Based Services just went to the A List (tattletech.net)
• Skout App Hearts Heartache (appscout.com)

Now the company declares more than 100K users over the world and something like Mios of chat every months. Skout has launched a free iPhone application and also presented its new kiosk for dating at Demo, Palm Springs last month, which is a very big thing to achieve! Still innovating, still on the move... that's a pure Silicon Valley company I tell you!