Mark Bivens

RudeVC: ハッピーエイプリルフール

このブログはこれから日本語で書いて行きます。数少ない特定な読者様は「この決定は何の意味があるかい」って指摘するはずだけど、理由があります。それは、フランスのハイテク会社がこれから日本にインスピレーションを得るべきだと思います。 我々はすでに日本文化から貰ったものを考えてください: フランスのスタートアップ企業は、よく「忍者」の採用募集をしてます。「製品担当忍者」、「プログラミング忍者」、「マーケティング忍者」、「業務拡張忍者」など。 フランスの起業家は「二郎は鮨の夢を見る」を見ます。そして、突然自分の会社も二郎風に完璧を目指すようになります。 ミシュラン星付きレストランの数について、私たちは日本に負けない自信を持ってます。 フランスのデザイナーが「わび・さび」の紹介記事を読み、突然その概念を自身の全デザインに取り入れました。 フミ・ベップさん、ツール・ド・フランスの歴史上最速かつ素晴らしい競技者の1人ですが、日本からフランスに引っ越して来られました。(これは冗談ではありません。ようこそ別府さん!) 最後に、フランスの起業家は皆ラーメンが大好き!! 今日(2014年4月1日)からまだこのブログを読みたいなら、どうぞ日本語を習ってください。

RudeVC: There’s a party goin’ on [not] here

RudeVC: There’s a party goin’ on [not] here

. There’s a party goin’ on right here A celebration to last throughout the years So bring your good times, and your laughter too We gonna celebrate your party with you Kool & The Gang probably did not have the stock market in mind when their hit song reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 […]

RudeVC: Can eBay’s failure in China teach us something in Europe ?

RudeVC: Can eBay’s failure in China teach us something in Europe ?

Most of us in the West have never shopped on Tmall or Jingdong. Yet these two firms represent the leaders of the imminently largest e-commerce market in the world: China. Although JD.com (formerly 360Buy) is a distant second to Alibaba’s Tmall platform, the firm still served a cool $16 billion worth of goods to 140 […]

RudeVC: Five films filled with lessons for entrepreneurship

Apparently the Academy Awards took place last week. This annual distraction represents one of the primary conversation topics at watercoolers in American workplaces for a week each year (French workplaces treat the Oscars with a bit less ceremony; then again, fewer conversation topics are taboo around the office Nespresso machine). Even though I haven’t viewed […]

RudeVC: How to create a monopoly for your app in 2014

. Pop quiz: what do Klyqme, WhatsApp, WeChat, and Line have in common? Answer: they all enjoy quasi-monopolies in certain markets for their apps. Klyqme is the pre-eminent sms-based social network in Indonesia (which is rapidly threatening to displace India among the elite group of BRICs in my opinion, but that’s fodder for another blog […]

RudeVC: MWC2014 – Embracing the fringe

Two years ago I penned a piece in this very space entitled Europe still has a winner in Barça, in the form of the Mobile World Congress, and I believed it. The center of gravity has clearly been shifting away from the mobile operators and toward the handset vendors and content creators. In correlation with […]

RudeVC: Musings on ethics in VC

Lunar new year has taken place and the Year of the Horse is now underway. I had never really thought about the varied interpretations of the horse as a symbol across different geographies until now. For my French colleagues, the horse is a manifestation of elegance, nobility, and masculine energy. I understand that in China, […]

RudeVC: Time to party like it’s… ?

A conversation with a particularly insightful investment banker (yes, such a breed does exist) inspired me to do a little research over the weekend. His observation was that 2013 reminded him a lot about 1998 in the tech sector. In 1998 I was an entrepreneur so consumed with my second startup that I rarely came […]

RudeVC: Don’t judge every regulation by its cover

Last month the French parliament voted in favor of a new law regulating the discounts allowed by book merchants. Sponsored by French Minister of Culture, Aurélie Filippetti, the “anti-Amazon law” is aptly nick-named as it set its sights directly on the $150 billion e-commerce giant by prohibiting its practice of combining a 5% price discount […]

2014 looks like a good year for tech to Get Lucky

Some of you may have reached the point of saturation on predictions for 2014, and I can empathize. Even here in this very space two weeks ago, I shared some forecasts of thought leaders I respect within Europe’s tech ecosystem. But I’m going to give you some more, for three reasons: i) I had promised […]