All posts in Failure
RudeVC: Know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em
During a panel at a tech conference several years back, a seasoned and respected French early-stage VC that I will not name boasted about how he (of course it’s a ‘he’) had never had a portfolio company go bankrupt. Needless to say, this remark was an eyebrow-raiser for me about France’s venture capital sector. My […]
Calling it Quits: Post-Mortem of a Seedcamp company
When I first met Stan, co-founder of tl;dr.io, he pitched me the ‘summary layer’ that he wanted to build on top of the internet, and, frankly, I just didn’t buy it. As a content company, I knew how tough it is to maintain that level of content, a certain level of quality, and get the […]
Ben & Fakto founder Kevin Straszburger talks Startup Failure
Who are you and where are you right now? I’m Kevin Straszburger, I just founded Ben & Fakto, with two friends last year. We started the company just after finishing French business school EDHEC in June 2011. Right now I’m living in Singapore. Prior to working in Singapore, you were the co-founder and CEO of […]
The problem with Smartdate
For anyone who has been following the story concerning French dating startup Smartdate, there is clearly a lot of intentional ambiguity. For the moment, the investors in the company have either refrained from commenting or simply stated that there was a mutual disagreement that has left the company's future a bit up in the air (potentially with some of the investors leaving the board).