Inside venture capital -part 4 - entrepreneurs dna - formula for success

INSIDE VENTURE CAPITALFebruary 2016

Christophe Raynaud – Managing Partner & Cofounder

WHO AM I TO SPEAK ?

HEC graduate (last millenium)

Entrepreneur…- Chateauonline

- Netboussole

- Samaris

…Turned VC (dark side of the force)- Saeed Amidi (Amidzad partner / plug&play tech center)

- Paris Business Angels

- ISAI

CONTACT : r a y n a u d @ i s a i . Fr / @chraynaud

WHAT WILL I BE TALKING ABOUT ?

What is Venture Capital History ?

What is an investment thesis ? What’s ISAI’s ?

How do VC/ISAI source/screen opportunities ?

What makes a great founder ? What’s the formula for

success ?

WHY ?

I HAVE FAILED A LOT : AND FAILURE SUCKS (TAKE MY WORD)

I HAD THE CHANCE TO WORK WITH 130 FRENCH SUCCESSFUL

ENTREPRENEURS (SEE THE LIST)

I HAD THE CHANCE TO WITNESS SOME OF OUR PORTFOLIO

STARTUPS GROW FROM NOTHING TO HUGE GLOBAL SUCCESS

(BLABLACAR, EVANEOS, STICKYADS…)

> I’VE LEARNED A LOT AND I FEEL LIKE SHARING THIS EXPERIENCE SO OTHERS WON’T FAIL AS BAD AS I DID

http://www.isai.fr/fr/a-propos/investisseurs-entrepreneurs/

GREATFOUNDERS

Venture capitalists spend a lot of time talking about markets and

technology…. and we have lots of opinions. …but the decision should be

around people…. about 90% of the decision is people.

VC MARC ANDREESSEN @pmarca | Founder of NETSCAPE and A16Z

VENTURE CAPITAL IS A PEOPLE BUSINESS

WHAT KIND OF PEOPLE ARE WE

TALKING ABOUT ?

LET’S SEARCH THE WEB…

BEST PREDICTOR OF SUCCESS FOR ENTREPRENEURS ?






LOADS OF DIFFERENT THESIS …

HARD TO FIND JUST ONE THING

REALLY…

SO, WHAT’S THE FORMULA FOR

SUCCESS ?(IF ANY…)

LET’S ASK THE PROs…

We are looking for a magic combination of Courage and Genius “


And Courage is “not giving up in the face of

adversity” “


SUCCESS =

COURAGE x GENIUS

WHY IS THIS FORMULA RIGHT?

(OR MAY BE NOT THAT WRONG)(OR INTERESTING)

(OR NICE)

LET’S USE A MODELFIND A SIMPLE IMAGE

TO REPRESENT A COMPLEX REALITY

SUCCESS IS A BIT LIKE HAPPINESS

AND WHAT’S BEEN SAID ABOUT HAPPINESS…

…HAS BEEN SAID ABOUT SUCCESS :

WITH OUR METAPHOR,

PUT IT SIMPLY

IF SUCCESS IS A JOURNEY

THE LONGER THE JOURNEY,

THE BIGGER THE SUCCESS

AND JUST AS, FOR A JOURNEY,

D = S x TDISTANCE SPEED TIME

FOR SUCCESS

S = G x CSUCCESS GENIUS COURAGE

FOR SUCCESS


HOW WELL YOU TRY X HOW LONG YOU TRYSUCCESS =

FOR SUCCESS


TALENT X PASSIONSUCCESS =

FOR SUCCESS


CREATIVITY X GRITSUCCESS =

SO, JUST AS DISTANCE =

SPEED x TIME

SUCCESS =

COURAGE x GENIUS

THAT’S WHAT MARC SAID…

2 THINGS VERYIMPORTANT

TO KEEP IN MIND ABOUT THIS FORMULA

1- GENIUS (SPEED) IS NOT FIXED

YOU CAN LEARNYOU CAN DEVELOP GENIUS

(SPEED/ACCELERATION)

2- COURAGE (TIME) IS NOT FIXED

YOU CAN PERSISTYOU CAN GAIN COURAGE

(TIME/DILATION)

LET’S DIG FURTHER THIS LAST VARIABLE

WHAT IS TIME DILATION ?

IT’S THE FACT THAT GRAVITY

STRECHES TIME

DID YOU KNOW THAT GRAVITY MAKES

CLOCK RUN SLOWLY ?

One hour on this planet is 7 years

on earth

FILM « INTERSTELLAR »

WELL LOVE DOES TO COURAGE WHAT

GRAVITY DOES TO TIME(IT MAKES IT BIGGER)

Funny to note that Courage comes fromFrench word “coeur”

(= HEART)

LINK BETWEEN LOVE/COURAGE<->WORK/SUCCESS

HAS BEENMENTIONNED BY THE GREATEST

SO, IF YOU LOVE WHAT YOU DO AND DO WHAT YOU LOVE

YOU’LL BE HEARTFULLAND YOU’LL FIND

COURAGE

WITH COURAGE YOU WON’T GIVE UP

EVER, NEVER

YOU LOVE => YOU PERSIST

YOU PERSIST => YOU SUCCEED

TO WRAP UP :

- SUCCESS = GENIUS x COURAGEYOU CAN DEVELOP GENIUS BY LEARNING, AND YOU LEARN BY PRACTISINGYOU CAN GAIN COURAGE BY DOING WHAT YOU LOVE AND LOVING WHAT YOU DO

- NOTHING IS FIXED AND YOU CAN CHANGE IT

>> NOW, GO CHANGE THE WORLD AND MAKE IT A BETTER PLACE

Download more slides on @chraynaud

https://twitter.com/chraynaud?lang=fr

Inside venture capital -part 4 - entrepreneurs dna - formula for success

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