A year later… personal mutation !

One year after.

Just one year ago, I was getting ready to cross the Atlantic and North America with my three daughters and pregnant wife (expecting princess number 4) in order to get my entrepreneurial fibre accelerated in Silicon Valley.

To be precise, I should say I had grafted myself onto my wife’s project by joining her and her two partners in a start-up which was going to re-invent “sweat-equity” to blockchain and legal innovation backing music…

The project was working rather well in France : clients were becoming more and more numerous, the curious were getting « curiouser and curiouser » and the media less and less reticent…

It is even true to say that all of France’s specialist rags and TV programmes had welcomed us in their columns and on their sets… to such an extent that one of our applications to American incubators had received a more than favorable reaction : « The Refiners » had asked us to join fleet #3 of their special program for « foreign founders » in Silicon Valley.

So, a year ago, we lightheartedly left to conquer the world, beginning on the square ‘California’, the compulsory step for the world’s entrepreneurial elite if they want to receive millions from the biggest funds on the planet…

Exactly 7 weeks later, we threw in the towel.

The term ‘incubator’ in English translates as ‘accelerator’ in French. ‘Acceleration’ is appropriate here as far as we are concerned, because we gained two years.

An acceleration in clarity of perception. A jump in time. A high-speed opportunity.

After seven weeks contact with our mentors, speakers, and partners of The Refiners, it became clear that the project was not viable for the Valley, or for anywhere else in the world for that matter.

And let us say here that the work done with us by the incubator, the excellent advice of Géraldine Lemeur, Pierre Gaubil and Carlos Diaz, was and still is extremely precious and enabled us to widen our vision and be clearer about our job and above all, encouraged our desire to remain entrepreneurs, as we always had been before the American adventure.

Let us go further : it was very enriching to engage with that ecosystem and understand its mechanisms and subtleties.

And so it was with this new armour, camouflaged in the robes of defeat, that we came back to Paris in January 2018… and now there were six of us, as in the meantime Kim was born in San Francisco, becoming Silicon Valley’s first incubated / accelerated French-American baby !

First came “story-telling” time.

The story of conflicting cultures. The story of the adventure itself. The story of the roller-coaster ride in the country of Uncle Sam. The story of the failure.

Then, along the way, it was the positive side, the enriching experience, which finally came out on top after all the conversations. Surprisingly, it was the people we told the story to who noticed this first. They pushed us into seeing the glass half full when we thought of the time we had saved and the way we had been deeply changed. The experience had opened our eyes and made us more resistant.

This change in the view we took concerning our own story found its way into our telling of it….

Very soon, the word failure disappeared, to be replaced by entrepreneurial adventure. There were no more regrets but rather extra energy, greater knowledge, new methods at our disposal …. opportunities !

« I was blind, and now I can see »

Without going so far as to evoke a Joycean ‘epiphany’ sometimes a light is thrown on what you do which gives you a new strength for your projects, even if they are different from the previous ones….

So very naturally certain contacts were made.

Very classical and informal : « you should see whatshisname, he’s launching a startup and he’s a bit lost »… « oh, thingummy has raised some cash, but he’s really too busy, he needs some help, to be able to see things more clearly »…. « hey, so-and-so has launched an incubator inside his company, and frankly, they have the money, but no ideas and no method, could you give them a hand ? »

And as early as February, it was the successes, the learning experience, the methods that the contacts and prospects, then the clients, came looking for at our door. This pushed us rapidly towards consultancy…

…………..

« Consultancy : how awful ! »

That’s what I would have said just a few months ago !

Indeed, I have always had a very poor opinion of any type of consultant. As far back as I can remember.

When I finished my business school, I remember thinking « I’ll NEVER set foot in one of the big five and I will never go into sales »…. a few weeks later I started working in the sales department of Accor Service (Edenred, editor’s note).

As the saying goes, Never say ‘Never’ !

But consultancy ? No. Never.

I had always considered the consultant as a kind of ignorant joker expressing himself in « Frenglishized globish » so as to mask gross incompetence and keep up his clients’ impression that he is crucial to the smooth running of the company.

Really !

I had put those guys in the same sack as the cranks in communication ! Same language, same cause : hoodwinking the client by impersonating a kind of cheap supermarket version of Noam Chomsky.

In short : that would never be MY spot, my place, my job…

Until February 2018.

I’m not saying we are going to turn the consultancy world upside-down, but we are on the way to dusting it off a bit : and making it understandable, simple, useful and affordable !

A new adventure, new horizons, new partnerships ! Still innovating, still « entrepreneurs ».

I’ll keep you informed ! Stay tuned, people ! And have a nice autumn 2018 ! »

Nash :: Light Me Up — Innovation Studio :: 2018.09.10