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07:51 AM Thursday, April 03, 2008
Apr
03
Thu
Ouch.
After Seemage, AS Infor, Polyspace, Kynogon & Pertinence, yet another IDEES company to be acquired. Xcalia was backed by Innovacom, Iris Capital & I-Source. It was also the very first investment from the seed fund Cap Decisif, in 2002.
Xcalia was part of the IDEES program (aka Startup Accelerator) and was one of the very first ISV supporting VS2008 & Linq. We had a very tight technical relationship with the company: They were a wwde launch partner for Linq & VS 2008 last year. A pretty unique partnership.
Announcing the release of Visual Studio 2008, S. “Soma” Somasegar, corporate vice president of the Developer Division at Microsoft, quotes Xcalia :
"Xcalia, a company that provides data and services intermediation software that makes it easier for enterprise businesses to build and maintain service-oriented applications, now provides LINQ support with its main product, Xcalia Intermediation Core. The team that developed Xcalia Intermediation Core also benefited from the performance and stability improvements in Visual Studio 2008 and used LINQ to simplify development. By supporting LINQ, the company offers powerful new tools to existing and potential customers developing applications on the Microsoft .NET Framework."
The Official PR.
BEDFORD, Mass. – March 18 2008 — DataDirect Technologies, a leader in data connectivity and mainframe integration and an operating company of Progress Software Corporation (Nasdaq: PRGS), today outlined its plans to support the rapidly emerging Service Data Objects (SDO) standard within its family of data connectivity and mainframe integration products. The SDO standard, developed by a diverse group of leading technology vendors participating in the OASIS SDO working group is designed to simplify and unify the way applications use data within a Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA).
Concurrently, Progress Software announced its recent acquisition of Xcalia, a leader in the development and adoption of the SDO standard and data integration technologies. Xcalia is now part of the DataDirect Technologies operating company. The terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Xcalia is a member of several international standards committees including JSR 317 (JPA2) and JSR 235 (SDO for Java™) within the Java Community Process (JCP). The company is also an active member of the OASIS and Open SOA consortiums contributing to the Service Data Objects (SDO 1, 2 and 3) and Data Access Service (DAS) specifications. Additionally, Xcalia spearheaded JDO and worked on EJB 3 standards.
Congrats to Eric, Pierre and the whole team.
About Xcalia
Xcalia’s dynamic integration software makes it easier for enterprises to build composite applications in SOAs while reusing valuable information resources, optimizing IT investments and reducing operating costs. Through Intermediation, a layer between the business model and the data/services resources, applications can be created or updated quickly to meet changing business demands. Xcalia is ideal for high-performance transactional applications that also need to reuse legacy and mainframe resources with maximum interoperability in any environment. The company has 20 large enterprises among its customers and has key partnerships with IBM, Microsoft and Sun Microsystems. Headquartered in Paris, France, Xcalia has offices in the U.S. and the company is privately held. For more information, visit www.xcalia.com.
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09:45 AM Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Mar
18
Tue
We are proud to announce that Lokad is now officially listed(in French) as part of the IDEES program. The IDEES program is rewarding the 25 (most) innovative French startups every year.
Lokad is a SaaS solution providing statistical time-series forecasts, e.g. for demand, sales, workload and cash flow prediction. Lokad forecasts allow you to improve your business planning, which translates directly into cost savings and quality improvements. For example, reduce inventory, improve service level and increase capacity utilization with Lokad forecasts.
In a nutshell, Lokad wants to help organizations to optimize their businesses.What a nice value proposition! This is exactly the kind of project that we LOVE at Microsoft. A great use of Software.
The company is privately-help and the team has a Math/Software dev background.
Note that the team is hiring.(they performed a 12/12 on the Joel Test.)
PS: The CTO is a former MSP, and we're always happy to help and support former MSPs & MVPs.
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10:50 AM Monday, February 25, 2008
Feb
25
Mon
The ISV Ecovadis is the first french ISV to join the recently created IDEES program for Eco-Activites (10 ISVs to be recruited this year). This was announced last month by Bill Gates and Bertrand Delanoé, at the Paris City Hall.
 This young company received funding from 20+ business angels (1M€) ,and has already signed significant deals and partnerships. A high-potential, on the hot track of Sustainable Developement.
Ecovadis is a provider of Sustainable Supply Management Software, helping organisations integrate environmental and social criteria’s in the supply chain.
We believe this is a very interesting use of software, and we have great expectations for this company.
http://www.ecovadis.com
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10:49 AM Monday, February 25, 2008
Feb
25
Mon
Criteo has just announced a 7M€ fund raising, with historical investors (AGF & Elaia) and INDEX Ventures.
Believe me or not, but this is good for Criteo, good for Microsoft, good for all the .net evangelists out there, and good for me.
I LOVE when software entrepreneurs like the Criteo guys, who bet on the Microsoft platform since day one, get trust (and Money) from VCs like that. It’s actually a testimonial. Criteo joined the IDEES program back in 2006, right after their first VC round. With Winwise, they developed one of the very first Silverlight application: The Criteo/winwise blogosphere explorer. (feels like you’re visiting the blogosphere in the Falcon Millenium).
By the way, did you notice than successful she-entrepreneurs from the french e-commerce/internet world were almost all choosing the Microsoft platform : Aufeminin.com, 1000mercis, Cashstore,etc..
How do you explain that ?
PS: Congrats to Pascal Mercier, from Aelios, who achieved this fund raising in a very short period of time. VERY short.
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10:46 AM Monday, February 25, 2008
Feb
25
Mon
Last week, we officialised an 8 months partnership with Talend, a french Open Source ISV, editing an ETL called Talend Open Studio. (Backed by AGF Private Equity & Galileo Partners).
Talend is both a competitor and a partner for Microsoft: more than 70% of their users base runs on Windows and we have a competitive offer called SSIS.
We announced that Talend and Microsoft would work on improving TOS’s performances on Microsoft platforms such as Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 & Dynamics. We have hundreds of clients in common, and we want to propose them the best experience.
Talend also announced that they would have a large booth at the next MS TECHDAYS in Paris. They’ll soon become a certified Microsoft ISV Partner, like SugarCRM ou MYSQL did in the past.
This is a premiere since Talend is the very first french company to engage with the Micrososft Open Souce Lab in redmond, the second in Europe after MYSQL, and we, at MS France, are extremely proud about that.
Some journalists were VERY surprised about this partnership and we had to explain many times why we decided to engage with an “Open Source ISV” .
The fact is that we really don’t care about Talend’s business model. They develop and sell software that runs on windows, everywhere in the world, and they’re gaining in popularity. (150 000 downloads so far).
Our interest is to maximize the experience on our platforms,and this partnership is driven by two things: customer satisfaction and Interoperability.
As opposed to most of the french Open Source players, Talend is an ISV, selling software, hiring good developers with the ambition to become a global player. They belong to what I’d call the french Open Source 2.0 community, focused on business and not on religion issues. They don’t sell 150$/day consultants or low-cost trainings on Open Office, but high-value solutions. I don’t see more than 5 french open source ISV in that case in France and this may explain why they are getting traction in the US. Pragmatism.
I guess this is what the french software industry needs now, the french open source software community is polluted by services company or Micro-ISVs, and it really needs credibility.
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10:43 AM Monday, February 25, 2008
Feb
25
Mon
Yet another Startup from our IDEES program to be acquired. Kynogon, an ISV specialized in “serious gaming” applications, backed by Innovacom (Fred Humbert), and Cap Decisif, has been acquired this week by Autodesk. A nice exit for two excellent VCs.
Kynapse has been used to develop more than 65 AAA game titles, including Alone in the Dark 5, Crackdown, Fable 2 and The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar. Kynapse gives characters spatial awareness, enabling them to realistically navigate digital environments.
After the acquisition of AS Infor, Polyspace, Pertinence and Seemage, we must admit it’s really hard to build independant and successfull software companies in France. I guess it’s hard to say NO to an upside opportunity. (And I hope the Priceminister acquisition will go all the way).
It also demonstrates that Microsoft partners perform better than… the others  but you all know it, right ?
PS: in 2005, I’ve wasted many hours playing with their little demo called Bodyguard here http://www.kynogon.com/products/demos/ Don’t try this at the office !
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04:47 AM Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Oct
24
Wed
 Last week, General Electric and Microsoft jointly organized the first edition of the Software Academy in Paris. The Software Academy was a One-Day MBA aimed at ISV entrepreneurs (ISV = independent software vendor; or software publisher, be software be in the cloud, on a client, in a robot, appliance, whatever). During that day, a number of speakers came to lecture an audience of 200 entrepreneurs on Series A fundraising, intellectual property, talent acquisition and management, co-marketing scenarios with Microsoft, hosting, the common mistakes of R&D-intensive startup managers, building a channel, invoice finance - asset based landing - cash flow loans, etc.
One of these sessions was about the PR best practices software startups may, or should, embrace. The lecturer was Colette Ballou, cofounder of Ballou PR, a French - American PR consultancy that focuses on high tech companies, be they software (online or not), telco or biotech. Colette, although she spoke for something like 20 minutes only, gave extremely hands-on, practical advice that every single startup, not necessarily in the business of software, will find interest in. In my day-to-day job, I happen to meet, on average, 2 new startup teams everyday and although I come accross really amazing technical innovation and sales know-how, French (European?) startups suck big time in marketing. Most French startups I meet would find huge value in engaging with Silicon Valley-style PR agencies like Ballou PR. Obviously, PR doesn't replace marketing, but it's definitely an affordable way to start building up marketing capabilities if it's not too late. So I felt I compelled, for the sake of the world economy, to write a wrap up of what Colette Ballou said during the Software Academy. My call is that everybody has something to take away from these 7 little pieces of advice, that you should in my humble opinion read twice everyday until you have applied them all.
- Define clear quantitative objectives, or there's no winning strategy (there's no winning without KPI)
- Take one or two full days off site to come up with key messages for your 2 or 3 flagship products or services, for your mission statement, and for your overall strategy. That is 5 key messages max. Add to each of these 5 key messages one or two examples or proof points. You're done.
- Create a PR corner on your corporate website. Its goal is to simplify access to information on your new venture to journalists. This PR corner should include: a concise description of your business; biographies of key people; information on your flagship products or services; a free of rights media repository with corporate and product logos and management team pictures in both web-friendly and Photoshop (.eps) formats.
- Write 2 Press Releases every month. Even though they won't necessarily all hit CIO News or Financial Times headlines, 2 Press Releases every month remind the world of your existence. Press Releases should be both published on the PR corner of your corporate website and sent to a sample of targeted media. If you're more into blogging than press releases (you can actually do both), then keep in mind that if you start blogging, then you're stuck and should never stop or slow down, or the signal you would send to your readers is that you're not as active as you used to be (which may be wrong, looking from an insider stand point, but from the outside, your blog is your shop window).
- Be visible in the specialized press. Say one of your colleagues is a star in a specific domain, make sure the journalists know this resource is available to help them fill in an article with a third-party testimonial. It is a good way to be visible in articles that aren't dedicated to your company, and hence build a relationship with these media. Same with vertical press: say you sell software for hospitals, then you should make sure you're targeting both IT magazines and Public Health magazines.
- Create an award to reward your best clients. A happy client is a very powerful PR relay, that will be glad to give a positive testimonial to a journalist if necessary.
- Get involved in your professional community. This isn't a CEO- or board- only responsibility. Make sure all the members of your team dedicate some non-for-profit time to business groups. It will be good not only to network, but also to establish your company as a key player in its industry at the regional level.
PS: and just in case you don't know whether you need a PR strategy and partner or not, here are Colette Ballou's 7 bonus reasons you may think of drawing a PR strategy and getting a good PR agency on board.
- Do your competitors get good press coverage for their products or management team?
- Did you ever have to repeat the name of your company because it was the first time the person in front of you was hearing it?
- When you call the press, did anyone ever refuse to talk to you because they had never heard about you?
- Do you need some outside appraisal to convince the market that your service/product actually solves a serious issue?
- Are you in the process of expanding your business to a new vertical segment or geographic region?
- Do you want to increase your valuation?
- Are you in the middle of a crisis that is likely to be relayed by the media?
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03:51 PM Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Oct
17
Wed
 About one week ago, I had the outrageous opportunity to meet Chris Liddell, Chief Financial Officer of Microsoft Corporation. Chris happened to be in Paris for a day so it was absolutely compulsory to do something about it. As a result, Julien brought a bunch of software-friendly French venture capitalists in a room alongside with Chris for an informal chat mainly about Microsoft's corporate development strategy and the venture landscape in France and Europe. Prior to the meeting, Chris said everything that would be said could be blogged. So I'm absolutely delighted to share this very unique moment with you, dear partners, competitors, and mere readers.
Chris started the meeting by congratulating the French rugby team for beating New Zealand at the World Cup - too bad France lost vs. England in between. Chris is indeed originally from New Zealand although he obviously new leaves in Redmond, WA. A civil engineer and graduate in philosophy, Chris is a seasoned corporate financier who has come a long way from banking and manufacturing to software at Microsoft. Chris opened the meeting by saying he aims to take finance at Microsoft to a more strategic level: Finance has always been strong in budgeting and reporting, but Chris wants to push it to the next level, to bring it up to think more strategically. Chris also recalled that Microsoft spends USD 7 billion every year in R&D. The big issue is to spend it wisely. Although none of the VC was a Microsoft shareholder, for compliance reasons, Chris made clear that any investor in Microsoft should accept the fact that MSFT is a long term investment, not a quarter company. Without R&D, there is no growth and no future. Chris even plans on expanding R&D investments to ensure growth. "Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer are the two longest thinkers I've ever known", Chris even said. Which is, looking back at Chris's background, no soft claim.
A number of topics were tackled during the meeting, here they are:
Microsoft has become more acquisitive recently, buying companies priced between USD 6 million to USD 6 billion. Microsoft acquired around 2 companies every month (20 to 25 companies every year). In terms of breakdown, Microsoft acquires a lot of 10 to 15 million dollar technology startups, 2 or 3 companies per year in the 20 million to 1 billion dollar range, and one above in 2007 (USD 6bn, Acquantive). Microsoft's goal is to acquire companies that will give the company extra growth, which is THE key metric Chris seems to be focused on. Asked about a specific industry Microsoft would be keen on proceeding with new acquisitions in a near future, Chris mentioned online services where he feels Microsoft being between #2 and #5 leaves enough room to expand the business footprint. Chris said he couldn't be more explicit. I think that's pretty understandable because valuations in the would-be mentioned business would then skyrocket in a sort of irrational way.
Chris also mentioned entertainment as a hot M&A market, making it clear though that it wouldn't be related to the XBOX, which according to him has a good market position but isn't profitable yet. Why? Although the XBOX has reached critical mass (not in Zune yet), Microsoft has to learn how to lower manufacturing costs, which isn't exactly its core business. Chris went on talking about Microsoft's culture that advocates to build the company. However, Microsoft growing bigger and bigger (between 12% and 17% yearly in the last 5 years) finds it harder and harder to go it alone. M&A is a sort of substitution. In terms of capital structure, Chris remembers finding USD 60 billion at bank when he joined the company. Chris gave a lot of money back to the shareholders and now there's about USD 30 billion at bank. So Microsoft has what it takes to acquire a large number of companies with no impact on cash. Chris added that Microsoft isn't involved with any fund, and isn't planning on building its in-house investment arm. Microsoft isn't willing to invest in companies and thinks it is much better to leave investments to professional investors.
Chris then asked Eric Harlé and Nicolas Landrin from iSource, a VC-sponsored by INRIA, CDC and AXA that had sold mobile advertising company ScreenTonic to Microsoft, about how the whole process went. Eric and Nicolas answered saying it had been a very smooth process since the founders of ScreenTonic had from scratch structured their company so that it could be easily integrated into a larger structure. Julien Codorniou, French EBT lead, who had detected a potential deal initially, was then asked how it was all initiated. Basically, ScreenTonic came to Microsoft to partner, but Microsoft realized ScreenTonic would perfectly fit a gap in Microsoft's technology road map. So it was decided to check with Microsoft Corporate Development whether it would be possible to proceed with an acquisition. The answer was 'yes' but the entire process between the first meeting to the press release took nine months.
Chris then explained that this the kind of decentralized process he wanted Microsoft to lean towards. What happens usually is very Product Group-centric and doesn't involve subsidiaries. In order to define the acquisition strategy, Corp. Dev. goes once a quarter from product group to product group, product groups which are asked to identify areas and potential target companies. Chriss Liddell added he was working hard with Dan'l Lewin to bring the VC community in the loop to talk about M&A. A few VCs then added that they appreciated receiving 5-to-10-slides Acquisition Strategy Briefings that say "we're looking for this" by email from the competition - a practice Microsoft hasn't adopted and is apparently not planning on doing so. Dan'l and Chris's goal is to ensure there is a systematic dialog between the Emerging Business Team, Corporate Development, and venture capitalists from all over the world. Asked by Chris about things they wanted Microsoft to do, the venture capitalists said they would love to have one day one-to-few event every year with a Strategy Exec. from Microsoft. All of them then appraised the value proposition of the IDEAS program (the French Startup Accelerator program) and the reactivity of Julien Codorniou when it comes to opening doors and making things happen at Microsoft France. VCs indeed hope Microsoft will make it easier for French startups to get connected with Microsoft Corp. Product Groups, something pretty complex to achieve as of today.
Jean-Stéphane Bonneton from Iris Capital then inquired about the acquired companies integration methodology deployed by Microsoft. Chris answered by saying that Microsoft buys companies to expand, not consolidate. Microsoft has changed a lot in this area indeed. Although it used to be Redmond-centric and make people shift to the Seattle area, Microsoft now leaves at least half of the teams in place. In the case of ScreenTonic, Eric Harlé added, it made sense to leave everyone but two developers in place since although the technology can be applied globally, mobile advertising is a very local business. Chris and iSource perfectly agreed on the benefits of a distributed model, which seems to work. Chris emphasized Microsoft's interest in buying more companies internationally.
Chris being curious about the French software entrepreneurship landscape, Philippe Collombel from Partech International explained how the the situation of the venture business had improved thanks to the emergence of a wave of serial entrepreneurs in France. France begins to have serial entrepreneurs, and all venture capitalists believe this is a blessing to their returns. As a perfect example, Collombel explicitely mentioned Stéphane Bohbot, who successfully founded and sold DigiPlug, and now heads listed company Modelabs. Since Stéphane Bohbot is in his thirties, there are probably 5 more companies to come from Stéphane and Philippe made clear he would want to be in when that time comes.
Michel Dahan, from Banexi Ventures, then added that the French career model has changed a lot: entrepreneurs are a lot more valued than a decade ago. In France, as well as in Germany it seems although entrepreneurship is still a bit undervalued there, top engineers and students from the best business schools are still excessively large company focused, but it is no shame anymore to work for a high tech startup. "Many bright graduates spend two to three years in large corporations before joining or founding a startup - that didn't happen a decade ago", Dominique Agrech, partner at XAnge, the VC arm of La Poste, added.
What France lacks, it seems, isn't a pool of talented entrepreneurs and promising startups. France is a seller market, not a buyer market, because large French corporations have no M&A strategy. According to all venture capitalists in the room, very few large French companies - but Dassault Systèmes, many added - have a clear acquisition strategy. Alcatel-Lucent, Thalès, France Telecom - Orange or ILOG are said to be contaminated by 'NIH syndrom' and don't go and fetch innovation outside the box; on top of that, they seem not to be able to structure an M&A process or be able to come up with a market price - the VCs say. So, what the VCs do is pretend their portfolio companies are to go public in order to generate interest from American corporations (80% of buyers are from the US). There are few IPOs in France mainly because IPO requirements aren't unified yet at the European scale. As far as deal intermediation is concerned, French VCs are happy with small tech M&A boutiques and expensive corporate lawyers, and claim there are very decent fundraisers. Unfortunately, software deals are too small for large banks, which are not good in this space on top of not being interested by the size of such deals. VCs all said this was a pity since large banks would have a larger road show surface and deeper execution history. Asked by Chris about the competition they faced from US funds at exit times, the venture capitalists answered it could happen but on pre-IPO series (D or E) only.
Although it's been a fabulous moment between oversmart venture capitalists and easy going but razor-sharp Chris, I was a bit hungry at the end of the meeting. I basically had to bite my tongue during the entire meeting to prevent my own self from asking a thousand questions, starting with:
- The venture capitalists answering a question from Chris on France's software specialties; they rightly highlighted 3D, appliances and mobility. But hey, what about datamining? eCommerce infrastructure? video? augmented reality? encryption? rule engines? retail management software? video games? neural networks and, broadly speaking, artificial intelligence? robotics? I could name at least 5 rock star companies in all these domains, on top of 3D, appliances and mobility.
- The Google stock outperforming Microsoft in terms of value creation, therefore helping Google acquire companies for stock rather than cash.
- Whether a company with intellectual property is worth more than a company with no patents and trademarks
- How Microsoft comes up with a valuation when engaging a company in the M&A pipe.
- What's the impact of piracy on Microsoft's revenues and stock?
- Microsoft's expensive capital structure (no long term debt so the weighted average of capital roughly equals the cost of capital, which is higher than the cost of debt).
- Chris said Microsoft doesn't invest in companies. But what about the Facebook rumor then?
- Many VCs here don't believe in enterprise software anymore. I would have loved to hear Chris stating that Microsoft's B-to-B business drives current growth for both the corporation and its partner ecosystem.
- Microsoft doesn't distribute stock options anymore but plain vanilla stock - a stock that has been flat around USD 30 for a few years now. So, with startups becoming more and more attractive (quite understandably), what's the company policy when it comes to attracting and retaining the best talents?
Well, Chris, if you ever come accross these lines...Many thanks again for your time and these very interesting insights on Microsoft's expansion strategy.
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05:38 AM Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Oct
16
Tue
Tomorrow, we’ll launch the first edition of the software academy. Let’s say it’s a one day MBA for French Software Entrepreneurs.
We have asked some of the best experts from the french Software Ecosystem to come and speak about Software marketing, fund raising, R&D management, IP management, Communication, building ecosystems, HR…
The agenda is here, we still have some seats left.
The good news is that Brainsonic will webcast all of this special day in the next few days. GE Factofrance has proposed to sponsor this first edition, I heard they will announce the launching of a new offering for Young software companies. Thank you GE.
We have more than 150 attendees so far, all of them are software entrepreneurs, and I believe it’s gonna be a GREAT DAY for all participants.
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11:26 AM Wednesday, October 03, 2007
Oct
03
Wed
Yesterday, Dassault systemes announced the acquisition of Seemage, a young French ISV, incepted in 2002 by Eric Piccuezzu (on the left), in Sophia. The company operates in the PLM/3D interactive product documentation space. Eric, a talented software developer, wanted his product to become the “PDF of the CAD industry”. That’s a vision.
In order to focus on the product & R&D, he had the extreme intelligence to hire two top guns from the PLM space Bruno Delahaye (in the middle), and Chris Williams (on the right), Chris was appointed as CEO, Bruno as VP Sales WWDE. WWDE is important because Seemage generates most of their revenues out of France. It’s a pure global ISV.
I had the chance to collaborate with them during the last 18 months, we developed a strong technical and marketing partnership through the IDEES program (The picture above was taken during an EMEA innovation Event, where Seemage presented to the European press & Billg, the new release of their product on Vista & Office 07. They did great things with OOXML.
During the last months, the company was on the VERY FAST TRACK, signing customers all around the world, raising money (Techfund, Sophia EuroLab, Primaveris), signing key partnerships… If one company deserved its success, it’s Seemage. They are HARDCORE professionals.
I do really consider that Microsoft ’s mission is to help guys like Eric, Bruno and Chris (the ones who build innovative stuff on our platform) to concretize their vision. I might be wrong, but i believe that’s what happened with Seemage. And they brought a lot of value to our customers.
Obviously, Eric’s vision was shared by Bernard Charles and his development team at DS since they decided to acquire the company, after a long bidding war with another PLM global player. I heard Mr. Charles was personally involved in the deal, and is now a strong fan of the Seemage Product.
The good news is that Eric and his team will be on a full throttle mode, with a strong capacity to invest and sell around the world. I guess Eric (who always claimed the French Assedic was its most important VC) must be very proud, and excited by the future. The Seemage story is a pure software/entrepreneurship success-story, by the books.
Dassault Systemes demonstrates, once again, its ability to identify and acquire strategic technologies, IP and team. It’s definitely a model for the rest of the industry.
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04:58 PM Thursday, September 13, 2007
Sep
13
Thu
 Large corporations have been investing hundreds of millions of dollars in data warehouses that size up to hundreds of terabytes. However, very few companies really exploit such massive sets of data to ease their decision making process.
Roger Haddad, founder and Chairman of the board of KXEN, and his team of software development and statistics high flyers, had spotted an opportunity in helping companies handle terabytes of data at a rather low cost. Founded in 1998, the company recently launched the 4th major release of its flagship software component: KXEN Analytic framework (available on Windows, Linux, Solaris, HP-UX, AIX; and in six languages including French, English, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Russian). KXEN has truly turned the tables in the datamining industry: whereas the traditional datamining approach cost an average of US$ 30K per model and between 4 and 6 weeks to calculate, KXEN computes a model in 3 hours for an average of $ 500 – and, although powerful and complex, their engine is very light (something like 3 megabytes only, written in C++). The out-of-the-box approach embraced by KXEN urged the Gartner Group to award KXEN a “Cool Vendor in analytics, business intelligence and corporate performance management”. In 2007, KXEN should generate US$ 10m+ in revenues and its cash flows will be positive.
By the way, KXEN is a truly global software company: headquartered in San Francisco, the bulk of its R&D engineers are located in Paris. Operations run from the US, the UK and France. On top of this, KXEN benefits from channel partners spread all over the world. It goes without saying that KXEN is backed by crème-de-la-crème venture capitalists: Sofinnova (bi-HQed in Paris and SF), XAnge (the VC arm of La Poste), Innovacom (the VC arm of France Telecom / Orange) and Motorola Ventures.
Microsoft has contributed a lot, with the release of SQL Server 2005 business intelligence modules Analyses and Reporting Services, in the democratization ("BI for all") of datamining predictive modeling and data analysis. Microsoft's [database + spreadsheet] -led approach (versus, although value-creating, more 'expensive' approaches of market leaders Oracle, Business Objects, SAS and Cognos) has been in a way disruptive. Yet, KXEN goes the extra mile and offers a simple, economical, seamless-to-deploy piece of software that doesn’t impact information systems architectures at its clients. Microsoft, KXEN and a number of other datamining challengers including French SaaS startup Lokad, which solution was devised for the SME market, have embraced a common cause: bring datamining to the mainstream.
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09:30 AM Monday, September 10, 2007
Sep
10
Mon
 My day-to-day work involves enhancing the most promising software startups innovating on the Microsoft stack to realize their potential. Our most precious resource to ensure we achieve this vision is the interaction with the people and infrastructure from the largest Microsoft Technology Center (MTC) in Europe, located in the center of Paris. The Paris MTC, a true business enabler for Microsoft ISVs and clients, definitely stands out as the most precious resource for software publishers of the IDEAS French startup enhancement program.
WHO? Actually, when we choose to
support the growth of a high profile software publisher and invest IDEAS
(click for a short description published on Tech IT Easy, a collaborative high tech blog I founded and regularly contribute to) resources in it, the very first thing we do with them is bring together
engineers from the actual startup and our most experienced software
architects at the MTC. The Paris MTC is led by chief software architect Frédéric Aatz and comprises - amongst
others, Frédéric Queudret, a former consultant @ MCS and a software development expert, and Bertrand Audras, also known internally as the "King of SQL Server and database architectures". Lately, we have also built a very fruitful partnership between IDEAS startups and MS Regional
Director and Gold Certified Partner Winwise, a VC-backed (AXA Private Equity, Crédit Lyonnais, ODDO) IT service company
specialized on the .NET environment that directly meets with IDEAS ISVs at the MTC. HOW? Here are two amongst many sorts of projects the MTC can handle with ISVs: - Architecture Design Sessions: an ADS is a consultative session with a dedicated Microsoft lead to help walk through your business problems and develop an
initial architecture and project plan that meets your business needs. Indeed, a brilliant
software architecture lays the groundwork for future success, providing there's
an adequate marketing strategy and execution know-how - obviously.
- Proofs of Concept: a POC at an MTC basically takes your newly planned architecture for a
road-test. A POC is aimed at proving out scalability, reliability, and key functionalities; ultimately, the goal is to have the ISV leave MTC facilities with a working solution in hand after their software solution has spent two to three weeks in our datacenter.
No
wonder 100% of IDEAS program software startups report software
architecture reviews and proofs of concept as the one most valuable thing they've done with
Microsoft ever: as a young company, having access such resources is just priceless. Therefore, it is no surprise that venture capitalists are keen on investing in software publishers innovating on the Microsoft stack (a prerequisite to joining the IDEAS program): potential access to the Microsoft Technology Center, that will help the ISV optimize and validate its software architecture, can in some ways be a deal maker in itself.
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