Grade A Entrepreneurs

(also: Zeitgeist, great atypical people, books and misc.)

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Marylene Delbourg-Delphis

Twitter: @mddelphis

 

Strategist: Technologies and People in the 4th Industrial Revolution

Silicon Valley executive and serial entrepreneur with over 25 years of experience. As Guy Kawasaki puts it: “Marylene gave me my start as an entrepreneur when we co-founded ACIUS in 1987. She also encouraged me to write my first book, The Macintosh Way. She is insightful and strategic at the highest levels. I highly recommend her as a member of your management team, mentor, advisor, or psychiatrist. Much of my success is attributable to how she has helped me throughout my career.”

Topics of interest: Data science, Machine learning, VR, IoT, People management, Organizational transformation, 4th Industrial Revolution, IT Infrastructure and cloud.

More… A graduate from l’Ecole Normale Supérieure in France (philosophy, history of sciences and formal logic), I started my entrepreneurial career in France, as the founder of ACI (now 4th Dimension) and launched the first bestselling relational database (4th Dimension) on Macintosh in 1986. I was one of the first European women to start a company in the Silicon Valley and co-founded ACIUS with Guy Kawasaki in 1987. I then became the CEO of Exemplary Software (a spin off from HPLabs), a lean supply chain management system acquired by Persistent Systems, of Brixlogic, a platform for the native implementation of XML Schemas acquired by Diebold, and co-founded TalentCircles of which I was the CEO for four years.

I have assisted a large number of young companies as a shadow CEO, board member, investor, advisor, M&A facilitator and I also coach women entrepreneurs.

I have translated books by Guy Kawasaki, Seth Godin and Hugh McLeod into French for French entrepreneurs, as well as written prefaces for these books and others, such as the Age of Context by Robert Scoble and Shel Israel. I am a prolific writer and I also have my own blog Grade A Entrepreneurs. Earlier in my career, I have authored several books on the history of fashion and fragrance.

I write technology strategy white papers for software and Internet companies. To help French-speaking entrepreneurs, I have translated and prefaced several books for a French publisher, Diateino, including:

Guy Kawasaki:

– Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions into French: L’art de l’enchantement: Influer sur les sentiments, les esprits et les actes

– Reality Check: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging, and Outmarketing Your Competition: La Réalité de l’Entrepreneuriat.

– The Art of the Start: The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything into French: L’Art de se lancer

Seth Godin:

– Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us; Tribus – Nous avons besoin de VOUS pour nous mener.

– French preface for Linchpin: Etes-vous indispensable?

Hugh MacLeod: Ignore Everybody; Ignorez-le tous

Additional information:

– I am involved in various music organizations and a member of the University Musical Society – UMS National Council – Ann Arbor, MI

– I also wrote several books on the history of fashion and fragrances and their cultural context in the 20th century. Published articles in Le Monde, Vogue and various trade publications. Books in French include:

  • Le Chic et le Look
  • Le Sillage des Elégantes
  • Jean-Paul Gaultier, La Mode pour la Vie
  • Masculin Singulier, Le Dandysme et son histoire
  • Humeur de Mode (with Patrick Mauriès)
  • Draft A. Première esquisse de l’essai philosophique concernant l’ entendement humain (Traduction, Introduction et Notes)

I live in Menlo Park and Pebble Beach, Ca. My daughter, Sophie Delphis, 27, is an opera singer. Various autobiographical details in my posts and business summary on LinkedIn.

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