Grade A Entrepreneurs

By Marylene Delbourg-Delphis The Future of Money and Technology Summit that took place earlier this week was well attended. Lots of participants and speakers. Lots of sessions happening in parallel, about such topics as financial innovations, crowdfunding and lending, and virtual goods and currency or the monetization of intangible capital. A good balance also between […]

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By Marylene Delbourg-Delphis @mddelphis The Mesh, an old word meaning the “opening between the threads of a net” got its technology flavor with the concept of mesh networking generally defined as “a type of networking wherein each node in the network may act as an independent router.” For Lisa Gansky, in her book The Mesh, […]

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By Marylene Delbourg-Delphis @mddelphis Reaching out to customers has been most companies’ motto for over twelve years, except that back then, “reaching out” mostly meant finding ways to bring them to your website with the maximum of bells and whistles through large email marketing campaigns. Great. It works, and works well, but it’s only one […]

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By Marylene Delbourg-Delphis @mddelphis From the science of automata to love stories with androids: Think about Wilhelm Schickard‘s “calculating clock” in 1623 and, almost two hundred years later, of Charles Babbage’s first mechanical computer, the difference engine, and about the many inventions in between: Pascal’s Pascaline (1642), Leibniz’s Stepped Reckoner (1672), the dozens of mechanical […]

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By Marylene Delbourg-Delphis @mddelphis We just celebrated thirty years of lectures in Stanford by French Academician Michel Serres (left with Robert Harrison on his right). The party was organized by Audrey Calefas-Strebelle at the residence of Brigitte et Jean-Louis Gassée in Palo Alto, and included very closed friends of Michel, celebrated philosopher (and also from […]

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One day, Russell Willis Taylor, the President and CEO of National Arts Strategies told me this:  “Many towns look alike. There is a Starbucks at every corner. There is a Walmart in every town. But you know where you are by the art that is being enjoyed and created — that is what gives us […]

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By Marylene Delbourg-Delphis @mddelphis Note: This book will be published in French by Diateino in January 2011. As a reminder, Diateino is also the French publisher of Seth Godin’s and Guy Kawasaki’s most recent books. To read my French version of this preface, please go to the Diateino blog. *** I’m a cartoonist – This […]

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By Marylene Delbourg-Delphis @mddelphis Sometimes when I go to a party or to a conference, I think of Dr. Seuss’s If I Ran the Zoo, and look for the most interesting people around, i.e. those who combine some exotic traits with an outstanding intellect and an extraordinary kindness – an endearing subspecies of “nerds.” Quite […]

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By Marylene Delbourg-Delphis @mddelphis Azure Capital, a San Francisco-based venture capital firm with over $650 million under management, has been remarkably successful since its inception a little over ten years go. One of its no less exceptional achievements is the number of women CEOs they back in the 23 companies in their active portfolio: five, […]

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By Marylene Delbourg-Delphis @mddelphis While Silicon Valley remains a powerful magnet for entrepreneurs, quite a few locations in the US also offer friendly entrepreneurial ecosystems. That’s definitely the case of Ann Arbor in Michigan, an incredibly energetic University town with a real quality of life, a highly educated workforce… and one of the best music organization in […]

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