Sophia : a new club for start-up

Made at the Sophia Antipolis Foundation, it will put together plan carriers, people with venture capital,advertisers and all the actors of the Net economy, on each first Monday of the month.

They were numerous. That proves that the current tendency for the start-up burgeoning was not a purely theoretical view. The call of the Sophia Antipolis Foundation, for the creation of this Club of firms having a quick growth, brought together company managers, managers of start-ups that are already well-launched, as Dominique Pouliquen from Realviz, Christophe Dupont from Respublica, Jean-Claude Vrignaud from Opt(e)way. But also representatives of high-tech firms that are starting. In short, start-ups at all growth levels.Contacts and an address book. In the room, where about 80 people were around the Senator Pierre Laffitte, there were also representatives of firms, that can not be considered as start-ups any more, as Jacques Lignières, the director of Amadeus, and also several advertisers, accompaniment companies, business angels, representatives of the venture capital. All those people who support, reinforce, rouse this great enterprise tendency, that comes from the Sillicon Valley.All those who were sitting around the table gave their opinion. Each one introduced himself or herself, and said what he or she expected from the creation of a club. Expectations that were all the same: contacts, the entry to a network of multiple skills, an address book. The Senator Laffitte tried to sum up the situation. 'We have already the industrial support in Sophia Antipolis. The start-ups meet with financial, legal problems. The plan carriers need supports for the development of their business plan, for the international marketing'.A club could contribute to find solutions to all those problems, thanks to contacts that it could establish. 'I think that we are in the right time to have great ambitions', the representative of the technopole concluded on a prophetic tone. With sponsoring or classical club.So it is okay for the club. The organization remained to be determined. Launching a club quite classical, with subscription (about 600F per year was it anticipated) and a participation to the costs of the meetings ? Accepting the 'sponsors' that would finance the whole operation, as Christophe Dupont proposed, quoting the example from Paris of the First Tuesday and its resounding success of rush ? Or, as Jean-Claude Vrignaud (Opteway) suggested, taking the example of the DBF club, in Palo Alto, in the Silicon Valley (Doing business in France) which is organized by lawyer chambers and which, once per month, brings together as many as one thousand people on the concept of a guest and a buffet, each one paying his or her share (20 dollars) ?The issue has not been settled. But the idea has been launched to meet, on the first Monday of each Month in the premises of the Sophia Antipolis Foundation and so that all the meetings are opened enough in view to all those who are interested in the new economy can participate. An appointment was given on the days after Christmas (and thus exceptionally on the second Monday of the month), on January 10th of 2000, at 6 pm, at the Sophia Antipolis Foundation. Information about this new Sophia First Monday : 04 92 96 78 00.