Sep 23, 2022Entrepreneurs Jargon made simple (or how you can fool yourself 😊) 2« Our Market is huge” means “Our potential Market is really Big but our accessible market still needs to be defined” Huge market. It’s something I hear a lot from entrepreneurs, and I must confess that in my previous life as an entrepreneur, I also used to say it. But now, my first answer will be so what? I’m not interested as an investor in absolute and very big numbers in…Jargon2 min readJargon2 min read
Sep 22, 2022Mathieu Translates Entrepreneurs Jargon (or how you can fool yourself 😊) 1. « Our Projections Are Conservative” means 92% of the cases “Our projections are so optimistic we will not reach them”“Our Projections are conservative” is the phrase I hear from probably 90% of the entrepreneurs that I meet. That’s kind of interesting because there is a strong deviation between how many companies make it big, how many unicorns we see, how many companies can invoice more than 100 or 200…Jargon2 min readJargon2 min read
Mar 1, 2022Mathieu Translates Investor jargon — “I like your project, but it does not fit with my investment…Mathieu Translates Investor jargon — “I like your project, but it does not fit with my investment strategy.” “I like your project, but it does not fit with my investment strategy” means… I don’t like your project, and I don’t want to invest in it. - The only issue is…Entrepreneur2 min readEntrepreneur2 min read
Apr 8, 2021Venture Capital vs Bootstrapping: Mathieu Carenzo On How To Determine If Fundraising Or BootstrappingThank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path? It took me time to find my place in the entrepreneurial…9 min read9 min read
Feb 25, 2021What Mistakes Are Killing Your Start-up? #8: Obstinacy, Mathieu CarenzoRecently I had the chance to moderate a panel of entrepreneurs in the Sports Industry Conference we organize every year in IESE in the framework of the Tennis Barcelona Open. I know the 2 founders (Luca Carlucci founded www.bidaway.com ; Francis Casado founded www.3ddigitalvenue.com) for years now and I really…Entrepreneurship3 min readEntrepreneurship3 min read
Nov 4, 2020What Mistakes Are Killing Your Start-up? #7: Fights Between Foundersfounder conflict is very common. Founders, being ambitious people, are almost bound to disagree.Entrepreneurship3 min readEntrepreneurship3 min read
Oct 20, 2020What Mistakes Are Killing Your Startup? #5 and #6: Launching too Early… or too LateIf there is one trend that did change the shape of the entrepreneurial ecosystem these last few years it has been the lean start-up movement. …3 min read3 min read
Oct 2, 2020What Mistakes Are Killing Your Startup? #4 Confusing an Accessible Market with a Potential OneWhen meeting with entrepreneurs and evaluating the market size for the opportunity they are pursuing, I often see the same mistake: a confusion of the accessible market with the potential market. How many times have I come across this lie (as well as others….): “our market will give us $50,000…2 min read2 min read
Sep 21, 2020What Mistakes Are Killing Your Startup? #3 Marginal NicheWhat is a niche product? It is a good or service with features that appeal to a particular market subgroup. A typical niche product can be easily distinguished from other products, and it will also be produced and sold for specialized uses within its corresponding niche market. It sounds great…so…3 min read3 min read
Sep 14, 2020What Mistakes Are Killing Your Startup? #2 Wrong LocationStarting a company in Abdijan (a yearly destination of mine) is a far cry from doing so in Barcelona (my home city) or San Francisco. It sounds obvious…and it is! I’ve identified four major reasons for this: Talent Talent is unevenly distributed geographically. There are clusters of entrepreneurship and innovation that are more attractive than others. Educational institutions and average salaries are strong incentives to attract talent.Startup3 min readStartup3 min read
