FI Newsletter #5: FFLOK Together!

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FFLOK together! So there you have it… a new name. I knew that dinner with Mr. Bagwell would prove useful. The logo will hopefully be revealed next week assuming Kanishka from Sri Lanka gets back from vacation and logs back into the fiverr platform.  In addition to that discussion, I also spent two days at an Alexander Osterwalder Business Model Canvas workshop in London last week (brilliant and very applicable to what we’re trying to do at FFLOK); I had an enjoyable dinner with Ben Zola who is an expert on making things go viral (in a good way); and we also had an excellent session at the Founders Institute (FI) on all things legal on the Tuesday evening. My old friend Laurent Dalard, who is kindly lending me a couch to sleep on after each FI session, was somewhat amused when I told him that the spring in my step on the Wednesday morning was due to the fascinating presentation we’d had the night before about incorporating companies, intellectual property and employment law... Mind blowing stuff In doing this week’s assignments I have learned more about French taxes than I ever thought I needed to… In France we’re lucky enough to have corporate income tax, dividend taxation, capital gains taxation, value-added tax (VAT). All fairly standard fare thus far, but then we also have some other belters including the CET or Contribution Economique Territoriale, which comprises the CFE (Cotisation Foncière des Entreprises, or the "Corporate Property Contribution"), and the CVAE (Cotisation sur la Valeur Ajoutée des Entreprises, or "Contribution based on the Value Added Produced"). The French seem very keen on this word “contribution” :-) And we also have a local property tax called the taxe fonciére for good measure. Just don’t get me started on French employment law… I’ll keep that one for another post when we actually have some employees!  This is not me...  This incoming week also promises to be busy. Tomorrow night’s topic is building the right team including the advisors. I also have trips to London, Paris and Amsterdam for work, and that’s all before Wednesday evening! Thursday should hopefully see a meeting with Emmanuel Macron’s new special advisor for the digital economy, and then Friday evening is a visit to the blacksmith for a new set of shoes for Vent des Chênes. I’ve got a feeling this week is going to fly by again…  Thanks again for all your ongoing help and support, I really appreciate it. Aidan Copyright © *|CURRENT_YEAR|* *|LIST:COMPANY|*, All rights reserved. *|IFNOT:ARCHIVE_PAGE|* *|LIST:DESCRIPTION|* Our mailing address is: *|HTML:LIST_ADDRESS_HTML|* *|END:IF|* Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list *|IF:REWARDS|* *|HTML:REWARDS|* *|END:IF|*

FI Newsletter #4: Proceed to Go

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Proceed to Go! The big news of the week is good news. The mentor idea pitch went well last Tuesday, and I’m now through to the final part of the Founders Institute incubation program. I pitched in front of three well known chaps in the French startup scene; Erfane Arwani, Eyal Lavin and Alexandre Steiner. They liked what I had to say and they gave me some great feedback about the technology, and how to think about how best to make the solution go viral. Eyal and Erfane also gave me some pointers on what they perceive to be the real customer pain point... in fact, if you haven’t already done so, I would really appreciate you taking 30 seconds to help me by completing this short survey... Click to help! With that hurdle overcome, I’m now even more exited about what still remains to be done… There are six key topics that we still need to cover. These are legal and intellectual property, building the right team including selecting the right advisors, product development, sales and the mythical topic of “traction”, branding and marketing, and also bootstrapping and fundraising.  And after that... My primary objective is to complete the rest of the course. After that, I’ll then need to work out how best to use these new skills, both as an intrapreneur within Dell Technologies (for those of you who still like the idea of transforming the lives of nurses, the Bosonix project is making good progress); but also, and especially, as an entrepreneur in the wider world and specifically in Bordeaux. I think many of you know a little (or a lot) about the type of future I want to help build for the kids, and the Founders Institute and HerdMyTribe is a crucial part of that journey… more on that as the weeks unfold. The week ahead So, now that the French have made sensible choices in their recent elections, it’s heads down again for the week ahead. I’m back off to Paris and then London. I’m particularly looking forward to catching up with my old friend and brand, marketing and naming expert, Matt Bagwell. He’s just launched a rather cool shoe company called Seven Feet Apart and I think we’re going to have a bit of a frank chat about the name “HerdMyTribe”!   Thanks again for all your support and notes of encouragement, I really appreciate them! Aidan Copyright © *|CURRENT_YEAR|* *|LIST:COMPANY|*, All rights reserved. *|IFNOT:ARCHIVE_PAGE|* *|LIST:DESCRIPTION|* Our mailing address is: *|HTML:LIST_ADDRESS_HTML|* *|END:IF|* Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list *|IF:REWARDS|* *|HTML:REWARDS|* *|END:IF|*