cross pond high tech
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light views on high tech in both Europe and US
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Scooped by Philippe J DEWOST
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Withings raises a massive $30 Million round and welcomes Bpifrance onboard

Withings raises a massive $30 Million round  and welcomes Bpifrance onboard | cross pond high tech | Scoop.it

Health gadget company Withings will announce in a few minutes a new funding round from Bpifrance, Idinvest Partners, 360 Capital Partners and existing investor Ventech. Out of the $30 million, $15 million comes fromBpifrance, the newly created public entity — BPI means Public Investment Bank in French. It is one of its first traditional VC deal.

Withings is perhaps best known for its series of smart scales and body analyzers (along with curious one-off devices like a baby monitor), but the company has recently decided to take a stab at creating yet another sort of fitness gadget: a wearable activity tracker. Calling that particular market crowded is putting it awfully mildly. Devices from the likes of Nike, Jawbone, and Fitbit have put an approachable face on the quantified self movement and have garnered plenty of attention from press and health-conscious consumers.

Philippe J DEWOST's insight:

Massive deal for this side of the pond. Totally impressed and supportive of what Eric Carreel has been achieving in starting 3 companies after his successful Inventel exit !

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Scooped by Philippe J DEWOST
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How design thinking transformed Airbnb from a failing startup to a billion dollar business

In 2009, Airbnb was close to going bust. Like so many startups, they had launched but barely anyone noticed. The company’s revenue was flatlined at $200 per week. Split between three young founders living in San Francisco, this meant near indefinite losses on zero growth. As everyone knows, venture investors look for companies that show hockey stick graphs, and according to co-founder Joe Gebbia, his company had a horizontal drumstick graph. The team was forced to max out their credit cards...

Philippe J DEWOST's insight:

Great piece reminding us that sometimes, it's okay to do things that don’t scale

Larry's comment, May 12, 2013 3:54 AM
What they did has a name: pretotyping :-)