Tag Archives: Accelerator

Elise Nebout – Le Camping – France

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Elise-Nebout

Elise Nebout
Manager, Le Camping
Paris, France

Elise Nebout is the manager of Le Camping, a unique 4 month program to accelerate innovative startups powered by NUMA, the largest digital hub in the center of Paris where tech events take place daily. She graduated from Sciences Po Lyon and started her career as a journalist for digital and traditional press magazines such as Philosophie Magazine and Usbek & Rica. In January 2011, she joined Le Camping as Community Manager until she became Manager in November 2012.

Le Camping, based in Paris, started in January 2011 and has raised over $14 million in funds to date. It leads and builds French innovative startups and has already helped create several success stories. Sixty-two startups in five batches went through the program. Companies such as DocTracks, a solution allowing encryption and control over distributed documents, raised $2 million and was acquired by Intralinks for over $10 million. Another successful story is that of Mesagraph, a piece of software that analyzes millions of online conversations in real time to provide analytics and actionable insights. Twitter acquired it for an undisclosed amount.

Startups receive the assistance of exceptional mentors and professionals, and over $120,000 worth of services and resources in addition to the opportunity to meet and network with potential investors.

Today, Le Camping is a prominent French acceleration program based in the main entrepreneurs and digital hub in NUMA. Twelve innovative startups are selected every season to go through the intense 4 month program to develop and grow. Being located in NUMA provides the startups with a network of thousands of international entrepreneurs, investors, mentors and companies that would surely benefit them.

Vitaly Golomb – CCC Fund – USA

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Vitaly-Golomb

Vitaly Golomb
Founding Partner, CCC Fund
San Francisco Bay Area, USA

Ukrainian-born Vitaly Golomb is a Silicon Valley-bred entrepreneur and investor. He is an award-winning designer who got his early start at 13, as an intern first, and then as the youngest employee in the history of Kinko’s. He is the founder and CEO of PrintMo.co, the local print marketplace. Vitaly is also a General Partner at CCC Fund, a startup ecosystem builder, venture capital fund focused on emerging startups in EMEA, and bridge to Silicon Valley.

During the Dot Com boom, Vitaly ran the User Interface design team at a fast-growing startup. He later founded a design and marketing firm that quickly grew to three offices, won several awards, and landed projects with numerous large brands. Vitaly holds a B.A. in Computer and Video Imaging from Cogswell College. He has guest lectured on design and the startup economy at Stanford and UC Berkeley and other universities. He is a mentor at 500 Startups, Happy Farm, ZIP, Tech Peaks, Etohum, and Innovation Nest accelerators. He’s also a keynote speaker on startups, design, and angel/venture capital in over 15 countries each year. Vitaly’s book “Accelerated Startup” coming out in 2015 and the 1st chapter is available to download.

Vitaly speaks and mentors on design, product, strategy, growth, and fundraising.  One of his popular topics is Design Driven Development in which he covers the principles of good design. He explains how a good product has to be both functional and aesthetic, how the interface is an important aspect in the design, how to design with the user in mind, etc. He also discusses how to create value with your products by solving problems as well as what to consider with hiring managers for your team. Other topics Vitaly speaks about are how to build startups, startup ecosystems and what their trends and business models are like. He also covers the topics of mobile commerce covering the trends, user experience, and marketing strategies.

As a consultant, Vitaly works closely with investors to help them build strong portfolios and improve their performance through private mentoring sessions on various topics, as well as technical due diligence, managed distanced outsource teams and more.  He also consults early stage startups from idea to IPO by advising them in many areas that include, but aren’t limited to product positioning, overall user experience, branding and visual design, funding strategies, etc.

Vitaly’s career and experience as an entrepreneur, investor and designer is an inspiration to anyone who want to make a difference. His in-depth knowledge and analysis of the startup industry is of great value to any entrepreneur and aspiring innovator.

Gary Stewart – Wayra – UK

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Gary Stewart
Director, Wayra
London, UL

Gary Stewart is the Director of Wayra UK and founder of nuroa.es, a Barcelona-based startup. He graduated magna cum laude from Yale University and was the executive editor of The Yale Journal at the university’s Law School before working at Simpson Thatcher & Bartlett in London, and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in Spain.

Like most entrepreneurs, Gary never thought he would be where he is today.  While attending Yale, he thought he would become a litigator for a company similar to Microsoft, however, he later decided he didn’t want to live in the U.S. anymore. Gary settled in London where he worked in Mergers and Acquisitions at Simpson Thatcher & Bartlett before moving to Madrid.  The turning point for him came 4 years after his move; when he was told the terms of his contract would have to change in ways he wasn’t comfortable with. It was then that Gary decided to become an entrepreneur.

However, he did not instantly succeed in his endeavors. His first creation was an offline real estate company, which flopped.  Determined to make his mark, Gary later founded nuroa.es, an online property search company where he stayed for 5 years, and raised £4 Million in funding.  He was also an associate professor and the entrepreneur-in-residence at IE Business School. Gary learned a lot from this position, as he spent two years redesigning and re-launching IE Business School‘s accelerator for MBA students. After that, he joined the British branch of Telefónica’s start up accelerator, Wayra. Since then, he’s been helping entrepreneurs grow and build successful businesses by providing them with a physical working space, funding, and resources to mentors, investors, and all round support. They even fly their entrepreneurs to Silicon Valley to learn from the world’s largest tech hub.

Gary Stewart’s passion for entrepreneurship perseverance have led him to the core of his business. Today, he seeds and mentors promising startups to get them to pitch in front of British investor panels thus gaining exposure, reputation, and a chance to get larger funding.