One year of discussions / negotiations, dozens of presentations made for a whole bunch of people who had the financial means we didn’t (believe me that I regret it), new developments that would cause three heart attacks a day, in short, a nice adventure which is still going on!

A brief step into the past…

It’s the end of 2004 and I receive a telephone call from Laurent Chemla. He tells me that the shareholders, aware of their differences and therefore their incapacity to make Gandi evolve, have taken the decision to sell. Of course, his request concerns Lycos, which for 4 years hadn’t stopped on this market (hosting and domain names) in Europe, multiplying purchases and product releases (we finish 2004 with the second strongest world-wide growth in our sector…)


At the time, we put out X number of social plans and strategy changes (the bubble and all that…) and the whole team is tired. Worse, I learn just before that the latest social plan is going to concern the French site (therefore, us too), and I already know that my desperate efforts to reverse the decision is all for nothing. I’ve already lived that.

In a sort of temporary madness, I hear myself answering, "Hmm, Lycos will without a doubt not be interested, but I will." OK. Cool. Everything is fine. Just a small concern: Even though I’ve already created a company, it didn’t require raising funds and only employed two people. Another small detail: There’s no reason to feel sorry for me and I can look carefully into my pockets andI don’t have 15 million euros on me. No reason to panic, it’ll all turn out okay^^.

Of course, I had my bosses (CEO and CTO) confirm that Lycos wasn’t on the case (despite my recommendation to buy), something I did several times.

Then, the moment comes when I have to pay for my anger (I’m used to it, even if with age wisdom prevails). It wasn’t that I was worried about the project itself (I had been thinking about Gandi for years, and I know this still young market well enough), but it was more about with whom and how?


At this stage, it’s necessary to point out that I wasn’t part of that caste of magical and glamorous entrepreneurs born in the “Roaring 90s”. There was, in effect, a barrier between the executives, even the managers, like any other entrepreneur creating jobs, defining objectives and strategies in order to reach them, but just seeing a salary and those who have reached, by luck and/or by will and talent (often a little bit of all three), that quasi-mythical status in our young companies.

 

This clarification is important, on the eve of starting to look for financing for an Internet company, in the post explosion of the bubble period …;-).

 

The first person I thought of, was nevertheless one of the founders of Multimania, and my former boss, Olivier Heckmann. We had become friends, something already rare, but he was part of the group of people who had impressed me in my professional life. To have so much maturity and insight at his age (like mine, 34 years old), and in addition to that remaining a GOOD guy, well, that is really really rare. But, as bad luck would have it, he and his long-time partner (Michel Meyer), were heading into a project they were really enthusiastic about and they also were in the middle of looking for funding…

In this case, we just look at the people around us who combine the double tour-de-force of being financially loaded, and being someone we really have total confidence in. I insist on this point, and I’ll come back to it later, it’s essential.

I was lucky enough to know someone, but I really was out of luck, he too was in the middle of looking for funding for his own businesses (an entrepreneur is always moving) and could only help me (just like Olivier) with advice and moral support. That was already enormous and I would be able to verify that every day over the following twelve months.