THINK&ACT: Driving Revolution at PARISOMA Recap
On May 23rd, PARISOMA and faberNovel packed the house for the latest edition of its THINK&ACT Series, dedicated to the Driving Revolution.
The opening keynote was delivered by Larry Burns, former VP of R&D at General Motors and adviser for Google’s self-driving car. After an introduction by Tiago Forte, Mobility Analyst at faberNovel, 10 handpicked startups inventing the future of driving pitched their products to the audience.
Listening to conversations happening at the demo tables, the consensus of the participants was clear: the car industry is in for some drastic change, and it is coming very soon. According to those interviewed, the car industry is in the midst of a decentralization and expansion that will see many other industries impacted by these changes.
Angus Pacala, Director of Engineering at Quanergy, a Palo Alto-based startup working on a new generation of low-cost sensors, mentioned that his company is talking just as much with chipmakers as with car manufacturers.
faberNovel created an infographic to illustrate some of these changes, which was featured on Forbes: http://www.forbes.com/sites/chunkamui/2013/05/09/economic-ripple-effects-of-connected-shared-and-self-driving-cars-infographic/
The companies that presented at Driving Revolution are tackling a variety of areas related to driving, from internet connectivity in vehicles, to electric charging, to paying for parking via smartphone, and many others.
ChargePoint, backed by Kleiner Perkins (KPCB) and BMW and Toyota as corporate investors, has developed a network of 12,000 charging stations, allowing customers to charge their EVs and pay by credit card or via a web-based subscription.
According to Kevin Doyle, Senior Applications Engineer at ChargePoint, one of the last remaining obstacles to mass adoption of electrical vehicles is the cost of batteries. However, he says that so much research is going into this problem that battery prices are likely to drop sharply in the next few years.
Cellcontrol equips cars with a device that prevents distracted driving by blocking connectivity while driving.
MyCarma seeks to help you better understand the total consumption and cost for the next car you buy by creating a “personalized” fuel economy label. By tracking your real-world driving behavior via a small dongle and projecting costs based on your potential next purchase, it can help you make a much more informed decision.
VIA Motors builds commercial vehicles – vans, trucks, and SUVs – that are fully electric, taking on a major segment of the market that until now has resisted adopting electric motors. Participants had a chance to go for a test ride on their demonstration pickup truck, and were amazed to find that the vehicle’s performance was indistinguishable from the gasoline-powered equivalent.
Weroll presented a carsharing platform they are selling to companies to facilitate carpooling among their employees.
Tickengo, a startup founded by Geoff Mathieux, enables ridesharing via a smartphone app, resulting in a price drop of 50% compared to taxis.
Roadify is pulling together publicly available data on transportation systems and integrating social media flows to predict accurately when your bus is going to arrive and suggest another route if your line is disrupted.
As Dylan, Chief of Marketing at Roadify, puts it, “Americans don’t use public transportation that much because they don’t like the lack of control and predictability buses and subways entail. Our application aims to ‘put the steering wheels back between passengers’ hands’ and encourage people to use public transportation more, especially in big cities.”
As Larry Burns put it in his keynote, “The current equilibrium is not sustainable anymore; cars generate too many accidents, produce too much congestion and too many parking difficulties in cities.” According to Larry, fully connected and automated cars will be ready for commercialization within the next decade.
If you would like to find out more about our work in transportation and other businesses being affected by innovation in driving, please drop us a line at meet_sf@fabernovel.com.
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THINK&ACT SERIES
is a monthly party bringing together the startups that are changing the game in
their industry. Equal part social mixer and demo fair, this event draws
innovators and envelope-pushers of all stripes to present their products and
connect with an audience of thought leaders, large companies, investment firms,
and the media.
The Problem With People Who Don't Get Irony...
A few weeks ago at PARISOMA, our San Francisco-based open incubator, we held a special event in partnership with Osons La France celebrating French entrepreneurs and innovators in The Valley and elsewhere.
The event was called The Problem With The French... (or TPWTF), which was a reference to the famous quote attributed to President George W Bush, "The problem with the French is that they don't have a word for entrepreneur."
Now I know that you, reading this, understand irony when you see it, so I don't have to explain that the title was ironic. The Bush quote is famous because entrepreneur is originally a French word. The French not only have a word for entrepreneur, they gave the world the word in the first place.
As I say, you get it - enough said.
But someone out there in the blogosphere did not get it. Liam Boogar, a so-called "Silicon Valley native" who relocated to Paris to help French startups, and who maintains a blog called Rude Baguette wrote a post about the event called The problem with the French … is they host events called “The Problem with the French.”
Boogar did not attend the event, nor did he apparently read any of the material created about it (if he had, he would surely have understood that the title was tongue-in-cheek, unless he is severely challenged by that sort of thing). Instead he shot off a blog post calling the event "a mix between a circle jerk and a support group" and saying "I can’t think of a worse way to hurt your own reputation than by hosting an event talking about your problems."
Wow.
So that must have you all wondering: what was TPWTF like? Was it a support group for loser French expats who feel sorry for themselves, as Boogar suggests?
Well through the magic of Twitter, let's jump back in time and take a peek at what the event was like, in the words of the people who were actually there, tweeting in the moment.
First of all, it was a gathering of great entrepreneurs, celebrating each others' successes:
...it was people talking about passion and risk-taking:
It did contain some self-examination, but that's healthy and standard for entrepreneurs - not a way to "hurt your reputation" as Boogar suggests:
It focused on building bridges between cultures:
...and of course it was French - that's okay, right?
All in all it was a fantastic event that focused, like PARISOMA and faberNovel, on building a common, entrepreneurial culture across borders and oceans. Those who actually attended seemed to come away feeling the start of something great was at hand. And we'd like to again thank our speakers, our partners, and our sponsor Air France for making the event such a huge success.
Next time, those at Rude Baguette should actually come to the event and take part in it, to see what it, and we, are about. And in the spirit of openness, we extend a personal invitation for them all to do so.
In the meantime, we're going to keep hosting events, building bridges, and celebrating entrepreneurship everywhere.
faberNovel est partenaire du OuiShare Fest
Le 2, 3 et 4 mai prochain au Cabaret Sauvage
Le 2, 3 et 4 mai prochain se tiendra le OuiShareFest co-organisée par OuiShare et La fonderie au Cabaret Sauvage à Paris.
Ce festival de trois jours rassemblera une large communauté d’entrepreneurs, designers, makers, économistes, investisseurs, acteurs publics et citoyens pour construire le futur de l’économie collaborative.
faberNovel croit en ces nouveaux modèles et en leurs impacts économiques, sociétaux et sociaux. Bureaux à Partager, dernière excubation de faberNovel, s'inscrit dans ce mouvement en proposant une plate-forme mettant en relation entre les entreprises qui recherchent des bureaux et celles qui proposent de l'espace.
Aux côtés de Bureaux à Partager seront notamment présents BlaBlaCar, Ulule, Gidsy, La Ruche Qui Dit Oui! et beaucoup d'autres acteurs notamment internationaux.
Plus d'informations: http://ouisharefest.com/
DEMAIN, le forum Osons la France en partenariat avec faberNovel et PARISOMA x TPWTF
Après le succès de son premier événement « Osons La France », forum dédié à la promotion de l’innovation en France, revient cette année avec 4 événements en Europe. A faberNovel & PARISOMA nous soutenons cette vision et sommes donc honorés de contribuer à cette nouvelle édition.
Osons la France se tiendra à Paris, le 5 avril, à l’Espace Cardin pendant 24 heures non-stop. 24 heures de rencontres et d’échanges intenses avec ceux qui ont osé agir, qui se sont engagés dans des aventures entrepreneuriales, économiques, culturelles, artistiques, sociales, responsables, scientifiques. 24 heures non-stop pour découvrir ce qui est le plus fort, le plus effervescent en France aujourd’hui, avec ceux qui mettent le pays en mouvement et osent impulser une nouvelle dynamique.
Les conférences tournent autour de quatre thèmes :
« Ils osent » : entreprendre, échouer, rebondir, réinventer leur métier, s’attaquer à des géants, dire non, penser mondial, brasser les disciplines, ouvrir de nouvelles voies, changer la société...?
« Il faudrait oser » : séances de prospective, de remise en question et d’impertinence, les grands enjeux de demain pour la société, l’école, nos institutions, nos clivages, nos blocages et toutes les révolutions qui sont à mener
« Ailleurs aussi ils osent » : ceux qui osent à l’étranger, qui nous inspirent, qui nous disent qu’il est possible d’évoluer et de réussir.
Les speakers viennent d’horizons divers et font la France d’aujourd’hui et demain, tous secteurs ou âges confondus.
Parmi eux, Stéphane Distinguin fondateur, CEO de faberNovel et président de Cap Digital, mais également : Majid el Jarroudi, sur l’entrepreneuriat dans les quartiers sensibles ; John Persenda, Président du groupe Sphere et des sacs Alphapac sur « Ils osent croire et produire en France » ; Isabelle Bourgeois sur « Oser la vérité sur le modèle allemand » ; Claudia Senik sur « Oser mesurer l’économie du bonheur ».
En parallèle de cet événement Parisien, faberNovel et PARISOMA organisent « The Problem With the French » à 2h (Paris) et 17h (SF), événement consacré à la French touch de la Silicon Valley (Si, si, elle existe). Une délocalisation du forum Osons la France en Silicon Valley et transmission en live à l’Espace Pierre Cardin et en streaming pour un événement sans précédent.
Rendez-vous le 5 avril 2013 à l’Espace Cardin pour 24 heures non-stop afin de jouer au jeu de la désintoxication de clichés !
Pour plus d’informations sur les forums Osons la France, consulter le site www.osonslafrance.com
