2007 was a very turbulent, chaotic and exceptional year for me. A year full of lessons learnt and learnings, as intensive as my 2 years at EM Lyon for my MBA.

As I have heard again at leweb3 and from our business and VC friends and colleagues, it seems that there aren’t so many successful cases of spin-out in Europe with innoveo. And with Nick and the whole Team (and the support of Helvetia), we did it!

So, without any prioritization, I would like to share some of my thoughts with you:

• balancing the “shit” with positive experiences: the work was not always just for fun and very pleasant, we really had some tough times, for sure. For me, it was again important to find a balance between this brutal reality and some “compensations”, as having some great lunches and dinners (yes, including good wines) with friends, having fun to drive my car, taking some pictures (more and more), buying my first “big” watch, and for sure, being able to go on holidays regularly with my wife and my son, specially when we can travel to Saint Barth ;-)
• solving a very complex issue: needs time and patience. And sometimes a clear massive increase of the complexity to be able to find out a solution! Thanks for this one, Nick ;-)
• when you think it is finished: it is not finished! If you stay resilient. It can even get worst ;-) Or a solution can suddenly appear in the darkness! Staying tuned and opened for all the opportunities seem to be very relevant, as always playing with worst case scenario. When you have identified this worst case scenario and you know how you will react, then you are really prepared. And normally, the worst case is not happening. More or less, always something “in between”, in the “gray zone”.
• friends and family: were absolutely essential during this phase. Gosh, it was not an easy time at home for my wife and my son… I was terribly not present mentally, completely focused on the spin-out. And when present, exhausted, or in a terribly mad mood. Let me mention two friends, among others, who were very important for me and gave me the faith to move on with this crazy idea: Manu and Marc. You were both very supportive and very decisive, and perhaps also the two only ones who *really* thought that we had a chance ;-)
• co-managing a company: I have learnt further on to share and to manage the company with Nick. It is a long journey, specially for me (not really my personality ;-), to co-manage and cross-delegate the company responsibilities. On the other side, I definitely  wouldn’t have been able to manage the spin-out process without Nick. I am deeply convinced that we are working in a very interesting and efficient way. And this deep collaboration was the base for the birth of innoveo, with the support of our Team. We are learning more and more how to work and to benefit from each other, all these, with positive consequences for the company. Even if we know that this “co-managing style” doesn’t correspond to some leadership “best practices”. Specially the ones coming from the military experience. That’s ok for us. And disturbing for some people :-)
• believing in our values and our dreams: it is very interesting to confront your values and dreams with the “brutal reality”. Always easy to speak about that if you are in a stable phase ;-) Let’s try to do it in a very unstable process, as our spin-out. This brings real and deep learnings about your internal drivers. For me, personally, it was essential to know if the values I believe in since years are really stable and consistent, also in the adversity. This spin-out phase was a good and valuable “proof-of-the-pudding” for that. Also to be sure with Nick that we are sharing the same values fundament. It was absolutely fantastic to see how far this was/is the case, although we were challenging in this field each day of the last year! This is very strong and powerful. And reassuring to know that not all the people just believe in money and carrier.
• the value is in the team / first who then what: I was always convinced that we had a special team-spirit and that we were sharing the values that Nick and I were sharing, but across the *whole Team*. Always easy to say. Also there, it was really a wonderful and fantastic experience to see how far the Team was compact and stable, despite all the turbulences and uncertainty during about 6 months! And this, at the same time as a huge and difficult delivery time. I will *never* forget some of the most important meetings we had together. Guys, you were so supportive! In a sense, I have felt again how far it is central to share a vision with some guys and how far *they* are much more important to implement this vision.

So, all in all, a bunch of great experiences, more positive than negative ones, this big step with our spin-out of innoveo, some absolutely fantastic confirmations and…new challenges that are coming in 2008 (stabilization and first developments of innoveo).

So, I can just say “thanks” for this great year. It will be difficult to have a more challenging year, although….

:-)