I wanted to write a two lines post about a clever answer I got for a super smart guy. The other day I was discussing with this World-class investor and I had a question, a simple but kind of hard to ask — who wants to show its doubts?

Here is the deal, I love to build products that you could use everyday. I truly believe that it’s one of the reasons why I’m on Earth. On purpose or not, I’m a serial entrepreneur. For some reasons being a CEO has always scared me, there is millions of little, unfocused tasks to do every single morning. So I asked him how to manage my time between my passion and everything else. And he got this clever answer: “You have two jobs: don’t run out of money, hire good”. Accountancy? Not your job. Legal? Not your job. Money and team? Your job! What he means is off-course that I’ve have three jobs, the product, the money, and the team. If you’re a designer, design. If you’re a hacker, code. If you’re a sales guy, sell. Plus money. Plus team.

Back to my point, a startup journey is all about the asks. First colleagues, then probably engineers, friends, girlfriend, parents, idols. Are you in the early days of building a product? Please, oh please consider an advisor. It’s exactly what you need, it’s the smartest way to get honest feedback, to redefine your product, and to get answers that will allow you to go to the next level and, I wish you, to access world-class investors. Ask!

He also recommended me to read High Output Management. Apparently it’s the CEO Bible, they all read it, from Dell to Google to names I forgot, sorry dude.

The other day I realized that for the last three months I haven’t sleep three nights in a row at home. The other day I had a call around four in the morning, with a lawyer. The other day I was sleeping at Jeremy’s place and we wake up talking UX, first thing in the morning, before our first coffee.

And guess what? I love that, it’s my new life. Work is important. The feeling of working is horrible. I urge you to find a way of being passionated about what you do. Thus, the conclusion is simple, passion second. Yeah, cliché blogposts always come first, after ninjas and sex.

A couple of month ago I made one of the hardest choice of my career, but let’s first approach this another way.

After 10 years of hard working, I finally got what I wanted since I was kid: the legendary and beautiful Porsche 993. Cliché? It wasn’t, there is no other way than fixing goals to achieve things. Some want to be rich, some famous, I just wanted my Porsche.

Off course I was to young to understand that things never come alone, a Porsche is great — I mean, it’s fucking incredible, but it has to fit with everything else, including you. Surprise! It wasn’t a good timing, so I left it together with nearly everything else I built the past 10 years, including my advertising agency and my lovely city.

Last week I came across this article wrote by Saatchi & Saatchi CEO, Mr. Kevin Roberts, including a legendary “Martin Luther King did not say ‘I have a vision statement’ did he?”. Off-course he didn’t, he wasn’t working for Visa.

Here is my point. I don’t believe in brands telling stories, we simply don’t care about these stories. What we need is a friendly relationships with products, these products that understand our behaviors and, at the end, make us spending our money and buying products. Food. Clothes. Whatever.

During the past 10 years I was trying to tell stories for brands that just don’t care about what you do when you leave their bling-bling digital campaigns. I love humans, and that’s exactly why I left everything, I can now spend 24 hours a day building and talking about products that people use, helping them to tell their stories.

Now that I’m here, I would like to thank you Jérôme, my dear good old friend and business partner who understood how important it was for me to reach my goal, and now letting me setting up new goals. Miss you my mate.

Facebook est synonyme de partage, d’amitié, d’échange. Twitter de veille, de flux, d’actualité. Flickr de dinosaure, de vieille bête. Hah.

Quels synonymes vous inspirent les services que vous utilisez quotidiennement?

Cette semaine, au travers de discussions et rencontres, il m’est venu cette petite lueur quant à l’orientation à adopter pour marketer un produit: ne communiquez pas à quel point votre produit est beau, communiquez à quel point il est puissant (et d’avantage encore une fois entre les mains de ses utilisateurs).

Tu sais, le why, le what. C’est con, mais c’est tellement bon de placer des mots cons sur des questions aussi complexes.

Subscribe / Download

1. jj “Ecstasy”
2. The Knife “From Off To On”
3. Nosaj Thing “Fog”
4. Archie Bronson Outfit “Chunk” (6th Borough Project Remix)
5. Discodeine “Singular” Feat. Matias Aguayo
6. Talking Heads “Heaven”
7. Crystal Castles “Violent Dreams”
8. ceo “White Magic”
9. Nicolas Jaar “Mi Mujer”
10. Sexual Harrassment “I Need a Freak”
11. Liars “Proud Evolution”
12. Première Classe “La fille qui rit”

Subscribe / Download

1. The Black Keys “Everlasting Light”
2. The XX “Hot Like Fire” (Bonus Track)
3. Durutti Column “Sketch For Summer”
4. Broken Bells “The Ghost Inside”
5. Fortune “Under The Sun”
6. Steve Mason “Hound On My Heel”
7. Caribou “Jamelia”
8. Archie Bronson Outfit “Chunk”
9. Aswefall “Fun Is Dead”
10. Caribou “Sun”
11. Arthur Russell “Arm Around You”
12. I Monster “Some Thing’s Coming”
13. Silvervince “Mademoiselle B” (Mustang remix)

Hello, nous c’est Fashiøn, nous sommes en 1982 et nous nous amusons avec de la musique de 2010. A moins que ça soit le contraire?

Fashiøn “Mutant Dance Møve”

Fashion were founded in 1978 in Birmingham, England, originally as a post-punk band in the vein of Gang of Four or Magazine. The band originally consisted of Luke James, John Mulligan and Dik Davis. In 1979 the band signed to IRS Records and released their first album, Pröduct Perfect. The album failed to chart and mainly received airplay on college radio.

By late 1981, the band had almost completely changed in terms of musical direction, and had now become a part of the New Romantic movement. Original singer had been replaced by De Harris, and Marlon Recchi joined the band. In April 1982, the band released their most successful album, Fabrique. The album, produced by Zeus B. Held, featured the hit singles Love Shadow and Move On. (via Last.fm)

À propos de Fashiøn:
Wikipedia / Discographie

Q Lazzarus “Goodbye Horses” (Krikor Remix)

Q Lazzarus is a female American singer best known as a one hit wonder for the 1988 song “Goodbye Horses“. The music and lyrics of the song were written by William Garvey. It was originally recorded by Q Lazzarus in 1988, but later re-released as a single in 1991, with a greater duration, as a result of its appearance in Silence of the Lambs. (via Wikipedia)

À propos de Q Lazzarus:
Wikipedia (Remixed by Krikor)

Une soirée c’est exactement comme monter des escaliers avec une femme, la politesse veut que — nous, les hommes — passions en premier.

Tout s’inverse. La montée c’est derrière et la descente c’est devant. Tout ce qu’on aime! Ne plus chercher à comprendre, se laisser porter par le chaos qui, naturellement, se chargera (comme à chaque fois) de remettre de l’ordre. Un nouvel ordre, une nouvelle succession de morceaux. Mais! N’est-ce pas là le son d’une nouvelle soirée qui s’annonce toute en montée?

Subscribe / Download

1. John Paul Young “Love Is In The Air”
2. I:Cube “Tokyo Uno”
3. Junior Boys “Hazel” (Ewan Pearson’s House Mix)
4. Seal “Killer” (Acoustic Version)
5. The Immortals “The Ultimate Warlord”
6. Paul Kalkbrenner “QSA” (Exclusive CD Track)

Alors alors, Lefrog, tu me fais une petite place dans ton agenda?