Herve Cuviliez: Entrepreneur - business angel in the Middle East

Yesterday, It was my birthday. I don’t tell that for those who forgot but to thank Facebook. I never received so many happy birthday greetings.

Some were honests and recognized that they remembered because of facebook, others called proudly because this year, they remembered.

Special thanks to Remi, he left me a message to not wish me an happy birthday because it’s too easy now with facebook.

So thank you, facebook, for this little moment of social networking

A couple of months ago, I have created an account on Kiva.org. Kiva enables you to loan to small businesses in developing countries.

You can see my lender page here.

I’ve helped among others 2 projects, one Internet cafe (Loan Requested: $975.00) in Ayacucho, Peru and one bookstore (Loan Requested: $975.00) in Agoe, Togo.

Small Amount of money to be honest ($100 + $10 donation to Kiva). It was a trial to verify by myself if the social business concept is really effective.

The answer seems to be yes because i just received the first repayment from both projects.

It’s a great feeling to see these projects becoming a reality and more important repaying their debt to give others the opportunity to been also helped.

Last week, I’ve broke my Iphone last week (see here)

But It was still working, so we decided to remove the glass to have access directly to Multi-touch pad. Despite what it seems on the video (see below), it’s still fully functionnal but not my fingers (it hurts !)

more on my flickr account

Here is the video

Why?

Because I can.

More surgery to come

I just finished the latest book of Prof. Muhammad Yunus (founder of the Grameen bank and 2006 Peace Nobel Prize) called “Creating a world without poverty“.

I’d liked his analysis of capitalism and more precisely his vision on the far too simple way we are dividing the economic world: On one side companies with only on objective, maximizing profit and on the other side none profit organizations in charge of taking care of poor people & environment.

You, like I first done, will object that now big firms have sustainable development and CSR programs. that’s true but at the end of the day what is the one and only indicator the market will use to rate a company : PROFIT.
So if a CEO has to choose between profit and doing a good action, he will choose profit in 99% of the time because it’s what the market expects.

You know what it’s normal and Prof. Muhammad Yunus find that normal also.

That’s precisely what is liked in his approach, he is not an anti-everything kind of guy but a very practical and realistic one.

He proposes to create a new business concept: The social Business. A social business will be have the same mechanisms as a standard business but with two major differences it’s first goal is poverty reduction instead of making profits and propose products and services that’s enhance poor people life.
They will not distribute dividends, the investors will only get back their investment that’s all. So it will help to low products and services prices.

Social businesses and standard businesses will compete on the same market and at the end, consumers will decide.

I think it’s a brilliant idea it will give talented people another option than “profit companies” without sacrifing their revenues (remember a social business will be pay the same salary as a standard business) plus it will leverage the money given to non profit organizations by giving them the ability to get back their investment instead of just spending it.

My only concern about social business is how do we ensure social businesses keep their structural costs sharp without the profit pressure from the shareholders (really important to be able to keep the lowest prices). The board members will have to play hard on this otherwise it will turn into an inefficient administration and then back to beginning.

I strongly recommend this book and to think about this social business concept, if you have any input or comment, feel free.
On my side, I have a idea for a social business, I work on it and I keep you updated.

I went visiting the Digiport in Lille (north of france).
they provides a full range of services for IT companies from a business park to host your business to personalized support for your incorporation.

I was really impress by the quality of the infrastructure and the skills of the team.

If you are a startup CEO looking for the perfect place for european headquarter, you should really consider this place.

Cherry on the cake: By the high speed train, London is at 1h20, Brussels at 30 mins, Paris at 1h and charles de gaulle airport 40 mins.

Seen yesterday @ emerging art festival, a twitter device for your plants.

So you can be anywhere on the planet and receive status updates of your plants: Need water, urgently need water, etc..

So cool,

You will find everything on botanicalls.com to build your own device, don’t forget to them feedback.

As soon as I get back to Paris, I’ll try to make mine

I’ve found that last month in San Francisco, not in the Apple Store but at the theater!

Selling ipods like chocolate bars, i like this.

thanks Mr Jobs,

San Diego seems to be a cool city: sun, ocean, mexico nearby.

I haven’t seen much yet but i like the atmosphere. I went shopping in downtown, i found all my basics: Puma, Abercrombie & Fitch, G Star.

You can go to my flickr account to see some pictures of downtown.