Loic Le Meur
Co-Founder LeWeb and Founder Leade.rs
Discussion
[deleted user]
@deleted_user
Hi I'm Loic Le Meur. San Francisco based French entrepreneur, I am working on my new startup, Leade.rs. I also started 6 other startups and invested in about 40 startups including Slack, Postmates, LinkedIn, LendingClub and Evernote.
My new startup Leade.rs is a marketplace speakers-events. I will help event organizers find the most amazing speakers and book them. We will also have a "great people" discovery system looking like a "Product Hunt for People" to add new great speakers to the database. We hope to have great curators around the world to help us. I'm thrilled to be on Product Hunt chat today.
Thank you all for your questions, it was great to chat with all of you today.
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Kalina Zografska
@kzograf · Product fella @trygigster
What would you suggest to European based founders in terms of building a product with a global reach?
[deleted user]
@deleted_user
@kzograf build in english day one, forget your local language and think about global users
[deleted user]
@deleted_user
@kzograf do not target your local market. Most european founders end up doing that "then global after" should be global focus day one
Ryan Hoover
@rrhoover · Founder, Product Hunt
Loic! As you know, I'm excited to see where you take Leade.rs, but why did you decide to move on from LeWeb and start a new company?
[deleted user]
@deleted_user
@rrhoover 1/ I like the idea of building fresh and new. Like Burning Man, you burn everything at the end and start fresh next year. It's a new adventure
[deleted user]
@deleted_user
@rrhoover 2/ I wanted to start a software/app that powers an event instead of an event that has an app.
[deleted user]
@deleted_user
@rrhoover 3/ my ex-wife @geraldine and myself wanted to both launch something new, separately. She has The Refiners, a startup incubator with lots of news coming soon and I have Leade.rs. You could say LeWeb had two successors which now live their own life but benefit from all the experience of 12 years of LeWeb. We both invested into each other's new businesses.
Thomas Stöcklein
@tomstocklein · FoundersFundersFuture.com
When did you first realize that LeWeb would become a massively successful conference?
[deleted user]
@deleted_user
@tomstocklein thanks! When I had participants tell me that thanks to LeWeb they found their startup idea and did it! Inspiring to see others succeed because they came to LeWeb. So many amazing stories. The Uber founders decided to start Uber at LeWeb, for example...
Thomas Stöcklein
@tomstocklein · FoundersFundersFuture.com
Based on your experience living in both countries, what can the French learn from Americans and vice versa?
[deleted user]
@deleted_user
@tomstocklein the americans can learn from the French to take time to know each other before doing business (I miss my two hour french lunches!) and the French can learn from the americans how to be so efficient and save time by not spending two hour at lunch and getting a lot done. But it's not compatible :-) It's just great to see the two cultures. I love both.
Thomas Stöcklein
@tomstocklein · FoundersFundersFuture.com
@loic Haha, bonne réponse...
Nicola Mastrandrea
@nick88msn · Founder of the Nextec
When I think about Conferences on Digital Innovation (technology, web, startups etc.) I associate them to Crowd, Pre-Marketing Scam Tactics, Useless Conference Talks and Random Guests. So my question is:
"How did you manage to balance the natural need to growth (aka business) with the need of offering a consistent high quality experience to a restricted audience?"
Thank You.
[deleted user]
@deleted_user
@nick88msn that's a pretty easy one. I enjoy quality people and great content, it's always my focus number one. The rest is accessory. For my first Leade.rs event in Paris on May 13 we don't even have sponsors.
Harry Stebbings
@harrystebbings · Podcast Host @ The Twenty Minute VC
What do you thin k has been the key determinant to the rise of Le Web as a conference?
[deleted user]
@deleted_user
@harrystebbings very open approach: we were disclosing the list of participants and everything online. Also global day one, 1st edition was 15 countries with 200 people only. Then honestly, we were first to do that in Europe I think. Now there is a ton of tech events and it's great, the more there is the better the european tech scene.
Delphine Getten
@delphine_getten · Web-marketing @LesGrappes
Do you consider that the few speakers who do nothing else for a living than tour around the world in different conferences, might lose the realism and vision of what's happening in the professional world ?
[deleted user]
@deleted_user
@delphine_getten I think speaking is a great way to get your message out and meet your community. Some people speak a lot, there are two categories I'd say 1/ professional speakers and 2/ casual speakers who run a business. For 1/ it's their business so it's ok. For 2/ it's okay as long as their team kill it and build cool stuff. Otherwise yeah I get your point. Some speakers tend to always talk about the same all the time, I don't like that either.
Ben Tossell
@bentossell · Community Lead, Product Hunt
What are some of your favourite questions to ask founders?
[deleted user]
@deleted_user
@bentossell what keeps you up at night. How did you have this idea. How is it changing the world. What's your mission in life? Who are the best new people you recommend I follow or meet? Tell me something a little crazy about you?
Jake Crump
@jakecrump · Community Team with Product Hunt
Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
[deleted user]
@deleted_user
@jakecrump I'm hoping Leade.rs will not only be a successful business but also help thousands of new potential and young leaders to impact the world. I hope there will be a lot of non profit leaders and we can help them. I want leade.rs to be a platform to help people change the world. We're starting with a much smaller goal, though :-)