The city of Lille must to follow suit current April

Saeed Amidi was pleased mine and gracious ways to a pattern of restaurant Neapolitan. There are few visitors to the Plug & Play Center in that it does not offer the honours of the House. "It is extremely outgoing and able to enter into conversation with anyone in any circumstance, is the founder of Business Object, Bernard Liautaud, a long-time friend of the Iranian contractor." It also has an innate sense of the business, it creates opportunities at every moment for himself but for others by quickly creating connections between people. The & Plug and Play Center accurately reflects his personality.

And the visit is long since this nursery occupies 16.300(7) square metres and houses... 165 start-up. Three years after opening its doors, the incubator of Sunnyvale is Silicon Valley the attractiveness of a "Bazaar" Oriental in the words of a venture capitalist. At the rate of a dozen monthly events and a quarantine of visitors per day, from the region and elsewhere, the & Plug and Play Center became a place of meetings between entrepreneurs, investors, businesses and universities. "It is an environment conducive to the exchange of ideas and know-how, which also provides young start-ups contact facilities," said Jeff Crowe, partner at Norwest Venture Partners (NVP) and active member of the network developed by the centre.

Privileged relations

The & Plug and Play Center boasts privileged relations with some 30 of venture capitalists, including veterans of the Silicon Valley as Tim Draper (Draper Fisher Jurvetson), and Ron Conway, and 50 companies including eBay and Siemens. Partnerships have been forged with the elite of Stanford University, Cornell, MIT and Harvard. An entrepreneur in residence program launched last month aims to provide young entrepreneurs of the mentors with a solid experience in Silicon Valley. On the 700 million dollars of investment received these past three years by the start-ups in the centre, Saeed Amidi and his team attribute about half of personal introductions that they have provided them. Arrived in January 2007 for a space equipped with hand and configurable keys with the growth of the team, Lending Club lifted from 28 million in venture capital. "Saeed presented us the investor that led our first fundraising, Norwest Venture Partners, and our key, PayPal partner", says Renaud Laplanche, founder and CEO of the network of individual loans in particular.

For their part, the venture capitalists welcome access to a nursery of start-up companies sorted on the pane. "What they have created is unique in the Silicon Valley attracts world.". "Result, they have the means to choose their foals according to criteria which are guarantees of quality", said Jeff Crowe of NVP. His firm, which has invested in five start-up housed in the centre, travels to Sunnyvale at least once per month as to assess the potential of new recruits.

Saeed Amidi shares the interests of its investor partners: his own company, Amidzad, carries out investment of 100,000 dollars on average boot among the start-up of the centre. He has invested in 60 start-ups, including 16 last year. Since the month of January, he asked the American newcomers who received still no funding to him to consent, as well as rental fees, 1 of their capital.

Saeed Amidi will not retreating to beads "made in Silicon Valley". Six months ago, the centre has an international strategy to public authorities, chambers of commerce and the universities of the Finland to Singapore. Since then, he has allowed 26 foreign start-up and goal of 60 by the end of the year. The flag of the Canada, which opened in late March, expects to receive between 12 and 20 companies. That of the Chamber of commerce of Barcelona, planned for 10 start-up already has four. The city of Lille must to follow suit current April..