Building A Software Company From Toulouse, France: Jacques Soumeillan, CEO Of Cameleon Software (Part 7)

Sramana: Of all the competitors you started out against, it looks as though Selectica is the only one still around. Do you run into them in the marketplace often? Jacques Soumeillan: They don’t have very many customers now. We are looking for some business that they had prior, but we have new competitors now such

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Building A Software Company From Toulouse, France: Jacques Soumeillan, CEO Of Cameleon Software (Part 6)

Sramana: Has the manufacturing business come back? Are you getting sales from the manufacturing companies? Jacques Soumeillan: The manufacturing business is still there. We like to keep our existing customers. We are still developing and improving that product. It is our core knowledge, and we will continue to focus on it.

Building A Software Company From Toulouse, France: Jacques Soumeillan, CEO Of Cameleon Software (Part 5)

Sramana: Did your business stabilize completely around 2004? Jacques Soumeillan: Absolutely. At that time we decided that since we had reduced our workforce from 200 worldwide to 70, we really had to know what our next steps would be. In 2005, we decided to reinvent ourselves a bit.

Building A Software Company From Toulouse, France: Jacques Soumeillan, CEO Of Cameleon Software (Part 4)

Sramana: Tell me more about your decision to take the company public toward the end of the 1990s. Jacques Soumeillan: It was just before the bubble, and I know that some of our U.S.-based competitors went public. They were not much bigger than we were, they had perhaps $20 million in revenue. We went public

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Building A Software Company From Toulouse, France: Jacques Soumeillan, CEO Of Cameleon Software (Part 3)

Sramana: What were you charging initially for your per-seat user license? Jacques Soumeillan: It was around €2,000 per user. We were able to develop a strong business on that model. We started some international enterprise resource planning (ERP) vendors outside of France primarily because of that success. Our international work started in Montreal and Chicago.

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Building A Software Company From Toulouse, France: Jacques Soumeillan, CEO Of Cameleon Software (Part 2)

Sramana: Were you intending to sell primarily to manufacturing companies in the South of France? Jacques Soumeillan: We were selling very quickly throughout all of France. We did focus on selling to manufacturing companies.

Building A Software Company From Toulouse, France: Jacques Soumeillan, CEO Of Cameleon Software (Part 1)

Sramana: Jacques, to start, let’s go over your background. Where do you come from? Jacques Soumeillan: I am from Toulouse. My parents came to Toulouse from the countryside, so I was raised in the city with a very modest upbringing. I did all of my studies here, including college. I was able to study engineering

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Capturing Intent In Non-Search Performance Marketing: Zephrin Lasker, CEO Of Pontiflex (Part 7)

Sramana: How much funding have your raised so far? Zephrin Lasker: We have raised under $9 million, and we have generated three times more revenue than capital raised. We are profitable month to month, but we will be investing a lot in the business this year.