Gregoire Viasnoff is the VP of the Incubation practice of SE Ventures which is a corporate arm of Schneider Electric having 1B+ Assets under management focused on sustainability, energy management and Industry 4.0. Gregoire and his team are transforming ideas into scalable and independent VC backed start-ups. They incubate around 2 companies per year and their young portfolio already includes 1 unicorn: Verkor, 3 exits (EiQ to NextEra, Aplines and Dash Energy to Schneider Electric) and 5 promising seed ventures.

Join Host Alex Shartsis in this episode as Gregoire shares insights into how SE Ventures supports startups from ideation to later stages, emphasizing their ability to provide funding, expertise, and commercial agreements tailored to each company's needs. They talk about the value of deep market insights in shaping successful products, the importance of quality over quantity, timing, and founder motivation in selecting and nurturing startups for success. Gregoire also shares his best practices for founders aiming to build scalable and global companies.

Show Notes:

0:00 Introduction

1:05 Gregoire's journey to corporate VC

7:01 Schneider Electric's presence in energy management

8:58 SE Ventures' approach to accelerating startups

10:34 SE Ventures' support from ideation to later stages

14:35 Investment motivation and decision-making at SE Ventures

25:33 Success story: Verkor and gigafactory investment

27:56 Creating ventures through incubation

49:17 Best practices for founders: Curiosity, team building, and global mindsetGuest: Gregoire Viasnoff (linkedin.com/in/viasnoff/)

Host: Alex Shartsis (linkedin.com/in/shartsis)

Audio Engineer & Video Editor - James Fixx (fixxmusic.com)Music by the Great White Shark (Shark Shartsis)

The Seed to Sequoia podcast is created by Silverwood Advisors to help founders with practical advice on building successful startups.

If you would like to get expert advice for your startup reach out to us on:

Website: silverwood.ai

Linkedin: linkedin.com/company/silverwood-advisors