I was trained in a scientific field, as after preparatory class I attended an engineering school, then I joined the polytechnic School in 1999, I left again in 2002, I left there and concentrated on another part of a dream which was in fact the training. Therefore I became integrated in the airforce with the body of air officers. After a year I realised that it was not the path which suited me the best and as I had undertaken at the same time a DEA in maths, I started again this second part, I rejoined the body of armament and I worked on navigation problems, very high performance on one hand, and at the same time, in the environment of a thesis at school on the mines in Paris, on the use low cost inertial sensors. Therefore, once more my journey, let's say, is both scientific and technical with an engineering training at the Polytechnic School and then a doctorate at MINES ParisTech. It is in fact extremely important to talk about this technnological aspect because we have, let's say, this engineering training, where we are very involved in the scientific development part, the key point and the main part of the group, is the technology we meet at the point when we are going to invest time, when we are going to invest energy, and finally it is what is going to make us believe in starting up. Overall, the fact that we have found at a chosen moment something which justifies being able to change the state of the market. So, if we take a small look at what exactly used to be the market, today when we talk about navigation or location for what is application of a large public, we think of infrastructure systems, of GPS type and without doubt of GPS first. Then, when we take an interest in professional applications, we realise that as soon as the notion of availability or of criticality is present, there are no GPS any longer and globally it is the same for infrastructure network. We run into systems on which, in which sorry, we are going to have much more expensive sensors, we call it inertial navigation and that is what we find for example in the submarines, in hunting planes or airliners etc. Roughly we have two large catégories : what rather concerns the general public and who is not critical where we are going to find GPS let's at a low price and that is what we are finding with our telephones, and on the other hand professional applications for which the security and the availability are at stake and this particular time we will have more expensive solutions. And the market is a bit divided in those aspects, and if we look at a usage point of view this time, the need is for everyone to have all the same availability and to have a certain level of security for all. When I talk about availability, I enter a building today, or I enter a station, or I enter a half sheltered area, I am going to lose my GPS signal, I am going to lose my location, without doubt loose also a part of the precision, in other words, I am going to have a signal that I don't trust any longer and that is something that is annoying. Then it is certainly true for a professional application, a fire who enters a building on fire and that we are not able to find because we don't have its location is critical. But even for ourselves, when we go to a station platform, it is a problem not being to find our location. And today, it is difficult to comprehend, that there are no great actor in the field of telephony for large public, might it be Google or other who is not interested in these inside navigation problems. Therefore, if I go back to the subject of tecnology and on what we have done, the key, is to be able to, from low cost sensors, such as the ones we find in electronics for large public, to extract a speed information, precisely from magnetic input we are to measure with the help of several sensors, and this speed information allows to reconstitute the trajectory. And today it is the only path we know to retrieve a trajectory information from low cost sensors, all put aside, everything to do with infrastructure, in other words radio systems. It allows to have the same characteristics that a very expensive systems and of high quality, completely inaccessible to the large public applications and on a much larger spectre. Roughly, where we talk of a system of a dozen even hundreds thousands euros, we can place ourselves in a system which will vary, according to the quantities, between a few dozen euros, and some thousands euros. Therefore it is on a completely different scale. When we look then at the way we have developed the technology and the area where it was developed, we worked then for the Ministry of Defense with problems which were the ones linked to the military. It is those applications we had in mind when we built the technology. I give you one example, when I take troops to the battle field, to build my progress, I must have access to the location information for each unit, and so I have to digitise the battle field, and with this particular logic, I need to reload the location information, which I am going to get back. This location information is obtained by default with the GPS, which itself is confused, either directly through opposite strengths, or through the unit which is spread to avoid having to face arms or munitions which could be guided using the GPS. So here we are talking about an application let's say military, the key point of this technology and one of the extremely important points, is the the character that can be used on a great number of civil or professional applications in other words from the moment I use the sensors, which are not regulated, from the moment or roughly the use is free and from the moment the cost is compatible for different applications, I find myself being able to deal with general public questions, typically we can think of the location of Parrot AR.Drone, on which we have worked, the fact that we are able to measure a speed with precision in a room, we can think of the location of the pedestrians in a commercial area, like it is possible nowadays with a smartphone, or in differents areas, but also all the professional applications with half way costs we are going to find like, for example, mining vehicles, or things which are going to be rather linked to the optimisation of the fleet or to the security, one can think also about automation applications of vehicles, in this case with a productivity gain, I thought especially about the automation of harbour vehicles. So we are going to find in fact, in practicaly all industrial areas, a certain number of applications where the location is often used for questions either of fleet management, optimisation, security, or automation. And this, is the field really linked to the navigation, and after there is another part which is, globally, an access to speed information, I can for example measure the activity. It is one of the applications we have in the medical field, at the Pitié Salpêtrière, in other words to be able to give a diagnostic on a patient from measures we are going to take for their recovery, angular speed, of his speed etc. So finally, it opens a field of use for a device which goes well beyond the only comparaison with the location we could obtain by other means. I think that as scientists we have a initiative where at a given moment we feel that we have, let's say, proved the concept, or have otherwise something that works. Between "what works" from the researcher who has discovered something in his laboratory and "what works" from the industry which takes him on, there is a relatively long path which has not always been measured justly at the beginning. I think that it is a point which is important in the initiative we were able to show. So, realistically, when I left the Ministry of Defence what we had was a really stuttering system, roughly, a simulation, a few simulations we were able to show, and a model at an extremely weak level of maturity. Roughly, we were able to improve the system a few notches and manage to reconstitute a trajectory not scaling up, not building of finished model, not being used, let's say operational, so we were at a very early stage, of technology. What makes us decide from there? I think that deeply, there is this belief and it is truly the key, when we embark on a scientific innovation, to be convinced that the technology we have, is a technology, let's say, which is key to the markets, which is going to be extremely difficult for someone else to redo without have to prove it, because during a big part of the way, and it has been our case, in fact it is in the heart of technology that is going to own the company and that is going to allow to build the rest. which means that finally, this is the differentiating key element and the value we can rely on, and when I talk about this heart of technology, and what also goes with it, it is the people who are able to develop it, in other words the starting team who is able to build it. When I look at the ingredients we had at the beginning, we believed in this technology which was whole. And the results we have obtained since show that, whereas many thought it wouldn't work, in fact the heart of technology was valid, that is the first point. And the second, is that at the time of creation, I had around me a team which was already set up and one can think that, there were a lot of former school students, one can think that the profiles were similar, with time we realise that the profile had a base and a common base which is extremely important, but they were relatively different in the way in which they were then built. And I would say that it was the two key ingredients, in other words technology on one hand and the team on the other. From the time we had those elements and a certain wish to build a project, the rest is quite logical. I would say then that there were several steps. The very first one, in other words I begin to play, what do I have, what will help me to move on? At the beginning, when we started, it was the first years of work, a few avaialble funds so globally the company had to generate business almost straight away, and it had to be profitable, or find another way to finance. As I told you, the profile of the persons present was rather technical our ability to undertake research work and to develop were important, our ability to show, let's say to build a business plan was a lot weaker. Therefore we took a path which was obvious to us at the beginning, which was to say that we are going to build our technology, we are going to build our intellectual ownership in partnership with big accounts or EDI ; and it is with those partnerships that we are going to generate business, that we are going to establish technonology step by step. Therefore we had in fact during the first three years a model which was mixed, during which we have executed a part of the engineering work for the account of others, with the help of exclusive licences on certain areas, or by receiving complete engineering benefits in the navigation field on subjects which didn't affect us directly. This is the first part. And at the same time we have managed to build our technology, in other words to introduce the first equipment. Secondly the time when the first equipment was completed, it is the one which was started a year and a half ago. It was, with the vehicle equipment, meaning the ability to locate a vehicle without infrastructure, without GPS, whatever the environmnet data on one hand, and on the other hand to measure the activity of a person, as I mentionned, similar without element of infrastructure. At this precise moment, we have changed the tendancy; roughly, we have started to focus our efforts exclusively on the part of development of the equipment. We continue to undertake work with partners ; we continue to ensure our financial balance with a surplus; but in a logic in which at the end, there is always the building of an equipment, and this time a Sysnav equipment. I would then say that there are two important steps, and the third one which begins: it is the one when we are going to look for, only this time, markets which have enough depth and on which we are able to build. In other words the type of markets we are dealing with, in one instance the position of the partners is a key factor, meaning that they must be able to finance a part of the development, they must be able to buy a system. Secondly, we are looking at a market for which one must arrive with a system already finished, to be able to finance the development ourselves. I would say that what has guided us is: the maturity of the technology we have grown step by step ; and the second was our ability to sell something on the market. At a given time, it was an ability by engineers; at another time, it was the ownership associated with the prototypes we have included in the systems built by others; and thirdly, it is our own equipment; and that is what creates a balance. And if I must draw a line, the logic is the one that miniutarise the technology, it is a logic which reduce technology, and is is a logic which increases performance. Therefore, we are getting closer to a world of niche applications heading towards applications which are larger and for the general public. This ressembled the team at the beginning and which allowed to constitute it, that was roughly: we had the technological side, in today's objectives people from Sysnav, there is the bulding of a company based on new technology. I believe that technology still remains at the heart of the activity of the company. We don't evolve towards a technology taken by the market; we change the way of aproaching the market, and we keep our base in the heart of the technology. The second was the setting up of a project; in other words in the way we move thing along, opportunity for training and personal improvement are present in everyone of us; and this, goes towards building a industrial and sustainable company, with the training of the group of elements being necessary. I would say the second point is important nowadays, it is this building aspect: I build on a technology, but I am starting up a viable company, in the sense that it is able to be present in these markets at a given time, independently from the people who have built it. It is the second step which is important. I believe that the third one remains a key point, it is the personal leisure part to be part of a phase where we are always learning, to have an impact is the key point of the structure, because it stays small, because it remains dependent on the people who are in it, who made it happen and made it grow. And I believe this is the third engine, and it is what allows us nowadays to have profiles all being exceptional, it is the impact that one can have on the structure, by telling ourselves: if only tomorrow we go on to the next step, tomorrow I would have contributed to an important part. The first point which seems a key point for a technology company: is to really believe in the technology we are using, because once more, there are a lot ot times when we have paused on this asking ourselves: the fact of having that technology, the fact of being the only ones to have it, and the fact that it allows to move in the market in the areas where others can't go, this is what has kept us and helped us tell ourselves: we will manage in any way. This is a first point. The second, is that it is necessary to persevere when one chooses to create a company. It is a long path, it also looks a little bit like Russian mountains; there are roughly days when everything is positive, when everything is fine, when we feel that tomorrow everything will explode, and the next day when the troubles come from one side to the other, and doesn't seem to go away. Whatever the situation, I will in the end say that, the age of the company; this particular part I have seen it change from the start until now. My behaviour has changed posed by events, but on the other hand still has this rocking effect with high and low points. I would then say, the third, is not to be afraid. because all things considered there is no reason to be afraid. This experience is extraordinary from all points of view it is enriching and allows to move on quickly, on a personal level and for the people I had around me, roughly it is the acceleration of the training which is absolutely extraordinary, it is a worthwhile experience.
