Daniel Jarjoura, co-founder and director of StartUp42, selected by the MIT Technology Review
Since 1999, the benchmark MIT Technology Review has compiled an annual list of Innovators Under 35 rewarding Millennials who, in the Americas, Asia and Europe are shaping the future through new technologies. This year, among the personalities selected in Europe, is listed Daniel Jarjoura, co-founder and director of StartUp42. One more example of recognition for this digital start-up accelerator sponsored by EPITA.
How did you find yourself in the MIT Technology Review 2015 list?
Daniel Jarjoura: Innovators Under 35 is a benchmark list offered each year by the popular scientific magazine MIT Technology Review which, as its name states, is published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The community created by the review is broken down each time into three categories: influencers, innovators and jury members. I was contacted by the organisers of the European list to be part of their influencers as they see me as one of the key players in the innovation ecosystem in Europe and in France in particular. They also selected me so that I could assist them in identifying potential candidates for the innovator category and to disseminate more broadly the call for nominations that is issued upstream and its results. In some respects, the influencers lend their support to the profiles selected.
Your presence must make the work of StartUp42 even more legitimate.
It is highly gratifying as the MIT remains the world reference for technological education and the MIT Technology Review has a readership of hundreds of thousands across the globe. This is a further reward of the success enjoyed by StartUp42 over the last two years and of our start-ups’ exceptional results. StartUp42 boasts the creation of 26 start-ups, 1.8 million in total turnover in 2014, more than €2 million in financing including 1.2 million just for Mobeye, one of the start-ups of our first accelerator season. Nominations for our next list closed on 4 March: the list of selected start-ups will be announced on 23 March. For the moment, I can’t say anything, except that for this fifth season, we have received many more nominations for connected devices that are really interesting. The fact that there are more and more early stage start-ups in the field of connected devices is really indicative of enthusiasm surrounding the trend.