UpStart Europe conference opened last April in Paris with keynotes from number of people with a claim to having played a revolutionary role in the technology business. I went to Paris to attend the conference, in order to try and raise funding for my own venture, and perhaps in addition to learn something from some of the most successful entrepreneurs in Internet arena. I was most excited to meet with Omidyar, I was gratified on both account.
First off to speak was Pierre Omidyar, the French- Iranian born entrepreneur who founded eBay in the US. In a speech that concentrated on the success of his own company he spoke of the brutal forces of evolution that "selected out" weak business models on the Internet.
Omidyar contrasted the approach of his own company with Amazon and Yahoo, which also offer trading platforms. Omidyar said that while Amazon spent vast sums on marketing and Yahoo could offer its own auction its massive brand awareness, eBay had built itself through its interest in grass roots customers. Ebay looked to build on this community approach through a network of local sites.
Though US-based, the company is enjoying success in Europe, notably Germany. eBay, which is targeting the five largest Internet markets outside of the US, rather than opting for blanket coverage, currently has a greater sales volume through its German operation than all the other online trading companies have globally, Omidyar said.
After his keynotes I managed to catch him and I introduced BIBA to him, I found him a true professional. Omidyar’s own word confirmed that he owns shade over 30% of the company, and for that his wealth will put him most certainly the the No 1 in the Iranian living outside Iran. For someone that having build eBay to be one of the top 10 great Internet Companies, He has now earned an status that is most certainly hard to match by any one in my book.
If there is such a thing as modern-day fairy tales, Pierre Omidyar's life would be the first to go down in the story books. The 31-year old Franco-American almost accidentally turned a weekend hobby of website tinkering into what is now a $12 billion company. Born in Paris, where he lived until he was six, Omidyar moved to California as a boy and has stayed there ever since. That is, until now. A few months ago, he and his wife upped stakes and moved back to the City of Light. "I always wanted to come back here," explains Omidyar in eBay's temporary offices near he Arc de Triomphe. "The French have a different point of view on life."
From his laid-back aura and well-worn polo shirt, to his willingness to spend almost an hour talking about his life, chatting with Pierre doesn't feel like talking to one of America's youngest billionaires. In fact, long before you ponder his enormous financial success, you realize he's a supremely likeable guy.
Pierre M. Omidyar.
Omidyar started eBay in September 1995, only it wasn't called eBay then, but Auction Web. The service was just a website that Pierre created "on nights and weekends" to enable his wife to trade Pez candy dispensers with other collectors, but it quickly grew into a popular free site where users auctioned goods they might otherwise have hawked at a garage sale.
By February 1996, the site had become so popular that the ISP hosting it demanded Omidyar take out a more expensive hosting agreement. That's when Pierre started charging users to trade via the site. The checks kept flowing into his home mailbox, and by spring, "the checks totaled more than my salary from my day job," he explains. "I was just doing all this as a hobby, but by spring 1996, I realized I had to get serious." The company grew up on its own, says Omidyar, "it wasn't a plan."
Not exactly the typical way an entrepreneur goes about starting a company, but then Omidyar had no intention of turning Auction Web into a real business. He was writing code at General Magic when he started eBay, but before that, Pierre had helped found a company called eShop in 1991, which was sold to Microsoft in 1996. "I got the whole startup experience there," Omidyar says, adding, "it was fun, but I realized it was just too difficult to run a company."
His reluctance to run a company may in fact be one of eBay's saving graces. The firm is one of the few profitable Internet companies around and Pierre chalks that up to tip-top management. "I don't know how to run a large company," he says, "finding Meg (Meg Whitman, president and CEO of eBay) was crucial." Many entrepreneurs, he claims, are too reluctant to give up control of their companies, but ceding management to more experienced people is probably one of the best decisions an entrepreneur can make. "Nothing is better than finding the right people, it frees you up to think about the future, and if you don't let go, you can't succeed."
From his roost in Paris, Pierre will still have an active role in eBay's development, but he also plans to spend more time on philanthropic projects. Having a lot of money is great, he says, "but it's also a big responsibility." He's setting up several charitable foundations with his wife, as well as turning his attention towards the plight of entrepreneurs held back by the business climate across Europe.
"My interest lies in helping encourage entrepreneurship," Omidyar says. Germany is ahead in terms of enabling entrepreneurship, but France is "one of the worst" when it comes to barriers to starting successful companies, he says. The whole startup scene in Europe "is a lot like it was in the old days in the US, the Internet is really happening now," he says. But while the energy may be there, the infrastructure for supporting startups hasn't necessarily kept pace.
Pierre spends a lot of time thinking these days, mapping out eBay's international strategy with a goal to create "a single global marketplace." When he's not working, he's collecting - Tin Tin figurines are his passion.
"I have the best job in the world these days, I could have an impact on the global economy," he muses, "besides, I don't have to worry about the little details."
The 1999 Visionary Awards were presented to:
Front row: Pierre Omidyar, Kaye Caldwell, Doug Engelbart, Ann Winblad
Back row: Steve Savignano (standing in for Marc Andreesson)
Sandy Herz (SDForum's Executive Director), James Gosling, Bill Gates