San Francisco is an infinite source of inspiration

What about you, what are the places that inspire you?

Back in 2020, when I just started Ponicode. French version here.

With undisguised pleasure, I went once again to San Francisco and its surrounding areas :) Ponicode is in its launch phase after our private beta for generating unit tests in JavaScript in VS Code. I had to continue our demonstration efforts to verify that our solution meets the expectations of experts and advanced users. Beyond this trip, there is no equivalent to San Francisco that inspires me infinitely. This city, on the edge of a splendid bay, combines both a Californian lifestyle and a passion for technology. San Francisco is the origin of all the ideas that have changed my professional life! And you, do you know of any places that inspire you?

When a study trip transforms me into an entrepreneur

This story began more than 10 years ago, when I attended an EBC - Executive Briefing Center - as part of my job in a bank. Cisco had organized a tour with presentations on technologies, trends, and everything we needed to anticipate for the years to come. It was a very informative but also very entertaining moment with some well-organized visits to discover the city. My colleagues and I didn't miss the opportunity to explore San Francisco and the Silicon Valley with demonstrations that were more incredible than the others. One evening, a dinner was organized with some Cisco executives to get to know each other better and to make us dream even more. The conversations were intense and focused on problems related to data transfer volumes from data centers with flow constraints... You may think that it's not that exciting! :) And yet! That day was an epiphany for me! The dinner showed me that the problems Cisco had to solve were problems that European companies would have to solve in 3 to 5 years, if not more. This showed me, by example, the special place that Silicon Valley occupies in the digital world. How can we imagine inventing technologies on our side of the Atlantic when the same issues have not only been analyzed but also resolved a few years earlier on the Californian coast? This dinner planted a seed of innovation and entrepreneurship in me that has not stopped growing since then! ;)

The Japanese Garden of Golden Gate Park: the beginning of the Beamap adventure

After this first trip to San Francisco, I had to go back to better understand it. It has been a recurring thing for over 10 years now with at least 1 or 2 trips per year, and sometimes even more! Back in San Francisco for another study trip on Cloud Computing, in early 2011, I tried to take a step back on the trends that were presented to me and especially the problems that were ahead of us. After the seminar, I stayed a few days to enjoy the city and the north of the bay like Sausalito (one of my favorite viewpoints) but also a hike in the redwood forest in Muir Woods. While exploring San Francisco, I discovered the Japanese Garden of Golden Gate Park. What a joy! The site exudes serenity, calmness, and harmony. After a soothing walk, I took the time for tea. Here I was with some ideas, taking some notes, and BANG! an inspiration hit me with such force that I couldn't stop thinking about it! The wave of Cloud Computing was so important, the stakes were so high, I had to help companies succeed in their transition to Cloud Computing! Beamap was born.

From Cloud Computing to Artificial Intelligence

With my first company, Beamap, I learned the ropes of entrepreneurship. The opportunity for a sale arose and to celebrate that, I organized a trip to... San Francisco! :) It was not only a great opportunity to celebrate the new Beamap with my managers, but also for me to find a new source of inspiration. Guess what? During that trip, we discussed topics that were emerging in 2014... Artificial intelligence