 So welcome back. This session on creating an open climate for entrepreneurship will be chaired by my good friend Georg Greve And I think I'll use the trick that that Tony Kornford used in the in the last session where I invite you to look at the official biog that we have of the speakers and I can just say that Georg is one of those people that you You really don't know how he manages to to do it all In addition to all that's mentioned here, you know, he has One-year-old twins he bakes sourdough bread All these things, you know, you could easily hate him if he was it wasn't so nice. So We've also asked because we originally had four speakers on this panel. I Have asked Georg to go beyond his role as a moderator and also share some of his experiences Since they are relevant to this session as well. So Georg Thank you, sir Chico actually When you asked me to To say a few words from like a personal perspective as a lead-in to the whole entrepreneurship section And I foolishly said yes immediately I didn't realize that actually the whole reflection about what all of this means to me would give me a bit of a sleepless night Which it did in fact but I've tried to kind of put together some of the thoughts of what to me Make it special or what is what is special about entrepreneurship as a lead-in for our extraordinary speakers Today and in fact, I'm very much looking forward to hearing their individual perspectives the part for me about being an entrepreneur is that Actually, I didn't realize I was one until I don't know fairly recently actually and That maybe has to do with the fact that when I grew up I never wanted to be a manager, you know, like Somehow I hadn't quite that Distinction down what is different between managers and entrepreneurs and somehow it all looked like managers to me And that is something I didn't not did not want to do because the pure maximization of Of money did not seem to be a worthwhile goal to pursue in life So, you know that alone I mean yes money is nice it solves many problems It makes for a convenient lifestyle if you have it all that is true But it's not a goal in life So the difference for me why I now consider myself an entrepreneur is that I understand entrepreneurship to actually be about a whole set of different values The first thing that to me characterizes the entrepreneur is what you would call the plunge You know if you actually want to start something meaningful You actually have to go for it in the sense of really really Dedicate yourself to this thing which is an experience that I made when I started the first of the foundation Europe I'm being a physicist having a In fact masters in physics biophysics. I did my diploma thesis Leading up to a PhD position in a nanotechnology lab. It was just being built up and I actually turned my back on all of that because I Felt that there was a greater calling in a way in building something that was important and That actually had value to me Which was the free software foundation Europe which is an organization that I felt had to exist But didn't and I didn't see anyone else doing it So I you know, I took the plunge, you know both in career options as well as in personal finance I mean the whole endeavor left me brother in the red to be honest Which I recovered later through other activities But this was really the whole thing of you know I'm gonna create something that's worthwhile and that to me actually is the hallmark of the true entrepreneur It is the passion for what you're doing in every single entrepreneur that I have seen over the course Of the years now They all share an intense of passion for what they do. It is Not just a job because frankly Starting something like this is a whole lot of work. I mean You end up working 12 13 hours seven days a week. I had years where I was home for less than a hundred days You know, it's a lot of work You don't do that lightly. It's not just for the money you do it because you actually believe in this you want to make a difference in something you believe in the necessity of what you are actually doing and It's about Rising to the challenge that you have set for yourself which characterizes to me very much what entrepreneurs are about we try to Somehow make a change for the better which however way you define better for yourself That's your own personal calling but in the end it's about making that change And this reminded me of a quote. In fact when I was tossing and turning last night That has always inspired me and actually characterizes some of this Which is by George Bernard Shaw Where the reasonable man adapts himself to the world the unresolvable man persists and trying to adapt the world to himself therefore all progress depends on the unness unreasonable man and You know, obviously it's unreasonable men and women I mean, I guess those were the days where you know people were not paying that much attention to those details, but In the end entrepreneurs are unreasonable in the best possible sense and In some extent it is Unreasonable what we do. I mean I Started the company with a wife pregnant with twins Simultaneously, I knew this would be hell to pay in terms of time but you know You go for it anyway. I mean in fact it's unreasonable to start an IT business at all today in a way Starting an IT business is really really unreasonable because if you know if you succeed Someone can come and just destroy it all because of software patents. For instance, we all know doing software makes you vulnerable to software patents period It's not about whether you're vulnerable. It's about whether you have enough to take Whether someone is gonna come or not That's the question. It's not the question of whether you're vulnerable whether you can be sued In fact, just the threat of a lawsuit is often enough to deter your customers. So yes It's totally unreasonable to start a business in this field these days. It's actually totally unreasonable to do so yet the entrepreneur chooses to do so and The question therefore of this session to me is How do we encourage the people that are so unreasonable? How do we create an environment in which their unreason can really bear fruit for society? That is what this session is about to me And we're gonna have three excellent perspectives here on that we have, you know, three gloriously unreasonable people here Each of them succeeding in their own way as an entrepreneur in fact serial entrepreneurs in fact and So Fabien is gonna start off with the perspective of how he started the open ERP business and How it is actually also possible to make money from free software So he's answering one very important question that I got asked in my previous job many times And we're then gonna go over to Laura who's gonna give us a bit of the systematic perspective of How does all of this tie together on a social level? How is this systematically related? How do we address or not address the right priorities and We're gonna then go to Chris who's gonna show us how through entrepreneurial activity a new field for entrepreneurs is actually created and So I'm very much looking forward to all three presentations and Please Fabien if you will you're up next