LOCAL BUSINESS

Young French companies searching for U.S. opportunities

Laura Layden
laura.layden@naplesnews.com; 239-263-4818
At the Naples Accelerator in North Naples on April 24, 2017, Jean-Jacques Fouchet, a vice president for business development with Z3DLAB, shows off his 3-D products made from metal composites.

Three French entrepreneurs are visiting the Naples area with hopes of finding partners and capital to help them expand their businesses in the U.S.

The business owners arrived over the weekend, meeting at the Naples Accelerator in North Naples on Monday for a welcome speech by Collier County Commissioner Penny Taylor and instruction from legal and business experts, who shared information on how to pitch, set up and license their companies in this country.

"Yes, we're a beautiful town. In some ways we're a sleepy town, but it's a perfect town to incubate and create jobs, and that's what we want, " Taylor said.

The visiting companies are based at the Val D'Oise Technopole, an incubator near Paris designed as a launching pad for new businesses. The entrepreneurs are here as part of a France-Naples partnership, which continues to blossom.

Jean-Jacques Fouchet, a co-founder and vice president of business development for startup Z3DLAB, established in January 2014, explained that his company specializes in metal manufacturing with additives, primarily ceramic.

The company has developed two new metal materials, which can be used to create products with a 3-D printer for a variety of industries including medical, aerospace and automotive.

Fouchet eagerly showed off several products including a tiny dental implant with holes in it that he said can help speed up and improve bone growth. "It will hold in place," Fouchet said of his device.

In a small box, he carried other creations with him including a miniature bottle opener.

A close-up of a dental implant made from Z3DLAB's metal composites, using a 3-D printer. The company visited the Naples Accelerator in North Naples on April 24, 2017.

Fouchet isn't just looking for investors, but partners who will be as passionate about growing the business in the U.S. as the company's owners. His company designs the products, but the manufacturing is done in Korea, he said.

With hollow insides, Z3DLAB's medical implants for hips, knees and spinal systems are designed with improved blood flow in mind, which can help the body heal itself faster by promoting more bone growth around the devices, Fouchet said.

Sylvain Laviolette, a CEO and founder of Ezyperf, traveled here with his business partner Michel Le Quinio to learn about opportunities to grow the company's business in the states.

The company's software is designed to help chief financial officers better track key metrics and performance on the go, such as capital expenditures, income, profits and losses.

Laviolette and Quinio both worked for the same company as chief financial officers in different departments before they struck out on their own to create a mobile product they wished they had in their last jobs.

Instead of a clunky Excel spreadsheet, the important information can be accessed on a smart phone in an easy-to-read format.

Laviolette is going after large customers, while Quinio is targeting small to medium-sized ones.

Ezyperf was founded three years ago. The company has one customer in the U.S., apparel manufacturer Hanes.

Laviolette and Quinio hope to get a lot more. In Southwest Florida they'd like to do business with such big companies as Hertz, the rental car giant headquartered in Estero, and Naples-based ACI Worldwide, a provider of real-time electronic payment solutions to financial institutions, merchants, billers and others.

"We need a new customer all the time," Laviolette said. "But we need support to do the work."

Sylvain Laviolette, CEO and founder of Ezyperf, left, and business partner Michel Le Quinio work at the Naples Accelerator in North Naples on April 24, 2017. They are on a business development trip from France.

The company has some aggressive growth plans, with a goal of reaching $10 million in sales within a few years.

"That's why we need to be here," Laviolette said.

On Tuesday the three entrepreneurs will make their elevator pitches to a panel of experts, and over the next two days, they'll learn more about how to do business in the U.S. and Southwest Florida.

Two companies from France that couldn't make it to Naples will make their pitches via Skype to the same panel of judges and get the same kind of feedback as the visiting businesses.

On Thursday the French visitors will go on tours of two area businesses, Kore Wireless, one of the world’s largest managed wireless network service providers specializing in the Internet of Things, and Azimuth Technology, which specializes in precision contract manufacturing for various industries including defense.

"The French companies are always very interested in the manufacturing techniques we are using, as well as the structure of management teams and how these companies also deal with the distribution of product," said Marshall Goodman, president and CEO of Economic Incubators Inc., which oversees the Naples Accelerator. "So the tours are very helpful in giving them a sense of the American structure for doing business."

A tax-supported business center, the Naples Accelerator is designed to help small startups and international companies break into the market with their products and services.

It has already attracted several foreign companies.