Dan Serfaty

Dan Serfaty[1] (born February 5th 1966 in Strasbourg, France) is a French entrepreneur and businessman.

Dan Serfaty
Alma materHEC Paris
OccupationCEO of Viadeo

He is best known as the co-founder and CEO of the professional social network Viadeo.

Biography

After graduating from HEC Paris (Hautes études commerciales, Paris, France) Entrepreneurship program in 1987, Dan Serfaty spent 2 years abroad before starting his entrepreneurial life. In 1989, he acquired a company in the tourism sector, which he turned profitable before selling it in 1991.

At the same time, he co-founded a company specializing in the distribution of imported clothing products from Asia, which he sold 10 years later.[2]

In 2000, he founded Aggregator,[3] a club dedicated to entrepreneurs, helping them share their experiences, ideas, and contacts with other club members. Uniquely, most of Aggregator's members were the CEOs of small companies, financed by venture capital, bringing them liquidity and private equity returns.

The Aggregator experience was the context where Dan developed the idea for a business-oriented social network, while working originally on some software that would allow club members to access each other's contacts.[4]

In 2004, with Thierry Lunati, he co-founded Viaduc–the original name of Viadeo–investing part of the first 5 million euros raised for Aggregator. In 2006, Viaduc became Viadeo,[5] as the company was aiming toward worldwide development, including launching its English and Italian versions. With over 60 million users worldwide, Viadeo is the second largest professional social network.[6]

In 2007, Viadeo expanded to China with the acquisition of Tianji.com, a local social networking site counting 1.3 million users at that time. Tianji.com rapidly grew its user base, reaching 8 million in 2011.

In 2016, after a failed attempt to conquer international markets, Dan Serfaty left the company which was taken over by Le Figaro. In the same year, he founded Artur'In, an AI-based platform to help real-estate professionals deploy an advanced digital marketing solution, along with Melissa Serfaty, Philippe Jochem, Pierre-Emmanuel Servant, Rodolphe Gougaud and Thierry Lunati.[7]

gollark: > well, they fail at a simple biological function that basically every human in the past generations has been able to do. breeding is a very basic function that every human is set ot do at birthI mean, as I said, I care about things beyond "having children" and so do most people.
gollark: > i cant read this fastread faster.
gollark: It's free on his website somewhere.
gollark: Blindsight by Peter Watts.
gollark: I actually read (some of) a book vaguely about that.

References
  1. "Biographie Dan Serfaty". Whoswho.fr. Retrieved 23 July 2012.
  2. "Speakers | EASDP". Eadp.org. Archived from the original on 25 February 2012. Retrieved 23 July 2012.
  3. "JL Watine, Business coach finance d'entreprise: Viadéo, Aggregator: réseau social et club des Entrepreneurs, Dan Serfaty, HEC, l'a fait !". Watine.typepad.com. Archived from the original on 19 August 2013. Retrieved 23 July 2012.
  4. "News on the Social Networking and Social Media Industry: Viadeo, Dan Serfaty, CEO & Founder – Interview". Social Networking Watch. 19 September 2007. Retrieved 23 July 2012.
  5. "Viaduc, le LinkedIn français, devient Viadeo". Clubic.com. 5 December 2006. Retrieved 23 July 2012.
  6. "Viadeo". Viadeo.com. APVO Corp. 2014. Retrieved 15 August 2014.
  7. https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/artur-in
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