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LONGMONT-BASED INCUBATOR SIGNS AGREEMENT WITH COUNTERPART IN GRENOBLE FRANCE
Denver, July 23, 2010 – The Longmont Entrepreneurial Network (LEN), a Longmont, Colorado-based innovative technology incubator focused on assisting new start up companies in the fields of software, bioscience and biomass develop, grow and become profitable and sustainable, announced today that it has signed a strategic collaboration agreement with PETALE of Grenoble (Rhône-Alpes), France.
Alex Sammoury, Executive Director of the Longmont Entrepreneurial Network declared, “This collaboration signifies an opportunity for Colorado companies to get more acquainted with doing business overseas and particularly in France. Our goal is to help companies expand their network through partnerships.”
Created in 2002, LEN’s mission and goal is to help innovative entrepreneurs build sustainable and profitable businesses. To date LEN has assisted over 50 startups.
Gilles Talbotier, Managing Director of PETALE, an organization in Grenoble that incubates start-up companies, affirmed, “Working in conjunction with LEN gives our member companies easier access to the U.S. market. French high-tech start-ups face stiff competition. They need to know in advance if their product has a future in the U.S. market. Strengthened by LEN, our members can more easily validate whether or not exporting to the U.S. makes sense. The partnership offers us both incredible advantages.”
PETALE, an acronym for Pepiniere Technologique Alpine d’Entreprises, was formed in 2006. Since its activity to help young French start-ups to develop their businesses launched in 2008, PETALE has succeeded in its mission and has 36 current members coached on matters such as commercial issues, fundraising, and international partnerships.
Both LEN and PETALE recognized the synergies and similarities between their organizations as well as the potential benefits from a collaborative partnership. Each group is concerned with facilitating access to foreign markets and understanding of best practices for their respective clients and members, most notably start-ups in Colorado and in Grenoble, France. The goal is to improve their members’ international competitiveness.
This agreement came about as a direct result of the existing collaboration already in place between AEPI, the Grenoble-Isere France Economic Development Agency, and CORA, the Colorado Rhone-Alpes Economic Development Partnership, which was founded by Denver’s French-American Chamber of Commerce.