19.11.03 - first trip to the Moscow office
18.02.04 - trip to Chicago. First time in the USA. The first person I have met in the US was a taxi driver (no surprise) - a guy from Zaporozhye (a bit of a surprise....) living in US for few year.
1.03.04 - got my Carte de Sejour.... eventually! Hope the renewal wont take another 4 months.... We'll see (hope still to be here in a year time).
May 5- June 6 2004. My parents came to BDX for vacation. Nice time spent together, many places visited.
May 2004 - new assignement - now I am called Business Development and International Integrations Manager. Questions?... Yeah, may sound corny... The idea is that on top of the mission of "integrating" offices with HQ (for those either acquired or grown up), I will be doing business development by creating methodology and tools (in excel for sure;-)) for analyzing opportunity and building business case. Then, after the opportunity is approved by the management (part of the process which I have to design), I will lead initial steps of the opportunity implementation.... Well, if have time - take a look at job description
June-July 2004. After the F round of fundraising I started working (almost full time) on the next acquisitions. Build a database of 100 com;panies,developed a framework for analysis..... had lots of fun implementing "bablo factor" into the analysis framework and in vocabularies of my bosses and colleagues.
Insight Venture partners, our new investors helped us to make intro calls to 20-30 companies, which we then agreed to meet in person. So, I started travelling in Europe (Germany, Ireland, UK) and in US (New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Austin) meeting with the guys we were considering to acquire
August 04. Some short trips to the seaside, San Sebastien (Spain). Leasure time, not so much pressure amids the search for M&A targets.
September 04. Short vacation in Germany and Netherlads. Nice time in Amsterdam. On the final day (litereally on the way back to france) somebody stole 3 bags from our car.... we have discovered it only in Breda (near the boarder with Belgium). Among the things which disapeared was my passport.... Very sad story. I got it back only on October 29.
October 2004. Identified and signed term sheets with two companies. Lots of work since we have signed to term sheets to by 2 companies which objective to finish it by the end of November. A very challenging deadline. Working like hell. Visited Switzerlad (before Yurko Kostrobi let from there) for 3 days - Geneva, Lausanne, Bern, Zurich. Got 5 year visa to the US - both for me and Alenka.
November 2004. More work... Due diligence and preparation for closing for Mobile Scope (German target) and Thumbwokrs (US target). Lots of time (and money) spent with consultants (for due diligence) and lawyers (for a deal structure, etc...).
December 2004. Finalisation of the acquisitions.... preparation to the christmas holidays. For Christmas Alissa Gorilovskaya came over to Paris, but eventually changed her mind to stay with us in Paris and Sweden and jumped promptly to Tenerife.... Sweet life! At least we have spent few days together in Paris and had fun with her and Ilya dub and his friends. They came over to Paris for few leasure days before visiting Vadim Kosin (another our friend from Insead) in Singapore.
January 2005. Started in Sweden with our friends Peter and Olga. Expeced to suffer from cold and snow, but eventually it was not so scare... It was relatively warm (and even too warm - up to 7 degrees Celsius, which is not typical at all for this time in Sweden!). Spent some time in a small town Marie Fred close to Stockholm, for the new year were in some cosy castle. Then till January 7 - in Stockholm and around. None of our intentions related to the winter-type recreation (cross-coutry skiing, snowriding) did not take place due to the lack of snow... not good.
January 2005. After the signing of both aquisitions (early january) I jumped to the US to facilitate integration effort. 10 days in Sothern California - what can be better! Warm and pleasant weather, nice people.... Have been to LA, San-Francisco, drove around a bit and saw friends from Insead and In-Fusio.
January 2005. Since my insurance company refused to extend my car insurance, had to start studying to get french driving license....A bit of a challenge since for me its not only a french driving code, but also a french language class.... Not so much success from the first day (18 mistakes out of 40 questions .... when only 5 mistakes are allowed).
January 2005. Few more days in Germany - to kick-start integration with German company, which was also acquired. Very very nice people, good time, although a bit cold....
February 2005. Integration full steam. Some trips to Moscow. Extended our carte de sejoure. With no major problem. But only for one year...
March 2005. Fantastic skiing trip to french Alps. A week with our freinds Max Gatsuts and Maria. Wow!!! Great .... but a bit too expensive....
More trips to Moscow. Meetings with operators in Moscow and Ukraine.