Today's Entrepreneur: Matthieu Dejardins

Today's Entrepreneur is Matthieu Dejardins, CEO and Founder of NextUser, which empowers marketers to deliver automated multichannel user experiences that are relevant and timely leveraging the  proprietary user profiling and decision engine.

NextUser bridges the gap between Business Intelligence and Customer Relationship Management; providing the next generation analytics and marketing platform that improves the on-line customer experience and maximizes conversion and lifetime value.

NextUser is one of the top 15 finalist to present at Splash Oakland on May 6-7. Be sure to support Dejardins and NextUser. Register here.

Here's a look at his entrepreneurial background.

Companies I've founded or co-founded:

NextUser, Compudirect

Companies I work or worked for:

art.com, Dell, seagate technologies, american express, Sanofi Aventis

Frequently distinguished for exceeding business objectives:

DELL Circle of Excellence ('05), Interactive Brands Yearly Award ('07), Art.com New Recruit of the Year Award ('10).

If you are an entrepreneur, why?

I want to change the world.

My favorite startups:

Stripe, AdaptivePath, Dash, MarketMotive

What's most frustrating and rewarding about entrepreneurship/innovation?

While creating a platform, it's frustrating to not be able to accelerate our technology development or clone key members 
It's rewarding to share your vision with your team and have them motivated when they understand the big picture, even better, advocating for the business in front of customers.

What are the top three lessons you've learned as an entrepreneur?

* Be lean until you get an MVP and see market traction for your solution or product 
* Your network is your net value - build relationships including though-leadership techniques 
* Your first team members will define your core culture. They would also inspire confidence for the next hires or investors. You need A-level!

Full bio

Matthieu Dejardins has nearly 15 years of experience in the e-commerce and technology industry. He began his career at DELL Computers, where he achieved a 400 percent growth in sales in 30 months and was recipient of Dell’s Yearly performance award (2004) for achieving best margin and revenue among the European Distribution Business segment.

In 2005, Dejardins relocated to Moscow to open the first DELL Computer online store in Russia, where he spearheaded a joint venture partnership between Ozon.ru (Russia's first e-Commerce Site) and Direct Group. He also launched new IT information portals in collaboration with Nielsen Company & Gawker Media.

Dejardins later spent two years in Canada championing strategic positioning and sales of custom PDF software for a Montreal-based startup, Interactive Brands, achieving a 245 percent YOY increase in sales.

To take advantage of the Silicon Valley venture funding and start up environment, Dejardins relocated to California In 2009, working for Seagate Technologies, he launched three online stores in Europe and later became the Head of Analytics and Testing for Art.com.

Dejardins concepted the primary version of the NextUser platform based on these experiences in E-commerce, global online business operations and web analytics.

Known as resourceful, versatile, analytical with an entrepreneurial flair, Dejardins successfully completed the Founder Institute (Start-up incubator program) in 2012. He earned a bachelor’s degree in International Marketing & Finance from ESCE in Paris and a master’s degree in marketing, logistics and distribution from ISC Paris.