Written by Petrean on December 31st, 2009
Spelling mistakes are an encumbrance everywhere: whether in daily life, printed media or, as is very common nowadays, on corporate websites. A professional corporation should have – by definition - a high standard of quality in everything they do (i.e. they should not screw up and big things and especially not on small things).
Now, take a corporation like Heartwood Wealth Management. The company (as its name suggests) is a wealth management company whose purpose is to manage investment portfolios for high net worth individuals (HNWI). Of all the HNWI I have met, one common denominator to them is: they are picky, especially with what they do with their money. This is quite understandable: they worked very hard (or not) to get their wealth and they want to make sure they don’t (excuse my expression) “piss it down the sink”. They would therefore seek out a company like Heartwood who has a demonstrated reputation for excellence and portfolio management. Of course, if I were to give my family wealth to a company, I would probably dig a little deeper and that’s where the cracks on that shiny armor appear: spelling mistakes. If my wealth manager cannot spell simple words, how can you be sure that the orders it will pass on your behalf are correct or that your portfolio has grown by 10% and not 1.0% in that quarterly report…
So into the heart of the subject now, here are the spelling mistakes I have come across on the Heartwood website:
- soltuions
- targetting
You can find many more on this website and other websites such as Newton’s (look for Feburary) and even larger corporations such as Barclays (search: compatability).
In conclusion, there is no excuse for these spelling mistakes, they look cheap and are very easy to spot and cheap to mend (there are many tools that will scan your whole website for them), so get cracking, and correct them all !!
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Written by Petrean on December 22nd, 2009
Jobs applied to: 4 (Société Générale + BNP Paribas Internship + Hawkpoint + http://bit.ly/5SnzBQ)
Jobs for which I am expecting an answer: 3 (Liquid Capital + BarCap + Lindsell Train)
Interviews to organise: 0
Jobs to follow-up: 1 (Standard Chartered)
People who thought I had done brilliantly at the interview but went with someone else: 1 (Heartwood)
Ho, ho, ho !! Merry Christmas to you all. I have come across a few more interesting companies and will be reviewing them soon. I have also decided to drum up my networking efforts and worry (a bit) less about getting a job – after all I am still doing some consulting and – most certainly – will be able to get another contract. As the saying goes ‘Carpe Diem’ 
so enjoy yourselves and see how things go
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Written by Petrean on December 21st, 2009
Jobs applied to: 1 (Lindsell Train)
Jobs for which I am expecting an answer: 3 (Heartwoord + Liquid Capital + BarCap)
Interviews to organise: 0
Jobs to follow-up: 1 (Standard Chartered)
So, as you know, my CV is a bit ‘unusual’ in so much that I would like to work in investment management and my background is a lot more technical (engineering) and consulting (strategy and managent). So for thsi job application, I have tried to ’spice it up’ to try and help me differentiate myself from my competitors and also to help answer the question: ‘why do you want to work in IM and what can you bring?’. Ladies and Gentlement, please find my ‘to the point’ CV here…
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Written by Petrean on December 19th, 2009
Jobs applied to: 1 (BarCap)
Jobs for which I am expecting an answer: 1 (Heartwoord + Liquid Capital)
Interviews to organise: 0
Jobs to follow-up: 1 (Standard Chartered)
So while the world rejoices about the upcoming holidays, I am feeling rather differently…
A lot has happened since my last post: I am now officially the father of a very beautiful little girl: Rosalinde. I have also had a final round interview with Heartwood – an investment director and the head of HR – which I thought went well. The conversation was good, the Chief Investment Officer wanted to double check that their role was a path I wanted to take and I acquiesced. This is the good news. The bad news now is that they were meant to get back to me yesterday with an answer… and they did not, which, in pretty much all countries in the world means “no” 
So sad times ahead as I failed to secure a job before Christmas and have now officially no idea what I am going to be doing in the New Year. As mentionned, I will definitely be moving to London and might end up (as option B suggested) working for MacD :-S The other option I have – which sounds more tempting – is to do an unpaid internship with Hybridan (provided I can get that, which I stopped taking as a given).
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Written by Petrean on December 6th, 2009
I am part of the core team who organised the StartupWeekend in Paris. In all honesty, I was unsure how the event was going to turn out and, having been there since Saturday, I have to say: it’s amazing!
The teams that formed around ideas/problems/needs are just amazing!! They didn’t know each other on Friday evening when they arrived and they are now working together till 5am, having breakfast, debating on business plans…
The only downside to the event has been the lack of sponsorship from lots of early stage Venture Capital firms. We have and thank Sun, Orange, Mappy, Orkos, Altaïde, Metaboli, Planet-Work and La Cantine but all the venture capital firms that we contacted were not interested. I am failing to understand why, since hunting for new businesses and investing in them is their job – if I am mistaken, please correct me.
I can only find two explanations for this phenomenon: either the guys working in these VC firms are not passionate about VC to spend the weekend with entrepreneurs, in which case perhaps you should give me your job; or, the firms don’t have any money to invest, which is a poor argument sincewe asked for €500 upwards AND a lot of our sponsors and members of the jury paid for the entry ticket themselves – so back to point 1.
Despite this lack of enthusiasm from the financial world, the companies and ideas generated there are amazing and I invite you all to check out the live company presentation feed on Sunday evening (I will post the URL here and on twitter/facebook).
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Written by Petrean on December 3rd, 2009
Jobs applied to: 1 (Liquid Capital)
Jobs for which I am expecting an answer: 1 (Heartwoord)
Interviews to organise: 1 (Standard Chartered)
So, today was a good day, my girlfriend is about to give birth, the GM of Mezzo Di Pasta sorted us out regarding food for the StartupWeekend (Thank you Christophe), so all good so far. I have applied for the following position today: Liquid Capital
Is it a job that I want to do for the rest of my life? No. Is it an indirect route to what I want to do: yes (I hope). Let’s see how things go – I am optimistic (ish).
Update: Got through to the final round for Heartwood Wealth, wouhou
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Written by Petrean on December 2nd, 2009
This blog is intended to share my ideas and my thought about good investments, whether specific companies, equities or methods. However, this blog is mine and perhaps it’s time it should be used as a self-inflected motivational tool.
If you have been reading this blog and especially the “About” section, you will have gathered that I am currently looking for a position in the investment world in London. My profile is however proving to be a lot more of a hindrance than an advantage. When I was young during the post-recession years of the 1980s, further studies were an excellent way to more up the ladder and get the job that you really want… well, if you are reading this and are about to embark on a degree: this is a lot of rubbish! I have a top 1st from Warwick, a PhD from Cambridge and an MBA and behold: it is impossible for me to get a job. To be thorough, I should add that I have 2 years experience working in strategy and management consulting, have been active in the entrepreneurial community by volunteering at the Keirestu Forum and co-organising the StartupWeekend. I have also been active in the investment world by managing my own portfolio and attempting to crowdfund the purchase of a company. I have a deep understanding of technology and how companies work especially what works and doesn’t work. I am intelligent (no, I’m not self-indulging, please see my linkedin recommendations) and enjoy meeting, discussing economic, investment, companies topics.
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Written by Petrean on October 20th, 2009
The journey of the rabbit started mid-August after the publication in ‘Les Echos’ (French financial newspaper) that the company behind the Nabaztags (Wifi Rabbits) – Violet – was going under. If you follow the French entrepreneurial scene, you will find that innovative companies are hard to come by; and successful innovative companies are even rarer. People who disagree should compare the age of the companies in the CAC40 vs SP500.
‘Because we don’t like to see Rabbits die’ or because we are slightly crazy, Franck and I decided to rescue the company by placing a bid for it. Unfortunately, none of us had or have the adequate funds so we decided to crowfund the bid.
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Written by Petrean on October 19th, 2009
Who said that products targeted at young children can also be used for grown-ups? Well apparently Iddoo and its Retrouve Doudou say so! In short a ‘Retrouve Doudou’ consists of two little devices: one that you attach to the kid’s security blanket, and one that you keep in a known location. The idea is twofolds:
- if the kid misplaces his/her security blanket at home, you can use the second ‘Retrouve Doudou’ to ping the first one. The first one will then emit noise, light up.
- if the kid misplaces his/her security blanket outside and you cannot ping it, there is a code on the back of the ‘Retrouve Doudou’ that allows the finder to get back in touch with the owner via the Iddoo website.
As it turns out (I chatted with the inventor/CEO at the ‘Salon Baby’ in Paris), he made a large proportion of his sales from…. adults (men) who consistently lose their keys!
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Written by Petrean on October 11th, 2009
‘What makes a good investment?’ is a question that I have been asked a number of times and that I will try and answer in this short post. For a starter, I would like to differentiate between investment and speculation as defined by Ben Graham. The main difference between the two is risk. With speculation, you are making a bet on the future stock movement of a given company, for which you may or may not know anything about (high risk). With investment, you make a calculated analysis of the company’s growth prospect, irrespectively of its stock price (for a starter) (low risk c.f. below). Click to continue »
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