Dan Serfaty
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Dan Serfaty (born February 5, 1966, in
Strasbourg Strasbourg ( , ; ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est Regions of France, region of Geography of France, eastern France, in the historic region of Alsace. It is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin Departmen ...
, France) is a French entrepreneur and businessman. He is best known as the former co-founder and CEO of Viadeo, a professional social network.


Biography

After graduating from
HEC Paris HEC Paris () is a business school and ''grande école'' located in Jouy-en-Josas, a southwestern outer suburb of Paris, France. It offers Bachelor, MiM, MSc in International Finance, MBA, EMBA, executive education, professional developm ...
Entrepreneurship program in 1987, Serfaty spent 2 years abroad before starting his entrepreneurial life. In 1989, he acquired a company in the tourism sector, which he successfully 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. In 2000, he founded Agregator, a club dedicated to entrepreneurs, aimed at facilitating the sharing of experiences, ideas, and contacts among its members. Uniquely, most of Agregator's members were the
CEOs Kea (), also known as Tzia () and in antiquity Keos (, ), is a Greek island in the Cyclades archipelago in the Aegean Sea. Kea is part of the Kea-Kythnos regional unit. Geography It is the island of the Cyclades complex that is closest to Att ...
of small companies financed by
venture capital Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to start-up company, startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in ...
, providing them with
liquidity Liquidity is a concept in economics involving the convertibility of assets and obligations. It can include: * Market liquidity In business, economics or investment, market liquidity is a market's feature whereby an individual or firm can quic ...
and
private equity Private equity (PE) is stock in a private company that does not offer stock to the general public; instead it is offered to specialized investment funds and limited partnerships that take an active role in the management and structuring of the co ...
returns. The Agregator experience was the context where Dan developed the idea for a business-oriented
social network A social network is a social structure consisting of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), networks of Dyad (sociology), dyadic ties, and other Social relation, social interactions between actors. The social network per ...
, while working originally on some software that would allow club members to access each other's contacts. In 2004, along with Thierry Lunati, he co-founded Viaduc–the original name of Viadeo–investing a portion of the first 5 million euros raised for Agregator. By 2006, Viaduc rebranded as Viadeo, signaling the company's ambition for global expansion, which included the launch of its English and Italian versions. Today, with over 60 million users worldwide, Viadeo stands as the second-largest professional social network. In 2007, Viadeo expanded into 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 January 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. Beginning 2020, Dan became the Co-President of Keren Hayessod France, a charity aiming at reducing the social fracture in Israel. A few months later, Dan also joined the Board of Governors of the Jewish Agency for Israel


References


External links


Dan Serfaty on Viadeo
{{DEFAULTSORT:Serfaty, Dan Businesspeople from Strasbourg 1966 births Living people HEC Paris alumni