A 2-time MVP, Jean Michel is the Founder and CEO of SharinPix. He’s also the Salesforce.com French User Group President and co-organizer of French Touch Dreamin’.
We’d like to know more about the fun side of the MVPs! And from what we heard, so do a lot of people in the community. Welcome to the Proust for Salesforce experts.
I would love people to see me as a leader helping other leaders to make everything better, faster, stronger
Q: How did your love for Salesforce start? Was it a conscious choice or did the whole universe just conspire and make it happen?
I was CIO of Meilleurtaux.com and 80% of the information system was various home-grown CRM based on different technologies. Salesforce was then selected to redraw this into one single system. I immediately detected that the eco-system and the enthusiasm around the product could change everything in the organization and in my everyday work. Since then I’ve embraced it and never stopped!
Q: What is your current role?
I’m CEO of SharinPix, a Salesforce App Innovation Partner (ex ISV) which is offering an App on the AppExchange. This App brings Image Management to Salesforce in order to enhance your business process with image selection, image workflows and come with unlimited storage for images as well as support for any cloud, any device and any object! I’m the founder of the company and started this adventure one year ago.
Q: What does being the first French Salesforce MVP mean to you?
First of all, I wasn’t ready for it… I expected it to happen maybe one day, but not that soon. Of course it was a good surprise. Since then, I’m proud to be one of the guys who try to make big things happen in Europe. Starting in France, I’m helping others to become MVPs as well. I believe Europe deserves to have an even stronger eco-system and a US like dynamic.
Q: If not a Salesforce expert, what would you have become?
A Cloud expert… for sure! But some people may say I would have been a great DJ, dancer, singer or MC!
Q: Which blogs / channels do you follow to get your Salesforce elixir?
I’m not the one blog kind of guy. I’m much more into grabbing various blogs and information from Twitter, Linkedin, Flipit and many other media. Anyway, I often read salesforceben blog, automation champion blog, allsalesforce.com blog and from time to time the Dazeworks one as well!
Q: What led to the start of French Touch Dreamin’? Can you let us know what you have in store for FTD’17?
We were in London for London’s Calling earlier this year and after a discussion with William Coleman, Erica Kuhl and Peter Coffee, I was pushed into start something not in the next few years as I had been planning to, but later on in 2016!
I immediately found all the French MVPs and leaders present in London and ask them if they were crazy enough to follow me in this amazing adventure. It was just one BIG yes from everybody, so we decided to announce it during this event.
After a wonderful French Touch Dreamin in 2016 we expect it to be bigger in 2017. It will be held in September, certainly around mid September, will take place in Paris in another location… can’t say much more about the actual venue as we have a few options to check before making it public. Anyway, expect this to be with more speakers, more sponsors and… more attendees!
And always in a very French way…
Q: What’s next in line for you after attaining the coveted MVP title?
Complete international success of Sharinpix is my next personal goal. But from the community point of view, I would love people to see me as a leader helping other leaders to make everything better, faster, stronger (yes, you can read this in a very Daft Punk way).
Q: What has been your most memorable Dreamforce experience till date?
Best experiences from DF on my side are the ones where I was the speaker at the Executive Summit during my first dreamforce, close to a decade ago. Also the last one, having a booth as a Partner in the cloud expo was quite an amazing experience of being part of it from the other side as well.
Einstein was everywhere at DF16 and now I’m expecting this to change our everyday life. Lightning already did part of the job, can’t wait for Einstein to lead it even further on that way.
Q: You’re part of #Baldforce. Can you tell us how it came into being?
Oh that was a crazy day! We were 4 bald guys (Phil Walton, my #Baldforce partner in crime, Andrew Gross and Sharif Shaalan) sitting in the front row of the MVP area at the main Keynote of the Salesforce World Tour NY. Then just behind us Cheryl Feldman, the local MVP of this SFWT asked us to turn back to her for a picture… Since then the joke started to become a seriously fun way of raising money for kids with two #Baldforce events during the last two Dreamforce. And guess what? We will be back for #DF17!
Q: What is your advice to those stepping into Salesforce?
Trailhead, trailhead, trailhead, User Groups, Dreamin’, Dreamforce, trailhead, trailhead, trailhead
Q: Other than Salesforce, what does your world look like?
I’m a passionate guy. So I love so many things. I’m a geek as well and act like a kid when I want a new iPhone, car, Mac or whatever.
But my world also involves spending a lot of time with my son to help him become a great artist. I’ve been helping him as much as I can to reach a point where he will be as happy as I’m with my everyday work. He’s a filmmaker, a dancer, a choreographer and makes me proud every single day! You may have danced with him already, as he’s one of the Just Dance game characters and if you want to discover the artist I helped him to become you can check out his work here:
http://youtube.com/alexinho78tvsme
Q: What’s something about you that you think would surprise others?
I’m a close up magician… so next time you see me, just ask me for a card trick. I may have them not that far away!
Q: Anything we missed?
Not really missed, but I want to use this opportunity to also thank all the Dreamin’ family who helped me and the French Touch Dreamin team make this possible. To thank the wonderful team around Erica who made the MVP family be as strong and as fun as it is. So many other thank yous I may have to say, but I may stop it here or it will look like an Oscar thank you speech!
A 2-time MVP, Jean Michel is the Founder and CEO of SharinPix. He’s also the Salesforce.com French User Group President and co-organizer of French Touch Dreamin’.
