JEAN JAQUES "JJ" DANDRIEUX
As an investor, senior executive, corporate architect, and philanthropist, Jean-Jacques Dandrieux holds a proven record of successfully managing business operations and of helping to build companies in the fields of aerospace, software, mobile technology, renewable energy, and data analytics.
With impeccable problem-solving and organizational skills, JJ upholds his reputation as a results-oriented, hands-on leader, who delivers results in a timely manner. He thrives working alongside business owners and executives as their trusted advisor and strategist, and in order to lead emerging technology companies toward achieving their objectives, JJ works one-on-one with management teams to transform their identities, missions, and business models. To date, he has built companies in New York, Silicon Valley, Latin America, East Asia, Europe and the Middle East.
Born and raised in Corsica, located in the south of France, JJ originally planned to become an aerospace engineer, and pursue a professional pilot degree. However, soon after being accepted into the aerospace, aeronautical, and astronautical preparatory program, he elected to drop out to pursue a career in finance. His first step was to enroll in BI Norwegian Business School in Oslo, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree. JJ then decided to relocate to the United States in order to attend New York University’s Stern School of Business in junction with the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, as well as a summer seminar in political science at Harvard University. His career in finance officially began upon his graduating NYU with a master’s degree in global finance, at one of the largest investment banks in Europe.
Following his studies, JJ has had the luxury of working in diversified workplace environments. After his banking career, he started Senseta, an artificial intelligence and data science company, focused on delivering data analytics to government clients. JJ explains, “Senseta unlocks the potential of information for organizations by solving highly complex issues in data capture and analytics on both structured and unstructured data.”
Moving on, JJ struck out to become an entrepreneur and a venture capitalist, leading and investing in technology companies. Over the past 12 years, he has lived and worked in multiple countries including the U.S., Norway, and Hong Kong. He has also started companies in Colombia, Puerto Rico, France, Korea, and Qatar, to which he travels frequently.
As a business leader and investor, JJ has also served several high-profile companies and organizations in senior-level leadership positions. For instance, as the co-founder and former managing partner of Fourdice Ventures LLC, and current managing director at FourDice Consulting, he was responsible for creating clear analytical and creative deal sourcing methodology frameworks. These frameworks included direct equity and debt investment into early-stage technology and company secondary block share transactions. He also managed fundraising and partnerships, evaluated business plans, researched markets and industries, performed exit-analysis and due diligence programs, and played a key role in all business development and strategy projects. In addition to FourDice, JJ has held senior-level leadership positions at several other high-profile companies including Credit Agricole CIB, Cassous Group Holding, and Differential Ventures.
JJ’s primary focus as a venture capitalist is investing in both early and late-stage technology companies. He specializes in deep technology, AI, and data science, as well aerospace and new space technology; particularly anything involving satellites and drones image recognition technology. Sample portfolio companies include GreyMeta Inc., Lofty Inc, Boriken Space Ventures LLC, Senseta Inc., Rocketplane (RPK).
JJ notes that after learning from the adversities of time, he is confident that he now encompasses the knowledge required to rise above any hardship or challenge.
As a mentor for US, European and Korean accelerators, his newest challenge is helping young international startups to break into the U.S. For instance, JJ actively supports working against climate change by creating renewable energy projects. Therefore, he serves on the board of EnergyX in South Korea, which works to create, distribute, and finance new methods of energy production and storage. Focusing primarily on utilizing solar and hydrogen powered cells, team members strive to find potential replacements for fossil fuels. According to JJ, “EnergyX recently announced being in the process of opening a major hydrogen energy plant in South Korea” Such facilities are the first step in leading a global shift toward variable renewable energy resources.
Presently, JJ serves as the executive director at Kontur, a data science software company, which specializes in natural catastrophe forecast and management. He adds, “We are basically, an event-based decision and monitoring platform. Using knowledge-based computational models, the platform translates complex information into a unified analysis environment, which offers predictive modeling and analysis tools that can manipulate and help interpret the data visually, generating actionable insights for the client.”
JJ explains, “With the current global warming and climate change impact, we are proud to develop a new tool in which both large corporates and civilians can rely on.”
In addition to his role at Kontur, JJ serves as a venture partner at Differential Ventures, an SAAS focused, early-stage venture capital fund. The Firm invests in companies that have a unique advantage in data or machine intelligence.
No matter which leadership position he is serving in, JJ seeks to motivate, encourage, and empower a team of zealous professionals in their quest of prevailing business career success. He is inspired to nurture the business leaders of today while continuing to develop the future leaders of tomorrow.
Jean Jaques Dandrieux
Executive Director, Kontur.io
7 World Trade Center, 46th Floor
New York, New York 10005
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jean-jacques-dandrieux-52a133b/