MSG. Vanguard is not a commercial entity: the group sells nothing in China.
Its mission is to source the AI suppliers and the technical talent that no one else in Europe will go and find.
Paris is where we come from. Buenos Aires is where we execute. Shenzhen is where we are headed.
§ 1What we do
§ 2The group
MSG (Michel Simon Gestion) is a French operating holding. It goes after niche European markets that incumbents serve with less seriousness than their volume deserves: the renewal of professional licences in healthcare, certifying that a used vehicle has had no major repair, support services for young people changing careers.
Unglamorous markets. That is precisely why they are open.
§ 3Why now
Inefficient markets meet generative AI that has come of age. The window closes once incumbents adopt the tools. Until then, a compact team with very high talent density, combining agility with industrialisation through AI, can take a defensible position in several European verticals. That is what the group is after.
§ 4How we work
We work like a professional sports team. Few seats, a high bar. People with non-linear paths, chosen for judgement and temperament rather than sector expertise, who ask of their colleagues what they ask of themselves first.
Some colleagues carry the title Sparring Partner: we train together, raise each other's level, and do not let the other settle. Commitments that carry risk go through stage gates, binary criteria decided collegially, with an immediate exit when one is missed. Decisions are written down, traceable and binding. The house writes a lot, and well.
§ 5Write to us
AI suppliers, engineers and researchers: if you would rather be held to a high standard than be comfortable, write to us.