VADnet Hero: Vincent Bulot – EBDS, France
Members are the driving force behind the biggest PAN European cooperation of Value Added Distributors in the IoT industry. That’s why we call them ‘VADnet Heroes’.
Meet Vincent Bulot, the founder and CEO of EBDS Wireless & Antennas, based just a stone throw away from the French Alps. Since 2013, he’s been quietly conquering the world of wireless tech — not one antenna at a time, but dozens nowadays.
So, how did it all start?
After having worked for several companies in sales positions, Vincent started as an independent sales representative for a few companies like Racom and SAF. One day, someone asked for an antenna… then another… and before he knew it, he was the guy for antennas. Like a tech-savvy version of “The Godfather,” people came to him with more requests, like wireless routers, LoRa solutions — and so EBDS became a Value Added Distributor with a laser-sharp focus on wireless and antenna solutions..
Successful indeed with nowadays impressive figures:
- Shipped 140,000 products last year
- 22 highly highly educated and motivated team members
- > €6 million turnover
- Weekly tech learning sessions every Monday
For the future, Vincent prepares his company to be even more specialist in ‘wireless technologies’ and apart from Cellular and Lora, already investing a lot another wireless technologies, like micro-wave, bluetooth and wifi.
Having said that, Vincent also emphasizes, “If you’re in France and need an antenna, you can’t avoid EBDS.” It is a bold claim — but frankly, we believe him.
Why VADnet?
It all started in 2018, where Vincent met Alf Mollerud from Norwegian VADnet member Emcom at a Panorama Distribution meeting. After some geeky chats with each other, Alf convinced him to attend the VADnet meeting in Ireland and he joined VADnet afterwards. The reason? “The sharing between members — knowledge, business experience… and probably also the good drinks and laughter afterwards.”
For Vincent, VADnet is more than a network. It’s an antidote to CEO loneliness. A place of like minded people, where you can talk business strategy, discuss personal growth, share mistakes and laugh about PowerPoints (his boring enemy), and celebrate Excel (his spreadsheet soulmate).
The Man Behind Wireless & Antennas
Vincent has been happily married since 1990 and has two grown-up kids (and sometimes his running buddies). As a French citizen, his favourite food comes from France and would be a dish called ‘’La Veal Blanquette’. Of course joined with a nice glass of red wine, preferably from the Southeastern part of France, with a rich, structured and age-worthy Bandol wine among his favourites
Vincent is a real outdoor fanatic. He runs (a Paris marathon finisher), skis (not so miraculous with the Alps in his backyard), plays golf (we will not reveal his handicap) and likes hiking in the mountains.
When not being outdoor he may enjoy reading police thrillers during holiday – and the Bible for the rest of the year:-).
His favourite country to visit is Italy — for the excellent food, the nice people, and the great history and culture. Southern Italy is still on his “to-visit” list. Is that the reason that our next VADnet meeting will be in Milano?
Vincent’s life motto would be:
“Do what you say, say what you do.”
(Simple. Clear. Honest, like the way he runs his life and company).
And if he would be EU President for a day?
He’d make time changes during working hours. Because this means one hour less work for its employees immediately and they would like that 🙂
Final words from Vincent
Finally Vincent wanted to state that he is very happy and proud to be part of VADnet. ‘The semi-annual meetings are really something I look forward to’.
And at VADnet? Well, we consider ourselves pretty lucky to have someone in our middle who always is into fun, makes good jokes and breaks the ice automatically when needed!
