jacques-antoine-granjonVente Privée is announcing that they're entering the US in a joint venture with American Express.

We got to speak with Vente Privée's billionaire founder Jacques-Antoine Granjon in an exclusive interview before the announcement.

(The interview was condensed and edited for clarity.)

Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry, Business Insider: Why are you launching with Amex?

Jacques-Antoine Granjon: It's a very big brand. I had always said that I wouldn't be going to the US without a partner.

It's a very mature market. Discount shopping here is very structured, with companies like TJ Maxx and others making billions in revenues each year.

I've always said that my market is Europe and my goal was to work with the fifteen hundred brands that matter in Europe.

But this is a tremendous opportunity. Amex is one of the world's best brands, with 42 million card holders. We can combine our specific know-how with their reach.

I have seen Amex's CEO several times, and we have the same values around customer service, and creating great offers for members. We have been working on this project for over a year and a half, with thousands of pages of legal documents. It's a big undertaking.

So this is an extremely long term project with a great vision.

BI: What's the brand name going to be?

Granjon: We're still working on that. It's not going to be Vente Privée. It can't be Amex Privé because someone else holds the copyright. We'll see.

BI: How much money are you each putting in?

Granjon: Oh, a few tens of millions of dollars each to start.

We're going to build a company that does great event sales that bring traffic on their own so we don't have to buy it.

You know, we've been profitable without debt since 2004. So when I see competitors raise a lot of money, over a hundred million dollars, and still aren't profitable, I have to wonder.

BI: What do you think of all those competitors, like Gilt, Amazon, Groupon? Even Facebook is doing deals now.

Granjon: Everyone is rushing into this. All they can think of is deals.

I don't think that's what works. What works is offering something really special, and doing it over the long term.

Of course, if you offer something for really cheap, people will visit. But how long is that going to last?

As for Amazon, flash sales aren't their job. Flash sales are about doing events for businesses. Flash sales happen because a brand has a problem, so you do an operation to solve that problem. It's a completely different business.

And when Gilt says they're going to open new verticals, and open full-price e-commerce sites, they're becoming just another e-commerce company.

Are we doing that?

No, we're about something else. We're about doing something special.

What we want is for something to happen every day that's so special that people come. And with those daily events, we create an addiction.

We don't do e-commerce, we do events.

Next: How Granjon is going to crush his enemies and see them driven before him →