What it is like to be a fullstack developer in a French startup — part one

LFDMR
LFDMR
Sep 1, 2018 · 3 min read

All over the internet, there are plenty of stories about startups. But they are mostly about startups in the US. So, I decided I will bring my stone to the edifice and explain what it is like to be in a startup in Paris, France!

This story will be a two parts article, in this part I will mainly talk about how it feels and in the second part I will talk about what it requires as a developer.

“photography of brown Eiffel Tower at Paris” by Anthony DELANOIX on Unsplash

The context

In July 2017, I was hired to be part of the founding team of a new project. It consists of creating surveys based on open questions, which feel like conversations. This system allows companies to have meaningful and impactful discussion with their employees or clients.

Luckily, I was already familiar with the team I will be part of, as we had worked together previously. The founders have the knowledge and the networks to make this project something really big in the future. And as we were starting from scratch, I could build the software I want the way I want (I would be free from all those legacy codes, hooray!). So, I accepted.

The place to be

First let us talk about the location. Our host company provided beautiful offices in the center of Paris. That was awesome! Whenever anyone asked me where I worked and I answered, people were impressed. This boosted the social status and helped considerably with the clients!

At the starting block

The team was composed like this:

  • 2 co-founders
  • 4 members: 1 NLP (Natural Language Processing) scientist, 1 devOp, 1 fullstack (me) and 1 client developer

We already have our first client and the deadlines that come with it. We had a lot to do and little time ahead of us. Everyone was very energetic, and ideas kept coming. And through sweat, arguing, and teamwork we managed to deliver on time. The client was happy, and the other clients could not believe that we could have made the current product in such a short amount of time. That felt really great. But no time to waste, we still had plenty of work ahead of us.

They live happily ever after, right?

Being in a startup is like running a marathon in sprint. To improve efficiency, we started splitting the work and each task became so deep that each person soon became the only person able to do the job. And as we are working with brand new technologies, once the learning curve caught up with one member, no one could adequately provide assistance.

Everything took longer than expected, even client acquisition. Although clients love our solutions, we also needed to go through the purchase process of the companies. It took ages! For reference, we had to fill some 300 lines table sheet for our client to test our product… Going through French administration is like doing the twelves labors of Hercules.

Things really slows when inertia kicks in and you have to scale.

What is next?

Paris in August is magical, it gets empty. So, no one around to bother us. We could refocus on what to do, how we can achieve our goals and reflect about what we have learned and how to do better.

And then… Just take a deep breath and dive in once again.

LFDMR

Written by

LFDMR

Optimist, free thinker, life long learner and lover of everything with intellectual interest

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade