French start-ups moving to the Silicon Valley: How to navigate cultural differences
Going Global, Thinking Local
In the past 5 years, I have witnessed how the Silicon Valley has increasingly become a sought-after destination for French start-ups desiring to raise funds, grow their network and expand globally. A leading example was the online advertising firm Criteo, which was created in 2005, moved to SF in 2010 and IPOed in 2013, thus raising $250 million.
But all French start-ups aren’t that lucky, and an all-too-common outcome for foreign start-ups in the Silicon Valley is a burn within the first two years. The immediate reasons for a start-up’s death usually come down to (1) insufficient funds, (2) no market need and (3) a struggle to acquire new customers. Many articles have been written about these topics, and you can find resources here:
However, an overlooked element in foreign start-ups’ failures — that I’d like to expand here — is the Culture Clash.
San Francisco is known as the capital of the Internet, but it remains first and foremost an American city, with its history and cultural complexities. To be able to adapt to the tight-knit eco-system that exists in the Silicon Valley as a French entrepreneur, we need to first get familiar with the cultural challenges we are exposed to.
1. Culture clash:
What I would like to highlight here is that Silicon Valley as a business eco-system, is built on specific values and cultural norms. Ignoring them would be a business suicide for a foreign start-up that wants to take full advantage of the Valley’s opportunities and levers.
Relation to success
One of the common observations about young French entrepreneurs is that they are often too careful in their aspirations, and in their relation to business success. At Le Web 2014, the French Minister of Economics, Emmanuel Macron, explained that French entrepreneurs are held back by an old cultural belief that expressing your desire to be rich in France is perceived negatively. To which he famously countered with a call to his fellow citizens: “Frenchmen, succeed and be rich!”
Our relation to money and success is indeed rooted in national cultures. Within the American Dream lie the values of individual freedom to pursue wealth and happiness, whereas France relies on concepts of solidarity, equality and social justice — which in other words equates to thinking of how to fairly redistribute wealth to every citizen.
A friend summed up the differences with this metaphor: “When an American meets a billionaire, he/she will find them inspiring. When a French person meets a billionaire, he/she will think of how their money can be redistributed and help the rest of society.” In this context, it is harder to value individual success in France — there is always the risk of being seen as selfish and unethical.
As a French person, we would rather talk about “gaining our independence”, instead of “earning a lot of money”, and we’ll judge a successful business by how it is “creating more jobs”. While these are values that I am personally proud to have grown up with and associate myself to, I believe it is crucial for French entrepreneurs to understand these distinctions in order to be taken seriously by investors and other players in the Silicon Valley.
Refining our cultural mindset (and accepting to consider ourselves as “ambitious, successful and an achiever”) is important if we want to be competitive in this American context, and benefit from it as a lever for global expansion.
Doers’ Attitude vs Intellectualism
What is the difference between a French talk-show and An American one? The amount of talking. If there were no time-constraint on French shows, they would last an eternity.
The French love to debate ideas, to listen to (male) intellectuals dissecting and analyzing our society, our laws, our future. On the other hand, American show hosts are more inclined to invite inspiring characters, and talk about what they have actually done. Walking the walk is powerful and fascinating to an American audience. Having a critical mind will earn the French audience’s admiration.
In the Silicon Valley, these values are clearly heightened by its entrepreneurs and culture of doers. A risk for French entrepreneurs arriving here is to fail to adopt the doers’ mindset: be ready to explain “how”, not just “why”; try and try again; and don’t be afraid of failures.
These have become clichés in the Valley now, but they couldn’t be more important for French start-uppers desiring to make a successful move to the US. While we have grown up in a culture of thinkers in France, the Silicon Valley is a place to push ourselves beyond that framework, take actions now and do the questioning later.
Communication Styles: “Get to the point, quickly”
One extension of the French intellectualism - and thus, a common experience that many French entrepreneurs face right from the bat — is the difference in communication styles between them and their American counterparts: the style needs to be more straightforward, simple and to the point.
In France, we are used to debates and long conversations — but that mode of communication can quickly become frustrating and perceived as a tremendous waste of time for US investors and partners. The focus is on productivity and efficiency. After all, time is money.
This is not to say that we aren’t taught these values in Europe either, but the level to which it is applied in the US can often destabilize and challenge us at first. This spirit applies very much to start-up pitches: the rule is to be concise and to the point.
All these differences (relation to success, doers’ attitude and communication styles) must be taken into consideration when working with VCs, partners and customers in the Silicon Valley. They are key to navigating the system, and avoiding a cultural clash.
That said, it is understood that we can’t expect to forego our cultural background completely. There are ways to add a French touch to your business workings without being discredited in the competitive Silicon Valley eco-system. I would even argue that it can be an advantage to consider how to bring with us learnings and experiences from our French traditions and adapt them to an American context.
2. The French touch
A common complaint from investors in the Silicon Valley is that the majority of the start-ups they meet will cover 3 main areas: music events, bars, and fast delivery. This is because the average founder is male, in his mid-20s, who wants to build a product that will make his daily life easier: better seats at a Warriors game, booze discounts, and not having to cook (nor doing laundry, nor cleaning the house, etc..). VC firms like Mark Suster’s Upfront Ventures for example has spoken publicly about their desire to “fund big ideas that will solve hard problems” and “have a big effects on people’s lives.”
Many investors are indeed in search for start-ups with out-of-the-box solutions, which can help tackle some of today’s challenges facing American society, such as health problems, solar energy, water conservation, etc..
This is where French beliefs and experience can come to play: a culture of well-being and welfare, which should push us to keep thinking of solutions for societies (in the Silicon Valley, the US, and around the globe) in urgent need of more discussions of equality and social justice.
Finally, the French cliché isn’t necessarily false, and the majority of French youth still grow up with a flare for terroir food, wine and fashion. The taste for organic produces, the appreciation for culinary experiences, and oenology — while not unique to France — are rooted in the French culture and quite frequently experienced there. Perhaps there are start-up ideas that can flourish from these cultural traditions, which would be interesting to apply in a place like San Francisco where new gastro-oenological experiences are very welcome.
In other words, there is knowledge to take from French culture that may be taken for granted in France, but which we can encourage young entrepreneurs to think of — especially once they decide to take their start-up to the next level and move it to the Silicon Valley.
