“Entrepreneur” is a French word
This week I had the opportunity to visit STATION F. If there isn’t buzz around your office about Station F already, I’m sure there will be soon. Station F is the world’s largest business incubator for startups, located in 13th arrondissement of Paris. The building is a former rail freight depot named La Halle Freyssinet, hence Station F. I enjoyed learning about the history, experiencing the cutting-edge ecosystem, and understanding how Havas got involved. Major thanks to Romain Reveillere, a super star Havas employee who manages the Havas incubator and hosted me. More on him later.
A little history on the station
The building first opened in 1929 and was designed by the French engineer Eugene Freyssinet. The structure which is the size of the Eiffel Tower laying sideways had been abandoned since 2006 and was in disrepair. It was listed as a historical monument for its special architecture, and normally a public building such as this would stay in the hands of the government, but this time, a private citizen, French telecoms billionaire Xavier Niel, bought the station with the vision to house thousands of entrepreneurs. With some chunk change (217 Million Euros) he bought and renovated the space and it is celebrating its first birthday this month.
The “ecosystem”
Ecosystem is a word that came up many times during my visit. It is the vision of Station F that all of the start-ups share resources, learning opportunities, facilities, and work harmoniously alongside each other. There are 30 brands with start-up incubator programs and they are all leaders in their business verticals. Havas represents the advertising and marketing space, Microsoft the AI space, LÓreal the beauty space, etc. There is a concerted effort to only allow one brand in each category to avoid competition and conflict. At Station F, everyone must “play nicely”.
It is an ideal environment for a start-up, they have a major brand in the industry to help them grow; giving them access to the company’s internal experts, providing workshops and training opportunities, and covering rent!
There’s access to public services onsite at Station F in addition to all of the company funded resources. This is the first time in France that the public and private sectors have shared the same space, and with such harmony. I wonder if Station F took a tip from Havas’ better together strategy? ;)
Entrepreneurs are not just white males
One of my favorite things about Station F is its commitment to foster diversity. This is the focus of the Fighters Program, but you will see diversity present across the whole campus — there are entrepreneurs from all over the world and all backgrounds. I was also happy to discover that Station F is led by a woman, and 40% of the start-ups were founded by women! #thefutureisfemale
How did Havas get involved?
The story of how Havas entered this start-up space is especially interesting to me, coming from HR. Romain, the guy who hosted me, was part of the Havas Media Digital Native Program. It was a program designed by HR and the management team of Havas Media France. It was built in response to feedback from an engagement survey that found that junior-mid level employees felt far removed from the vison/strategy of Group and leadership.
30 employees under the age of 30 across different disciplines were selected for the program. In addition to meeting regularly with leadership, employees in this program had the opportunity to build an offering or service that would disrupt the agency. They had a year complete the project and Romain’s group presented to Yannick Bollore what would be the early stages of Havas’ presence at Station F.
“We wanted to create a dedicated solution for start-ups. Some solutions were already existing in the Group, but we found the opportunity with Station F to be a better fit with the unique ecosystem and will push more and more innovation to our clients globally.” Romain Reveillere
I love that this new Station F venture was derived from a program created by HR and Management. HR teams can often be overlooked for being strategic business partners, but this is proof that we have an important place in shaping opportunities for employees to thrive and in turn for the business to succeed. I am inspired to go home to NY to help create a program with just as much positive impact.
