Geek Tourisme à Paris
One week in Paris exploring the emerging ecosystem: Oh que oui!
Paris: merci!
I was in Paris this week for the Elevator World Tour, judging over 50 startups. A real “in the elevator” pitch, up and down. Up and down. Up and down. The event was pretty well tweeted, you can get a good idea from https://twitter.com/search?q=%23elevatorworldtour (and http://www.maddyness.com/concours/2015/01/23/concours-retour-lelevator-pitch-concours-spectaculaire-lannee/).
This was a really serious event with people dressed in black (color me guilty)…
While in Paris, I took the time to visit some of the most notable startup/community spaces and meet people.
Had the chance to actually visit 50Partners, The Family, Usine, La Paillasse and Numa/Le Camping (see below). This is only a part of the hyperactive Paris scene (could have also visited Gaité Lyrique, La Ruche, Mutinerie, Fabelier, Dojoboost, etc).
Wanted to meet Liam from Rude Baguette but ran out of time… next time. I did get the chance to meet with investors from 50partners, Elaia, Eularian, ISAI, Price Minister, Balderton, Facebook EMEA, Schibsted Growth at the Eiffel tower event.
https://twitter.com/Bird_Office/status/558264536596488192
Alors, Paris?
I was impressed by the maturity of the scene, but overall, when compared to Montréal and the Canadian ecosystem, the progress is quite uneven. In a way, huge, in another, not quite there yet. Here is a quick rundown.
Community
Community is really active and strong, associations/non-profits are really far ahead and government support is outstanding (c’est la France après tout). Like anywhere else, there’s some dividing lines, not everyone likes what others are doing, stems from humanity it seems. But really friendly overall.
Money
There are well known super-angels (Xavier Niels, Marc Simonici, Jérémie Beribi, Jacques-Antoine Granjon) and a few acive business angels, writint 10–25K Euros checks.
I was told that funding is still hard at the seed level (500k-1.5M, but we are talking Euros here, so bump your estimations accordingly). Late stage financing (25Mil+) is well covered.
Maybe a bit like in Canada, larger rounds (from A and up) ofteb come from both local and across the border sources (UK and Germany in this case).
Maturity
Ambition is the gateway drug that can/should be dealt in this market. Talent is there, structure/infrastructure is strong, success/emulation is within reach. But ambition lacks. The attitude of doing a local “France first” sucess, or even a Parisian launch, while more reachable, is a sure sign of an immature startup ecosystem.
The best startups I saw could be really successful in the US and Canada, this is actually something I want to make happen more this year, startup exchanges. Building strong bridges between North America and Europe is a natural goal from Montréal.
Startups
Top 7 startups at the elevator pitch events were Glowee (winner, more below), Shippeo, PopMyDay, Elbee, PopChef and Deliver.ee (Shyp for Europe if I get this right) and RedTree (not on stage because I’m an investor and abstained from voting for them, but they’re amazing, really).
If all goes well, we will be investing in Glowee and get them to come to Montréal for FounderFuel this fall. The prize was at 90K but last minute two additionnal angles pitched in 10K for a grand total of 110K (of which 50K is the FounderFuel deal).
50Partners
Fantastic logistic by Virginie (and by that I mean flawless) for the event in the Eiffel Tower. Jérôme was a graceful host, in the French tradition, and also a sharp-eyed analyst of the pitches, had a lot of fun working with him. Impressed by the entrepreneur model they have. After all, it’s a word invented by the French (as exemplified by any american stumbling on the pronunciation).
The Family
Met with Oussama Amar at The Family. Connected immediately to the market/traction approach. He’s kind of the Dave McClure of France, with a SciencePo perspective to boot. This was the only completely private initiative I met, so it was kind of different. But at the same time, the free-wheeling spirit was quite similar, building a strong identity (maybe to a fault, as I understand) but with a beautiful “je m’en foutisme” attitude that’s not too far from the “fuck you” attitude of American entrepreneurs (key “this is not a love song” by PIL for good measure, or “le déserteur” by Renaud to get the anti-conformist/fighter spirit) (I know, skating on tiny ice here, that’s my call, not theirs).
Usine
Usine.io is kinda of the weirdest hacker space, used to be an art gallery, is visually stunning, the first minute you walk in. The esthetic is the exact opposite of that busy/messy loft you usually find at makerspaces. But don’t let the visual undermine the fantastic amenities of the place, most impressive prototype/workshop areaI have seen at this stage. Full wood and metal workshop, plus molding, huge plasma cutter, chemical lab, electronics and several Solidworks workstations (I’m skimming, full list at http://usine.io/atelier.html). Gary is building something amazing here with his team, only been opened for 3 months but I can see myself sending startups there soon.
La Paillasse
La Paillasse is weird in the most beautiful way. Yasir (from Montreal HW Guild) and I got there early, so we started with a visit to the Fly Lab (oh wow). We then met with Thomas from La Paillasse proper. Not only is this a fantastic #biohacker space, but Thomas has a vision to create “vortex” rooms to have hardware geeks, fabric makers and bio hackers in the same room. I was really inspired by the multi-disciplinary approach. Even discovered projects from Montréal I had missed, aptly named bricobio (brilliant moniker). After a while, discovered (of course, right?) that they were also connected to Connor at Synbiota (an investment of ours). I think the next step is the have them meet the team at Daily Tous Les Jours and see what happens… Or the crew at Helios and Foulab. Lots of crossover potential. Same raw energy I saw in the opensource space in the late 90's… #Excited.
Numa
As the GM of FounderFuel and board member at OSMO (Notman House), NUMA for me was quite a revelation of what we can become. They have been at it for 15 years, team of 20, 6 stories building in the heart of St-Denis (is that the right designation?). Super organized, from bottom to top. They seemed to have nailed the full monty, from pre-seed, public space, to private, bigco based projects (and everything in between, with schools and serious startups). Frédéric was super generous and I see lots of opportunities to collaborate together (also, amazing food at Hotel Edgar). We also share with them the “Google for Entrepreneur” designation, even easier.
Glowee
Last but not least, excited about Glowee, the winner of the elevator pitch in the Eiffel tower. Not only because it’s a fabulous combination of business + design + bio, but mostly for the team and the space. Of course, got on it by Joi at SXSW last year (here’s the tweet, I am a late comer to the trend, at least not early).
Been looking at how to get in this space, in a way that would combine my expertise in platform and networks with an eye open on new commercial applications. Had a great meeting with Sandra Friday, possibility are many. Jury is still out, but isn’t it on any important things we are investing in?
What’s next?
In a way, this event is exactly why I am ecstatic about what Phil has been doing at StartupFest and Elevator World Tour: meeting entrepreneurs in the trenches (and why I’m joining his board).
In a more general way, this confirms my perspective/insights on information asymmetry (will post about this soon): even when you are super-connected, you can miss half of what’s happening (or underestimate the data).
For me, even with all the great internet tech we have (geeks develop tools to power how geeks work, case in point: slack and github)… nothing is as efficient as “human bandwidth”, even if we dream of decentralized trust, a handshake, a smile and a face to face meeting still carry much more than anything else. Pheromones and phatic signals still rule…
Stay tuned, I am working on merging those strand in the courtepointe I am building...
