How to launch a STATION F in your country
Station F has been open for less than a year and already we’ve received *tons* of requests to launch our startup campus model around the world — I receive probably 3 requests per week on average. Unfortunately, as we have many other expansion projects already under way in Paris, we are not yet looking to open up campuses elsewhere. That said, if you are working on a similar project in your home country, we are more than happy to help by answering your questions and showing you around Station F. Also, I’ve included some important elements to consider when launching a startup campus below — obviously this list is far from exhaustive.
Step 1: Before you do anything, talk to startups.
Many people ask us how we got started — or rather, how I got started back when I was the only person on the team in 2015. Prior to even joining Station F, I visited a lot of startup spaces around the world. I use the term “startup spaces” loosely because it includes just about everything — even places like the Google HQ or Capital One Café in the Bay Area.
Once I started my role at Station F, I spent my first few months on the job talking non-stop to startups, investors, corporates, incubators, journalists and other members of the ecosystem trying to figure out what resources could be useful and relevant and where the pain points were. I heard all kinds of things. Some startups told me they needed an on-campus spa, others told me they wanted a Google bus to take them home at night. Jokes aside, once I started to hear certain ideas over and over again, I realized they were worth paying attention to.
Step 2: Define what you stand for.
There are a lot of things that make Station F different from the other startup spaces out there — but I wanted us to be more than just a big space. I like to think that one that really sets us apart is our “startups-first” philosophy and our commitment to diversity, which is heavily anchored in our DNA.
Being “startups first” means that we always make decisions to the benefit of our startups first and foremost — even if that means losing out on potential revenue. We believe that if our startups are happy, the rest will follow.
Our commitment to diversity came about naturally — we realized that Station F was going to be a place that would in many ways represent the future. Therefore, it was important for us to be sure that we considered all types of innovations — but more importantly, all types of people. Our default language is English (we have entrepreneurs on campus that speak little or no French), we have entrepreneurs from around the world, both men and women, and we have a program that specifically works with entrepreneurs from underprivileged backgrounds, the Fighters Program.
Step 3: Don’t let your space define you.
In many ways, space is going to limit what you can and cannot do. As there is no one-size-fits-all approach, it’s important to have different types of spaces for different types of companies and different types of activities (calls, meetings, events…).
For example, at Station F we work primarily with early stage companies — the majority of the startups here are less than 15 employees. Our startup zone — a massive open-space zone with over 3,000 desks — was designed with this in-mind. However, this type of space is less relevant for larger, more established teams. And despite having loads of meeting rooms, phone booths and event spaces on campus, we can never seem to have enough. As you begin looking and planning spaces, make sure to go for options that provide the most flexibility and modularity.
Step 4: Be selective about your community.
We knew that if we wanted to work with top startups, we’d need to have top partners, investors and services to follow. Therefore, it’s incredibly important to be selective about everyone in your community.
We turned to our “startups-first” and “diversity” principles to select which partners to work with. We wanted to be sure we would work with partners that would uphold these principles, too. For example, in the startup zone, we have approximately 30 different programs that cover 30 different industries (only 1 program per topic). 1/3 are run by corporates, 1/3 by universities or schools and 1/3 by startup organizations. We only work with partners if we feel they are credible enough to run a particular program. We value a startups-first, non-commercial approach. We also take their international networks and resources and whether or not they have previous experience working with startups into consideration. All of this helps us decide whether or not a certain partner is a good fit for our campus.
Regarding startups as well, we wanted to be sure we were picking leading startups that fit a certain criteria. We recently published the 5 pillars of the Founders Program, which is only part of the criteria we use to evaluate startups for the program
Step 5: When in doubt, ask your startups.
There are many other aspects of Station F that we have often scratched our heads when trying to decide. How should desks be priced? How long should startups stay? What events should we organize? How should startups communicate with each other when on campus? What other resources do they need? Whenever we had a doubt, we asked (our) startups.
Running a startup campus is in many ways like launching a hardware product — iteration is impossible. That’s why we encourage you really to talk to your local startup communities before you even get started — every ecosystem is different.
