The first week on campus
As many of you know, we officially inaugurated Station F last week with French President Emmanuel Macron, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, 2000 international entrepreneurs (bigger turnout than we had expected!) and many other wonderful guests. There was an incredible energy and excitement that filled the entire place — I’ve literally never experienced anything like it. I want to personally thank everyone that was a part of it.
Station F: now up and running!
So here we are! Station F is now officially open and we have started welcoming our first startups and partners to the campus this week. We’ve already had several hundred startups move-in and by the end of this week about 2/3 of the 26 different programs will be working on-site, including Facebook, vente-privée, Ubisoft, Microsoft, Zendesk, HEC, EDHEC, Schoolab, Ponts Alliance, Arts & Métiers, Outre-Mer Network, Numa, Usine.io and Ashoka. We have more programs arriving soon and we’ve also moved-in some of our other partners on campus, including Kima Ventures, Ventech, Axeleo, Amazon and more.
Welcome week!
What we’ve organized is in many ways inspired by welcome week when you head off to attend University (after all, we’re a campus). So what does that mean exactly? Well, startups arrive and mingle for a bit (see photo above), we prepare access badges for each person, we go through a presentation of the campus and the security (includes a fun video below featuring some of the Station F team)— and then startups are free to visit and begin working on site! It’s relatively simple. All startups and members that join the campus will go through a similar move-in process (we call them “onboarding sessions”).
Excuse me, does Station F have bathrooms?
One of my favorite parts of onboarding sessions is getting to meet all the entrepreneurs and partners — but also listening to their questions! They can get so creative :) For example, we’ve been asked if we have beds on campus (no, but we do have showers on-site and a co-living project launching in 2018). Or if there is a gym in the building (there is a *massive* and brand new gymnasium just behind Station F). But my favorite question so far has been whether or not we have bathrooms (uh, obviously! And there are so many…).
Of course you can come visit!
We’ve had loads of people stop by to check the place out and we are of course delighted for *everyone* to come see it. But for our first week open, be warned that our security is a little tighter than usual— we recommend you wait a little bit and then pop by to have a look later in the month. As much as we’d love to give everyone a guided tour, we simply can’t. Therefore, please feel free to come and visit the public spaces whenever you like. There are 2 public passages that cut through the building so you can see inside. Need more information on visiting? You’ll find all the information you need on our (new and beautiful) website. Many of our events will also be open to the public, in case you prefer to wait for a specific occasion.
Kicking-off the Founders Program
Our own in-house Founders Program will kick-off on Friday. All the 200 selected startups will arrive on the same day and will be able to start working at Station F. Speakers, workshops and more will begin the following week and we’ve got some great stuff lined up that we’ll share with you shortly. We’ve even spotted some of our Selection Board members on campus already! Please note that the 2nd batch of applications for the Founders Program has also closed but you can continue to apply for later sessions — as well as the Fighters Program and the Fellowship.
Startups, everywhere. Literally.
We can’t tell you how thrilled we are to finally have startups on campus. This is what we’ve been waiting for! We regularly pass through the startup zone just to say hi to our new residents and make sure everything is going OK. It warms our hearts to see startups working at their desks, chatting in the meeting rooms and chilling on our massive sofas and in some of our funky lounge spaces. Sure, it’s likely that we’ll have little glitches during the first month or so, but our team is working really hard to make sure things go as smoothly as possible — and our residents have been just lovely. 💕
Got questions? We’re listening! Feel free to comment below or contact us via our website.
