Have You Seen Me? 9 French Entrepreneur Names to Know

Talk to anyone from Silicon Valley about French names in hi-tech and you’ll systematically get the 3 same answers: Loic Le Meur, Jeff Clavier and Pierre Omidyar – if you’re lucky. But how about French entrepreneurs in France? In an earlier post I suggested putting French entrepreneur success stories on milk cartons to remind us […]

You Suck! Entrepreneurship and Elite French Education

Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry published an article in Silicon Alley Insider today on the negative impact of the hierarchical French education system on entrepreneurship. Let’s take a look at his argument for “Why France fails at start-ups”, shall we? Is “Grande école” French for “Ivy League”? For all the Silicon Alley Insider readers that saw the term “grande […]

Wikipedia Initiative: Plan B

This is a quick follow-up on the Wikipedia initiative, which has proven to be quite interesting. Yoocasa: my guinea pig. Some companies are simply too young for Wikipedia. My first start-up to join the cause, Yoocasa, was removed after only a few hours. Sad, but true. Which is surprising because I have seen many companies […]

The French Start-up Wikipedia Initiative

Far from anything being discussed at SXSW, this is a quick post on something I just noticed: There are a lot of French start-ups that are MIA on Wikipedia. Obviously it’d be great to develop some kind of French start-up database, but let’s first concentrate on the basics: Wikipedia. Yeah, so? Hopefully I don’t need […]

Smart Money: French companies get creative with funding

I’m considering starting a weekly tradition where I give a shoutout to a French company that is doing something I find particularly innovative. Well, this week that company is Lyon-based Regioneo – who launched a user-investment campaign, which I detailed in TechCrunch Europe. Why is there no translation for “bon appétit” in English? In case […]

Liberté, égalité, sororité: women in the French tech space

I naturally get excited when I come across a young entrepreneur. But, in the male-dominated tech environment, I get even more excited when that young entrepreneur is female. Here is a look at 3 French start-ups founded by 20-something-year-old ladies. Leetchi (@Leetchiweb) The company is founded by 27-year-old Céline Lazorthes (@celinelazorthes) and is a platform that […]