What the new French President means for startups

Yes, that’s right, over the weekend France elected a new President, François Hollande. It came as a bit of a surprise to many, as the country has not has a Socialist President since François Mitterrand in 1995 – nor has a President only served 1 term since Valéry Giscard-d’Estaing left office in 1981. Still, clearly France made the decision to move on and turn a new page. So, what does this mean for startups?

The 2012 list: 13 Hot French Entrepreneurs Under 30

For the last 2 years, I’ve been publishing an annual list of some of France’s hottest entrepreneurs under 30. You can check out the lists for 2010 and 2011. Usually I pick all the people for the list myself. However, this year, I decided to take suggestions from the crowd. I got an overwhelming number of suggestions and I want to thank everyone for their contributions. Just as a quick reminder, if someone has already appeared on this list in previous years, they unfortunately cannot be re-selected.

TechBaguette gets a Logo

Every now and then an entrepreneur will make something for me that will totally blow my mind. For example, not too long ago, the amazing DuoApps boys in Corsica reached out and said they would make me an iPhone app. To be totally honest, I have no idea if anyone in their right mind will ever actually download it (maybe, since it’s free!) but I was totally touched by this. Plus, what better way to get in good with a blogger that totally flatter her ego (yes, we love our egos)?! You can also check out GoodBarber, their apps ~~maker~~ shaver.

Leaving the Rude Baguette

A few months ago, I announced that I had moved and that I would now be blogging on another site: The RudeBaguette. The decision to launch Rude essentially came from the idea that France needed an English-language news site to cover all the ridiculously amazing startup happenings going on there. So I approached one of the only other native English-speaking bloggers I knew to do it with me. And off we went.

TechBaguette gets a Makeover

Well, ladies and gentlemen, the time has come to retire the old TechBaguette design – which had been on the site since December 31, 2009. So, here is a quick look at how the site used to look. Hopefully the new design will make it a bit easier to navigate…

Seeking: talented French entrepreneurs under 30 for recognition

So if anyone has bothered to read this blog over the last few years, you’ll know that I publish an annual list called 13 hot French entrepreneurs under 30. Some of the names who made the list in 2010 include the founders of hot French startups like Deezer, MediaStay, Spartoo, MyMajorCompany, Leetchi, Restopolitan and more. And last year’s list included similar startup stars, like the founders of JolieBox, Owlient, Jimmy Fairly, L’Usine à Design and more.

Do French parents make better startup CEOs?

I recently came across an article in the Wall Street Journal with a title that was a little hard to miss: Why French Parents Are Superior. After it was published, my friends from around the world began emailing me asking my thoughts. So here’s the truth everyone: French kids DON’T CRY.

TechBaguette has Moved. Well, Kinda.

I probably should’ve written this post a while ago to kind of clarify where I am writing these days. For anyone who hasn’t yet noticed, I’m not writing for TechCrunch anymore. And it has nothing to do with what’s been going on with AOL in the US – although, the fact that Michael Arrington, MG Siegler, Paul Carr, Sarah Lacy and Heather Harde no longer work there perhaps makes it a little less sexy. But hey. The fact of the matter is that I always said that if I wrote about French tech companies, I wanted it to be in English – so that the news could go even beyond France. That’s why I started blogging in the first place.

Europe, Where Does Innovation Come From?

On Monday, I was hosted a track on creating a cool company at Gotocon (a developer conference) in Aarhus, Denmark. I was rather impressed by the geeky crowd, most of who paid around €2,500 per person to attend the 3-day conference. The price tag and the size definitely made me think of LeWeb – although most of the topics covered were way more technical. But if there was one thing that really caught my attention more than anything else, it was one of the questions that was asked by an attendee.

Thoughts on Being Hungry and Foolish

As you can tell, it took me a while to decide whether or not to write something about Steve Jobs. At first, I thought it was perhaps a little cliché. After all, everyone is writing about Steve right now (yes, we’re on a first-name basis) – my words would simply get lost in the crowd. But then again, how could I not? Steve is one of America’s most celebrated modern visionaries – and the footprint he left will forever mark the development of technology, culture, business and much more. And on a much more personal note, he is one of the most inspirational people I have ever discovered.