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 […]

Under the radar: Are some French companies hiding?

Somehow, the conversation always ends up on which Silicon Valley companies are MIA in France. A week or two ago, Deezer’s Jonathan Benassaya posted this comment on Twitter: Opentable actually launched in France in 2008 and ironically their product didn’t take off – so I am told. French restaurants were too traditional to go electronic […]

Smelling French: Not Such a Bad Thing

Paul Carr published an article in TechCrunch a few days ago and naturally the title caught my eye: Cherchez la fame – or why the media’s obsession with Twitter campaigns will make customer service smell French. A word on smelling French. What I think is a little ironic in this article is that “smelling French” […]

l’Académie française: Has Micro-blogging Killed le Vouvoiement?

Disclaimer: this post is probably more for myself than anyone else. 🙂 Remember that terrible 80’s song by The Buggles, “Video Killed the Radio Star”? Well, if video killed the radio star, I’m pretty sure that the evolution of web 2.0 – with my figer pointing at micro-blogging in particular – has killed le vouvoiement. French 101 For […]

French companies you probably didn’t know were on Twitter

The other day I bought a box of tea from the French brand Kusmi Tea. For anyone who doesn’t know Kusmi, their teas are amazing but somewhat expensive. And despite having somewhat modern packaging, the company’s history dates back to 1867. So you can imagine I was surprised to discover the company had a Facebook […]

Dear US Entrepreneurs, You Have it Easy.

Everytime I meet a new entrepreneur – French, American or otherwise – the topic comes up: What are the differences between being an entrepreneur in the US and in France? In my former job, I was constantly confronted with the opinion from the other side of the Atlantic vis-à-vis doing business in France: “The French are always […]

Trying to Make Sense of the French Job Market

Yesterday, Marc Thouvenin (Regioneo founder) posted a tweet that caught my eye: “Can interns make good community managers” with a link to this blog post by Benjamin Rosoor of Web Report. Traditional recruitment meets realtime web. For anyone that can’t read French, Rosoor’s post argues against younger employees – and more specifically, interns – doing the […]

The Truth: French VCs ARE on Twitter

One of my first posts was called “France, Meet Twitter” where I happened to very slightly criticize French VCs for their absence on Twitter. Well, I take it back. I discovered some very high-profile French VCs on Twitter, namely Guillaume Lautour (@G_Lautour) of AGF Private Equity. Even though I haven’t come across the Twitter accounts of anyone from Partech International, Sofinnova or […]

The Little Lady Got Published in TechCrunch Europe :)

It’s been almost a month that I’ve had this blog and I must admit, so far it’s been a success! I just published my first article in TechCrunch Europe on the CEO drama @ French Start-up Deezer. Please don’t hesitate to let me know what you think and keep me posted on other events in […]

Would a company like Twitter get funded in France?

Yes, it happens. French companies get funded, regardless of what Silicon Valley may like to think. Hot start-ups like Deezer, Eyeka, DailyMotion, Streamezzo, MXP4, etc. can all vouch for this. But would someone like Twitter ever get funded in France? French VCs tend to position themselves as different types of investors than their American or […]