Archive for November 2011
Startup Trends according to the 16 LeWeb Finalists
After a month of applications, semi-finalists and voting, LeWeb has announced the 16 companies that will compete in the startup competition. For those who haven’t been following, the 16 finalists are all invited to LeWeb, and the LeWeb community will vote over two days for their favorite startups. The top 3 startups will pitch on stage […]
IDInvest Parters, the most active VC in France
I love when entrepreneur tell me that "it is impossible to raise VC funding in France." Honestly, it has become one of my favorite phrases. I have come across numerous entrepreneurs - on both sides of the Atlantic - that have told me that VCs are risk-averse weirdos and that their capital is extremely limited and/or drying up. And while Chausson Finance did declare France's VC activity for the first half of 2011 as remarkably less than in 2010, this
Pitch advice for French Startups
Last Saturday Jason Calacanis stopped by Le Camping for the fifth edition of TWIST Paris. This edition was the first which he had attended in person, a trend we hope to continue in the future. Alongside co-host Tyler Crowley, Jason was pitched by LifeShow, PrepMyFuture, and Pictarine – three great examples of French Startups. While […]
Does France like Shazam more than Twitter?
Twitter has been slowly gaining more and more momentum in France. As with other countries around the world, France definitely started to tune into the power of Twitter - especially with the political uprisings in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia. And to show just how tuned-in France was to the power of the social web, Sarkozy even held the first-ever eG8 Forum in Paris May to address the role of the Internet in society with numerous digital experts from around the
What is a Biz Guy?
I will be using the term “Biz Guy” often in this post – it is a non gender-specific term: I, more than most, understand that sentiment regarding Biz Guys. I loathe the question “what do you do?” at social events – I fall back on being a blogger so I don’t have to say I’m a […]
The Symptoms, Causes and Cure to a sick Startup Ecosystem
I am writing this article with the Paris startup ecosystem in mind, but based on the results of HowToWeb (C’mon Croatia, another event app ?), I’m going to go out on a limb and say that other emerging startup ecosystems are having similar problems…. LeCamping‘s Job Fair looked more like a therapy session this past […]
The 11-11-11 RUDE Roundup: Th1s week 1n France…
As we mentioned last week, we'll be doing a quick round-up every Friday of some of the key happenings in French tech news. So wake up and check out what happened this week!
Oy, Siri! Throw some shrimp on the barby!
While Siri’s initial launch included English, German, and French (although in limited capacity outside the US), it seems that not all Anglophones have been treated equal. Today’s release of iOS 5.0.1 marked some pretty standard updates: bug fixes, multi-task improvements, iCloud fixes for documents… oh, and now Siri can finally understand Australians! It seems that […]
WYDIF: The French startup with the best online video
Let me preface this by saying first that I have seen a lot of French startups. But I definitely haven't seen them all. If there is one thing that many French companies are getting better at, it's social marketing. Last year, I published a little list of some of my favorite Youtube videos published by French startups. But I have to say that the one I'm presenting now takes the cake - by far.
Strength In Numbers
This Morning I published two event-wrapup articles – one about HackDayParis, and another about Starup Weekend Paris Social Edition – I suggest you check them out to get a low down on what French startupers are capable of during a weekend. There are a few great things about these events: they promoted social entrepreneurship, they […]