Archive for May 2012

The Importance of Intellectual Property Protection

Guest Post:  Jennifer Motian provides an overview of IP (Intellectual Property) basics, the differences between the French and US systems, and the importance of properly protecting your IP. Jennifer contributes writing to Red Chalk Group, an international firm that specializes in intellectual property services and consulting.   One of the most important things for a startup […]

France's Cloud Startups (series):  A Closer Look at Jolicloud

France's Cloud Startups (series): A Closer Look at Jolicloud

In the first of a series, Trista Bridges takes a closer look at france’s cloud startups.  First up is an interview with the co-founder of Jolicloud, Tariq Krim Over the last few weeks we’ve discussed a couple initiatives sponsored by the french government, namely Andromède and another initiative led by SFR and Bull, to develop cloud computing […]

Criteo's Code Of Duty 2 Challenge To European Programmers

Criteo's Code Of Duty 2 Challenge To European Programmers

If you are a French developer, chances are you have already heard that the 2nd edition of the programming contest organised by Criteo will take place this weekend. If you haven’t: Criteo is the European leader of retargeted advertisement. Retargeted ads are those evil web banners that follow you everywhere, begging you to return to […]

Here are the Six Open Data Winners of Etalab's Dataconnexions Contest

This afternoon, open data enthusiasts gathered at the Orange Lab Headquarters to hear the results of Dataconnexion’s first open data contest of the year. The contest held applications from March until April 15th, inviting startups, people with ideas, and others to submit their open data idea, which was judged by a jury of open data […]

Rude VC: To IPO or not to IPO? – Going public in France

Forgive the bastardization of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, because when it comes to French tech IPO’s, one could argue that MacBeth is more appropriate (“Double, double, toil and trouble. Fire burn and cauldron bubble…”). In my last two columns we reviewed the basics of IPO’s and examined some of the challenges that venture-backed companies like Facebook confront in […]

Rails Girls comes to Paris to teach Girls to code in Ruby

Among all the great things that are coming to Futur En Seine, a French SXSW of sorts, is the Rail Girls event, which will host its first edition in Paris on June 15th & 16th. The event, which aims to give tools and a community for women to understand technology and to build their ideas, – […]

A detailed breakdown of the 16 startups competing at LeWeb London

This week, LeWeb’s Loic & Geraldine announced the semi-finalists for the LeWeb London startup competition. These startups will compete throughout the two-day event, and the final three will pitch on stage in front of an all-star jury panel. For those who won’t be able to attend, we thought we’d give you a look at each […]

Review of Start In Paris – a recurring Paris startup event

Start In Paris is a quasi-monthly Paris event where people get together, and startups pitch their ideas. Started by Laurent Kretz and partner-in-crime Jonathan Benoudiz, the format is inspired by Laurent’s experience with New York Tech Meetup while living there. They also have a successful mobile startup together called FreeApps365. Bringing the event format to […]

French Sovereign wealth fund announces Digital economy represents 25% of economic growth

FSI (Fonds stratégique d’investissement) France’s strategic sovereign wealth fund announced this week that the digital economy currently represents 25% of France’s growth over the last three years.  According to FSI  this will result in a an eventual revolution in sthe make-up of France’s economy as they estimate that the digital economy’s percentage of overall GDP will […]

Paris & Berlin – The tale of two cities (Part 2: The Startup Ecosystem)

In last week’s post I compared Paris and Berlin from a macro-economic and historical perspective. This time I want to share my analysis on the start-up ecosystem. My conclusion upfront: Paris has a very active start-up community, but Berlin wins the battle. See why below: Paris is the world’s capital! Paris is the world’s most […]