20 (more) French startups whose names don’t work in English
A while back I received a series of pitches from startups with ridiculous names, so I decided to share them in an effort to explain why they didn’t work in English, in order to help startups create a better brand identity. Since then, it seems like everyday where someone goes “Oh man, I can’t believe […]
Evernote passes 1 Million users in France, doubled in the past year
It seems like only yesterday that Evernote was launching Evernote Hello and announcing a partnership with Orange at LeWeb 2011, when I first got my hands on Evernote. This week, the company announced on their French blog that the company has passed one million users in France. The company counts more than 50 million users […]
Former Joshfire CTO Sylvain Zimmer launches Pricing Assistant, Pricing-As-A-Service for E-Commerce
On his personal blog today, Sylvain Zimmer announced that he is launching a new venture, Pricing Assistant, which he calls “pricing-as-a-service” for eMerchants. The former CTO of Joshfire, and founder of Jamendo, TEDxParis, dotConferences & more said of the launch: “Airlines and hotels have been investing heavily in advanced pricing tools for decades but there […]
Musings on advanced urban ecosystems
For the second time in a month this weekend, fortune had it that I caught one of the brand new trains on RER B. I’ve long suspected that one of the reasons that keeps Paris below other world-class cities in various rankings (such as the recent 11th out of Startup Genome’s Top 20 Startup Ecosystems) […]
Xavier Niel interviews Nest founder Tony Fadell
LeWeb is in full swing today, and the event kicked off powerfully with Xavier Niel, founder of Iliad (the company behind 4th biggest Telecom giant Free Mobile), interviewing Nest founder Tony Fadell. Prior to founding Nest, Tony Fadell worked at Apple, where he was deeply involved with the development of the iPod and iPhone – […]
Ujoolt launches at LeWeb
Ujoolt, one of the 16 startups selected in the LeWeb Paris Startup Competition, is officially launching its real-time geoocalized social network. The service, available for download on the iPhone App Store as well as on Google Play, integrates with Facebook and Instagram, creating a map of all photos, events, and check-ins posted on the two […]
Yelp for taxi drivers, Greek Taxibeat launches in France for LeWeb
The world of smartphone-based intercity transportation has really been shook up, but Taxibeat’s Yelp for Taxi’s app puts a new spin on it, launching in Paris this week during LeWeb. While most players in this space – Uber, SnapCar, Chauffeur Privé – are working with a fleet of freelanced private drivers, Taxibeat is working directly […]
Good social customer service – the next big challenge
Yesterday we attended The Social Customer 2012 here in Paris, a bilingual bootcamp/conference about social customer service hosted by leading social media services firm and blog, Our Social Times. Although smaller in size, The Social Customer punched well above its weight with prominent, engaging speakers such as customer service guru Frank Eliason, as well as useful, […]
Here are the 20 startups selected for Seedcamp Paris
The European micro-investment fund and mentoring program Seedcamp have announced the 20 startups who will be attending Seedcamp Paris next Monday, December 3rd. The full-day event, which precedes LeWeb annually by one day, will be attended by a mix of local and international mentors, such as Kwaga founder and mentor Philippe Laval, Index Ventures‘ Martin Mignot (1 of […]
10 French entrepreneurs who attended Stanford
Since arriving in France, I’ve noticed a very strange phenomenon. You see, whenever I introduce myself, it inevitably comes up that I was born in Menlo Park, just up the road from Stanford University, and that’s always been a way for me to gauge someone’s experience in the Silicon Valley – if they recognize “Menlo […]