All posts in Google
France's Cloud Startups (series): A closer look at We Are Cloud – BIME
We Are Cloud – BIME is one of the fast-growing success stories in the space of cloud computing in France. Founded in 2007 by Rachel Delacour and Nicolas Raspal, their objective was to transform the world of business intelligence (BI) by creating a simple-to-use, accessible, analytically sophisticated, cloud BI solution. They’ve had quite a few impressive […]
Google backs a copycat accelerator – take that Samwer brothers!
Every trend has its backlash, and every backlash has its own backlash. A few months ago we penned our defense of the copycat, and just last week we kneecapped the burgeoning backlash to European accelerator programs. But we perhaps lost the contest of “best contrarian” to Guilhem Bertholet — perhaps best known for running the […]
Hadopi: What SOPA looks like from the Eiffel Tower
Last week, the US looked a lot more like France than it usually does, thanks to the uproar caused by SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act). I probably don’t need to remind anyone reading this that the internet was flooded with the protesting voices of companies like Wikipedia, Google, Reddit and more against the would-be anti-piracy law. […]
A mini wave of French acquisitions?
A while ago, I published an article titled “I’m sorry, did you think French companies don’t acquire?” Despite the fact that France lacks a company with an aggressive acquisition strategy comparable to that of Google, there ARE companies that acquire. At the time, my list was oriented towards larger companies – like Ubisoft, France Telecom […]
The Only Thing French About LeWeb '11 Was Its Name…
Last week Loic Le Meur hosted LeWeb for the 7th time on the outskirts of Paris. Silicon Valley bloggers, investors, and entrepreneurs rode in on Uber Carriages, bringing with them French companies, European startups, and fanbois of all shapes and sizes. For three days, croissant-fueled networking and wine-induced pitches filled the air as startups pitched […]
I'm sorry, did you think French companies don't acquire?
It's true. French companies don't have the same acquisition culture as some of the American tech darlings, like Google or Facebook. And it definitely doesn't help the local exit market. French and other European companies often look across the Atlantic when it comes time to go public or get acquired.But just because there are more exit opportunities elsewhere doesn't mean there are none at home.
What's wrong with being a copycat?
It's funny almost to the point of hilarity. We applaud numerous copycat companies around the globe (Yandex anyone?) but are quick to criticize when it comes to Europe.