2012 is here, and The Rude Baguette is changing with the times! We launched The Rude Baguette on Halloween hoping to bring together some of the English bloggers in France to one place. We had this idea in our head that the people who were interested in knowing what was going on in France were not just French-speaking people, and that French startups did not just want French-language press – so far, it seems we’ve been right. In the first 2 months we averaged 15,000 page views per month, wrote 60 articles between 3 writers (and a few guest posts), and we have 3 unsolicited articles written about us. In fact, all over Europe, English-language blogs have begun popping up or growing larger in the past year.
After the initial launch, there were some bumps and bruises… because we always launch too soon! Some of us had to learn how to code PHP just to make the site overhaul possible, and we got some amazing sysadmin help from @WesselKooyman from Cole Street, a development firm based in Paris. We spent all Christmas break redesigning the layout of the site, and we’re proud to start unveiling some of the new features we’re bringing you in 2012:
The Rude Calendar “one-stop startup events calendar”
I think XKCD hit the nail on their head when they talked about how trying to create a one-stop resource that compiles N other sources into one only creates N+1 sources for the information, none of which are complete – despite that, we’ve decided to create our Rude Calendar. There may be events that slip through the cracks, there may be events we just don’t put up, but we think we’ll have the essential – because we’re at these events. In addition to your recurring Meetups and Startup Weekends going on in France, The Events Calendar brings you the premium Conferences with occasional discounted ticket prices (keep your eyes peeled for the first one coming in the next few weeks), letting you know where you can get tickets, what the events are about, and the primary language of the event. We accept submissions for events by email and we’ll have a form below the calendar as soon as we learn how to code PHP better.
One of my personal favorite parts of this calendar is our ability to seamlessly integrate our events announcements across the site. You’ll notice we’ve got a list AND a calendar of upcoming events on the right sidebar – we’re still deciding which one we like best, so let us know what you think in our new Facebook comments section below. We’ll also bring you related events based on the topic of the articles: for example, if we’re talking about companies that launched at Startup Weekend, we might bring you upcoming Startup Weekend events:
[events_list category=”2″]
The Rude Job Board “for Rude Startups and Startupers”
In the next month we will be launching two other services, the first of which is yet another job board. Our theory with this job board is the same as with the blog, that French startups don’t just want French speaking talent, they want global talent. Our Job Board will allow anyone to see which startups in France are globally minded and looking for the best global talent – great startups are always hiring, and hiring startups are always great! Much like the events calendar, the job board will have its own dedicated section of the site as well as integration into the sidebar and related posts.
In order to attract serious job offers only without significantly adjusting a startup’s burn rate, we will initially be charging €10 per post, which will stay up for two weeks – this will keep the Craiglist Nigerian Princes at bay while still allowing serious startupers to find co-founders & employees for their next big project. If you’ve got a startup that’s hiring, get in contact with us now in order to get 50% off for posting on the launch date!
The Rude Store “funding with a twist”
In addition to the Job Board, we will also be launching a Rude Store in the next month or so. For our part, we will be offering some sweet merchandise in order to show your support for the Paris startup scene – sometimes it will be stuff we design, like RUDE startup t-shirts, and sometimes it will be merchandise for other startups. In this day and age, it’s easy to say you’re an “early adopter,” but a real early adopter sports a t-shirt of their favorite startup, supporting that company financially and morally.
Again, as above: dedicated page as well as sexy integration across the site.
The Rude Newsletter “a peek into the French Startup Scene”
By now, you may have heard us pushing readers to sign up for our Rude Newsletter (By the way, you can easily drop your name and email on the right of this article and never even leave the page!). It seems that Newsletters are all the rage in 2012 for European startupers, as both The Kernel and Max Niederhofer have recently begun accepting signups for their European startup newsletters. With the new tools we’re adding, the site is no longer just a blog (don’t get me wrong, we’ll be blogging like crazy. In fact we’re still looking for more Rude Writers, so don’t hesitate to drop us a test article if you think you’ve got what it takes). As the site grows, blog posts will no longer be the only means of keeping up with the French Startup Scene, and so we’ve created the Rude Newsletter.
Combining all sections of the site, we’ll bring the best articles of the week (but not all the articles), we’ll bring you the best upcoming events, the best new job postings, and we’ll bring you those news tidbits that don’t merit an article written around a quote: Mark Zuckerberg said something crazy in the news? We won’t waste your time trying to write 300 words around the quote, we’ll just drop it to you with a link in the Newsletter. We’ll let you know who got bought, who bought who, who raised money, and who’s closed up shop – all in the Rude Newsletter.
The Rude Newsletter is great for hardcore startupers from any country who want to keep feelers on what’s going on in France, but it’s also a great way for those who are casually interested to start getting a feel for what’s going on in France.
More to come, so don’t change that channel…
The Rude Baguette started off as a great project, but it has become something bigger. If you’ve talked to me (Liam) at all in the past few months, you know how I feel about the site and about the French startup scene – it’s packed full of energy. We here at The Rude Baguette believe 2012 will be the year of the RUDE, and we want to be there to document it as it happens.