It seems like so long ago that the Rude Baguette was born, and this last year has been so crucial to us, in terms of finding our stride. Last year on our anniversary article we focused on some of the most important news headlines of the previous 12 months – this year, I want to talk a bit more about us.
For readers, I’m not sure much has changed – we continue to publish great content, and we have no plans of stopping that. Our readership remains strong, international, and, if I do say so myself, quite smart, and have enjoyed writing about the French tech market this past year.
Rude Baguette
On my end, I’ve admittedly picked more fights this year than I had planned to, between TheFamily & eFounders, and perhaps my entire “VC Politics” series. Perhaps because I have been around long enough to differentiate do-ers from talkers, perhaps because France as a tech hub is shedding its former skin in order to grow. Nonetheless, I have written just as much about the amazing startups in France this year – Blablacar, PeopleDoc, Scality, Dashlane, Teads – these are all names that may have been completely foreign to readers a year ago, that have taken ambitious steps in the past 12 months.
The Paris Founders Event
On the Events side, Rude Baguette made huge strides this past year. We turned Paris Founders Event into Paris’ #1 Startup event, bringing in 500 Founders, Entrepreneurs, Investors, Journalists & Partners to our Fall Edition, launching 9 new products and interviewing 5 great founders on stage. Historically our first event series, I’ve always had one goal with this event, to make it the best event for getting a pulse on what’s happening in Paris. Our 2015 editions will see the event continue to grow, although I’m sure we’ll hit the ceiling on the ecosystem pretty soon; however, I’m looking forward to integrating more players of the startup ecosystem into the event.
PS: Grab tickets for our next edition here
The Paris Startup Job Fair
The Paris Startup Job Fair brought together 50 startups and 1,000 job-seekers last September, in only its 3rd edition. We wanted to build an accessible job fair, where startups could hire their first full-time employee, and large startups could continue growing. Feedback has been positive so far – we’ll release more info on that in January as we ramp up for our March Edition, but we plan to continue growing the Job Fair, alongside the Rude List Job Board, to become the best way for anyone to find their next career move in a Startup.
The Connected Conference
The Connected Conference was arguable our most ambitious event ever – an annual conference about connected hardware, internet of things & 3D, the event was an amazing success. We’re bringing it back bigger & better next year. More to be said about that in the future, but needless to say, if you’re interested in getting involved, just ping me (contact info above).
Rude List
Rude List has been quite an adventure – thousands of users have signed up in the initial months, inputing valuable data about thousands of companies, which has made writing the Rude Baguette that much more fluid a process. Companies who have submitted information via our News Submission tool can attest to how quick a turn-around there is, because, for our journalists, we’re constantly making it easier and easier to work using Rude List.
What you can look forward to in the next 12 months
As you can imagine, our events teams will continue to grow. This past year has largely been about connecting Events & News, building on our vision that Events = News IRL (in real life). We will continue to grow our events, all of which are recurring over fixed periods of time, and we may even bring in a few new events under the Rude umbrella – it all depends on where we can bring value.
In the mean time, we’ll be working on connecting News & Data (i.e: Rude List), bringing you more data-driven news, building on the idea that News = Data with a Time Stamp. We don’t get to write about every metric, every data point, and we’re not sure we should – but that doesn’t mean that readers shouldn’t get access to them, and we’ll be working on giving you more access to all the metrics we have on Rude List.
In addition, since, by the transitive property, Events = Data with a Time Stamp (IRL), we’ll be working on connecting our Events with Rude List more. We’ve already taken first steps by connecting the Rude List Job Board and the Paris Startup Job Fair, but we believe we can go further with this, creating more value for event participants and for Rude List users.
Some Cool Announcements
One of the most exciting points that I’m happy to announce is that the Rude team is growing, and we currently have openings in the following positions:
- Python Developer (we actually filled this position this week, but we’re happy to bring on more great people)
- Digital Marketing & Communication Intern
- Head of Business Development & Partnerships (email me here if you want to learn more)
More generally, we’re looking for people who are passionate about making Journalism scalable, who are confident in their opinions (i.e: Rude), and who are, of course, Anglophone.
We’re also moving into a new office – 39.io – alongside some great French ( & International) startups. We’re throwing a shindig tonight and you’re all welcome to come by.
Lastly, I’m proud to say that we posted our 2000th article earlier this week – so, here’s to the next 12 months, the next 1000 articles, and the next 10 hires!