Roxanne Varza
Kima Ventures and Jaina Capital invest in Yasound. Yes, failure pays.
Today, the self-proclaimed “most active business angel in the world” (aka Kima Ventures) announced yet another investment: Yasound. While this may seem like “just another investment” for the famous fund that strives to invest in some 100 startups per calendar year, it’s in fact very different. Pandora’s box. For anyone who doesn’t know Yasound, the […]
Michelin (finally) launches online restaurant guide, ignores startups
I remember in 2010, Marc Simoncini said that 2011 would be “the year of mobile” for his online dating company, Meetic. At the time, I giggled. A whopping 4 years after the launch of the iPhone and Meetic was finally turning to mobile as its new platform? Well done. But earlier this week when France’s […]
Paris's LeWeb conference to invade London and rival London Web Summit
LeWeb is hands-down France’s biggest tech conference. With the last edition in 2011 hosting over 3,500 participants from over 76 countries and speakers like Karl Lagerfeld, Eric Schmidt and Her Majesty Queen Rania of Jordan, there are very few conferences in Europe that measure up. At most, some would say the only other conferences on […]
French Social Payments Platform Leetchi takes €4 Million to launch in the UK and Germany
Everyone knows how painful it can be when someone owes you money. Whether it be that the person is your flatmate and needs to pay you their part of the rent or a simple friend who owes you their share for a group dinner where you picked up the bill for everyone, not being reimbursed […]
France: would you rather work for Airbnb or a local competitor?
The international tech community has been obsessing over Silicon Valley darling Airbnb for so long that it’s easy to forget that the company founded in 2008 only began its international expansion in the fall of last year. Over the last few months, the company has been setting up local offices across Europe, where it rivals local […]
Deezer is looking for €100 million. Any takers?
Deezer is a hot topic for the moment – and not just because President Sarkozy released his Deezer music playlist. Turns out music streaming platform is looking for a little love money. €100 million, to be exact. Spotify, is that you? The news broke on Les Echos earlier today that Orange – which acquired 11% of the […]
SHUT UP! President Sarkozy's not-so-brilliant social media strategy
Just last week, I published an article on digital side of the French presidential elections. At the time, French President Nicolas Sarkozy didn’t have an official Twitter account. After announcing his intention to run for reelection on February 12th, he and his social media team got their act together. Well, kinda. There’s only one Sarkozy […]
Are larger French companies stealing ideas from startups?
It’s no mystery that as a company, innovation gets all the more challenging the bigger you get. “Startup” is more or less synonymous with “innovative,” whereas “company” starts to make you think of “hierarchy,” “bureaucracy,” and the likes. There are many examples of where larger companies struggle to implement even the smallest of changes. Which […]
Videdressing co-founder reveals the benefit of being a US entrepreneur in France
Everyone seems to have an opinion on doing business in France. Simply bring up the topic and you won’t be able to escape the stereotypes of strikes, long-vacations and the 35-hour work week. Even the French are not always positive when it comes to discussing their experiences in their own country. But despite the fact […]
Pearltrees: 3 years and €8.5 million later, there's finally talk of a business model
In Europe, as many of you may already know, people tend to talk about business models much earlier in the game than they do in the US. In fact, it’s a widely-held belief that European investors don’t tend to invest in companies that aren’t generating cash (which many believe explains the French VCs’ love for […]