All posts in entrepreneurship
Is Raising Funds More Important than Profitability?
Raising funds, getting new valuations, and Series B financing are an inescapable fact of life any startup. We celebrate those companies that are able to pull in eye-popping investments, as with digital bank Monzo – which got valued at £1 billion last year and is looking at raising more funds in order to expand their […]
Report from French government offers some big ideas to foster a ‘culture of innovation’ in France
A report published today by the government and covered in detail in Les Echos rings the alarm about where France falls vis-a-vis its international counterparts on innovation and proposes 19 measures to help foster an innovation and entrepreneurial culture in France. Smartly, the report suggests to start at the beginning – with the education system. […]
Ben & Fakto founder Kevin Straszburger talks Startup Failure
Who are you and where are you right now? I’m Kevin Straszburger, I just founded Ben & Fakto, with two friends last year. We started the company just after finishing French business school EDHEC in June 2011. Right now I’m living in Singapore. Prior to working in Singapore, you were the co-founder and CEO of […]
Six Lies French Entrepreneurs tell about France
This article is the opinion of the writer and no one else involved with The Rude Baguette. Last week, Betabeat’s Adrianne Jeffries published an article entitled “French Startups Take Refuge in New York” – you can imagine how interested we were in this. The article consisted of an interview with prominent New York Entrepreneur Ilan Abehassera, […]
France should stop saying "GET OUT" to talented foreigners
Let me preface this article with a bit of a disclaimer. A while ago, I published a response to the diversity debate that Michael Arrington kicked off in the Silicon Valley. I mentioned that – contrary to what one would think – France’s tech startup scene was incredibly diverse, including entrepreneurs of Moroccan, Tunisian, Israeli, […]
In Paris for LeWeb? Let Drinkon.me show you a good time…
There are 2 times per year when my inbox gets flooded with "Hey Roxanne, what should I do in Paris?!" emails: during summer and LeWeb. Usually I send my friends a few random things to do, like see a Chopin concert in the Eglise Julien le Pauvre near Saint Germain or go to the 5th floor of the Louis Vuitton building via the "secret" elevator for the hands-down best view of Paris and other weird things as well.
Three Golden Rules to Finding a CTO
This article is not meant for Tech Guys – this article is for the legitimate Biz Guys, whether you’re a tech guy who’s decided to run the business-side of a project instead of the development side, or if you’re someone with great product vision. I have watched many a biz guy hunt for a developer, […]
3 Takeaways from Deloitte's Fast 500
This past week, Deloitte released it’s annual list of the 500 fastest growing EMEA technology companies, and the results are pretty interesting. The most interesting point is probably that Logic Bilisim, the top growing technology company with %28617 gr0wth, is from Turkey. I thought I’d take look at the list and find some takeaways that could […]
Smartdate, the French startup everyone is asking questions about
First off, for anyone who doesn't know Smartdate, it's often defined as the French Zoosk. It's a Facebook-based dating platform that helps you date people within your online network. The company officially launched in March 2010 raised some €5.5 million with 360 Capital and 2 well-known French entrepreneurs (in the country where it is supposedly impossible to raise money), launched its platform in 6 different languages and accumulated 650K members within a year.
WYDIF: The French startup with the best online video
Let me preface this by saying first that I have seen a lot of French startups. But I definitely haven't seen them all. If there is one thing that many French companies are getting better at, it's social marketing. Last year, I published a little list of some of my favorite Youtube videos published by French startups. But I have to say that the one I'm presenting now takes the cake - by far.