Radical Departures

My guest today is Hajar Chokairi, associate of ONORIENT, a mixed media website that highlights lesser known artists of all sorts from North Africa and the Middle East. Hajar and her co-founders started the project in 2013, and have since built out the platform to include cultural consultancy services as well. They write detailed articles, host podcasts, build playlists, curate exhibitions, screen their documentary, and much more with ONORIENT, all of which you can find at onorient.com. In this episode, Hajar and I discuss the complexities of running the media while she’s also employed as an innovation consultant, insights about feeling at home while far from home, reasons they started ONORIENT, how she sees it shape-shifting in the future, and more.

My guest today is Ben Costantini, CEO and Founder of Startup Sesame, the global network of Tech events and Connectors. With more than ten years' experience in conference organisation, he has one of the most extensive and trusted networks of event founders in the world. An expert in the creative industries, Ben advises entrepreneurs and investors in early and growth stages of their projects. In this episode, we discuss the importance of attending the right kinds of events, especially as a startup founder, how Startup Sesame adds value for entrepreneurs, just what is so special about tech events, and much more.

A little something different for you this week: I had the privilege of attending La French Touch Conference here in Paris in May of this year-- it’s an event that brings together French and international entrepreneurs to discuss what makes France shine, to define just what exactly that French touch is. They come from all over, having founded and built out companies around the world, to share their experiences on stage, passing on lessons learned and best practices to those gathered in the audience. This year, among other distinguished guests, the Secretary of State for Digital Affairs, Mounir Mahjoubi, addressed the crowd, highlighting some of the positive developments that have taken place in France over the past few years, making the country a much friendlier place for startups. The event, which now holds editions in New York, San Francisco, Paris, and upcoming this October in Toronto, was begun in 2013, by entrepreneur Gael Duval. He and his team put entrepreneurs, investors, and innovators from all sectors together to create a rich microcosm of the French startup ecosystem at each edition. I caught up with a couple of the speakers at the conference to chat with them about their experiences as founders, and what they got out of their participation in the French Touch Conference. I spoke to Julien Callede, Co-Founder of Made.com, the French-founded multi-million dollar e-commerce furniture startup that skyrocketed to success in London, and Mohamed Haouache, Co-Founder and CEO of New York-based Storefront, the world’s leading platform for booking commercial spaces to use as pop-up stores. If you’re interested in hearing more stories like Julien and Mohamed’s, check out La French Touch Conference’s website at lafrenchtouchconference.net, and attend one of their next editions!

My guest today is Joel Halpern, a creative brand strategy consultant, among other things. Joel has worn many hats, including art student in France, marketing director in New York City, founder of a full-service brand development firm in the US, and his current one as consultant and mentor for companies and startup accelerators from all over the world on branding and marketing. In this episode, Joel and I talk about why it’s so important to create a North Star for your brand, lessons he’s learned over the last few years of transatlantic work, common mistakes startups make when preparing to go global, and much more.

My guest today is Helene Merillon, co-founder and CEO of Yooboox, the Spotify of books. It’s a startup that provides a streaming, subscription-based model to read the books and magazines of your choice, anywhere, anytime. Their content is currently mostly in French, but they’ve got plans for global expansion this year-- more on that in the episode. We discuss Helene’s background as a serial entrepreneur, the challenges of competing in the same space alongside Amazon, her passion for innovation, and much more.

My guest today is Sylvain Tillon, co-founder and CEO of Tilkee, a software that allows you to track what recipients do with the documents you send them. Sylvain has founded three companies, co-written three books, and is passionate about entrepreneurship, including normalizing failure and increasing transparency. He incorporates those subjects into his management and expansion of Tilkee, which recently raised another major round of funding. In this episode, we talk about his previous ventures, what he’s working on building at Tilkee, the slowly-changing attitudes around failure in France, and much more.

My guest today is Santiago Lefebvre, co-founder of the ChangeNOW Summit! It’s an event taking place this September 28th and 29th at Station F and around Paris, and includes a huge conference, a film festival, super inspiring guests, and much more. Santiago has a history of planning major events, including TEDX Insead at his alma mater here in Paris. Along with his co-founders, he set out to create an event that would highlight and magnify the positive impact that many innovators and change makers are having around the world, bringing them together for two days in Paris. At their first edition of the event last year, they had 2000 participants from 47 countries! In this episode, we talk about how Santiago and his team have built the ChangeNOW Summit into a major world event in just under three years, some of the truly incredible speakers who’ll be at this year’s edition, and much more.

My guest today is Sharon Sofer, Founder of Startup for Kids. They’re an organization that runs events to introduce young people to the concept and experience of entrepreneurship and facilitate working together on group projects. Startup for Kids is for young children as well as teenagers, and they hold a variety of different kinds of events. In this episode, we discuss Sharon’s background working in tech, how she decided that this was the project she wanted to develop after a pivot away from a previous startup idea, why she thinks it’s so important to introduce kids to entrepreneurship and other ways of learning at a young age, and much more.

Anne Charlotte transitioned away from the corporate world and into entrepreneurship by a very different path than she’d originally planned. In this episode, she shares the incredible and harrowing story that ultimately led her to build Yogist into a method and mindset that has gone global, bringing simple, corporate yoga to employees around the world via her book, e-learning program, and now a chatbot. You don’t want to miss this one!

Weerada launched FilmDoo a few years ago-- it’s a global media company helping people to discover and watch great and often lesser-known or hard to access films from around the world. Originally based in London, FilmDoo was one of the recipients of the French Tech Ticket program in 2017, and they’ve been working for over a year now to build out development in France. In this episode, we discuss her experience with the French Tech Ticket, the market need she wants to fill, how FilmDoo will expand their model, and much more.

My guest today is Laurin Hainy, CEO and co-founder of Predictus. Predictus is a mobile lending platform for emerging markets that draws on users’ data to help give them access to loans where and when they’re needed. Laurin has lived, worked, and studied in numerous countries, and is now building and expanding Predictus here in Paris, currently for the Nigerian market. In this episode, we talk about how Predictus uses a combination of machine learning and human intelligence to determine how and to whom they give loans, where their next markets will be, challenges they’ve faced, and much, much more.

My guest today is Vincent Nallatamby, CEO and co-founder of Tempow, a software solution that enables you to simultaneously connect your smartphone or other tech to multiple Bluetooth speakers or headphones. They’ve just raised a round of $4 million and are ready to expand internationally. Vincent spoke to me about his background, his time in San Francisco with the Refiners, how they’ll build out the company, and much more.

My guest today is Elsa Hermal, the co-founder of Epicery, which is a great grocery delivery service that allows busy people to have products delivered directly from their favorite local artisanal shops, including butchers, green grocers, fishmongers, and more! They’ve also recently partnered with Monoprix, so you can now order from them and from Naturalia, all through the Epicery app. Epicery not only helps consumers, but they also allow small shops to digitize their offerings and expand their client base. In this episode, we chat about Elsa’s development from her idea for the service to its impressive execution and expansion, her advice for those just starting out, and much more. Elsa is also graciously offering Radical Departures listeners 8 euros off their first order from Epicery, using the coupon code OUISTART! So definitely download Epicery and check it out!

This week, I had the privilege of having a fascinating conversation about ethical product development with two great guys, both experts in their field: Fabrice des Mazery, who’s currently CPO of Thiga, and is a former serial entrepreneur and founder of La Product Conference. Bruno Margueritat is an Agile coach and Certified Scrum Trainer, and also heads up a team at a major telecoms company here in Paris. You definitely don’t want to miss this episode-- we talked all about their experiences navigating the development of software and other products, what being ethical really means, how we define what is “right”, and much, much more.

Today we have something a little different for you, this is Part Two of the STATION F Fighters miniseries! For those who don’t know, Station F is the world’s largest startup campus, located here in Paris. They house over 30 incubator and accelerator programs, including their own Founders’ program. For this series however, we wanted to feature some great startups from their Fighters’ program, which offers free access to the Founders’ program for those entrepreneurs who come from any kind of disadvantaged background. In this second episode of the Fighters miniseries, you’ll meet Alain and Sabri, childhood friends and the co-founders of a startup called Tynkle. When something goes wrong with your computer, their platform quickly connects you to someone who can come to your home or meet you in a nearby cafe to fix it! Hear all about their background, how they came up with their idea, and how STATION F has given their startup a home in Paris.

Welcome back to the Radical Departures podcast. Today we have something a little different for you, this is Part One of the STATION F Fighters miniseries! For those who don’t know, Station F is the world’s largest startup campus, located here in Paris. They house over 30 incubator and accelerator programs, including their own Founders’ program. For this series however, we wanted to feature some great startups from their Fighters’ program, which offers free access to the Founders’ program for those entrepreneurs who come from any kind of disadvantaged background. In this first episode of the Fighters miniseries, you’ll meet Alexis and Mohammad, the creators of Streetyfood, a startup that connects offices to better food options! Their app allows companies to easily and directly interface with food trucks and other street food providers so as to change up boring lunchtime food options for employees, and bring more business to those enterprising chefs-- a win-win! My colleague Alex joined us for this episode, which is for the Francophones among us-- English speakers, you can read the translated interview on our website at ouistartmedia.com. So without further ado, here’s Part 1 of our Station F Fighters miniseries with Streetyfood!

Our guest today is Maeva Botrel, co-founder of Sextech Lab. Unlike some of our other guests, Maeva runs this innovative association in her free time, in addition to a demanding day job! Sextech Lab seeks to increase awareness of sexuality, normalize conversations on the subject, and make advancements in an area that’s often overlooked. They’ll be holding the second French sextech hackathon this June! In this episode, Maeva explains just what exactly sextech is, how her association is working to improve sexual education for young people, some interesting and surprising applications for sextech, what other communities around the world are doing in this area, and much more.

Our guest today is Francois Veron, Managing Partner of the venture capital firm Newfund. In this episode, Francois shares about Newfund’s development over the last 10 years, methods they use to choose where to invest, how they have managed to build a truly distributed team, some of their amazing portfolio companies, and so much more. For anyone looking to get inside the mind of a successful and innovative French investor, this episode is not to be missed!

Our guest today is Arthur Nobel, Founder of Flexpat, a platform that hosts remote work programs for digital professionals and freelancers of all stripes. In this episode, Arthur shares with us how Flexpat works to open new horizons for people to work remotely, taking their jobs on the road to Flexpat’s thoroughly scouted locations around the world. You’ll hear more about how Flexpat’s programs offer the chance to remote and location-independent workers to build a worldwide community, and to experience true cultural immersion, without all the headaches that planning a life abroad usually holds.

Our guest today is Matthieu Lavergne, Entrepreneur in Residence at L'Atelier BNP Paribas. Matthieu works on the two Boost startup accelerator programs run by L’Atelier, and in this episode, he shares with us their innovative way of pairing corporates with startups, how they focus on generating mutual value right from the start, and some of the factors that set these excellent programs apart, including that they take no equity and they’re free for startups! The application period for one of BNP’s programs, WAI Boost, opens today, March 20th, so head to our website after the episode if you’re interested in learning more about the application criteria.

ur guest today is Sven Deichfuss, co-founder of Neuland Alliance, a multi-pronged agency that provides strategic and support services to European startups so they can hit the ground running when expanding to the US market.

Our guest today is Adrien Mennillo, founder of uTip. He created his startup with the goal of making it simpler and faster to support your favorite internet content creators. In this episode, Adrien discusses how the online advertising landscape has drastically changed and what that means for content creators. He tells us all about the origins of uTip, and how he’s working to get more and more advertisers on board the platform.

Our guest today is Tim Mevel, co-founder of HelloZack, a startup based in Paris that buys back your old Apple devices, hassle-free. In this episode, Tim discusses his entrepreneurial background, how HelloZack has pivoted to their now super well-positioned spot, and why they’ve chosen to contain their growth so far in order to make sure they could be in the best position possible to be able to scale up.

Thomas Ollivier nous explique comment la MAIF comprend l'avenir en y contribuant, grâce à des partenariats et investissements d'#innovation avec des startups sur l'économie collaborative et les pratiques émergentes.

Our guest today is Thomas Ollivier, the Head of Sharing Economy & Emerging Practices at French insurance company, MAIF. In this episode, he shares how his team at MAIF have been pioneers in disrupting their own industry, and have been working with startups since way before it was commonplace. They’re exceptional in this market, and it was a treat to hear how they’ve built an innovative culture inside what is a very traditional kind of enterprise.

Our guest today is Thomas Perret, Founder of Mon Petit Placement. Thomas is based in Lyon, and is in the process of changing how young French people invest their money. After stints working in asset management and the startup world, Thomas decided to create a service that would give the average French person access to better investment opportunities, as well as educate millennials about personal finance, with the ultimate goal of democratizing private banking. He’s working with big-name French banks and Mon Petit Placement promises to be a crucial player in changing how young people invest their money.

Our guest today is Kurt Muehmel, Vice President of the Europe, Middle East, and Africa region at Dataiku. This episode gives you a window into the operations of one of the hottest startups in France today! Kurt has been with Dataiku for the last five years, and has been part of their seriously impressive growth and development. Looked to as an example startup in the French ecosystem, Dataiku has been putting a great deal of resources into international expansion recently. In this episode, Kurt shares some of the company’s strategies as they continue to grow; he discusses how Dataiku’s sales approach differs from so many companies out there today, and how the founders of the company keep their core values at the forefront of operations, even through their rapid expansion.

Our guest today is Florian Bercault, President and Co-Founder of Estimeo, a ratings agency for startups. Florian has a background in crowdfunding, as well as environmental-focused finance. In his first work experiences, he saw a need for a tool to democratize the funding process for startups. In this episode, you’ll hear how Florian set out to build that tool, all about his success so far with his startup ratings agency that does equity scoring, and how Estimeo is working to change the entire culture of investment and finance in France.

Our guests today are Marion Chapsal and Ken Homer, who together run workshops on how to facilitate collaborative communication on gender diversity and leadership issues. Marion, who is based in Lyon, is Chief Learning Officer at Ideas On Stage, as well as the head of Women On Stage. Ken runs an organization called Collaborative Conversations in San Francisco. In this episode, we discuss how to deal with gender diversity issues and conflicts, the importance of clear communication, how to effect change on a small and large scale, and so much more.

Our guest today is Ethan Pierse, Venture Partner at Stealth venture Fund, author of the book Chief Startup Officer, Founding Partner of Borderless Ventures, and all around startup champion.

Our guest today is Eva Perris, the former Deputy Chief Marketing Officer at Once Dating. Once is a “slow dating” app, which uses both algorithms as well as dedicated matchmakers to connect users with one hand-picked match each day, highlighting quality over quantity. Once was started by French expats living in London, who have since moved the company back to Paris. In this episode, Eva discusses the “gamification” of dating, why the founders chose to move the company to Paris, what differentiates Once from other dating apps, and much more. Just a little FYI, since we recorded this episode, Eva has left the team at Once to take on another exciting marketing opportunity.

Episode 14 - Jean-Francois Morizur - CAILabs: Bending light for better network bandwidthKey Points:Born in a research lab at Laboratoire Kastler Brossel, created partnership with the university for licenseFound new application for shaping light - can expand fiber capacity by 400%+Working with SAFRAN, who also led the latest round of financingNo longer need to rewire older fiber, saving time, money, and complexitySell via integration partners, expanding globallyCurrently hiring for many positions in engineering, commercial & internshipsThe initial research lab tests were hoping to find uses for manipulating light for the field of microscopy, though the joint research teams from France and Australia ultimately concluded that no, it was not going to work. Thanks to one of the professors at the Laboratoire Kastler Brossel, Jean-François had kept in contact with the team and was convinced that despite the results of the initial study, something interesting could come out of that research.It may not have yielded results for microscopy but instead, that research provided the backbone for what became CAILabs, a startup that works to shape light, which can provide enormous time and money savings for existing fiber networks and beyond. The business case for CAILabs is immediate and obvious: instead of replacing existing, older fiber LAN networks in factories, hospitals, etc - a process that can be painfully long, requiring significant paperwork and an often challenging process - customers can instead implement the CAILabs product, which can reduce bottlenecks for local networks.Jean-François Morizur is yet another example of a startup founder in a very technical market who has an amazing ability to explain his solution in easy to understand terms for mere mortals. (Edouard Alligand, CEO of QuasarDB who joined us in Episode 7 was another.) He is of course a very deep technical person - he has a PhD in quantum optics, after all - but he’s also a smart business leader who is highly engaging.During our discussion he explains their target audience and their plans for global expansion, including the age-old question of whether to put the US office on the east coast or the west coast. It’s a topic worth spending time exploring, rather than rushing into a choice to move out west just to be in the Valley.Moving forward, CAILabs is seeking to hire new members for their team, both in engineering and the business side of the company now that they’ve secured a new round of funding. They’re also getting a lot of customer traction, so there is a lot of opportunity here for people interested in working on a very innovative solution with smart people.

Our guest today is Damien Courbon, Cofounder and COO of Swapcard, a networking app designed to help users have more meaningful encounters at events. We talked with Damien about Swapcard’s strategic and meticulous hiring process, why they’re recruiting talent from abroad, and how they maintain such a low rate of employee turnover.

Our guest today is Anne Ravanona, founder and CEO of Global Invest Her. It’s a global community and platform that helps women entrepreneurs learn about funding and get investor-ready, to get funded faster. In this episode, Anne walks us through some of the brutal statistics and why most of the investment world is missing out on so many great ideas. The funding gap between men and women entrepreneurs is enormous. Anne’s mission is to close that gap and teach women how to navigate this complex system.

Our guest today is Robin Lepercq, co-founder of FreelanceRepublik, an online community that allows tech teams to hire freelance developers and project managers simply, making sure they get the best possible available talent. Before setting out on his own, Robin spent much of his career as a salesman in retail, IT, and others for companies in France and Spain. In this episode, hear how FreelanceRepublik makes sure all of its constituents have the best possible experience and outcome using the site, what lessons he took with him from corporate life into working independently, and what the freelance developer community in France is like these days.

Key take-away points: Tamara was experienced in consulting, real estate & startup culture WiredScore was created in NY to highlight high end internet readiness for office space French market is largest in EU, third largest in world To succeed, it’s critical to study & adapt before jumping in Commercial office space is highly centralized in France & well organized Challenges remain: slow hiring process which might hinder growth Global clients helped open the market, French clients adopted quickly

Our guest today is Timothee Rebours, co-founder and CEO of Seald, an up-and-coming French startup that’s developing a user-friendly encryption tool for messages and files. During university, Timothee participated in the exchange program in Technological Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of California in Berkeley, where he was able to learn valuable lessons about building a company, and could allow his entrepreneurial visions to take shape. In this episode, you’ll hear how Seald works, how Timothee and his co-founders decided to grow the business, their approach to raising money, and why they decided to put international markets in their sights from the get-go.

Today's episode features a discussion with Olga Egorsheva, founder of Lobster Media, which provides an easy licensing service for user-generated content. Olga is originally Russian, got her MBA in Paris, and then went on to found Lobster in London, where she currently resides. In this episode, you’ll hear why Olga decided that the stock photo industry was one that desperately needed disrupting, what she values most when looking for new employees (this might surprise you), and why Lobster chose to go with investors, rather than grow the business organically. We really enjoyed talking with Olga, and learned a great deal from her.

Edouard Alligand is the founder of QuasarDB, a fresh new take on B2B database software. In this episode, Edouard discusses why and how he decided to create QuasarDB, some of the challenges of working across continents, and how he leveraged assistance from Business France and IMPACT USA to build out QuasarDB and enter the US market. While he’s a serious and hardworking guy, Edouard also has a refreshing approach to building his company, and knows how to not take things too seriously— a necessary skill when in business for yourself.

Following her graduation from McGill University in Montreal, Cassandra Delage got a Master’s in entrepreneurship at HEC here in Paris. Since then, she’s gone on to found a great new company that makes recycling a fun and productive challenge- yes, really! Plast’if makes machines that take offices’ plastic recycling and turn it into 3D printed objects. In this episode, Cassandra describes how Plast’if’s technology works, what the company is currently focused on, how she thinks about being an entrepreneur, and the importance of the little winsw and keeping a positive attitude. We had a great time talking to Cassandra and we’re sure Plast’if will soon be present in every office building in the city.

Wemind is a startup based here in Paris that focuses on providing much-needed services to freelancers around the country. Wemind helps independent workers to obtain complementary health insurance benefits, apartment rentals, and much more.

In Episode 4, you'll be introduced to Sebastien Couture. He's the Technology Evangelist at Stratumn, a blockchain technology company. Stratumn is a company based here in Paris building proof of process technology using blockchain.

Version française de l'épisode

Meet Leo Vesperini, founder of Mythic Games. They've closed one super-successful Kickstarter campaign, raising over $4 million for Mythic Battles: Pantheon, and they open their next Kickstarter on October 10th 2017 for Time of Legends: Joan of Arc.

If you thought that your pitch wasn’t all that important and that you only needed one, you really need to listen to our guest Phil Waknell, Chief Inspiration Officer at Ideas on Stage.  Phil has coached countless people for pitching, including students at some of the Grandes Écoles in France, startup incubators such as NUMA and Share-It at StationF and numerous corporate accounts including Microsoft, EDF, Orange, Sanofi and beyond. Phil explains the critical components that are needed for your pitch as well as why you need not just one pitch, but many.  If you want to have a successful pitch, each pitch must speak to your specific audience, which is important to consider beyond just your pitch, as you grow your business.

Abby and Chris describe the startup scene in Paris and how it's developed over the last few years.