French Tech News with Chris O'Brien and Ethan Pierse: Recent Episodes
Chris O'Brien and Ethan Pierse
An audio and video podcast series, in English, highlighting important stories in the world of France’s startups, its entrepreneurs, investors, and ecosystem leaders, with Chris O'Brien and Ethan Pierse.
Chris and Ethan had a chance to catch up with Alexandre Prot, Co-Founder and CEO of Qonto, on their amazing growth and what's ahead.
The French Tech News is a newsletter, podcast, and video media highlighting important stories, in English, in the world of France’s startups, its entrepreneurs, investors, and ecosystem leaders. Hosted by Chris O'Brien and Ethan Pierse.
Sign up for the newsletter: https://frenchtechjournal.com/signup/
Join us for a passionate discussion with Pascal Cagni, Founding Partner at C4 Ventures and Chairman at Business France, previously GM & VP, Apple EMEIA, and GM Europe, Packard Bell.
- Intro and background 0:28
- Pascal's journey at Apple 4:50
- C4 Ventures' focus and interests 7:12
- C4's investment themes and thesis 12:35
- France is back and French Tech's growth 15:02
- From French Tech startups to European scaleups 22:36
- Government's role in driving tech growth and addressing new verticals 28:49
The French Tech News is a newsletter, podcast, and video media highlighting important stories, in English, in the world of France’s startups, its entrepreneurs, investors, and ecosystem leaders. Hosted by Chris O'Brien and Ethan Pierse.
Sign up for the newsletter: https://frenchtechjournal.com/signup/
The French Tech News visited Ynsect's mealworm farm in Dole, France, and spent some time with CEO Antoine Hubert learning more about Ynsect's journey, their mission, their science, and where they go from here.
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Intro and acquisition of US mealworm factory, Jord Producers: 00:48
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Vertical insect farm factory description: 1:57
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Behind the Engineering, Data, and Biology of farming insects (mealworm beetles, Tenebrio molitor) 3:37
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Inventing the intellectual property of insect farming 5:20
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What's next and the the challenges ahead: regulation for US and EU animal and human consumption of insect protein, human and financial capital 7:33
Video version available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCxLH7t51lw
The French Tech News is a newsletter, podcast, and video media highlighting important stories, in English, in the world of France’s startups, its entrepreneurs, investors, and ecosystem leaders. Hosted by Chris O'Brien and Ethan Pierse.
Sign up for the newsletter: https://frenchtechjournal.com/signup/
Discussing reducing carbon emissions in your business and value chain with CEO and Co-Founder of Sweep, Rachel Delacour.
- Description and history of Sweep: 1:49
- Climate change startup investment landscape 3:52
- Doing good can also be good business 5:14
- Sweep's $5m seed fundraising 6:47
- Optimism and the COP26 Experience 7:14
- Will technology save the planet? 11:47
- Founding BIME Analytics and the Zendesk acquisition 16:04
- Build your passion 20:55
- On to angel investing 23:15
- Heading to space? 24:47
The French Tech News is a newsletter, podcast, and video media highlighting important stories, in English, in the world of France’s startups, its entrepreneurs, investors, and ecosystem leaders. Hosted by Chris O'Brien and Ethan Pierse.
Sign up for the newsletter: https://frenchtechjournal.com/signup/
Founder & Managing Director of eFounders, Quentin Nickmans, takes us back to the beginning of their startup studio to share the journey of building a portfolio of 29 companies and raising more than $400 million.
- 1:15 Intro to eFounders
- 4:25 Spinning out one SaaS startup after another
- 9:11 Solve the problems you have yourself. Build the solutions you need.
- 11:53 Discovering founders and matching them to ideas
- 16:38 $400M in fundraising and 2 unicorns
- 20:33 Being a studio founder and resisting building each project yourself. Watching your kids grow up.
- 25:11 Logic Founders fintech startup studio
- 28:44 Web3 and other vertical startup studios
- 31:15 Building a successful founding team
Be sure to subscribe to and share the podcast on your preferred podcast platform and check out the video version on our YouTube channel.
The French Tech News is a newsletter, podcast, and video media highlighting important stories, in English, in the world of France’s startups, its entrepreneurs, investors, and ecosystem leaders. Hosted by Chris O'Brien and Ethan Pierse.
Be sure to sign up for the French Tech Journal newsletter for more stories and announcements.
Barbara Belvisi, Founder and CEO of Interstellar Lab, shares their mission to create sustainable plant cultivation both in space and here on Earth.
Be sure to subscribe to and share the podcast on your preferred podcast platform and check out the video version on our YouTube channel.
The French Tech News is a newsletter, podcast, and video media highlighting important stories, in English, in the world of France’s startups, its entrepreneurs, investors, and ecosystem leaders. Hosted by Chris O'Brien and Ethan Pierse.
Be sure to sign up for the French Tech Journal newsletter for more stories and announcements.
Stephen Leguillon, CEO of Seyna, shares their journey on creating a regulatory-compliant, all-in-one platform enabling insurance brokers to build and operate digitally native insurance programs.
- 0:48 The journey from Appetise to La Belle Assiette to ezCater to Seyna
- 2:50 Becoming an Insurtech entrepreneur
- 5:31 Joining an existing team to build the next insurance scaleup
- 9:27 Innovating the technology and processes of insurance
- 15:12 The complexities of the insurtech business
- 21:10 Most insurance companies or insurtech startups can be partners or clients of Seyna
- 26:25 Raising a $33M Series A and structuring for hypergrowth
Be sure to subscribe to and share the podcast on your preferred podcast platform and check out the video version on our YouTube channel.
The French Tech News is a newsletter, podcast, and video media highlighting important stories, in English, in the world of France’s startups, its entrepreneurs, investors, and ecosystem leaders. Hosted by Chris O'Brien and Ethan Pierse.
Be sure to sign up for the French Tech Journal newsletter for more stories and announcements.
Join Chris and Ethan for a fascinating discussion with CEO Jeronimo Folgueira on Deezer's continuing mission as an independent music streaming platform:
- 1:01 Intro to Deezer and Jeronimo's background
- 2:55 Deezer's place in the music industry
- 4:30 Deezer's unique value proposition as a music streaming service
- 10:24 The Home of Podcasting or Music?
- 12:13 and speaking of Spotify, let's talk about Joe Rogan
- 17:13 Music Exclusives... Ed Sheeran, James Blunt, Alicia Keys original sessions
- 18:25 European data/privacy sovereignty vs US platforms
- 21:25 Web3: Music NFTs, social tokens, and digital collectibles
- 24:39 The Future of Deezer
Be sure to subscribe to and share the podcast on your preferred podcast platform and check out the video version on our YouTube channel.
The French Tech News is a newsletter, podcast, and video media highlighting important stories, in English, in the world of France’s startups, its entrepreneurs, investors, and ecosystem leaders. Hosted by Chris O'Brien and Ethan Pierse.
Be sure to sign up for the French Tech Journal newsletter for more stories and announcements.
Chris and Ethan had the pleasure to sit down and discuss Front's mission to build an authentic, relationship-based customer communication hub with Co-Founder and CEO, Mathilde Collin.
- 1:20 Intro to Front
- 2:50 eFounders and the origin story of Front
- 8:07 Onward to Y Combinator
- 11:03 Raising a $66M Series B in 2018
- 14:22 More fundraising and pandemic-powered growth
- 18:00 Building in San Francisco for French entrepreneurs
- 23:34 The Entrepreneur/Operator model of angel investing
- 26:36 Hyperscale growth coming in 2022
Be sure to subscribe to and share the podcast on your preferred podcast platform and check out the video version on our YouTube channel.
The French Tech News is a newsletter, podcast, and video media highlighting important stories, in English, in the world of France’s startups, its entrepreneurs, investors, and ecosystem leaders. Hosted by Chris O'Brien and Ethan Pierse.
Be sure to sign up for the French Tech Journal newsletter for more stories and announcements.
A fascinating chat with Franck Lebouchard, CEO of Devialet, on their mission to elevate sound to its rightful place in our lives through an exacting attention to engineering and design:
- 1:28 A short history of Devialet
- 4:07 Being different about sound and design
- 8:50 People want better sound as streaming and video quality massively improve
- 11:46 3D and immersive audio are coming
- 13:53 Devialet's explosive growth and continuing demand
- 16:10 Phantom speaker for consumers and bringing great sound to cars, televisions, laptops, and more
- 19:43 B2C vs B2B revenue
- 20:30 ArianeGroup, materials science engineering, and rocket audio
- 23:43 2022 ambitions: what's next after amplifiers, connected speakers, and true wireless
- 27:26 Autonomous driving: your car will become an extension of your living room and the need for low energy consumption audio
Be sure to subscribe to and share the podcast on Apple, Spotify, or your preferred podcast platform, and check out the video version on our YouTube channel.
The French Tech News is a newsletter, podcast, and video media highlighting important stories, in English, in the world of France’s startups, its entrepreneurs, investors, and ecosystem leaders. Hosted by Chris O'Brien and Ethan Pierse.
Be sure to sign up for the French Tech Journal newsletter for more stories and announcements.
Today our guest is Denis Ladegaillerie, Founder and CEO of Believe, to discuss how they enable independent musicians to build and engage with their community and fans:
- 1:23 The mission of Believe
- 2:04 Believe's history and the evolution of the music industry
- 6:25 Tunecore, helping independent artists build their career through premium and automated solutions.
- 8:57 Scaling your music's visibility and reach through platforms vs. doing it on your own
- 12:26 Do you still need a label and its team?
- 14:37 The impact of social media on music promotion
- 19:36 Believe's Euronext Paris IPO: Going public in Europe for French Tech companies
- 24:14 Music NFTs: Crowdfunding/Financing your music vs monetizing community and fanbase
Be sure to subscribe to and share the podcast on Apple, Spotify, or your preferred podcast platform, and check out the video version on our YouTube channel.
The French Tech News is a newsletter, podcast, and video media highlighting important stories, in English, in the world of France’s startups, its entrepreneurs, investors, and ecosystem leaders. Hosted by Chris O'Brien and Ethan Pierse.
Be sure to sign up for the French Tech Journal newsletter for more stories and announcements.
Our interview with Benoist Grossmann, Co-President of France Digitale and CEO of Eurazeo (formerly Idinvest), at France Digitale Day.
– Idinvest becomes Eurazeo
– A little history of Idinvest
– About yesterday's announcement of $1.5B invested into Sorare, Mirakl, and Vestiaire Collective
– 'Values' and Sustainability at France Digitale Day
– Sustainability, greentech, and impact venture capital as good business
– The market is demanding Tech4Good
– We now have the capital, so talent is the next problem facing the ecosystem.
Be sure to subscribe to and share the podcast on Apple, Spotify, or your preferred podcast platform, and check out the video version on our YouTube channel.
The French Tech News is a newsletter, podcast, and video media highlighting important stories, in English, in the world of France’s startups, its entrepreneurs, investors, and ecosystem leaders. Hosted by Chris O'Brien and Ethan Pierse.
Be sure to sign up for the French Tech Journal newsletter for more stories and announcements.
Our interview with Yann Lechelle, CEO of Scaleway, at France Digitale Day.
– Scaleway's view on datacenter environmental impact and sustainability
– Energy and water-efficient datacenters
– Datacenter optimization vs legacy infrastructure
– Sustainability as a business decision
– Greentech and sustainability as a competitive advantage
Be sure to subscribe to and share the podcast on Apple, Spotify, or your preferred podcast platform, and check out the video version on our YouTube channel.
The French Tech News is a newsletter, podcast, and video media highlighting important stories, in English, in the world of France’s startups, its entrepreneurs, investors, and ecosystem leaders. Hosted by Chris O'Brien and Ethan Pierse.
Be sure to sign up for the French Tech Journal newsletter for more stories and announcements.
Our interview with Audrey Soussan, Partner at Ventech Capital, at France Digitale Day.
- The mission and thesis of Ventech Capital
- Early-stage valuation trends and VC competition
- What might IPO/acquisition exits look like for these higher valuation early-stage investments?
- Does the IPO location matter?
- Does private equity growth investment create liquidity or do you wait for an exit?
- Any specific trends, markets, or opportunities to watch?
Be sure to subscribe to and share the podcast on Apple, Spotify, or your preferred podcast platform, and check out the video version on our YouTube channel.
The French Tech News is a newsletter, podcast, and video media highlighting important stories, in English, in the world of France’s startups, its entrepreneurs, investors, and ecosystem leaders. Hosted by Chris O'Brien and Ethan Pierse.
Be sure to sign up for the French Tech Journal newsletter for more stories and announcements.
Our interview with former Digital Economy Minister of France and Korelya Capital CEO, Fleur Pellerin, at France Digitale Day.
- Intro to Korelya Capital
- Asian opportunities for European entrepreneurs
- Cultural and business considerations on entering Asian markets
- Growth capital (finally) comes to Europe
- Is private equity a rival or partner to venture capital
- $1.5B of investments in Mirakl, Sorare, and Vestiaire Collective announced in just one day
- Fleur Pellerin speaking on Values ESG, Social Impact, Governance at France Digitale Day
Be sure to subscribe to and share the podcast on Apple, Spotify, or your preferred podcast platform, and check out the video version on our YouTube channel.
The French Tech News is a newsletter, podcast, and video media highlighting important stories, in English, in the world of France’s startups, its entrepreneurs, investors, and ecosystem leaders. Hosted by Chris O'Brien and Ethan Pierse.
Be sure to sign up for the French Tech Journal newsletter for more stories and announcements.
Ynsect CEO, Antoine Hubert, explains their mission to develop sustainable nutrition for both animals and humans using insect protein:
- 1:41 10 years of progress
- 4:29 Building an industrial agricultural company
- 9:20 Technical challenges, commercial challenges, then the regulatory challenge
- 13:09 Why do we want to feed the world with insects?
- 19:55 Feeding animals, great...but feeding people? Creating ingredients for sports nutrition, meat alternatives, and more...
- 26:10 Robert Downey Jr's fund, FootPrint Coalition, comes onboard
- 30:03 Scaling up insect-based feed in the US
- 32:26 Building a sustainable and impactful company
- 35:41 Largest vertical farm and insect production site in the world under construction in France
Be sure to subscribe to and share the podcast on Apple, Spotify, or your preferred podcast platform.
The French Tech News is a newsletter, podcast, and video media highlighting important stories, in English, in the world of France’s startups, its entrepreneurs, investors, and ecosystem leaders. Hosted by Chris O'Brien and Ethan Pierse.
Be sure to sign up for the French Tech Journal newsletter for more stories and announcements.
Our interview with Thomas Courtois, President of Nickel, at Vivatechnology in Paris.
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Be sure to subscribe to and share the podcast on Apple, Spotify, or your preferred podcast platform, and check out the video version on our YouTube channel.
The French Tech News is a newsletter, podcast, and video media highlighting important stories, in English, in the world of France’s startups, its entrepreneurs, investors, and ecosystem leaders. Hosted by Chris O'Brien and Ethan Pierse.
Be sure to sign up for the French Tech Journal newsletter for more stories and announcements.
Today our guest is Jeremy Prince, CEO of Sigfox, to discuss their mission to build the largest IoT ecosystem in the world.
- 3:20 Transitioning to a new CEO
- 5:22 What drew you to Sigfox in 2018?
- 12:26 2020, a difficult year
- 20:33 IoT Mass Adoption – 3 drivers: transforming customers' businesses, regulatory compliance, and new, disruptive business models leveraging IoT
- 26:25 The growth of IoT's different segments and markets
- 28:30 The impact of 5G on IoT
- 31:16 Is it finally time for IoT to scale?
- 38:00 Chocolatine or pain au chocolat?
Be sure to subscribe to and share the podcast on Apple, Spotify, or your preferred podcast platform, and check out the video version on our YouTube channel.
The French Tech News is a newsletter, podcast, and video media highlighting important stories, in English, in the world of France’s startups, its entrepreneurs, investors, and ecosystem leaders. Hosted by Chris O'Brien and Ethan Pierse.
Be sure to sign up for the French Tech Journal newsletter for more stories and announcements.
On today’s live podcast on Clubhouse, we'll cover great stories about:
1:02 Ledger, the leading manufacturer of cryptocurrency cold storage hardware wallets, raises a $380M Series C at a $1.5B unicorn valuation, making them France's 15th unicorn and 5th so far in 2021,
11:45 Pasqal quantum computing raises €25M Series A from France's Defense Innovation Fund for their programmable atomic arrays,
18:50 C12 Quantum Electronics raises $10M from Bpifrance, Airbus Ventures, BNP Paribas, and OVH's Octave Klaba,
22:30 Digital music management agency Believe, parent company of Tunecore, IPO'd on Euronext Paris,
31:38 Vivatechnology Paris physical and digital hybrid innovation conference is June 16-19, 2021. We'll be recording French Tech News interviews in the podcast studio and moderating a few panels. Come say hi!
Be sure to subscribe to and share the podcast on Apple, Spotify, or your preferred podcast platform, and check out the video version on our YouTube channel.
The French Tech News is a newsletter, podcast, and video media highlighting important stories, in English, in the world of France’s startups, its entrepreneurs, investors, and ecosystem leaders. Hosted by Chris O'Brien and Ethan Pierse.
Be sure to sign up for the French Tech Journal newsletter for more stories and announcements.
Today our guest is Nicolas Brusson, Co-Founder and CEO at BlaBlaCar, the world’s leading intercity ridesharing service. We’ll be discussing carpooling in the pandemic / post-pandemic world, lessons in international growth especially of BlaBlaCar’s bus service in markets like Mexico, India, Russia, and Brazil, the road to becoming the intercity transportation super app, and building a culture of entrepreneurship and legacy through the BlaBlaCar mafia.
- 1:08 Effect of the pandemic on transport and travel. The economic power of collective intelligence.
- 6:57 Trust broker building community and maximizing connections between passengers and drivers.
- 10:05 Intercity transport. Connecting bus carriers to the platform. Scaling across Russia, Eastern Europe, Mexico, India, and Brazil.
- 15:11 Ridesharing competitors in bus and carpooling. Becoming the Expedia or Booking.com of buses.
- 20:06 Going international: the transformation of BlaBlaCar as it expands to 22 countries. 80% of usage is now outside of France…60% is outside of Europe. On the road to profitability and an IPO?
- 25:12 Lessons in growth. Offline-to-online transformation of transportation infrastructure.
- 30:37 Intercity transportation super-app.
- 33:50 BlaBlaCar in the US?
- 37:50 The BlaBlaCar mafia and building a culture of entrepreneurship. When you leave, do something great, build a legacy…
Be sure to subscribe to and share the podcast on Apple, Spotify, or your preferred podcast platform, and check out the video version on our YouTube channel.
The French Tech News is a newsletter, podcast, and video media highlighting important stories, in English, in the world of France’s startups, its entrepreneurs, investors, and ecosystem leaders. Hosted by Chris O'Brien and Ethan Pierse.
Be sure to sign up for the French Tech Journal newsletter for more stories and announcements.
On today’s live podcast on Clubhouse, we have the pleasure to chat with the founders of Aircall on the journey of building the cloud-based call center and phone system of choice for modern businesses.
Be sure to subscribe to and share the podcast on Apple, Spotify, or your preferred podcast platform, and check out the video version on our YouTube channel.
The French Tech News is a newsletter, podcast, and video media highlighting important stories, in English, in the world of France’s startups, its entrepreneurs, investors, and ecosystem leaders. Hosted by Chris O'Brien and Ethan Pierse.
Be sure to sign up for the French Tech Journal newsletter for more stories and announcements.
Back Market is the leading marketplace dedicated to refurbished devices. On today’s live podcast on Clubhouse, Co-Founder Vianney Vaute and US Managing Director Serge Verdoux join us to discuss their mission to make resurrected devices mainstream.
Be sure to subscribe to and share the podcast on Apple, Spotify, or your preferred podcast platform, and check out the video version on our YouTube channel.
The French Tech News is a newsletter, podcast, and video media highlighting important stories, in English, in the world of France’s startups, its entrepreneurs, investors, and ecosystem leaders. Hosted by Chris O'Brien and Ethan Pierse.
Be sure to sign up for the French Tech Journal newsletter for more stories and announcements.
On today’s live podcast on Clubhouse, Jonathan Benhamou shares the story behind his new anti-cancer startup Resilience and Adrien Fernandez Baca from Cubyn talks about on-demand e-commerce logistics and their recent €35M fundraising.
We will also discuss:
- Jungle Raises €42M to continue scaling their vertical farming platform
- And literacy startup Lalilo has been acquired by US EdTech leader Renaissance Learning
Check out our upcoming Clubhouse rooms and links at FrenchTechNews.club and join the French Tech News Club on Clubhouse.
Welcome to French Tech News with Chris O’Brien and Ethan Pierse, an English-language podcast and Clubhouse series highlighting important stories in the world of France’s startups, its entrepreneurs, investors, and ecosystem leaders.
Please join us on Monday and Thursday evenings (Paris-time) on Clubhouse and regularly during the week as we publish those events and other exclusive interviews to this podcast.
Be sure to sign up for the French Tech Journal newsletter for more stories and announcements.
On today’s live podcast on Clubhouse, Paris Managing Partner Jonathan Userovici joins us to talk about e.Ventures entering the French market, the unfair advantage of French startups in data science, artificial intelligence, video games and other verticals, as well as the growth cycle of innovation ecosystems… Edouard d’Archimbaud, CTO of AI and data annotation platform Kili Technology, joins.
We’ll also cover:
- New anti-cancer startup Resilience from FrenchTech veterans Céline Lazorthes et Jonathan Benhamou
- E-commerce logistics startup Cubyn raises €35M
- Pledg raises €80m for its split-payments platform
- and France’s privacy watchdog CNIL opens investigation into, gasp, #Clubhouse
Check out our upcoming Clubhouse rooms and links at FrenchTechNews.club and join the French Tech News Club on Clubhouse.
Welcome to French Tech News with Chris O’Brien and Ethan Pierse, an English-language podcast and Clubhouse series highlighting important stories in the world of France’s startups, its entrepreneurs, investors, and ecosystem leaders.
Please join us on Monday and Thursday evenings (Paris-time) on Clubhouse and regularly during the week as we publish those events and other exclusive interviews to this podcast.
Be sure to sign up for the French Tech Journal newsletter for more stories and announcements.
On today’s live podcast on Clubhouse, we will be chatting with French Tech entrepreneurs in New York and Miami on the growing trend of startups to locate their businesses and teams in up and coming ecosystems like Miami and related topics around quality of life, access to venture capital, local talent pools, engaged local politicians and organizations, and other subjects…
Joining us for our discussion will be
- Clement Delangue, CEO and Co-Founder of natural language processing starting Hugging Face, fresh off of their recent $40M Series B fundraising,
- Benjamin Zenou, CEO and Co-Founder of retail performance platform SimpliField,
- Alain Revah, Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer for Ynsect, the world leader in insect protein and fertilizer production,
- Caroline Faucher-Winter, Operating Partner at C4 Ventures as well as leading French Tech New York City,
- and Stan Coignard, CEO of online to brick and mortar marketing platform S4M as well as leading French Tech Miami.
Check out our upcoming Clubhouse rooms and links at FrenchTechNews.club and join the French Tech News Club on Clubhouse.
Welcome to French Tech News with Chris O’Brien and Ethan Pierse, an English-language podcast and Clubhouse series highlighting important stories in the world of France’s startups, its entrepreneurs, investors, and ecosystem leaders.
Please join us on Monday and Thursday evenings (Paris-time) on Clubhouse and regularly during the week as we publish those events and other exclusive interviews to this podcast.
Be sure to sign up for the French Tech Journal newsletter for more stories and announcements.
On today's live clubhouse podcast, join us for a conversation with SISTA, an association founded 2 years ago to address the imbalance between male and female entrepreneurs in France. Sista's recent barometer report highlighted many of these inequalities. We'll discuss that report and see what lessons Sista has for other ecosystems.
You can learn more about SISTA and download their most recent report in partnership with BCG on gender diversity in startups and fundraising in France.
Check out our upcoming Clubhouse rooms and links at FrenchTechNews.club and join the French Tech News Club on Clubhouse.
Welcome to French Tech News with Chris O’Brien and Ethan Pierse, an English-language podcast and Clubhouse series highlighting important stories in the world of France’s startups, its entrepreneurs, investors, and ecosystem leaders.
Please join us on Monday and Thursday evenings (Paris-time) on Clubhouse and regularly during the week as we publish those events and other exclusive interviews to this podcast.
Be sure to sign up for the French Tech Journal newsletter for more stories and announcements.
On today’s live podcast on Clubhouse, we will chat with Clara Chappaz from Vestiaire Collective as well as Grégory Boutté from Kering on Vestiaire’s recent $215 million dollar Series H fundraising announcement making them France’s 11th unicorn and the world's go-to second-hand fashion platform.
Check out our upcoming Clubhouse rooms and links at FrenchTechNews.club
Welcome to French Tech News with Chris O’Brien and Ethan Pierse, an English-language podcast and Clubhouse series highlighting important stories in the world of France’s startups, its entrepreneurs, investors, and ecosystem leaders.
Please join us on Monday and Thursday evenings (Paris-time) on Clubhouse and regularly during the week as we publish those events and other exclusive interviews to this podcast.
Be sure to sign up for the French Tech Journal newsletter for more stories and announcements.
CEO and Co-Founder of fantasy football/soccer platform Sorare, Nicolas Julia, joins us for another great Clubhouse discussion of French Tech News. On the list is their recent $50m raise from Benchmark, Accel, Antoine Griezmann, Alexis Ohanian, and Gary Vaynerchuk, as well as the current buzz over NFTs and digital collectibles. One of the largest Series A fundraising rounds for any French startup, let alone a blockchain one, this was an exciting discussion about where things are heading in the space.
Be sure to subscribe to and share the podcast on Apple, Spotify, or your preferred podcast platform, and check out the video version on our YouTube channel.
The French Tech News is a newsletter, podcast, and video media highlighting important stories, in English, in the world of France’s startups, its entrepreneurs, investors, and ecosystem leaders. Hosted by Chris O'Brien and Ethan Pierse.
Be sure to sign up for the French Tech Journal newsletter for more stories and announcements.
Operating Partner David Bitton of Serena Capital joins our clubhouse discussion to talk about Serena's recent close of €300m Fund III and his role as operating partner in accompanying their portfolio companies. We will also discuss NFT-powered fantasy football startup Sorare's $50m raise from Benchmark, Accel, Antoine Griezmann, Alexis Ohanian, and Gary Vaynerchuk, and then Xavier Niel's investment to launch a 600 hectare agriculture school, Hectar, on a similar model to his free Ecole 42 coding school.
Check out our upcoming Clubhouse rooms and links at FrenchTechNews.club
Welcome to French Tech News with Chris O’Brien and Ethan Pierse, an English-language podcast and Clubhouse series highlighting important stories in the world of France’s startups, its entrepreneurs, investors, and ecosystem leaders.
Please join us on Monday and Thursday evenings (Paris-time) on Clubhouse and regularly during the week as we publish those events and other exclusive interviews to this podcast.
Be sure to sign up for the French Tech Journal newsletter for more stories and announcements.
Entrepreneur and investor, Marc Menasé, joins us for a Clubhouse discussion on raising $50m for his super-angel, venture studio, Founders Future, and shares his thoughts on helping founders build companies. Marc created and participated in many European successes including nextedia (acquired by Lagardère Group), Kelkoo (acquired by Yahoo Inc), teads (acquired by Altice), Le Petit Ballon (acquired by Vente-Privée.com), Menlook, lendix, Molotov.tv,… Marc is very involved in the European tech industry, he co-founded France Digitale (French digital and venture association) and was elected French E-commerce personality of the year in 2012.
We are also joined by Sarah-Diane Eck to discuss the acquisition of her blockchain-powered rewards app, Surprise, by e-commerce reviews platform, Skeepers. (Avis-Vérifiés, Verified Reviews, Teester). More good news from FrenchTech blockchain startups...
Check out our upcoming Clubhouse rooms and links at FrenchTechNews.club
Welcome to French Tech News with Chris O’Brien and Ethan Pierse, a podcast and Clubhouse series highlighting important stories in the world of France’s startups, its entrepreneurs, investors, and ecosystem leaders.
Please join us on Monday and Thursday evenings (Paris-time) on Clubhouse and regularly during the week as we publish those events and other exclusive interviews to this podcast.
Be sure to sign up for the French Tech Journal newsletter.
Hello and welcome to French Tech News with Chris O’Brien and Ethan Pierse, a podcast and Clubhouse series, in English, highlighting important stories in the world of France’s startups, its entrepreneurs, investors, and ecosystem leaders.
Recent interviews have included the founder of France's "next fintech unicorn" financial super app, Lydia, noted investors from Elaia Partners, Korelya Capital, and Serena Capital, as well as ecosytem leaders like France's Secretary of State for Digital Affairs, Cédric O, Director of the government's French Tech Mission, Kat Borlongan, and CEO of startup associations France Digitale and European Startup Network, Nicolas Brien.
Please join us on Monday and Thursday evenings (Paris-time) on Clubhouse and regularly during the week as we publish those events and other exclusive interviews to this podcast.
Check out our upcoming Clubhouse rooms, interviews, and links at FrenchTechNews.club
Today, we have a Clubhouse conversation with France's Secretary of State for Digital Affairs, Cédric O, discussing the new national cybersecurity strategy for France. Announced last Thursday, February 17th, by President Macron, this strategy allocates over €1.3 billion of public and private capital to develop and reinforce new cybersecurity solutions for the government as well as businesses and individuals, educate and train new cybersecurity professionals, create 20,000 new jobs in the sector, as well as help scale France's cybersecurity startups, scaleups, and intellectual property.
Discussion:
- Minister O's Introduction
- €1.3B National Cybersecurity Strategy
- Digital Transformation, Cybersecurity, and French Healthcare System
- Budget Breakdown
- Cybersecurity Education and Workforce
- Startups, Scaleups, Unicorns, Decacorns
- Research and Development
- Cyber Campus at La Défense
Questions:
- Capital deployment in healthcare system
- Sovereign vs global partner participation
- Cyber campus goals...international visibility vs building the sovereign cybersecurity ecosystem
- Defensive vs offensive cybersecurity initiatives
- Digital culture as part of a cybersecurity strategy (QAnon and other digital disinformation campaigns)
- French cybersecurity startup acquisitions
- European cybersecurity agenda
Be sure to subscribe to and share the podcast on Apple, Spotify, or your preferred podcast platform, and check out the video version on our YouTube channel.
The French Tech News is a newsletter, podcast, and video media highlighting important stories, in English, in the world of France’s startups, its entrepreneurs, investors, and ecosystem leaders. Hosted by Chris O'Brien and Ethan Pierse.
Be sure to sign up for the French Tech Journal newsletter for more stories and announcements.
This conversation was recorded on Clubhouse in compliance with Clubhouse's Terms of Service as all speakers provided permission to record and publish this content.
Today, we have a fantastic Clubhouse conversation with Nicolas Brien, CEO of French startup organization France Digitale, as well as President of the European Startup Network, whose combined mission is to foster the growth of future European digital champions. He is joined by Paul Christophle, investor at Korelya Capital. We'll be discussing France Digitale joining the Coalition for App Fairness as it defends European startups against the Apple app store commission structure.
Check out our upcoming Clubhouse rooms and links at FrenchTechNews.club
Welcome to French Tech News with Chris O’Brien and Ethan Pierse, a podcast and Clubhouse series highlighting important stories in the world of France’s startups, its entrepreneurs, investors, and ecosystem leaders.
Please join us on Monday and Thursday evenings (Paris-time) on Clubhouse and regularly during the week as we publish those events and other exclusive interviews to this podcast.
Be sure to sign up for the French Tech Journal newsletter.
This conversation was recorded on Clubhouse in compliance with Clubhouse’s Terms of Service as all speakers provided permission to record and publish this content.
Cyril Chiche is co-Founder and CEO of Lydia, a financial services super-app offering digital payments, donations, loans, checking accounts, payment cards, and other services…
Discussion:
- The Lydia origin story
- The Numa Café
- Early investments
- Product Market Fit and early growth
- Lydia, a super-app for your money
- Moving into then back out of the UK market
- 2020, first Tencent (WeChat Pay) then Accel invests in Lydia
- Covid and financial services trends and adoption
- Cryptocurrency buying/trading and financial services apps
- Accel's newest venture partner and former Venmo General Manager, Amit Jhawar, joins the board
- 2021 and onward
Check out our upcoming Clubhouse rooms and links at FrenchTechNews.club
Welcome to French Tech News with Chris O’Brien and Ethan Pierse, a podcast and Clubhouse series highlighting important stories in the world of France’s startups, its entrepreneurs, investors, and ecosystem leaders.
Please join us on Monday and Thursday evenings (Paris-time) on Clubhouse and regularly during the week as we publish those events and other exclusive interviews to this podcast.
Be sure to sign up for the French Tech Journal newsletter.