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Ask HN: How's the Paris startup scene?

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Re: Ask HN: How's the Paris startup scene?

#101

Post by reaperducer »

ousta wrote: post #97
reaperducer wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yet strangely, millions of people from overseas do rent apartments in the U.S. every year. There are even apartment complex chains that specialize in this sort of thing. Oakwood was one, last time I checked, and has buildings in most major cities. As noted by my Austrian friends, you can do anything you want in America as long as you have the money up front.

oh okey so paying up front 6 months of rent is not a nightmare?

Oakwood doesn't make you pay six months up front. The Austrian comment was not about renting an apartment.

Re: Ask HN: How's the Paris startup scene?

#102

Post by tom_mellior »

dawhizkid wrote: post #100
rhaps0dy wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Plus you can buy actual tomatoes and not red plastic balls. That's an important perk.

CA has amazing farmers markets.

And in Paris too you need to look around for a place that will sell you good tomatoes. An average supermarket will just have the tasteless red water balls from the Netherlands, at least for 11 months out of the year.

Re: Ask HN: How's the Paris startup scene?

#103

Post by archagon »

dawhizkid wrote: post #99
sametmax wrote: post #17

Ok, so a lot of people here are comparing the french Startup scene to what it was before. I understand why, but it's misleading. Yes, compared to what it was before, it's booming. But it was ridiculously bad before. However compared to what's happening in the US, it's still lagging. Innovation is alright, however investment and risk taking are nowhere close to the American standard. It's still very meh. The culture o…

Ehh I just left Paris after visiting for a few days. Not that I bought fruits and veggies there, but I found the restaurant scene to be very average. The bistros are all indistinguishable from each other, pretty expensive (probably 25 euros for an entree and a drink), and very mediocre quality. I know you were talking about grocery store produce but a CA area farmers market is probably higher quality than an analogou…

I’ve had way tastier fruits and veggies at a random Parisian street market than at any of the Bay Area farmers markets I’ve been to.

Re: Ask HN: How's the Paris startup scene?

#104

Post by archagon »

sametmax wrote: post #75
ousta wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please give me any example of a major world city where living 'intramuros' is cheap lol.... Salaries are on part with major tech hubs (NYC OR SF are WAY MORE EXPENSIVE than paris and salaries match at the end) Paris is the 15th most polluted city in europe and not the 2nd... "People are rude" - is a generalization and racism toward parisians. plus if you feel like everyone is rude start asking yourself some questions…

To any american, people in Paris will feel rude. To any russian, they will feel over friendly. It's not racism, it's just social expectations clashing. But yeah, try to live in Manhattan...

Ha—as a Russian-American, I guess that explains why it felt just right!

Re: Ask HN: How's the Paris startup scene?

#105

Post by ousta »

reaperducer wrote: post #101
ousta wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

oh okey so paying up front 6 months of rent is not a nightmare?

Oakwood doesn't make you pay six months up front. The Austrian comment was not about renting an apartment.

I just checked the rent prices of your "oakwood" in NYC. 8000$ a 1br in manhattan all sold out. I can imagine so many foreigner lucky to rent at such cheap price.

Re: Ask HN: How's the Paris startup scene?

#106

Post by raarts »

tom_mellior wrote: post #102
dawhizkid wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

CA has amazing farmers markets.

And in Paris too you need to look around for a place that will sell you good tomatoes. An average supermarket will just have the tasteless red water balls from the Netherlands, at least for 11 months out of the year.

> red water balls from the Netherlands

This was true in the nineties, but due to dropping revenues (especially in Germany) has been corrected by Dutch farmers since then.

Dutch tomatoes are of the highest quality now.

Re: Ask HN: How's the Paris startup scene?

#107

Post by phnk »

> What's the startup scene in Paris like?

There is a lively scene, at least for someone with my interests (data science, aka. applied statistics and machine learning), with lots of 'incubators' and related places where startups seem to congregate.

I have been to many events organised or sponsored by the Big Ones (Apple, Microsoft, Google), plus a myriad of smaller meetups and events sponsored by all sorts of companies and public sector organisations.

> How good does my French need to be?

Okay (B-) spoken French is enough to interact with most people, but you will need to understand spoken French much better (A, A+) than you speak it -- it will make your day _much_ less tiresome.

Note that I would say the same about, say, German if you were to move to Germany or Austria. There are only few countries in Europe where English is spoken by such a large fraction of the population that you can almost do without the local language.

> Are there any languages/platforms/etc. […]

I do not know.

Re: other posts ---

Re: wages, it depends on how much you decide to spend on rent. If both you and your wife are working, you will be fine, and will be able to afford a well-above-median lifestyle, assuming that you are not currently in debt and that the IRS won't strip you of all your assets if you return home.

Re: pollution, again, it depends on where you will settle. I would never, ever raise a child in Paris. As for myself, I tend to worry more about noise than pollution, and noise can be awful depending on your street + windows.

(The other significant environmental issue is urban density and parks, or lack thereof.)

Re: food, I was in the USA earlier this year (near Phillie), spending $40 on every trip to the organic food supermarket nearby. The cheapest grocery store in my street has better stuff for at least 4 times less.

Bio note -- I live and work in Paris as well as in Lille (Northern France, near Belgium). I work in a French/English bilingual environment, which is rather exceptional in my sector (higher ed).

Meta-note -- Some comments in this thread speak with comically high confidence of a country that their authors have very obviously not visited, except perhaps for the few square miles in central Paris that exist almost only for Chinese and US/UK tourists.

Re: Ask HN: How's the Paris startup scene?

#108

Post by reaperducer »

ousta wrote: post #105
reaperducer wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oakwood doesn't make you pay six months up front. The Austrian comment was not about renting an apartment.

I just checked the rent prices of your "oakwood" in NYC. 8000$ a 1br in manhattan all sold out. I can imagine so many foreigner lucky to rent at such cheap price.

Why are you suddenly confining yourself to NYC? America is a lot larger than that. Your contention was "America," not NYC.

Re: Ask HN: How's the Paris startup scene?

#109

Post by tom_mellior »

raarts wrote: post #106
tom_mellior wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And in Paris too you need to look around for a place that will sell you good tomatoes. An average supermarket will just have the tasteless red water balls from the Netherlands, at least for 11 months out of the year.

> red water balls from the Netherlands This was true in the nineties, but due to dropping revenues (especially in Germany) has been corrected by Dutch farmers since then. Dutch tomatoes are of the highest quality now.

I was writing from repeated recent experience, the last from a week ago when I didn't have time to go to a better place to get tomatoes. Your mileage or taste may vary.

Re: Ask HN: How's the Paris startup scene?

#110

Post by hluska »

arendtio wrote: post #96
hluska wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're going to immigrate, learn the local language and do your best to adopt the local accent. It's tough, but it's the best investment you'll make in your new home.

Yes, when you are coming to a foreign country you should adapt to that country and not vice versa, the but that wasn't the point of my critique. I critizied that the people in France are known for their hostility against English. So I just wish they would embrace the international nature of English a bit more.

I'm not saying you're wrong because honestly, I don't know. I haven't lived enough places to be able to judge anyone on how welcoming they are to foreign language speakers.

One thing I'll tell you is that in my experience, every culture has its own way of expressing annoyance. When those ways clash, it can make people seem way more hostile than they mean.

As an example, if I start a sentence with "Sorry, but..." I'm pretty annoyed, but in some parts of the world, that would be endearing. In other parts, it would be so polite as to be annoying.

One thing I'll tell you is that my country isn't particularly patient with people who don't try to learn English, or with people whose English is poor. We have a reputation for being very polite and welcoming, but I think that's more a function of people just not picking up on cues that we're annoyed.

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