Ask HN: How's the Paris startup scene? • Hacker News Board

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

#111

Post by cm2012 » Sat, Aug 11, 2018, 4:32 AM UTC

sol_remmy wrote: post #45

sailingparrot wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> even including social benefits, the salary is 2 to 3 times less Yea... no. Especially if you factor in the cost of life. Edit: Average salary in SF for tech workers is $142k vs $56k in Paris [1]. Once adjusted for cost of living, Paris is roughly 86k$ [1]. Now, you add all the social benefits, like free health care, retirements etc. And if you have/plan on having children, you can add free education as well. All in…

Absolutely. The free healthcare alone makes up for the lower salaries in France. My friend is diabetic and in poor health, he would go broke if he lived in America and not Europe.

I mean, you can pay for amazing healthcare for yourself for 800 a month (10k a year) or a family (15k a year) in the US. And if you work for a big company they cover ablot of this. It's pretty easy to calculate in salaries, and doesn't bridge the gap between countries.

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

#112

Post by duxup » Sat, Aug 11, 2018, 1:50 PM UTC

cm2012 wrote: post #111

sol_remmy wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely. The free healthcare alone makes up for the lower salaries in France. My friend is diabetic and in poor health, he would go broke if he lived in America and not Europe.

I mean, you can pay for amazing healthcare for yourself for 800 a month (10k a year) or a family (15k a year) in the US. And if you work for a big company they cover ablot of this. It's pretty easy to calculate in salaries, and doesn't bridge the gap between countries.

I'm not sure those "amazing healthcare" numbers are correct...

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

#113

Post by matt_the_bass » Sat, Aug 11, 2018, 3:27 PM UTC

hluska wrote: post #51

baud147258 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

French here too; regarding language, it's rather annoying when there's one only person who don't speak French at work, forcing everyone else to switch. But if the co-workers are young enough, there shouldn't have too much difficulty for them to speak English. And regarding code, all the variable + comment are usually in English.

I'm Canadian (from the western part of the country) who grew up speaking pretty decent French, but lost everything but some traces of my accent when my Grandma passed away. I consider losing that language one of the great failures of my life. I understand that that would be annoying. In your shoes, I'd be annoyed if they didn't even try to learn French. I find that when I meet French speakers and want to practice, th…

In my personal experience, whichever language you use when you first meet someone will be the language you will always use together. If you want to speak French, just struggle the first few times you talk to a new friend/colleague/contact. Then nearly all future engagements they will speak French with you.

FYI I’m native English speaker who speaks French and German. I’ve lived in both countries and my current work brings me to both countries still. I’ve found this experience try for both German and French speaking friends/colleagues.

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

#114

Post by matt_the_bass » Sat, Aug 11, 2018, 3:34 PM UTC

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.

And Americans are known for their hostility against all other languages. Yet they speak English. Do you know the joke:

“What do you call someone who speaks 3 languages? Trilingual

What do you call someone who speaks 2 languages? Bilingual

What do you call someone who’s speaks one language? American”

I’d be willing to bet that a greater percentage of French population have basic communication skills in a foreign language than Americans.

FYI until relatively recently, French was the Lingua Franca of the world, not English. In fact that was one reason I wanted to learn French, to help me in travels around the world. Yes English is more prevalent now, yet I’ve found French to be more helpful than English in some non native French speaking countries.

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

#115

Post by pandascore » Sat, Aug 11, 2018, 7:42 PM UTC

frockington wrote: post #28

Jdam wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you mention a low salary is cool? Is that a mistake?

As a founder it would be, probably not going to attract great talent though

Average salary is lower than the US so a 2M€ fundraising in EU allow more than a in the US.

It’s not really about attracting talent, that’s really not an issue. Cost of life is lower but also salary includes social security and all.

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

#116

Post by ousta » Sun, Aug 12, 2018, 3:45 PM UTC

reaperducer wrote: post #108

ousta wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

i was just pointing that the price of oakwood is triple the normal price that is why they dont ask you 6 months upfront because ull pay those in two month timeframe LOL

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

#117

Post by joparisot » Mon, Aug 13, 2018, 7:16 AM UTC

kjullien wrote: post #13

I live in Paris, am french, and have been working at the same startup for more than a year and some months now. The scene is very active, any new company these days will always brand themselves as a "startup" no matter how they function behind the scenes. So alot of "false advertising" when you postulate, "we're cool and all, we SOMETIMES allow a day of remote work a week" and typical bs like that. Your french will n…

Finding a flat in Paris is a hassle, even when you're French. There is this great startup (disclaimer: they're friends) who can act as you guarantor should you need one: https://www.garantme.fr/en They have a discount for the HN community that you can redeem using the coupon YC2018

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

#118

Post by oblio » Mon, Aug 13, 2018, 8:30 AM UTC

Jaxan wrote: post #35

arendtio wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes and it is kinda annoying if there's only one country which doesn't want to adopt English, forcing everyone to learn their language ;-) So it is just a matter of perspective. I wonder how the chinese see that picture.

Since English is only third most spoken language, why would they adopt English?

Because there's a ton of business to be had with English speakers: buying, selling stuff, tourism. Also many of the English speaking countries are very cool to visit or even move to.

There's not that many Spanish, Chinese or even French speaking countries you'd want to move to, as someone from a developed country.

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

#119

Post by Dannymetconan » Mon, Aug 13, 2018, 11:07 AM UTC

pier25 wrote: post #53

Dannymetconan wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just a comment but 30k for 2 years full experience seems low. I'm working in another European capital and I'm at 40k for a similar full-stack dev role.

What country?

Ireland