41–50 of 97 posts
3 years... this is definitely French. By the time, a dozen of bigger projects can show up in the world.
This incubator is finance by the same guys who financed 42.fr
While I applaud any efforts toward entrepreneurship, I can't help but think that these "megaproject" efforts kind of miss the point. By their very nature, startups tend to originate from grungy, grassroots hackerspaces, undergrad dorms, shared apartments, graduate common rooms, and so forth. Places where weird and innovative ideas get cross pollinated. I mean, yeah, "let a thousand flowers bloom", and all. But if Fra…
The university in my local area is trying to do the same thing: they spend all of their time writing funding proposals for a new 3500m2, three-storey, $20m shiny glass incubator building in an area where the startup ecosystem is maybe 2 years old, and has zero angel/VC or mentor networks. The people behind the project are all academics and have never launched a startup in their lives. They can't even fill a trial "in…
Of course, we said "no thanks" and went off and squatted in a couple of dingy rooms at a friendly company until we (after a couple of years) got VC money and got our own office space.
I have a business in both Austin, TX and Paris. I want to share my experience. France is doomed. Taxes and red tape are harder and harder every month. Just today, they have announced they want to raise a new tax on video games (wtf) and distribute the money to french video game large editor. (wtf) You can't do violent games or game that don't picture well the french culture. (wtf!) If you are an indie game developer…
> today, they have announced they want to raise a new tax on video games
Which leads to me suspect you might also be confusing other things, especially regarding:
- online banking - most banks expose most of their services online
- declaring websites you own - maybe you are talking about having to declare informations systems that collect and process identifying information (access logs excluded)
- access logs - six months is not "an insane amount of time"
Among the remaining, some is true, some I don't know.
I have a business in both Austin, TX and Paris. I want to share my experience. France is doomed. Taxes and red tape are harder and harder every month. Just today, they have announced they want to raise a new tax on video games (wtf) and distribute the money to french video game large editor. (wtf) You can't do violent games or game that don't picture well the french culture. (wtf!) If you are an indie game developer…
You can fire someone easily. You just have to provide a good reason for it. "Oh well, after all I shouldn't have hired him" or "This guys is not the best I could find, he doensn't give 120%" won't allow you to fire someone, no luck you're in France, labor code is sacred here.
VAT is not painful at all, even an accountant fresh out from school could handle this easily. Protip, hire an accountant. If you're a business, VAT is transparent for you. It only impacts french customers.
You don't have to declare every website to the government, you declare it to the CNIL which is an independent administrative body whose goal is to protect data privacy. I like them too.
Why setting up a business in France if you only see the drawbacks of being here?
Though I agree with you on the bullshit part. This incubator is a total waste of money.
Let me be the classical Frenchy (i.e. never happy) here and point out that as long as the tax code, red tape and overall overwhelming paperwork entrepreneurs in France have to deal with won't be reduced or greatly simplified, having big incubators will be a nice touch but the road to growth will still be paved with unnecessary hurdles. The task at hand is HUGE, one that not so many developed countries have to deal wi…
Can you give examples of red tape/paperwork you'd like to see removed to help entrepreneurs in France?
And if your company doesn't reach it's target and collapses too bad, at least you have health care paid up.
I have a business in both Austin, TX and Paris. I want to share my experience. France is doomed. Taxes and red tape are harder and harder every month. Just today, they have announced they want to raise a new tax on video games (wtf) and distribute the money to french video game large editor. (wtf) You can't do violent games or game that don't picture well the french culture. (wtf!) If you are an indie game developer…
Just answering one point here: > today, they have announced they want to raise a new tax on video games You are confusing government announcing a decision with two senators from opposition making a proposition (which will not even be subject to vote anytime soon). EDIT: just to clear things up, contrary to some countries, in France opposition parties have very little power to push anything. Which leads to me suspect…
> You are confusing government announcing a decision with two senators from opposition making a proposition (which will not even be subject to vote anytime soon).
In fact, this structure I've exposed already exists. The new tax will just double the budget they got. Regarding the new tax, I won't be surprised if it come in application in a form or another.
> online banking - most banks expose most of their services online
By online banking, I mean full online banking. You can't do that if you are a business.
> declaring websites you own - maybe you are talking about having to declare informations systems that collect and process identifying information (access logs excluded)
Even if it's a simple blog without comments, you have declared it to the C.N.I.L.
> access logs - six months is not "an insane amount of time"
From the LCEN law, it's 1 year including user data, password hashes, raw passwords (you can demonstrate that you don't have them) and session data. Sure, everything is doable but that's an hassle.
I have a business in both Austin, TX and Paris. I want to share my experience. France is doomed. Taxes and red tape are harder and harder every month. Just today, they have announced they want to raise a new tax on video games (wtf) and distribute the money to french video game large editor. (wtf) You can't do violent games or game that don't picture well the french culture. (wtf!) If you are an indie game developer…
I have a business in both Austin, TX and Paris. I want to share my experience. France is doomed. Taxes and red tape are harder and harder every month. Just today, they have announced they want to raise a new tax on video games (wtf) and distribute the money to french video game large editor. (wtf) You can't do violent games or game that don't picture well the french culture. (wtf!) If you are an indie game developer…
Regarding the taxes, deal with it. full disclosure: I'm french and I like the healthcare system. You can fire someone easily. You just have to provide a good reason for it. "Oh well, after all I shouldn't have hired him" or "This guys is not the best I could find, he doensn't give 120%" won't allow you to fire someone, no luck you're in France, labor code is sacred here. VAT is not painful at all, even an accountant…
1. Low cost of living.
2. Low house pricing/rent. (As rent-seeking forces people into being wage-slaves.)
3. Low regulation and bureaucracy.
4. Low taxes.
5. Educated, creative, and risk-taking workforce.
6. Ease of finance.
Does anybody know a country which fits this specification?