Enough time for any other city to become the largest incubator in, e.g. 2015
In 2016, Paris to be home to the biggest startup incubator in the world
71–80 of 97 posts
Re: In 2016, Paris to be home to the biggest startup incubator in the world
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
What maz-dev does not tell is that even if an employee steals the coffee machine, you will have a very hard time firing him. I will cost you a lot upfront and the employee will most probably win in court so you will have to pay him even more. This is by far France's biggest problem. I had the "privilege" to tell that to our president Hollande, and he just confirmed he does not even understand what's wrong with that.
If someone steals a coffee machine, first get a proof. Then you need to set up two meetings before firing the employee. Once this step is done, you send him or her a letter and he/she's officialy fired. The employee can then request a reexamination in front of a court (prud'hommes). If you have any proof it will cost you 0€, you don't need a lawyer when going on prud'hommes and this will take you max 1 hour of your t…
That will be great.
I don't think it's easy to demonstrate a steal. Even if you saw the guy, it will be your word against his, and court rule 8 of 10 against employer.
Re: In 2016, Paris to be home to the biggest startup incubator in the world
#73I 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…
People reading the parent comment should be aware that labor laws are vastly different in Europe - even within the EU - so if you're from outside Europe, don't be scared to start a company in Europe just because of how things might be in France.
As an example, Denmark (also part of the EU) was named Best Country to Start a Business in a survey published in Wall Street Journal in 2010 (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405274870385920457552...).
Re: In 2016, Paris to be home to the biggest startup incubator in the world
#74I 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…
Any serious entrepreneur in France can double the company income or raided funds with the help of national and local R&D grants, funds and tax credits (Crédit Impot Recherche). Add to that two years of salary for the founders paid by the agency the help unemployed people. It's super easy to get ramen profitable in France, and you don't really need to get angel funding. This is huge and often undervalued.
If you start just out of college your don't get unemployment.
Tax Credits comes with a lot conditions that a lot of startup can't afford. For example, you have to hired university PHDs to do mainly abstract research, startups don't have this kind of money.
Re: In 2016, Paris to be home to the biggest startup incubator in the world
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
"This guys is not the best I could find, he doensn't give 120%" is a perfectly good reason to fire someone. What other reason could there be? that he or she stole the coffee machine ?
"This guys is not the best I could find"
Entirely your fault, deal with it. The guy you hired is not responsible.
"He doesn't give 120%" Illegal. You don't force someone to work for free.
A good reason would be that he gives only 50%, not that he stole the damn coffee machine... Wrong mentality here imho.
Re: In 2016, Paris to be home to the biggest startup incubator in the world
#76I 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…
Sadly, as a French entrepreneur, I would love to contradict you. But basically, you're right. It is much more difficult to create a startup in France rather than in the US for instance. Read PG's http://www.paulgraham.com/america.html in perspective and it still stands 7 years later, especially when considering US vs. France.
Thanks for linking to this, I hadn't seen it before. Excerpt:
Ironically, of all rich countries the US has lost the most civil liberties
recently. But I'm not too worried yet. I'm hoping once the present
administration is out, the natural openness of American culture will reassert
itself.
Re: In 2016, Paris to be home to the biggest startup incubator in the world
#77I 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've spent some time working with Parisian based companies. To add to the above...
- It is VERY expensive to fire people. Something like 2 years of salary?
- The taxes rates can be borderline extortion. People are happy paying them because they see value, but it hurts competitiveness.
- There's more of a feel of us (workers) versus them (management) as opposed to esprit de corps. You see this in employee attitude as well as the government's view of business.
This is all a shame, because outside of work, it's a fascinating country, with great food and culture. The academic system produces a lot of well trained engineers that are very good at Math. (This is why most financial software firms either have a French office, French roots, or lots of French engineers)
What's this mean? I hope the project succeeds, but I don't think it will. It sounds like Malaysia's multimedia corridor of many years back. Unfortunately you can't centrally plan innovation.
Re: In 2016, Paris to be home to the biggest startup incubator in the world
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
same here. i was skeptical of Niel as well, but with 42 he really showed that he was honest with his intention to change the country's mentality. i also saw an interview of fleur pellerin the other day and she seems like a "hands in the dirt" person. that's a real change from previous ministers in her position. that's really the first time i'm optimistic about a state sponsored big project.
What is that 42.fr website like? I mean there are tones of useful resource online for wannabe developer. So I don't really get what this one has to be so special. Is it because it is all in French?
Well it's a tech school, not just a website.
Re: In 2016, Paris to be home to the biggest startup incubator in the world
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
same here. i was skeptical of Niel as well, but with 42 he really showed that he was honest with his intention to change the country's mentality. i also saw an interview of fleur pellerin the other day and she seems like a "hands in the dirt" person. that's a real change from previous ministers in her position. that's really the first time i'm optimistic about a state sponsored big project.
What is that 42.fr website like? I mean there are tones of useful resource online for wannabe developer. So I don't really get what this one has to be so special. Is it because it is all in French?
It's actually a free physical school dedicated to teach programming, open to anyone who is 18 to 30. The website in itself is not very important.
You can read the press release in English here: http://www.42.fr/42-revolutionary-computer-training-free-and...
Re: In 2016, Paris to be home to the biggest startup incubator in the world
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
Any serious entrepreneur in France can double the company income or raided funds with the help of national and local R&D grants, funds and tax credits (Crédit Impot Recherche). Add to that two years of salary for the founders paid by the agency the help unemployed people. It's super easy to get ramen profitable in France, and you don't really need to get angel funding. This is huge and often undervalued.
If you start just out of college your don't get unemployment. Tax Credits comes with a lot conditions that a lot of startup can't afford. For example, you have to hired university PHDs to do mainly abstract research, startups don't have this kind of money.
You don't need to hire PHD at all. Engineers are fine, and not even mandatory. You can do a lot of tasks on tax credits, even graphic design or testing.