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In 2016, Paris to be home to the biggest startup incubator in the world

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Re: In 2016, Paris to be home to the biggest startup incubator in the world

#81

Post by hartator »

hme wrote: post #80
hartator wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

From the CIR (The structure in charge of this tax credit), you can only do: applied science, pure research and experimental development. Sounds more PHD tasks than regular designer or regular engineer tasks.

Re: In 2016, Paris to be home to the biggest startup incubator in the world

#82

Post by hme »

hartator wrote: post #81
hme wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

From the CIR (The structure in charge of this tax credit), you can only do: applied science, pure research and experimental development. Sounds more PHD tasks than regular designer or regular engineer tasks.

Nope, it's totally ok. Tested for 4 years with a control from a government agent lately with 2 engineers and a 3D artist without any engineering degree. CIR is way broader than what people think, and it has been made even broader this year (you can now include tasks from pilot programs). This is really super undervalued, CIR and other grants is totally a game changer in assessing if France is a good country to start a tech business.

Re: In 2016, Paris to be home to the biggest startup incubator in the world

#83

Post by kakoni »

hme wrote: post #57
hartator wrote: post #36

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…

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.

Interesting. So you can get unemployed benefit and run a company at the sametime?

Re: In 2016, Paris to be home to the biggest startup incubator in the world

#84

Post by hme »

kakoni wrote: post #83
hme wrote: post #57

Earlier 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.

Interesting. So you can get unemployed benefit and run a company at the sametime?

Absolutely. It's not a trick, it's an official system to help entrepreneurship. You need to have worked at least 2 years to have unemployment right though. So as hartator said, you don't get it straight after college.

Re: In 2016, Paris to be home to the biggest startup incubator in the world

#85

Post by oscargrouch »

I just wanna say:

Good Luck France(really)! We need different cultures, distinct point of views, more tech jobs, and innovation

Also the Euro zone got to recover fast, we need this strenght, sophistication and experience to help us all to get in a better future..

I know the path is difficult, but i wish you all the best!

Sometimes, just a little optimism, can do wonders!

Re: In 2016, Paris to be home to the biggest startup incubator in the world

#86

Post by astrodust »

lhnz wrote: post #49

The perfect location for a startup would have: 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. I see so many countries trying to compete in the startup ecosystem by just trying to cargo-cult their way into it with a bit of investment and a bra…

Why do taxes matter for a start-up? They're usually not making much money anyway.

If you want a low cost of living, and low rent, you could always live in Mexico. Good luck with #5 and #6 though.

When you have #5 and #6, usually you have an in-demand area, which leads to #1, #2, #3 and #4 being much higher than they would otherwise be. Supply and demand rears its ugly head again.

Re: In 2016, Paris to be home to the biggest startup incubator in the world

#87

Post by astrodust »

telephonetemp wrote: post #9

So, how long does it take to learn enough French to be dangerous :-) if you don't speak any Romance language?

If you can handle English, French will be a breeze.

German would be harder, and Cantonese would be virtually impossible by comparison.

Re: In 2016, Paris to be home to the biggest startup incubator in the world

#88

Post by pietro »

hbbio wrote: post #52
hartator wrote: post #36

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…

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.

Why do you even try? It doesn't make any sense to me. Moving to the UK or Scandinavia would be trivially easy, and you'd instantly find yourself in a super business friendly environment compared to France. Is it the food?

Re: In 2016, Paris to be home to the biggest startup incubator in the world

#89

Post by theorique »

fab13n wrote: post #18
theorique wrote: post #6

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…

There are many things to fix in France to encourage start-ups, indeed. And containing bureaucracy will be harder than tax issues IMO. However, what's very important in this endeavor this that it's 90% financed by Xavier Niel, a single private entrepreneur who's specialized in blowing up bureaucratic / oligopolistic businesses. He's pioneered minitel services (including sexual content, which got him some flak), then c…

Cool, thanks for the context.

Don't get me wrong, I think it would be great for France and Europe to have a Silicon Valley-equivalent. So I don't mean to disparage. I've just heard some horror stories about the red tape that startups face in some parts of Europe. Glad to hear there are positive signs.

Re: In 2016, Paris to be home to the biggest startup incubator in the world

#90

Post by theorique »

pietro wrote: post #88
hbbio wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Why do you even try? It doesn't make any sense to me. Moving to the UK or Scandinavia would be trivially easy, and you'd instantly find yourself in a super business friendly environment compared to France. Is it the food?

If you're in London, Paris is but a Eurostar away...
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