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ParisIsBack – The Paris Tech Guide

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Re: ParisIsBack – The Paris Tech Guide

#111

Post by jmnicolas »

tormeh wrote: post #56
jmnicolas wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "pretending not to speak English" It's not that they pretend, they really don't speak English ;-) More precisely they have some notions of English but 1) they won't understand a native and can only pick a few words 2) they're ashamed of their accent so they won't even try to speak 3) due to their poor lifestyle Parisians are (mostly) dicks and do not represent Frenchies in general. Don't get fooled by the French pe…

Have you lived in Paris? Everyone I talk to tell me parisians* are dicks. I don't get how an entire city can be full of only arrogant bastards. Is that really the case? *or however it's written.

Yes I tried to live in Paris and I ran away after just 2 weeks (crappy job didn't help). I go there about once a year, and it's enough.

Parisians treat everybody badly, it's not specifically directed at foreigners, I'm French and I feel like I'm annoying them too.

Off course I'm generalizing here. If they know you they will treat you humanly. But just try to ask your direction to someone in the street and feel the "love" :-)

Re: ParisIsBack – The Paris Tech Guide

#112

Post by fermigier »

vonnik wrote: post #110
fermigier wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OTOH, Paris is the open source capital of the World :) http://www.paris-region.com/sites/default/files/brochuretic.... "With a €4 billion turnover, the French market represents 26% of the European open source market, including software and services (PAC, The Open Source Market in France, 2011). Open source has seen a rapid expansion in the past decade, with an annual growth rate of over 68%."

I guess the question would be: Do you need to live in France to sell to that market? RedHat's doing fine, and they're based in Raleigh. Many of the companies listed in that report -- Mozilla, for example -- are not French or based in France...

http://www.journaldunet.com/solutions/emploi-rh/siege-de-moz...

Re: ParisIsBack – The Paris Tech Guide

#113

Post by disputin »

s_dev wrote: post #2

ooo - I've one for Dublin, Ireland. http://www.slideshare.net/FrontlineVC/the-irish-tech-startup... Kudos to people who will post the tech guides for other European cities like Berlin and London as I don't have them.

Why are the Irish leaving? http://emn.ie/emn/statistics (Question, not argument.)

Re: ParisIsBack – The Paris Tech Guide

#114

Post by disputin »

sp4ke wrote: post #39

As a previous foreign entrepreneur who lived in Paris for 8 years here's my experience and my advice: In paris entrepreneurship is a VIP club for rich people who will rarely take real risk. Seed investment is next to impossible. The tax reduction schemes requires months of procedures and administrative paperwork. Real estate is almost as expensive as London. And the worst, if you're a foreigner you'll have a real har…

Be careful highlighting government inefficiency around here - apparently it's a hackneyed cliché.

Re: ParisIsBack – The Paris Tech Guide

#115

Post by vorg »

fermigier wrote: post #103
vonnik wrote: post #101

I spent 14 years in Paris, 10 as a journalist covering finance and tech for the NYT and Bloomberg. The Paris Tech Guide is an understandable piece of boosterism, but I would not recommend Paris or France to people looking for a tech ecosystem to support them. I'm not going to talk about the food, because it's totally irrelevant to this discussion. If that's the reason why you choose a city for your startup, your star…

OTOH, Paris is the open source capital of the World :) http://www.paris-region.com/sites/default/files/brochuretic.... "With a €4 billion turnover, the French market represents 26% of the European open source market, including software and services (PAC, The Open Source Market in France, 2011). Open source has seen a rapid expansion in the past decade, with an annual growth rate of over 68%."

> Open source has seen a rapid expansion in the past decade

My primary experience of open source software in France is of a French software product manager who worked with a German tech lead. The product manager got the German programmer to open up the API of that product to allow plugins, which a Russian innovator promptly made use of to build some useful addon software. The French manager put the German into unrelated consulting work, then hired a mate, also from France, as a second programmer to duplicate the functionality of the addon and bundle it as part of the product, killing the market for the addon. Having diluted the importance of the German to the product, he stopped using his "tech lead" title and started promoting his own name on the product instead of the two technical workers.

Perhaps the rapid expansion is based on an patriotist old boys network helping each other out rather than innovation and marketing.

Re: ParisIsBack – The Paris Tech Guide

#116

Post by maxmouchet »

draven wrote: post #45
megalomanu wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A city like Lille (or Strasbourg, Nantes, etc.) offers a much better quality of life but looks like to a small village regarding tech, in comparison to Paris. The business activity outside Paris in very weak. Few startups, few engineers, few meetups ... I don't regret my former "provincial" life, even if I live now in a small apartment in a decrepit building in a noisy neighborhood.

That's a problem in France, everything is centralized in Paris. There are aternatives though: I worked for a few years in Grenoble (I'm now in Lyon) and there are interesting meetups in Geneva and Lyon which are both about 1 hour from Grenoble by car or train.

Wow, rare to see people from the Rhône-Alpes area on HN :) I'm a student in engineering and I live in Lyon too, can you tell more about these events/meetups ? I'd be really interested !

Re: ParisIsBack – The Paris Tech Guide

#117

Post by patrickaljord »

madlag wrote: post #106
patrickaljord wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am an entrepreneur and I don't want the government's help. The government is the new Church here and I want out.

So you choose to suffer the bad sides of the government without taking any advantage from it ? You are free to do so, but is it really the wisest solution when you are just looking for a solution to survive ? And isn't it a form of church too, to refuse anything coming from the government ? (I am not from any church, if you're asking)

> And isn't it a form of church too, to refuse anything coming from the government ?

I refuse help from any kind of church, I like to call this Freedom :)

> (I am not from any church, if you're asking)

Except for the government.

Re: ParisIsBack – The Paris Tech Guide

#118

Post by wuschel »

sp4ke wrote: post #39

As a previous foreign entrepreneur who lived in Paris for 8 years here's my experience and my advice: In paris entrepreneurship is a VIP club for rich people who will rarely take real risk. Seed investment is next to impossible. The tax reduction schemes requires months of procedures and administrative paperwork. Real estate is almost as expensive as London. And the worst, if you're a foreigner you'll have a real har…

Disclaimer: I am not french.

I happen to be in Paris in these days in order to have a look at the startup and tech scene there.

So far I am surprised how well most french people speak English. Not perfect, of course, but they do not mind switching to english in a meetup presentation.

I can not say much about the points you mention, though, as I have not been long enough in the city of Paris to get relevant data.

Re: ParisIsBack – The Paris Tech Guide

#119

Post by vonnik »

fermigier wrote: post #112
vonnik wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess the question would be: Do you need to live in France to sell to that market? RedHat's doing fine, and they're based in Raleigh. Many of the companies listed in that report -- Mozilla, for example -- are not French or based in France...

http://www.journaldunet.com/solutions/emploi-rh/siege-de-moz...

A branch office. The headquarters is in Mountain View.
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