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Ask HN: How's the Paris startup scene?

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21–30 of 119 posts

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

#21

Ok, so a lot of people here are comparing the french Startup scene to what it was before. I understand why, but it's misleading. Yes, compared to what it was before, it's booming. But it was ridiculously bad before. However compared to what's happening in the US, it's still lagging. Innovation is alright, however investment and risk taking are nowhere close to the American standard. It's still very meh. The culture o…

> the salary is 2 to 3 times less

so it’s negative?

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

#22

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…

Were you an engineering graduate ? Because 30k€ even in Province right now is extremely low (university graduates are starting at 33k€ in Lyon for example, with engineers 33-38k€)...

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

#23

Hi French founder here. Imho: French start-up ecosystem is booming. Still immature in some aspects. Really good tech companies, less aggressive in sales than german for example. Cash is coming really hard from french VCs but also UK and some US. I consider France a tax heaven for start-up with multiple leverage: - JEI (Jeune Entreprise Innovante) status: basically you pay low employer's contribution - CIR (Crédit Imp…

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

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

#24

I'm not in the start-up world personally but from I understand it's all rather vibrant. I went to Vivatech and was, despite the lack of air in the building, quite impressed with the sheer number of start-ups present. Having French language skills is a HUGE benefit and was not too long ago an absolutely necessity. It's getting better now and you can more or less get by speaking only English, at least in a professional…

+1 for Welcome To The Jungle to check out which companies are hiring. If you are a software engineer who doesn't know the ecosystem and want to get offers, I would recommend Paris-based https://www.talent.io rather than Hired. Otherwise, direct networking is always best.

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

#25
post #22

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…

Were you an engineering graduate ? Because 30k€ even in Province right now is extremely low (university graduates are starting at 33k€ in Lyon for example, with engineers 33-38k€)...

[deleted]

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

#26

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.

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.

> only one country which doesn't want to adopt English

What? You've never been to Europe have you? Try travelling here and speaking English in any country other than the obvious champions like Norway / Sweden / Danemark and you'll come to the crazy realization that people like speaking their own language.

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

#27
I'm sure there are loads of confounding factors here, but for what it's worth, a study of tech salaries by Hired.com found that Paris had the lowest cost-of-living adjusted salary of all cities reviewed, at about $56,000 in San Francisco dollars[1].

[1] https://hired.com/state-of-salaries-2018

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

#28
post #23

Hi French founder here. Imho: French start-up ecosystem is booming. Still immature in some aspects. Really good tech companies, less aggressive in sales than german for example. Cash is coming really hard from french VCs but also UK and some US. I consider France a tax heaven for start-up with multiple leverage: - JEI (Jeune Entreprise Innovante) status: basically you pay low employer's contribution - CIR (Crédit Imp…

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

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

#29
post #21

Ok, so a lot of people here are comparing the french Startup scene to what it was before. I understand why, but it's misleading. Yes, compared to what it was before, it's booming. But it was ridiculously bad before. However compared to what's happening in the US, it's still lagging. Innovation is alright, however investment and risk taking are nowhere close to the American standard. It's still very meh. The culture o…

> the salary is 2 to 3 times less so it’s negative?

Rule of thumb is that half the salary amount (e.g. 120k USD to 60k EUR) in Paris will get you about the same or better quality of life as you have in NYC or SF, once you account for differences in how real estate, taxes, healthcare, and retirement work.

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

#30
post #16
post #8

> What's the startup scene in Paris like? The start-up scene is currently definitely at an interesting point: really young and active (people already shared links to Startup studios, you should have a look at them). The meetup scene is great too. The salary is still a pity though (compared to the States, Switzerland or Baltic countries). For a middle developer position, you may be around 40K euros, which is "nice in…

> For a middle developer position, you may be around 40K euros I won't get into details here but 40k€ before taxes ("brut") for a developer between junior and senior is not considered that good in Paris anymore. It would have been decent 8 years ago but wages went up with the increase in demand. Of course it depends on skills, position, stack, etc... That being said, you will almost always make more money working as…

I don't know how much has changed in the last 5 years, but "more" in the US was at least 3 (over 4 for me) times more. Computer programming (in the mainstream regard) was a "meh" position: something you do while trying to become a manager.

I loved it there and would advise anyone to do it (I'm thinking of doing it again!) - but if money is your goal... I traded an awful lot of "opportunity dollars" for "opportunity experiences".

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