MAY 2018 FORBES ASIA | 37IF STATION F REPRESENTS a renaissance in French entrepre-
neurship, then dinnertime at Station F represents the hurdles to
come. he place “empties out by 7 p.m.,” says Karen Ko, who came
to Paris for her M.B.A. and now helps run a data analytics start-
up for care homes at Niel’s giant incubator. “By 8, it’s almost a ghost
town.” Meanwhile, David Chermont, of Inbound Capital in Paris,
is surely the only startup advisor to say this: “People should stop
fantasizing about startups. It’s really hard. You’re going to bed with
work in your head.”
Ask anyone at a French startup: Cultural and government
habits die hard. At irst it was a breeze when Anton Soulier in-
corporated Mission Food in Paris last year. But then a bill came
in the mail. His food-delivery startup had to pay nearly $2,000 in
employment tax—before he’d hired a single employee. “Crazy,”
he says. In France there’s a de facto legal tax, with every start-
up needing a good lawyer to the tune of more than $30,000 a
year just to navigate the byzantine regulations. When the nascent
companies eventually hire staf, each employee’s salary costs will
double because of various contributions mandates. And good
luck deciphering the pay slips, which have 25 lines of deductions
and igures.
President Macron says he’s working on it. “We are basical-
ly killing a lot of small taxes that our entrepreneurs had to pay,”
he says. But some entrepreneurs are skeptical those changes will
come once all the hype dies down. Macron’s reforms haven’t had
an efect on Mission Food, Soulier says, noting that some labor
law changes from 2002 are only now coming into efect, over 15
years later.
France’s past governments have also been notorious for siding
with legacy industries, like the taxi trade, and against newer busi-
ness models like ride-sharing. “I want this country to be open to
disruption and these new models,” says Macron, who then ideal-
istically says the answer is compromise. “My startups create some
issues for my big companies like EDF,” he says of the electric util-
ity irm. “But I’m ine with that. And I told EDF, ‘You should in-
vest in this company. Perhaps they will disrupt you. So the best
way to proceed is to be a partner.’ ”
A sound idea, but it’s hard for a government to guide the strat-
egy of former monopolies. “[Macron] hasn’t walked the walk,”
says disappointed Macron fan Yan Hascoet, who cofounded Uber
competitor Chaufeur Privé. His startup lost almost a third of its
15,000 drivers in 2017 when regulators rolled out an ultra-di-
cult theory exam in an obvious move to shield the older taxi driv-
ers, who were clogging Paris in protest. “He chose not to touch
this topic.”
Macron’s broader problem is getting the rest of his govern-
ment—and the pockets of entrenched support for incumbents
like the taxi trade—on board. he cynical Niel, who proclaims
that he doesn’t vote, not even for Macron, understandably thinks
true reform will come from the entrepreneurs. But reform re-
quires noise, and French entrepreneurs don’t always like making
it. Money is still “negatively connotated here,” says Zenly’s Martin,
who says he and his cofounder are staying “out of the sunlight”
ater their sale to Snap. In the last three years, Nicolas Steegmann
sold his startup Stupelix to GoPro; Pierre Valade sold Sunrise to
Microsot; and Jean-Daniel Guyot sold Captain Train to Train-
line. hey are “all unknown to the general public,” says Martin.
And “all have done nine-igure deals.”
Foreigners are more comfortable with the spotlight, and
they see progress. “here is a certain informality here,” says Ko,
perched on a lime-green cushioned bench in the middle of Sta-
tion F. “It’s very un-French. You can walk around, you can start a
conversation and introduce yourself. I like that because it makes
me feel like I’m home.”
Silicon Valley became a force because its alumni helped each
generation grow, says Fadell. “Station F and Paris will experience
the same multiplier efect.” Among the new alumni, star founders
from Criteo (an ad-tech giant that went public in 2013 and is now
worth $1.9 billion) and ride-sharing app BlaBlaCar (still private
but valued at $1.4 billion) have already become angel investors for
the next generation of Parisian startups.
More are coming: International Station F applicants cite Sil-
icon Valley costs, Donald Trump and Brexit as their reason to
apply, and all three of those seem ixed for now. France would his-
torically squander such gits; it’s why Macron moves with such
urgency. “Most of the time, leaders decide to reform at the end of
their mandate,” he says. Instead, he front-loaded his major initia-
tives. “Something we have to deliver today is not to be passed to-
morrow,” he says. “Late is too late.”The catalyst: Billionaire Xavier Niel
has gone from outcast to Pied Piper.F