Radical Departures

Welcome back to the Radical Departures podcast. Today we have something a little different for you, this is Part One of the STATION F Fighters miniseries! For those who don’t know, Station F is the world’s largest startup campus, located here in Paris. They house over 30 incubator and accelerator programs, including their own Founders’ program. For this series however, we wanted to feature some great startups from their Fighters’ program, which offers free access to the Founders’ program for those entrepreneurs who come from any kind of disadvantaged background. In this first episode of the Fighters miniseries, you’ll meet Alexis and Mohammad, the creators of Streetyfood, a startup that connects offices to better food options! Their app allows companies to easily and directly interface with food trucks and other street food providers so as to change up boring lunchtime food options for employees, and bring more business to those enterprising chefs-- a win-win! My colleague Alex joined us for this episode, which is for the Francophones among us-- English speakers, you can read the translated interview on our website at ouistartmedia.com. So without further ado, here’s Part 1 of our Station F Fighters miniseries with Streetyfood!

Our guest today is Maeva Botrel, co-founder of Sextech Lab. Unlike some of our other guests, Maeva runs this innovative association in her free time, in addition to a demanding day job! Sextech Lab seeks to increase awareness of sexuality, normalize conversations on the subject, and make advancements in an area that’s often overlooked. They’ll be holding the second French sextech hackathon this June! In this episode, Maeva explains just what exactly sextech is, how her association is working to improve sexual education for young people, some interesting and surprising applications for sextech, what other communities around the world are doing in this area, and much more.

Our guest today is Francois Veron, Managing Partner of the venture capital firm Newfund. In this episode, Francois shares about Newfund’s development over the last 10 years, methods they use to choose where to invest, how they have managed to build a truly distributed team, some of their amazing portfolio companies, and so much more. For anyone looking to get inside the mind of a successful and innovative French investor, this episode is not to be missed!

Our guest today is Arthur Nobel, Founder of Flexpat, a platform that hosts remote work programs for digital professionals and freelancers of all stripes. In this episode, Arthur shares with us how Flexpat works to open new horizons for people to work remotely, taking their jobs on the road to Flexpat’s thoroughly scouted locations around the world. You’ll hear more about how Flexpat’s programs offer the chance to remote and location-independent workers to build a worldwide community, and to experience true cultural immersion, without all the headaches that planning a life abroad usually holds.

Our guest today is Matthieu Lavergne, Entrepreneur in Residence at L'Atelier BNP Paribas. Matthieu works on the two Boost startup accelerator programs run by L’Atelier, and in this episode, he shares with us their innovative way of pairing corporates with startups, how they focus on generating mutual value right from the start, and some of the factors that set these excellent programs apart, including that they take no equity and they’re free for startups! The application period for one of BNP’s programs, WAI Boost, opens today, March 20th, so head to our website after the episode if you’re interested in learning more about the application criteria.

ur guest today is Sven Deichfuss, co-founder of Neuland Alliance, a multi-pronged agency that provides strategic and support services to European startups so they can hit the ground running when expanding to the US market.

Our guest today is Adrien Mennillo, founder of uTip. He created his startup with the goal of making it simpler and faster to support your favorite internet content creators. In this episode, Adrien discusses how the online advertising landscape has drastically changed and what that means for content creators. He tells us all about the origins of uTip, and how he’s working to get more and more advertisers on board the platform.

Our guest today is Tim Mevel, co-founder of HelloZack, a startup based in Paris that buys back your old Apple devices, hassle-free. In this episode, Tim discusses his entrepreneurial background, how HelloZack has pivoted to their now super well-positioned spot, and why they’ve chosen to contain their growth so far in order to make sure they could be in the best position possible to be able to scale up.

Thomas Ollivier nous explique comment la MAIF comprend l'avenir en y contribuant, grâce à des partenariats et investissements d'#innovation avec des startups sur l'économie collaborative et les pratiques émergentes.

Our guest today is Thomas Ollivier, the Head of Sharing Economy & Emerging Practices at French insurance company, MAIF. In this episode, he shares how his team at MAIF have been pioneers in disrupting their own industry, and have been working with startups since way before it was commonplace. They’re exceptional in this market, and it was a treat to hear how they’ve built an innovative culture inside what is a very traditional kind of enterprise.

Our guest today is Thomas Perret, Founder of Mon Petit Placement. Thomas is based in Lyon, and is in the process of changing how young French people invest their money. After stints working in asset management and the startup world, Thomas decided to create a service that would give the average French person access to better investment opportunities, as well as educate millennials about personal finance, with the ultimate goal of democratizing private banking. He’s working with big-name French banks and Mon Petit Placement promises to be a crucial player in changing how young people invest their money.

Our guest today is Kurt Muehmel, Vice President of the Europe, Middle East, and Africa region at Dataiku. This episode gives you a window into the operations of one of the hottest startups in France today! Kurt has been with Dataiku for the last five years, and has been part of their seriously impressive growth and development. Looked to as an example startup in the French ecosystem, Dataiku has been putting a great deal of resources into international expansion recently. In this episode, Kurt shares some of the company’s strategies as they continue to grow; he discusses how Dataiku’s sales approach differs from so many companies out there today, and how the founders of the company keep their core values at the forefront of operations, even through their rapid expansion.

Our guest today is Florian Bercault, President and Co-Founder of Estimeo, a ratings agency for startups. Florian has a background in crowdfunding, as well as environmental-focused finance. In his first work experiences, he saw a need for a tool to democratize the funding process for startups. In this episode, you’ll hear how Florian set out to build that tool, all about his success so far with his startup ratings agency that does equity scoring, and how Estimeo is working to change the entire culture of investment and finance in France.

Our guests today are Marion Chapsal and Ken Homer, who together run workshops on how to facilitate collaborative communication on gender diversity and leadership issues. Marion, who is based in Lyon, is Chief Learning Officer at Ideas On Stage, as well as the head of Women On Stage. Ken runs an organization called Collaborative Conversations in San Francisco. In this episode, we discuss how to deal with gender diversity issues and conflicts, the importance of clear communication, how to effect change on a small and large scale, and so much more.

Our guest today is Ethan Pierse, Venture Partner at Stealth venture Fund, author of the book Chief Startup Officer, Founding Partner of Borderless Ventures, and all around startup champion.