Radical Departures

Our guest today is Eva Perris, the former Deputy Chief Marketing Officer at Once Dating. Once is a “slow dating” app, which uses both algorithms as well as dedicated matchmakers to connect users with one hand-picked match each day, highlighting quality over quantity. Once was started by French expats living in London, who have since moved the company back to Paris. In this episode, Eva discusses the “gamification” of dating, why the founders chose to move the company to Paris, what differentiates Once from other dating apps, and much more. Just a little FYI, since we recorded this episode, Eva has left the team at Once to take on another exciting marketing opportunity.

#14: Jean-Francois Morizur

Our guest today is Damien Courbon, Cofounder and COO of Swapcard, a networking app designed to help users have more meaningful encounters at events. We talked with Damien about Swapcard’s strategic and meticulous hiring process, why they’re recruiting talent from abroad, and how they maintain such a low rate of employee turnover.

Our guest today is Anne Ravanona, founder and CEO of Global Invest Her. It’s a global community and platform that helps women entrepreneurs learn about funding and get investor-ready, to get funded faster. In this episode, Anne walks us through some of the brutal statistics and why most of the investment world is missing out on so many great ideas. The funding gap between men and women entrepreneurs is enormous. Anne’s mission is to close that gap and teach women how to navigate this complex system.

Our guest today is Robin Lepercq, co-founder of FreelanceRepublik, an online community that allows tech teams to hire freelance developers and project managers simply, making sure they get the best possible available talent. Before setting out on his own, Robin spent much of his career as a salesman in retail, IT, and others for companies in France and Spain. In this episode, hear how FreelanceRepublik makes sure all of its constituents have the best possible experience and outcome using the site, what lessons he took with him from corporate life into working independently, and what the freelance developer community in France is like these days.

Key take-away points: Tamara was experienced in consulting, real estate & startup culture WiredScore was created in NY to highlight high end internet readiness for office space French market is largest in EU, third largest in world To succeed, it’s critical to study & adapt before jumping in Commercial office space is highly centralized in France & well organized Challenges remain: slow hiring process which might hinder growth Global clients helped open the market, French clients adopted quickly

Our guest today is Timothee Rebours, co-founder and CEO of Seald, an up-and-coming French startup that’s developing a user-friendly encryption tool for messages and files. During university, Timothee participated in the exchange program in Technological Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of California in Berkeley, where he was able to learn valuable lessons about building a company, and could allow his entrepreneurial visions to take shape. In this episode, you’ll hear how Seald works, how Timothee and his co-founders decided to grow the business, their approach to raising money, and why they decided to put international markets in their sights from the get-go.

Today's episode features a discussion with Olga Egorsheva, founder of Lobster Media, which provides an easy licensing service for user-generated content. Olga is originally Russian, got her MBA in Paris, and then went on to found Lobster in London, where she currently resides. In this episode, you’ll hear why Olga decided that the stock photo industry was one that desperately needed disrupting, what she values most when looking for new employees (this might surprise you), and why Lobster chose to go with investors, rather than grow the business organically. We really enjoyed talking with Olga, and learned a great deal from her.

Edouard Alligand is the founder of QuasarDB, a fresh new take on B2B database software. In this episode, Edouard discusses why and how he decided to create QuasarDB, some of the challenges of working across continents, and how he leveraged assistance from Business France and IMPACT USA to build out QuasarDB and enter the US market. While he’s a serious and hardworking guy, Edouard also has a refreshing approach to building his company, and knows how to not take things too seriously— a necessary skill when in business for yourself.

Following her graduation from McGill University in Montreal, Cassandra Delage got a Master’s in entrepreneurship at HEC here in Paris. Since then, she’s gone on to found a great new company that makes recycling a fun and productive challenge- yes, really! Plast’if makes machines that take offices’ plastic recycling and turn it into 3D printed objects. In this episode, Cassandra describes how Plast’if’s technology works, what the company is currently focused on, how she thinks about being an entrepreneur, and the importance of the little winsw and keeping a positive attitude. We had a great time talking to Cassandra and we’re sure Plast’if will soon be present in every office building in the city.

Wemind is a startup based here in Paris that focuses on providing much-needed services to freelancers around the country. Wemind helps independent workers to obtain complementary health insurance benefits, apartment rentals, and much more.

In Episode 4, you'll be introduced to Sebastien Couture. He's the Technology Evangelist at Stratumn, a blockchain technology company. Stratumn is a company based here in Paris building proof of process technology using blockchain.

Version française de l'épisode

Meet Leo Vesperini, founder of Mythic Games. They've closed one super-successful Kickstarter campaign, raising over $4 million for Mythic Battles: Pantheon, and they open their next Kickstarter on October 10th 2017 for Time of Legends: Joan of Arc.

If you thought that your pitch wasn’t all that important and that you only needed one, you really need to listen to our guest Phil Waknell, Chief Inspiration Officer at Ideas on Stage.  Phil has coached countless people for pitching, including students at some of the Grandes Écoles in France, startup incubators such as NUMA and Share-It at StationF and numerous corporate accounts including Microsoft, EDF, Orange, Sanofi and beyond. Phil explains the critical components that are needed for your pitch as well as why you need not just one pitch, but many.  If you want to have a successful pitch, each pitch must speak to your specific audience, which is important to consider beyond just your pitch, as you grow your business.