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Things here are different. Deal with it.

I’ve been thinking about France a lot lately. How’s that for an opening sentence?

If there is one thing I love about my native land, it’s the contrarian spirit that seeps through every endeavor, every conversation, every interaction. Are the French overly arrogant or self-critical? Romantic or self-serving? Outgoing or coy? Frighteningly sexual or mysteriously prude? This duality is often a source of great entertainment: I could be sneering through my Bordeaux at a huddle of shrieking American tourists one day, and share a Bud with them while trading yo’ mama jokes the next. This unique spirit is also pervasive in France’s unique entrepreneurial culture, which has been booming of late. Below is what the outside world should know about the matter.

The French tech rocket-ship is ready for take-off: early stage funding is at an all time high, there is a large, motivated and skilled talent pool (hi!), and institutions are (finally) turning into accelerators for the ecosystem as a whole.

A few weeks ago, France won the World Cup, as was predicted in this very newsletter 8 months ago (cheers). This led some to some rather tasteless jokes, as, much like France, the French national team is very ethnically diverse. Immigration in France has its challenges (which are many) and its triumphs (which are more), and understanding why these “jokes” angered the French is key to understanding that nation’s relation to entrepreneurship.

Put simply, the heart of France is a freedom from differences. The U.S, on the other hand allows people the freedom to be different, a small, yet significant difference. Being French is derived from a voluntary commitment to common political ideals and a common fate (courtesy of the French Revolution), transcending ethnic and religious differences. It also means that standing out is not at the core of the French identity, which partly explains France’s long-known reluctance towards entrepreneurship, as the eccentrics and the filthy rich are often dubbed to be of dubious character.

In order for startups to thrive in France, they need not be French. They need to be European. That means making regulations possible to allow companies to open in countries across Europe without the practical necessity of setting up a new legal entity in each.

Only then will we start to see unicorns with teeth. And cool armor. And guns.
But no, not guns. we don’t like those here.

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