French/acc
France is the country of Alain Aspect, Cédric Villani, Yann Le Cun, not the country of Apple, Meta or Nvidia. We believe there is a fundamental mismatch between the abundance of extraordinary talent in France and the amount of globally important companies France has produced. Yes, the current momentum in Paris is very real: the rise of well funded exceptional AI startups is a clear sign that the ecosystem is getting stronger. But the hope of making France a major powerhouse in tech is not new. Despite slow and consistent progress, France still does not have a global tech category leader, and for the most part, the world continues to bet against France being a defining technological force of the 21st century.
What’s still holding France back? It’s easy to hide behind some structural difficulties: yes, the ecosystem density is not as high as the one in the Valley, yes, the European market is more fragmented than the US which lead to a distribution disadvantage and yes, the funding ecosystem, from seed to IPO, is obviously not on par with the US. But we believe these structural hurdles should not be an excuse: the global ambition of exceptional founders can outweigh all of them. If there’s a place on Earth that can benefit from an accelerationist mindset, it’s France.
If you share that level of ambition for the French ecosystem and gets ridiculed for it, we’re building a community for you. We believe community building and structured serendipity are essential for France to fulfill its technological ambition.
Mistral, H, Alice & Bob, Kyutai, Dust, etc: French genius operates at the cutting edge. So if you think the foundation of a great company is hidden somewhere in a research paper, a technical discord group or reddit thread, if you have ideas that no one else has, French/acc is the place for you. We also believe there can’t be global success without global ambition, we want the community to be international, so if you're a foreigner in Paris, French/acc is also the place for you.
We have already kicked off a private group and are now organizing our first-ever in-person event. We are excited to announce that Stan Polu, Co-founder and CTO at Dust, will be joining us for this inaugural event. Whether you’ve already joined the group or not, you’re welcome to register for the event and join us in person. Students, startup founders, employees, and anyone interested in accelerating through technology in France is invited!
Schedule:
7:30pm: Doors opezn
8:00pm: Panel discussion with Stan Polu & Pierre Entremont
8:30pm: Q&As
8:45pm: Product demos from early stage founders
9:00pm: Networking & drinks
All guests must register and show luma QR code and ID. No unapproved guest will be admitted.