Welcome to Entrepreneur Talks by STATION F, a podcast to inspire and support entrepreneurs in their journey!
STATION F is the world's largest startup campus, with 1000+ startups working on-site. Located in Paris, STATION F gathers all the services an entrepreneur might need under one roof, including 350+ VC funds, 30+ public administrations, and mentorship offices by leading tech companies like Apple, Google, AWS, and OVH.
We are here to help bring ambitious ideas to life and, in this podcast, you'll be able to meet some of the most brilliant entrepreneurs and personalities, discover exciting projects, and learn from their experiences. Failures, regrets, tips, learnings, emotions - no topic will be avoided. We will address all questions to learn the best from our guests.
Sit tight, listen carefully, and take notes, because you're about to get inspired.
Blaise Matuidi & Ilan Abehassera (Origins) on launching a VC fund
Season 1 · Episode 52
Tuesday, May 9, 2023 • Duration 01:03:40
In this new episode of Entrepreneur Talks, we sit down with Blaise Matuidi and Ilan Abehassera, Co-founders and General Partners of Origins, to learn more about building a VC fund that combines funding with influence.
Origins is a Venture Capital fund investing across Paris, NYC and Miami in legendary consumer founders. In this episode of Entrepreneur Talks, we hear more about how Origins is funding early stage companies with the help of their limited partners (LPs) who have a combined social media following of 160,000,000.
Tune in to this new episode to learn about the founding story behind the fund, how Blaise, Ilan and their fund co-founders spotted an opportunity to combine early-stage funding with access to influence, and the many lessons to be shared between the sports and investing world.
This episode was recorded in French 🇫🇷
Topics
01:00 to 05:45 — Introduction to Blaise and Ilan
05:45 to 11:00 — Presentation of Origins
11:00 to 19:30 — From Zoom call to VC fund co-founders
19:30 to 27:00 — US vs Europe, on the pitch and in the boardroom
27:00 to 29:00 — Raising the fund
29:00 to 35:00 — Investment thesis and founder-market-fit
35:00 to 41:00 — Making the move from Angel Investor to General Partner
41:00 to 43:30 — Dealflow realtalk
43:30 to 54:00 — Learning resilience and dealing with failure
54:00 to 56:00 — The importance of emotional intelligence
57:00 to the end — Outro questions: 1 word to describe entrepreneurship, a dream LP, unpopular opinion about tech or investment
If you enjoyed this episode, please let us know by leaving a rating and a review!
This episode is hosted by Yacine Sqalli, and produced with STATION F.
Nicolas Morin-Forest (Gourmey) on revolutionizing meat production with animal cells
Season 1 · Episode 51
Tuesday, May 2, 2023 • Duration 47:39
In this new episode of Entrepreneur Talks, we catch up with Nicolas Morin-Forest, co-founder & CEO of Gourmey, a company that creates culinary delights like foie gras, directly from cell cultivation.
Thanks to Gourmey, it’s now possible to eat foie gras that doesn’t come from an animal! In this new episode of Entrepreneur Talks, we have the pleasure of welcoming Nicolas Morin-Forest, CEO & cofounder of Gourmey.
Tune in to this new episode to learn about Nicolas’ entrepreneurial journey so far, how he built a deep tech startup with a non-technical background, and how he plans to revolutionize meat production.
Topics
01:00 to 04:00 — Introduction and presentation of Nicolas
04:00 to 10:00 — Presentation of Gourmey
10:00 to 20:00 — Why and how Nicolas became a deep tech founder
20:00 to 26:00 — The moment he decided he wanted to build a sustainable business
26:00 to 31:00 — Nicolas’ biggest failure during his entrepreneurial journey
31:00 to 36:00 — How to manage a deeptech company as a non-tech CEO
36:00 to 43:00 — Why foie gras as a first product and Gourmey’s next products?
43:00 to 47:00 — Outro questions: Best quality trait of an entrepreneur? A board member he wishes to have? The most underrated advice for an entrepreneur to succeed?
If you have enjoyed this episode, please let us know by leaving a rating and a review!
This episode is hosted by Yacine Sqalli, and produced with STATION F.
Hosted on Acast. See for more information.
Frédéric Montagnon (Arianee) on the future of data ownership
Season 1 · Episode 50
Thursday, April 6, 2023 • Duration 52:11
Welcome to the latest episode of Entrepreneur Talks, STATION F's podcast. We had the chance to sit down with Frédéric Montagnon, Founder & Chairman of Arianee. He created 7 companies, exited 5 of them, killed one, and invested in more than 150 startups.
Arianee is on a mission to empower brands and owners to give digital life to products, experiences, or communities through NFTs. Last year, they issued more than 1M NFTs.
Tune in to this new episode to learn about his journey so far as an entrepreneur and investor, why he believes Web3 is the solution to data sovereignty, and why founders should now seek for the Environment-Market fit rather than Product-Market fit.
Topics
01:00 to 04:00 — Introduction and presentation of Fred by ChatGPt and himself
04:00 to 09:00 — His background and why Web3 with Arianee
09:00 to 12:00 — Why did he become an entrepreneur, only 2 years after graduation?
12:00 to 15:00 — His strength: at the intersection of Tech and Business
15:00 to 19:00 — His failures and learnings as an entrepreneur
19:00 to 24:30 — The "environment-market fit"
24:30 to 29:00 — How did you become an expert in Web3?
29:00 to 31:00 — The beauty of open source
31:00 to 35:00 — The pain: digital sovereignty
35:00 to 37:00 — His views on Twitter acquired by Elon Musk
— Arianee's solutions and the future of data ownership
Lionel Mora (Neoplants) on fighting air pollution with plants
Season 1 · Episode 49
Tuesday, March 7, 2023 • Duration 49:18
Having a deep impact on pollution with a breakthrough technology! That's one bet Neoplants is about to win in the next few months. After 4 years of R&D, the Neo P1, an indoor plant to purify the air, is coming to home.
This is what we discuss with Lionel Mora, CEO & co-founder of Neoplants, amongst other topics, in this new episode of Entrepreneur Talks, STATION F podcast. Tune in to learn about Lionel's entrepreneurial journey, why he decided to build a deeptech company, the learnings so far, and what's coming next at Neoplants.
Topics
01:00 — Introduction and presentation of Neoplants
04:00 — The genesis of the company
08:00 — Breakthrough technology vulgarization
12:00 — 4 years of R&D before launching the market
17:00 — Product iteration: trying to kill the idea fast
24:00 — When tech meets bioengineering
27:00 — The risks they face
33:30 — Raising funds as a deeptech startup in the US vs Europe
35:00 — The vision: from indoor to outdoor plants
37:30 — The market launch
40:00 — Where to order?
42:00 — Outro: Best quality of an entrepreneur? Unpopular opinion about tech or entrepreneurship? A dream board member?
If you have enjoyed this episode, please let us know by leaving a rating and a review!
This episode is hosted by Yacine Sqalli, and produced with STATION F.
Ryan Hoover (Product Hunt / Weekend Fund) on Creating a platform to help 250.000+ products launch
Season 1 · Episode 48
Friday, February 17, 2023 • Duration 54:26
Creating a platform and a community to help launch 250,000+ products. That's what Ryan Hoover has accomplished with Product Hunt. Now he is investing in early-stage startups from all around the world with Weekend Fund, a VC fund he cofounded with Vedika Jain.
Tune in to this new episode to learn more about Ryan's entrepreneurial journey, his learnings and tips to succeed, his willingness to help and support other founders, and his expectations about investments.
Product Hunt is the place to curate new products every day. Product enthusiasts can share and geek out about the latest mobile apps, websites, hardware projects, and tech creations. Among 250,000+ products launched on the platform since 2013, we find great successes like Notion, Houseparty, Robinhood, or Front. Product Hunt was acquired by AngelList in 2016 (Ryan talks about it here).
Weekend Fund is the VC fund he created in 2017, to back early-stage founders from all around the world. Together with Vedika and a team of 2 analysts, they write checks from $100k to $300k, and offer an LP collective of 350+ exceptional founders and operators. They already invested in Intercom, Deel, and just raised their 3rd fund of $21M.
Topics
01:00 — Introduction and Proust survey
06:00 — The work-life balance
The beginning of his entrepreneurial journey
Jeff Lawson (Twilio) on how to build a strong company culture
Season 1 · Episode 47
Friday, June 3, 2022 • Duration 38:08
Did you know that Jeff Lawson, the co-founder and CEO of Twilio, sold his wedding gifts to kick the company off? Back in the summer of 2008, this strategy may seem risky but looking at what Twilio achieved since, it clearly was a winning choice. Twilio is now the leading cloud communications platform and became an international company.
Despite its international growth, Twilio managed to keep its very strong company culture, focused on the well-being of its employees, and that’s something that Jeff is very proud of. He explains the concept of “Twilio Magic”, the company’s core values, and defines what is “blameless post-mortem”, an important mindset in the big Twilio family.
This episode is hosted by Roxanne Varza, STATION F’s Director, and Laurence Benamran, co-founder and CEO of Pinpo, a STATION F company selected to be part of Future 40 in 2019. Pinpo is a leading tech platform specializing in lead qualification and a happy user of Twilio.
Topics
00:10 — Introduction with Roxanne Varza (STATION F) and Laurence Benamran (Pinpo)
02:58 — The story behind Twilio’s funding. Spoiler: it involves Jeff Lawson’s wedding gifts!
12:35 — Jeff about Twilio going international and its launch in France
17:51 — How to implement a strong company culture, like Twilio does, on a large scale?
22:30 — Jeff describes Twilio’s core values as “Twilio Magic”
24:18 — The difference between a company culture and its values
Nicolas Julia (Sorare) on how to build a Web3 company
Season 1 · Episode 46
Thursday, May 5, 2022 • Duration 39:43
In 2018, only a few people knew what an NFT was and the term Web3 was far from being a buzzword. However, Nicolas Julia was convinced that it would be the next revolution in the tech space so he co-founded Sorare, global fantasy football game (or soccer game, for our American audience) that you play with NFTs.
Sorare became a unicorn in less than four years, reaching a $4.3 billion valuation. It is the French startup that has reached the unicorn status the fastest. How did Nicolas know that NFTs would become the new hype? How did he convince famous business angels such as Antoine Griezmann or Gerard Piqué to join the project early on? How did he get Serena Williams on board? And, what are the next steps for Sorare? Tune in to this week’s podcast to hear Nicolas’ answers to all of these questions and more.
This episode is hosted by Roxanne Varza, STATION F’s Director, and Clarisse Hagège, co-founder and CEO of Dfns (Founders Program, Future 40 in 2021). Dfns provides crypto custody as a service, enabling developers to deploy bank-grade custody infrastructure and turn their apps into safe zones for crypto. The company recently announced a 13,5M$ raise.
Topics
00:10 — Introduction with Roxanne Varza (STATION F) and Clarisse Hagège (Dfns)
03:30 — How Nicolas Julia got into NFTs ahead of the hype in 2018
06:44 — How Sorare avoided the scalability problems that NFT platforms encounter on Ethereum
What Sorare is and how does it work
Alexandra Fine (founder of Dame Products) on how to build a FemTech startup
Season 1 · Episode 45
Friday, April 15, 2022 • Duration 38:14
FemTech designates all technologies addressing women’s health — including reproductive health, hormonal health, menopause, and a lot more. Last year, STATION F launched a new startup program to support innovation in this space because FemTech entrepreneurs have to overcome additional challenges on top of the usual founder hurdles: they have to deal with censorship, taboo, and difficulty convincing investors.
In this first episode of Entrepreneur Talks, we interview Alexandra Fine, Founder & CEO of Dame Products, a leading SexTech company that has not only faced these barriers but also built a thriving business. Dame has led and won a three-year legal battle to have the possibility of doing ads in the New York City subway. Dame is also part of the first companies to be featured at Sephora in their new Sexual Wellness selection. It has broken new ground for FemTech startups at large and we are super excited to have Alexandra on the show to tell us about her stories and learnings from building Dame — starting with how to fundraise to market a product surrounded by taboo.
This episode is co-hosted by Elin Øyre and Andrea Olsson, the co-founders of Bumpy, a startup in STATION F’s FemTech Program. Elin and Andrea are building a platform to support people going through infertility by connecting them together and helping them to find the right fertility provider.
Find out what it takes to succeed in the FemTech industry. And, if you are building a FemTech startup, applications for STATION F’s FemTech Program are open until April 24! Learn more here.
Deep Dive into the European Talent Landscape: Diversity, Salaries, Recruitment, and more!
Season 1 · Episode 44
Monday, January 24, 2022 • Duration 01:08:51
“Talent wars”, “the Great Resignation”, “the hiring race” — you’ve likely seen these words all over the headlines of your favourite tech media. It’s no secret that recruiting for tech talent is becoming increasingly competitive and companies are looking for the secret sauce to win over top candidates.
A few months ago, STATION F conducted a study on the European talent landscape in collaboration with more than 200 VC funds with the hope to serve startups worldwide in navigating this core element of their business.
In this episode of the podcast, we discuss the findings with entrepreneurs and investors in our community:
We dive into the current talent landscape, identify areas of improvement, and share best practices on all topics related to talent — from diversity to salaries, recruitment, and remote work.
Topics
00:23 — Intro with Roxanne Varza & Cindy Yang
01:35 — Part I with startups: Salma Bakouk (Sifflet) & Pascal Gauthier (Ledger)
Tackling Climate Change with Carbon Capture
Season 1 · Episode 43
Friday, December 17, 2021 • Duration 49:14
Climate change is a global threat and, without a doubt, one of the greatest challenges of our generation.
According to PitchBook, VC investment in climate tech companies this year has already exceeded the previous two years by 37 percent. At the beginning of this year, Elon Musk offered a 100M$ prize to find the “best carbon capture technology” able to achieve low cost at gigatonne scale.
But what is carbon capture and how does it work?
In this episode, we dive into the topic with Henrietta Moon, co-founder & CEO of Carbo Culture, and Talal Hasan, co-founder & CEO of 44.01. Carbo Culture is converting CO2 from plants into stable carbon while 44.01 is turning CO2 into rock.
Topics
00:22 — Introduction with Roxanne Varza
Part I with Henrietta Moon, co-founder & CEO of Carbo Culture
01:33 — Henrietta Moon on what Carbo Culture does
06:03 — The story behind Carbo Culture
09:03 — How the company has evolved
10:30 — Carbo Culture's business model
12:10 — The different types of customers they have
13:35 — How Carbo Culture's technological approach differentiates itself
10:00 — His vision of entrepreneurship: a creator or a manager?
17:00 — Scaling pace of PH before selling to Angelist
20:00 — Products that launched on his platform (Meerkat, Notion)
23:00 — Did u think of monetizing your database?
25:00 — The selling to AngelList
28:30 — The impostor syndrome
31:30 — Creation of Weekend Fund
38:00 — Convincing Limited Partners: a sales job
40:00 — Sourcing opportunities from Product Hunt?
42:00 — His thoughts on Angel investing in the next few years
46:00 — Outro (Definition of entrepreneurship? His biggest failure? One sector to be more digitized? Unpopular opinion about tech or entrepreneurship? Most underrated advice?)
If you enjoyed this episode, please let us know by leaving a rating and a review!
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