Source: https://medium.com/@antoinetvandalen/where-to-start-and-pitch-your-startup-in-paris-c238415a348d#.3fqzlbtgy , author: Antoinet van Dalen, visited the website on the 6th of February 2017 at 12:23.
Paris is now among the best places for entrepreneurs & investors with 4 000 startups in Paris, 12 000 in Paris metropolitan area and the world’s biggest incubator, Station F. It is therefore a great place to visit and to found your startup!

Do you want to start your startup in Paris? Do you want to pitch your project or increase your network in the French capital? Here are a few tips and ideas to find your way through the Paris Startup ecosystem:
Set foot in the French Tech Ecosystem:
- Paris Landing Pack: The Paris Landing Pack is a turnkey offer, ranging from 1 to 12 months, with limited administrative and logistic formalities. This package includes a desk in a Parisian incubator, a housing solution, a dedicated support for foreign managers by Paris&Co and the access to networking events organized by the agency and its partners
- Doing Business in France Guide: This guide, Doing Business in France, written by the Invest in France Agency (IFA) in partnership with Deloitte, is intended to be a working reference guide to the business environment in France.
This is how the French Startup ecosystem* looks like today :

*More info on 1001startups.fr, advice and resources for entrepreneurs.
Launch your start-up in Paris:
- Paris French Tech Ticket : The Paris French Tech Ticket aims to attract gifted and ambitious individuals from all around the world and to help them set up their startup in France.
- The Young Entreprise Initiative (YEi): The Young Entreprise initiative (YEi), started in 2006, is an accelerator designed to help entrepreneurs grow their business in France and Europe.
Come and pitch your startup at one of these events :
- Pitch don’t kill my vibe: Come on stage, test your pitch and get concrete feedback from a jury of experts at TheFamily. Subscribe here. (100% in English!!)

- Startinparis: Free monthly events to present your product in front of many investors, entrepreneurs.
- Startup weekend: Launch your startup in a weekend!
- Mash-up: Students are able to pitch their ideas and win sponsors.
- Drink Entrepreneurs: Go take an “Apéro” on the first Thursday of each month to meet other entrepreneurs.
Do not miss out on the latest meetups and events:
- Startup digest: A nice calendar with all events, you can subscribe to the weekly digest.
- My startup: Paris city website is dedicated to innovation actors.
- Paris&co: A diary in French to find upcoming events.
- Maddyness: check the event agenda of this well-known magazine for French Startups.
- Frenchweb: check the event agenda of this well-known magazine about innovation and technology.
- The Family Meetups (100% in English!!): This group is for all the startup lovers who wants to get their hands dirty and build amazing scalable companies.
Recurrent yearly startup festivals and conferences:
- Le salon des entrepreneurs: Big fair with speakers, accelerator programs and animations.
- Techinnov Event: the biggest European event dedicated to the innovation sector.
- Startup Assembly: Open your office’s doors for a few days to share your experience. Startups welcome people who want to know what their work life is like.
- Viva Technology: A worldwide event where 5000 Startups collaborate with the top 100 VC and the 100 best corporations to grow their business and shape the future.
- Le Web: Europe’s “former” biggest event for web-based companies.
- OuiShare Fest : OuiShare Fest is an international event that gathers entrepreneurs and social innovators, non-profit and business leaders, grassroots activists and public officials.

A few important incubators and accelerators you should visit:
- Numa: Europe’s first growth acceleration program for tech startups. Offering legal advice, investment for startups and more.
- Station F (opening in April): STATION F is the only startup campus gathering a whole entrepreneurial ecosystem under one roof.
- The Family: An accelerator for early-stage startups supporting them from [0] to [1] through education & unfair advantages.
- 50 Partners: a French accelerator providing IT startups with mentoring, financing, and office space in central Paris.
- Paris&Co: Paris&Co is the economic development and innovation agency of Paris. The team prospects and provides support for foreign direct investments, promotes the international attractiveness of Paris abroad, and fosters the Parisian innovation ecosystem through the incubation of startups, the experiment of new solutions, the organization of events and the cooperation between startups and global players.
- Paris Pionnières: an incubator for female entrepreneurs.
Find a complete list of co-working, business incubators & accelerators here.
And last but not least… a few top investors in France:
- BPI France (Banque Publique d’Investissement): provides financial solutions for companies that are booting up the listing on the stock exchange and credit equity.
- Alven Capital: It is an early-stage venture capital firm. Alven backs primarily ambitious French entrepreneurs in the digital technology space.
- IdInvest: a European leader in financing small and medium-sized enterprises, is to fund European businesses at various stages of growth.
Please contact me to complete above information! Don’t hesistate to contact me if you have questions!
Antoinet Van Dalen
Sales and Business Development professional working for startups and multinationals writing about startups, innovation, gender, Dutch and other topics in life.