It's not a proper one though as they haven't removed the perfectly serviceable suspended ceiling.
Exposed pipes – check. Giant pillows – check. French startup mega-campus opens
Giant tech startup incubatory "space" Station F, which describes itself as the world's largest startup campus, officially pulled the dust covers off the scatter cushions last week in Paris's 13th arrondissement. The 34,000 m2 building will host over 2,600 entrepreneurs – who have fought fiercely for their places – inside 26 …
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Monday 3rd July 2017 13:28 GMT Steve the Cynic
Re: Anyone else notice
"the slogans on the rear wall are in English"
When I came to live in France eight years ago, I was a little surprised by the amount of English used in advertising. Most of it is odd words or sloganish phrases, but when I saw a three-paragraph rant by Jennyfer (chain of clothes shops selling young women's fashion), it took me several moments to *notice* that it was in grammatically sound English.
The quantity of English hasn't gone down since then, although in general it is marked with an asterisk, and at the bottom of the billboard / poster / whatever, there is an approximate translation in French. In some cases, it's more approximate than translation, though.
Also, the closer your sphere of activity is to anything "digital" or "tech", the more the English-speaking world intrudes, as you'd expect.
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Monday 3rd July 2017 19:19 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Anyone else notice
Also, the closer your sphere of activity is to anything "digital" or "tech", the more the English-speaking world intrudes, as you'd expect.
That's as maybe, but presumably this is about culturing the next generation of cheese technologists, snail farmers, and quirky-but-unreliable car designers. No need for any English. And, as we're Brexiting and they don't want to use English, everybody will be happy if they come up with some suitable Gallic motivational phrases, printed diagonally of course. Things like "Le fromage est exceptionnellement malodorant" and "Les escargots et les Français partagent 99% du même ADN"
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Monday 3rd July 2017 12:07 GMT I am the liquor
startup accelerators in general are not a foolproof path to success
Are they a path to success at all? Can we point to any successful software/interweb company in Europe that came out of one of these big-city incubators?
From where I'm sitting it looks like all the real business is being done either around universities, or on a business park just off the motorway.
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Monday 3rd July 2017 14:51 GMT Yet Another Anonymous coward
Re: startup accelerators in general are not a foolproof path to success
Out of ? No, Into? Yes
After the years working in the basement then the cheap office above the car parts store we moved into a former incubator space once we had customers visiting. Started at great expense by the government to promote startups in a specific "section of society" it had closed within a year.
But it's a really nice building filled with fancy chairs and standing desks (we threw out the meeting cushions) the espresso machines are nice but you have to live with the pop-art walls.
We don't have teddie bears but we do have dogs
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Monday 3rd July 2017 15:33 GMT Erik4872
Dotcom Bubble II, French Edition?
Has anyone actually shown a positive correlation between work environments that look like a preschool and successful startups? Because this whole startup incubator thing was big during the end of the last dotcom bubble as well.
I understand the need to attract young hipsters the same way the SV startups do, but having a company entirely composed of younger people with less experience doesn't seem like the way to go if you want to be successful. You need at least a few "adults" in the company -- letting the kids spend 16 hour days at work is fine, but have some adult spaces as well.
One thing I've never been able to get, at any stage of my life, is why anyone would want to spend their entire waking life in the office. All of the Google-esque "all-inclusive" companies are like this; they create "fun" workspaces and handle all of their employees' personal business so they can spend the maximum time possible at work. Even if my employer were paying for 3 meals a day, I don't think I'd want to be around for the amount of time they expect in return. I know they're trying to recreate the college lifestyle, but it falls flat for anyone who's been out in the world a while and has some experience.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
