Why Startups Shouldn’t Raise Funds Just Because They Can

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 🇫🇷Topics01:00 to 05:45 — Introduction to Blaise and Ilan 05:45 to 11:00 — Presentation of Origins11:00 to 19:30 — From Zoom call to VC fund co-founders19:30 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 Partner41:00 to 43:30 — Dealflow realtalk 43:30 to 54:00 — Learning resilience and dealing with failure54:00 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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.Topics01:00 to 04:00 — Introduction and presentation of Nicolas04:00 to 10:00 — Presentation of Gourmey10:00 to 20:00 — Why and how Nicolas became a deep tech founder20:00 to 26:00 — The moment he decided he wanted to build a sustainable business26:00 to 31:00 — Nicolas’ biggest failure during his entrepreneurial journey31:00 to 36:00 — How to manage a deeptech company as a non-tech CEO36:00 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 acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.Topics01:00 to 04:00 — Introduction and presentation of Fred by ChatGPt and himself04:00 to 09:00 — His background and why Web3 with Arianee09:00 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 Business15:00 to 19:00 — His failures and learnings as an entrepreneur19:00 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 source31:00 to 35:00 — The pain: digital sovereignty35:00 to 37:00 — His views on Twitter acquired by Elon Musk37:00 to 42:00 — Arianee's solutions and the future of data ownership43:00 to 45:00 — Arianee’s KPIs and its clients45:00 to 47:00 — Business Angel: why and how to invest in 150 startups?47:00 to 49:00 — Is he a philanthropist?49:00 to 52:00 — Outro questions: his unpopular opinion about Web3? Best quality trait of an entrepreneur? The company he would build tomorrow?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 acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.Topics01:00 — Introduction and presentation of Neoplants04:00 — The genesis of the company08:00 — Breakthrough technology vulgarization12:00 — 4 years of R&D before launching the market17:00 — Product iteration: trying to kill the idea fast24:00 — When tech meets bioengineering27:00 — The risks they face33:30 — Raising funds as a deeptech startup in the US vs Europe 35:00 — The vision: from indoor to outdoor plants37:30 — The market launch40:00 — 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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.Topics01:00 — Introduction and Proust survey06:00 — The work-life balance08:00 — The beginning of his entrepreneurial journey10:00 — His vision of entrepreneurship: a creator or a manager?17:00 —  Scaling pace of PH before selling to Angelist20:00 — Products that launched on his platform (Meerkat, Notion)23:00 — Did u think of monetizing your database?25:00 — The selling to AngelList28:30 — The impostor syndrome31:30 — Creation of Weekend Fund38:00 — Convincing Limited Partners: a sales job40:00 — Sourcing opportunities from Product Hunt?42:00 — His thoughts on Angel investing in the next few years46:00 — 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!This episode is hosted by Yacine Sqalli. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.Topics00:10 — 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 France17:51 — 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 values26:16 — Jeff explains the concept of “blameless post-mortem”32:30 — Jeff’s biggest advice for entrepreneursThis episode is supported by TikTok, hosted by Roxanne Varza, produced by Cindy Yang, and edited by Grégoire Duhourcau. Art is by Gaëtan Lefebvre. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.Topics00:10 — Introduction with Roxanne Varza (STATION F) and Clarisse Hagège (Dfns)03:30 — How Nicolas Julia got into NFTs ahead of the hype in 201806:44 — How Sorare avoided the scalability problems that NFT platforms encounter on Ethereum09:07 — What Sorare is and how does it work12:22 — How Nicolas convinced their very first partner, the Belgian League, to join Sorare (the story includes an intern)15:28 — Sorare’s fundraising strategy (730M$ in total amount raised)17:05 — What’s next after soccer for Sorare? Sorare recently announced Serena Williams as a board member20:06 — How Nicolas convinced so many investors and notable business angels like Antoine Griezmann to join the project23:19 — The possible evolutions of Sorare within the metaverse26:58 — Nicolas’ career path28:06 — Nicolas’ biggest learnings from his entrepreneurial experiences37:04 — Nicolas on regulations in the crypto spaceThis episode is supported by TikTok, hosted by Roxanne Varza, produced by Cindy Yang, and edited by Grégoire Duhourcau. Art is by Gaëtan Lefebvre. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.Topics00:10 — Introduction03:24 — How Alexandra Fine came up with the idea of Dame Products04:42 — The challenge of fundraising for FemTech companies08:41 — The problem with the term “FemTech” perceived as a niche rather than an essential11:09 — Alexandra’s tips for FemTech companies on how to address taboo14:13 — Elin & Andrea’s personal stories, which led to the creation of Bumpy20:20 — Alexandra’s three-year legal battle to run ads in the NYC subway26:33 — How Dame Products arrived in Sephora’s shelves and why it is a turning point28:17 — Tips on how to approach new partnerships and leverage the power of storytelling30:10 — Alexandra on making mistakes as a boss33:10 — The moment when Dame Products really took off: their crowdfunding campaignThis episode is supported by TikTok, hosted by Cindy Yang, and edited by Grégoire Duhourcau. Art is by Gaëtan Lefebvre. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“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:Pascal Gaulthier, CEO of Ledger,Salma Bakouk, co-founder & CEO of Sifflet,Bérénice Magistretti, VC-in-residence at Visionaries Club,Dhruv Jain, Investor at Bessemer Ventures.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.Topics00:23 — Intro with Roxanne Varza & Cindy Yang01:35 — Part I with startups: Salma Bakouk (Sifflet) & Pascal Gauthier (Ledger)05:10 — Gender diversity in the European startup ecosystem13:09 — Implementing diversity-driven policies in tech companies19:30 — The challenges of the recruitment landscape in Europe23:55 — The most difficult roles for startups to fill26:53 — How to build a brand that attracts talent30:20 — Key takeaways on the European talent landscape today34:30 — Part II with investors: Bérénice Magistretti, (Visionaries Club) & Dhruv Jain, (Bessemer Ventures)36:57 — Is being a solo founder a “no-go” territory?41:02 — The typical profile of European founders43:25 — Is there a best moment in a career to become an entrepreneur?46:43 — The impact of diversity in company performances49:40 — How funds approach the diversity question55:28 — The difficulty of recruiting sales and marketing talent58:47 — The importance of recruiting a Head of People very early01:01:40 — The tools and incentives (beyond financial) that startups can leverage to attract talent01:05:40 — Is remote work just a trend or a long-term change?This episode is supported by TikTok, hosted by Roxanne Varza & Cindy Yang, and edited by Grégoire Duhourcau. Art is by Gaëtan Lefebvre. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.Topics00:22 — Introduction with Roxanne VarzaPart I with Henrietta Moon, co-founder & CEO of Carbo Culture01:33 — Henrietta Moon on what Carbo Culture does06:03 — The story behind Carbo Culture09:03 — How the company has evolved10:30 — Carbo Culture's business model12:10 — The different types of customers they have13:35 — How Carbo Culture's technological approach differentiates itself16:53 — The importance of reducing emissions18:21 — Examples of companies that should be recognized for their approach to carbon reduction20:40 — Carbo Culture's fundraising with True Ventures and Cherry Ventures21:40 — The advantages of being based in Helsinki, Finland23:59 — Clean innovations that Henrietta is excited about beyond carbon capture26:20 — Henrietta's vision for Earth in 50 yearsPart II with Talal Hasan, co-founder & CEO of 44.0128:03 — What does 44.01 mean?29:57 — The type of infrastructure that 44.01 uses32:44 — Talal's view on the best-case scenario for our planet33:48 — Why 44.01 is based in Oma36:12 — The customers of 44.0137:27 — Carbon credits provided by 44.0139:03 — How ClimateTech can seduce investors in this space42:18 — The KPIs that Talal tracks43:05 — Carbon capture companies and technologies that Talal is excited about46:03 — Talal's background: what brought Talal into the CleanTech space?This episode is supported by TikTok, hosted and produced by Cindy Yang. Art is by Gaëtan Lefebvre. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.