Our European expansion this year is all about contributing to the European startup ecosystem, building community and using test visits to validate our ideas for global expansion. We’ve just been to Paris to connect with the local startup ecosystem. Our mission was very simple: understand the early-stage funding landscape in France and how equity crowdfunding is currently perceived. We also wanted to investigate the issues and concerns that French founders face when raising seed capital.
NUMA coworking space
During this trip we based ourselves at NUMA which has a similar atmosphere to London’s Google Campus. The vibe at the NUMA is very much the same as at Campus and the way it’s organised very much resonates with Campus’ vertically integrated structure.
On our first day in Paris we hung out at the free coworking space in the ground floor for most of the day and chatted with many entrepreneurs about what they are building and what their funding needs are. It was interesting to see the diversity of the businesses being built; from smart toys for disabled children to innovative ways of leveraging personal networks for advice.
Most of the founders in the coworking space were at a very early stage although some were at the point where they were starting to think about raising funds. We had great discussions about their funding strategies and quickly understood that they were mainly focusing on leveraging their personal networks. Making a friends & family round more efficient is an interesting use case for equity crowdfunding.
TechMeetups Paris
Later that afternoon we went up to NUMA’s fourth floor for the “Show Me the Money” TechMeetup which we were invited to speak at. Apart from Seedrs, the lineup of speakers ranged from government representatives and entrepreneurs to angels who covered the many ways that entrepreneurs in France can access capital and how they should allocate the funds they obtain for their businesses. We presented Seedrs as a great way for startups to raise funds from their networks, the communities around them, the crowd and the investors registered on our platform.
Since we mainly wanted to learn how the local ecosystem perceived equity crowdfunding, it was great seeing so many questions raised by the audience mainly around how we structure our European deals but also around the differences between raising funds via Seedrs or one of the emerging local platforms. Our CEO, Jeff, usually has a great way to answer that last question. It’s easier to quote than to rephrase it myself: “At Seedrs we believe that local and regionalised platforms will inevitably arise and do their job of funding local businesses (whether they are tech-focused or not). But if your ambition is to build a global business and a global community of investors, then you should raise funds from a Pan-European platform like Seedrs.”
La Cantine
The next day, we headed back to NUMA for an early breakfast at La Cantine – the building’s structured coworking space. We were able to have a great discussion with some of the startups working from there about Seedrs, how we operate and how they could use us for their future rounds of funding. From validating their MVP to building community many options were discussed and the conversation quickly revolved around actionable insights on how to raise funds with the crowds.
Le Camping
Later in the afternoon we had a great chat with the team at Le Camping – one of the first accelerator programmes in Paris. We discussed with the team how their startups could use Seedrs to top-up their offline rounds as well as involve important stakeholders and align them with the success of their businesses. The feedback from the team was great and we will definitely come back to meet with their teams.
Impressions of the Paris startup scene
All in all, it was a great trip to test the appetite of the market for equity crowdfunding. We learned that the topic is extremely hot at the moment since the initial French regulations of equity crowdfunding are gradually being rolled out. We also returned to Seedrs HQ with lots of validated learning about how French startups operate and raise early stage financing. The French also seem to be slightly constrained by tax and legal uncertainties. By learning about founders’ needs and concerns, we’ll be able to come back with the answers to their problems. We’ll be back Paris… very soon.
