Why moving to Paris should be your next career move
Last year I got a message from Cat, an old friend from the US who had previously lived in Paris. Having been recently living and working in the Bay Area, Cat and her husband were ready for new adventures. “Why not move to Europe?” they thought.
When she reached out, Cat wasn’t expecting much. After all, when she lived in France back in 2013 the tech ecosystem was still small. I always tell people how that was the year when we at The Family rented a castle and took the whole team to celebrate our first “big” startup fundraising: a €400K seed round for one of our portfolio companies.
Things have changed a lot in the past 6 years: We now have startups raising seed rounds of €1M+ every week and they get… a slack emoji (if it’s a really good round, we use the party parrot emoji). In total, French startups raised more than €1B in the first quarter of 2019, against €775M over the same period last year, and the second quarter of 2019 is set to surpass this record. Just check out the French hub on Crunchbase to get a feel of how the ecosystem is doing.
All that fundraising means bigger companies, bigger teams, bigger challenges. So when I got Cat’s message, I immediately thought, “She can be a great asset for our ecosystem.” With several years of working at a big tech company in the Valley, she would bring both expertise and ambition. And I knew exactly which company needed her. The founder in question, Adrien from Sidekick, was thrilled. Within 2 weeks, she had a job offer at a fast-growing startup, in a role that perfectly fit her experience. Cat is now happily living in Paris with her husband, their dog and their 2 cats.
I love this story because it illustrates how the French tech scene, and Europe as a whole, are thirsty for this kind of talent — people who’ve tackled very specific challenges, at scale.
We don’t have our local Facebooks and Googles yet, so tech companies in their growth stage often struggle to find people with the right skillset and experience. One solution right now is to attract international talent from other ecosystems.
The secret is out: Everyone knows France is on the rise
Last year, France suddenly started to get some serious attention from the rest of the world. It started with the European VCs: German funds became super active in Paris, Nordic funds hired people specifically to cover the French market, etc. Now I’m meeting US investors at our Paris office every week, and that seems to be the case all over Europe.
The media has also taken notice, and 2019 saw the launch of Sifted: a brand new, truly European tech media site — to which The Family is a regular contributor.
And it makes sense: According to Atomico’s yearly report on the State of European Tech, 2018 was a record year in terms of exits, investments and $B valuations. We just held a panel discussion on the state of the French ecosystem at The Family if you want to check it out.
The “Silicon Valley exit” has begun
Beneath all the noise, I’ve been noticing an accelerating trend: People from the US relocating to Europe — in my network, specifically to Paris.
At first, it was mostly French people coming back after several years working in the Bay Area. It felt like they’d “done their time” in SF and wanted to come back home, enjoy a better quality of life and reap the benefits of having a sexy LinkedIn. This included people like James, who worked at Square for over 4 years before deciding to move back to France and join Alan, and some European startups that have gone through YC and are also deciding to return home to build their companies from here.
But as it turns out, French expats are far from the only ones who no longer see the Bay Area as a viable place to settle in the long term. In the past month, I’ve been introduced to non-Europeans looking to move to France almost every day. My colleague Hugo, who manages The Family in Berlin, has also seen this “people flow” coming from abroad, which motivated him to create what he calls Touchdown Dinners — an evening mixing Berliners with newcomers or people passing through town, to allow them to connect with each other.
So why now?
You may ask me “Erika, why should I make a critical life decision based on your opinion?” And that would be a very sensible question to ask.
My story: I moved to France in 2012, when there was barely an ecosystem. I spoke some French, but I wasn’t able to write a proper work email. I met Alice, Oussama and Nicolas when they were about to launch The Family and I had the chance to become their first employee. But as excited as I was to join them, I had no idea what I was getting into. People who came to visit us from the US in the early days would always say “This really feels like the Valley 10 years ago”. Back then, I’d never even been to San Francisco. As a former lawyer, tech was so new to me — let alone the concept of a tech ecosystem.
I feel so lucky today that my (very uninformed) life decision of moving to Paris to work in startups paid off, and I would love to help anyone who feels the same calling. And making that choice, at least to me, is much more obvious today:
1. French startups can now afford “seasoned” talent — and they need it badly
5 years ago, whenever I would get introduced to someone with an impressive background moving to Paris, my first thought would be: What do I do with this person?
Sure, we could put them on stage and host some office hours with our founders, but I had no idea of who could be a potential employer for them; no startup could afford that kind of talent in Paris.
But things have changed: From later stage companies like Algolia, to startups in the growth stage like PayFit, or even seed stage companies like with my Sidekick story, there’s a wide variety of companies who have the desire and resources to hire international talent with an attractive package.
2. Europe is a different playing field for startups, with complex challenges ahead
We see it at the portfolio level: Our companies are tackling industries like maritime logistics, real estate, agriculture, education… industries with complex market and technological challenges that are totally different from those experienced by US companies. For the brightest minds, these represent fascinating new problems to tackle.
When I go to the Bay Area, I’m always amazed at the quality of the people and conversations. It’s really a special place with a high density of smart and ambitious people, all focused on solving the world’s problems through technology. That sharp focus makes its residents exceptionally brilliant in their subject of expertise, but at the same time surprisingly one-dimensional and unaware of how narrow their worldview is. I think a change of context, like moving to Europe, would represent a totally new set of challenges.
3. Se habla English: France is more and more welcoming
At The Family Paris, we decided to switch all of our content to English 4 years ago. We had a huge backlash from the French community at first, but it paid off: Today, we have portfolio companies from places like Macedonia who found us through our English content, and at every meetup we host I systematically meet a non-French speaking founder, employee or student.
Don’t get me wrong — there is still some friction among the French to speak another language. In most cases though, it’s not about cultural pride, they’re just embarrassed by their accent. But now French companies with global ambitions ask their employees to switch all of their conversations to English from day 1. Many hire native English speakers early on to help them expand globally, diminish language frictions with US/UK partners, and avoid the temptation for the other (French) employees to switch to French at work.
In terms of a visa, the French government launched a visa scheme that was just overhauled last month to make it even easier for talent to relocate to France: No diploma requirements, no need to prove the startup looked for candidates in France first, and a fixed €368 in administrative fees. In exchange, you get a 4-year visa for you and your family — with the ability to work for any other company during that 4-year period.
4. Joie de vivre: Let’s face it, the French know how to live
While the shorter work days and 35-hour work week myth has long been debunked, most US people I talk to still think French employees work less than their American peers. In my many trips to the Bay Area and other ecosystems, I’ve found it to be the opposite. French offices are still packed later in the day, and the mood tends to be just as (if not more) intense. If you were looking for a place to cure your workaholism, Paris isn’t it.
Nevertheless, do I really need to pitch how rich France is in culture, food and lifestyle?
In terms of tech ecosystems, the Bay Area is definitely one of the best — but in the long term, is it the best place to settle, start a family, have a fulfilling life? These are the kinds of questions you may be thinking about, especially later in your career. Most people I know in SF can’t even get into a relationship (why is dating so hard there btw?).
I could go on: I’m so bullish on France and startups, and one of my favorite things is to help people who want to move here. If you’re seriously considering this move or know someone who is, drop me a line ;)
