120 karma · joined August 21, 2020
The only thing I regret is DDB. While the technology is great NoSQL was a poor choice for us. But at the time it was hard to attach anything else to a lambda without a heavy performance drop.
The worst of it is that, in the end, it sometimes feels easier to fit into the mold and be a bystander in your baby first months. But I am fighting hard this tendency.
Apple declined to be part of it and thus it was expected that they release there own version soon.
IMO (I am not part of this project) it is more interesting as it is language agnostic, easy to use for everyone (based on yaml) and more importantly, it is starting to be implemented in the government actual tax computing system.
We are using it in a challenger bank I started.
« Comité d’entreprise » are for 50+ employees and not 20.
What’s the use in throwing around fake numbers just to make your point?
Even if that sure must be a nice place to live, that is the first time I heard Sophia Antipolis being the « Silicon Valley of France » :) Yes France startup ecosystem is highly polarized around Paris. But hey, just like Silicon Valley right? That’s a very different problem.
Yes there are high taxes, (not half of the salary, for a software engineer it is very often around 30%) but they basically cover a lot of employee services that you would need to pay extra for in the US (health coverage, retirement,...).
Most startup in France don’t have « all employees as associate », that makes no sense to me. I currently have 20+ employees with no problem, and most startup are in the same situation.
On the VC problem, you are partly right. There are plenty of VC thank you! Partech, Kima, Alven, Daphni... Only to cite the French ones, but you have access to VC everywhere in Europe. It it actually fairly simple to get small investments, but to be honest, it is still a bit difficult to get some large ones (you still have to look for it abroad).
I actually don’t see French startups moving there HQ somewhere else, so I wonder where that affirmation came from... maybe you’re just talking about the ones that are expending abroad.
Aren’t you just repeating some stereotypes you heard elsewhere? If France were as hostile as you pictured it, how would it have such a dense startup ecosystem and even (God forbids!) some very successful ones?