[lindbergh]

HN will likely rejoice. Macron is putting a lot of faith in startups to jumpstart back the french economy. I think it's wise: France has great schools to train great engineers, but there's still this stigma that it's almost impossible to have your own tech company in France unless you're ready to deal with massive paperwork. I have no idea how true it is, but Macron clearly wants to change this mentality.

It also goes to another level. Traditionally (since the 50s), engineering in France has largely been lead by large, ambitious and state funded projects and organizations. Think for instance Concorde, TGV, EDF, INRIA, etc. I have always liked this gaullist mentality: it has benefited the majority of the population and I tend to believe it has been helpful in making France a major post WW2 superpower.

But lately it may not have worked so well: for instance, many regional airports have been built at high cost, and yet many of them are almost empty. Perhaps then, resource allocation is the problem. In this regard, Macron is influenced by the american model where eg. Bell Labs, Elon Musk, Silicon Valley behemoths, etc. decide by themselves what shall be built and the state has little to no regard in the orientations of these organizations.

We'll see. I'm glad Macron has won and hope his plan works out.

[song]

Speaking as someone who has had companies in various countries (Japan, China, Hong Kong and France). The paperwork and complexities in France are by far the worst. Even China with it's love of red tape is at least relatively well organized and not to difficult to navigate.

In France, you get to deal with organizations like the RSI and URSSAF which are incredibly incompetent, frequently make mistake, do not have phone numbers that can be called from abroad (which is extremely inconvenient when traveling for business) and have Bizantine rules.

I would never create a company again in France because the system is completely broken. I really hope that Macron follows through on solving this. I believe that it's a priority.

[lindbergh]

Interesting. Out of curiosity, why then did you chose France over any other EU country to have your company?

[song]

Only because I lived there at the time.

[user5994461]

Concorde (Airbus) => Aerospace and military.

EDF => National electricity grid.

INRIA => National research center.

They are big national companies, at the intersection of massive public funding and fields that cannot be outsourced.

That's the only sort of companies that strive in the French environment.