🚵🏼♂️ 🏁 Tour de French Tech: Le Grand Départ
An exploration of culture and innovation across the nation
Welcome to the very first…
You've probably heard of the Tour de France. But I'm willing to bet you aren't familiar with the Tour de French Tech.
Why? Because I made it up. In fact, I posted about it just over a year ago and it's finally coming to fruition just in time for the real cyclists to circle La France!
Here's the original Tweet. Unfortunately, there were no takers, so I'm taking things into my own hands…
The Concept
The Tour de France is arguably one of the largest and well-known sporting events in France (and worldwide). It's symbolism rivals that of the Olympic Games and has a particular historical tie to the diversity and beauty of the country. Enduring three thousand plus kilometers over 21 stages, cyclists from around the globe speed through nearly every region of France. It's one of the few events with global viewership that extends the lens beyond Paris, the epicenter of the economy, fashion, culture and food.
The foreign perspective of France tends to skew heavily towards Paris. The tech ecosystem is no exception. Despite great lengths to highlight and promote startup culture around the country, a disproportionate amount of media attention and celebration is trained on Paris, Ile-de-France. This makes sense. But as most of us here know, there are many thriving startup scenes and innovative companies around the country that merit further support and media acclaim.
That is the core principle behind this project: highlight the abundance, diversity and innovation of the French Tech ecosystem as a whole — from Hauts-de-France all the way down to Cote D'Azur.
How It Works
We'll be following the real athletes in a clockwise pattern around the country, starting in the Hauts-de-France (northernmost region, bordering Belgium) and culminating in Paris, Île-de-France, the aforementioned crown jewel of the French economy. Below is a map of this year's route — it doesn't cover every region, but I'll be tacking on the few the cyclists are skipping.
Selection Criteria
According to Dealroom, there are over 20K verified startups in France. Naturally, I can't highlight them all. Fortunately, the official “La French Tech” organization has partnered with Dealroom to make detailed startup data accessible. As such I was able to filter on various criteria including HQ region, growth metrics, funding rounds and Dealroom “signals” to find top startups from each region.
In short, I've overlayed the official Tour de France route on top of the Dealroom French Tech dashboard to identify top startups from each region. France is divided into 12 departments: administrative sectors responsible for local management. For simplicity, I will adhere to this territorial organization. Below is a table I've compiled of each region in more detail containing the number of startups by region as well as the stage (order) I will be presenting them.
12 Departments
3 Startups in Each Department
1 Department per day until the Tour de France Final (July 24th, 2022)
Staying on brand here, each startup selection will be assigned a “maillot” (jersey), just like the cyclists. Conventionally, leaders in various categories are assigned a jersey at the end of each stage to wear the following day, giving viewers a visual cue for who is leading the pack. The three most common are:
The Maillot Jaune (Yellow Jersey) is the iconic leader of the pack. The best mountain climber sports a white jersey with red dots. The top sprinter rocks the green jersey. For our purposes, they'll take on a slightly different connotation:
🟡 Leader : Top Overall Startup in the Region
🔴 Mountain Climber : Fastest Scale-Up in the Region
🟢 Sprinter : Climate/Green Tech Frontrunner in the Region
Where to Watch
I couldn't secure a syndication deal with ESPN so for now this will have to be a TikTok video series. You may have seen some clips from my Finding Genius interviews on my channel, but this will be a step towards some more creative video editing with some catchy hooks, witty banter and some confessional-style on-screen eye contact with yours truly.
If you want to follow along in real-time, I recommend you follow my TikTok channel
Otherwise, I'll be posting weekly updates here with a summary of startups covered plus links to all the relevant videos!
Here's the video version of this very post 👇🏼
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Let's do this!
