As many of you know, we celebrated our 5th birthday this year (time flies!). We realized that in the 5 years since opening STATION F, the ecosystem has radically transformed and the needs of entrepreneurs as well. As a result, we decided to completely re-design our flagship program, the Founders Program. Literally the only thing we kept was the name.

The honest truth about what our Founders want

Let me start by sharing that when we opened STATION F in 2017, we wanted the Founders Program to be the biggest program on campus by the number of companies we would support. We had interviewed hundreds of entrepreneurs to design the program, and the majority seemed less enthusiastic about about a one-size-fits-all program with pre-selected mentors and such. Remember, this is at a time when the French ecosystem counted maximum 3 unicorns and most accelerators had not been on the ground longer than 5 years. Therefore, we created something that would offer maximum flexibility with no babysitting: a peer-to-peer learning model and no outside mentors. And for many of our companies, this worked - but it was difficult to navigate so many founders across so many different industries and with different priorities. There was a lack of cohesion and with it a lack of focus. Plus, they realized they actually did want mentors - they just wanted really good and committed ones.

So we scrapped everything and started over. The only thing we kept was the name.

From 200 down to 25 companies, maximum

The first thing we decided to do was dramatically reduce the size of the program. We felt that this would allow us to really provide value, build batch cohesion and properly tailor our resources for the companies we had.

15-months divided into 3 phases

Some of our startups may remember that when we first launched the Founders Program in 2017, it had rolling applications and no end date (startups would leave when the team hit 15 employees). We quickly realized that this presented a number of problems and made adjustments for it, but we do feel that pushing startups to leave campus too quickly means they will spend their time worrying about office space and not about building their company. Therefore, we decided that a 15-month program would allow the startups enough time to focus on their businesses. That said, we decided to divide the program into 3 phases :

Phase 1: an intense 6-week phase where startups focus on meeting each other, defining their objectives, participating in the key workshops and events, and collecting the contacts and resources they need for the next phases. This part is intentionally short to allow entrepreneurs a maximum amount of time for the next phases.
Phase 2: a 6-week phase focused just on execution. There are no required meetings or workshops, we want entrepreneurs to accomplish as much as they can. At the end of phase 2, startups present what they were able to achieve. We feel this model encourages friendly competition and also fosters a culture of execution and momentum.
Phase 3: a 12-month period to build. During this time, entrepreneurs have “health checks” to make sure they are moving towards their goals (there are no other mandatory workshops or events) and have access to additional self-serve resources. The end of this phase is marked by a final presentation of what they accomplished during the entire program.

Resources that focus on 3 core needs of early-stage founders

Obviously, early-stage founders have so many needs, that it is difficult to scale it down to just 3. But we felt that we really needed to focus the resources of the program in order to be able to deliver. After 5 years and working with over 5000 startups on campus, we feel that we regularly see early-stage companies struggle with:

building a great team
finding product-market-fit
securing early-stage funding

We also felt that these were areas where we could provide the most value. Therefore, the workshops and resources are largely focused on these 3 areas.

No mentors - but rather a high-level advisor on the cap table

We thought long and hard about mentors and how to do it in a meaningful way that would provide real value to the startup. We realized that through our network, we had access to incredible entrepreneurs from just about all industries and from around the world. New founders were ready to give equity to work with these people and have access to their insights. So we decided that rather than having a “light-touch” mentoring model, we would help each startup find a high-level advisor that they would want on the cap table. We don’t force advisors on anyone, we make sure that it is really a match from both sides. Today we are thrilled to have found excellent entrepreneur-advisors for all of our startups in the current batch - including some that have founded unicorns, have had multiple exits, and have invested heavily in early-stage companies.

We want entrepreneurs that set themselves apart

Our selection criteria and method has also gone through transformation. We are taking startups that are quite early but we really need to have conviction in the team and what they are trying to accomplish. For each batch, we will specify certain themes or verticals in order to best-align the resources. But regardless of the industries they address, we want founders who:

Have a real upper hand in what they are building - we want to see what sets this team apart from the 50 other companies that are trying to accomplish the same thing.
Are motivated by (BIG) results - some people just want a business card that says “founder” - but some people actually want to see results. We want results-driven entrepreneurs who understand that building a leading company is a marathon (not a hobby) and have the work ethic to prove it.
Are obsessed with building a diverse company - we believe that tomorrow’s most successful companies need to be diversity champions from day one because this will help bring in talent, customers and positively contribute to our world. We don’t want to see diversity being taken lightly.

Aside from these 3 key attributes, we are also looking at companies that respond to key verticals. For Batch 1, we focused on Web 3, Creators Economy, Fintech & Impact. For Batch 2, we will be largely focused on climate.

STATION F as a long-term partner

We also wanted to show the companies that we are working with that our relationship doesn’t stop when they finish the program - we are really long-term partners and we continue to provide for the startup long after the program is over. Therefore, we decided that this would also be the first program in which STATION F would take equity. For Batch 1, we're taking a founder-friendly 1% in all participating companies.

If you are interested in applying for the next batch, applications will open in December and the program will kick off in March 2023. You can find more information on our website here.

Now, let’s meet all the companies participating in Batch 1

For this batch, we took 21 companies across our core verticals (web3, creators economy, fintech & impact). We are very proud of having 30% international founders.

Alki offers a data-driven and AI task management system for warehouses.

Baback is the first interface for automated management of exchanges and returns on Shopify. The company specializes in post-purchase solutions and offer genuine customer satisfaction and cash retention solutions.

Beavr simplifies and automates CSR operations so that companies can focus on what matters most: driving and improving their impact.

Capio is a new, cheaper and more effective distribution channel for D2C brands.

CEDE Labs is a non-custodial CEFI DEFI tracking and managing solution. It allows any app to access the CEFI liquidity of each of their user through a non-custodial browser extension for CEX.

ENAKL offers tech-driven and sustainable mass transit solutions for emerging cities.

GOKADEN is an open WEB3 publishing house, where authors, creator collectives or large studios can launch a WEB3 Storytelling IP while simultaneously developing a community.

Motuu is the new social network dedicated to travel where anyone can find inspiration, prepare future travel and get money by sharing trips and favorite places.

OneSecond is the new second-hand fashion experience that enables to find the best second-hand fashion deals online easily with the power of visual search.

Pazapa offers Homeownership-as-a-Service for individuals struggling to buy their first home: they can gradually and flexibly build equity into their home over 4 years whilst living in it from day 1.

PikkoPay is reinventing shopping by turning our smartphone into a self scanning checkout. No more waiting lines!

PimpUp is an anti-waste solution with a subscription model that helps local farmers sell their imperfect products. Customers get access to quality fruit and vegetable boxes at a fair price.

Pledger is a money market protocol for loans collateralized by intangible assets.

Presti allows you to create engaging product visuals in a click, with generative AI.

Retro//VRS is a one of a kind phygital marketplace for pre-loved luxury goods with an embedded blockchain secured authentication service that protects customers and sellers against counterfeit sales.

Sakana Research is a treasury management platform for web3. We are developing state-of-the-art algorithms to better manage your treasury or funds.

Scrambl helps game creators pursue their true passion in work, to release great games.

Selfr is a plug & play data platform to centralize, transform, and share all your data with zero engineering.

Soufflé is a B2B restaurant solution that helps merchants grow their revenue seamlessly.

Tingz are monetization tools for content creators and their true fans.

Toboro is the mobile app for rentals. They are on a mission to decentralize access to things and offer a viable alternative to mindless buying and consumption.

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