The 10 projects that defined STATION F in 2021

The French ecosystem is booming, literally

Before I get started in what this year has been like for STATION F, let me start by sharing what we have been seeing in the greater ecosystem. Even though the impact of Covid still somewhat looms, the French ecosystem added a whopping 12 new unicorns to the ranks since the beginning of the year, and is on track to raise more than €11 billion (more than 2x the amount raised by startups in 2020). There seems to be unanimity - including from international investors - that the momentum and quality of companies in France is picking up. We are witnessing more and more top-tier international funds putting local teams on the ground, a fast-paced funding climate with valuations to match, and a level of talent that seems to have appeared out of nowhere.

Some of this can be explained by the so-called "second generation" of entrepreneurs - those who have experience in leading companies like Aircall, Qonto, Blablacar, Criteo and the likes and are now leaving to create their own businesses. And the rest can probably be explained by a culmination of other factors - including a shift of power away from some of the historical ecosystems for a variety of reasons (Covid, geopolitics,..).

While everything is wildly exciting, as an ecosystem we need to be careful that we don't replicate some of the issues we have seen in other ecosystems. At a time when cash is practically flowing and startup salaries are at all time highs, we believe that talent will ultimately move in the direction of values-driven businesses and respect-oriented companies. We encourage founders, investors and teams not to lose sight of this.

From 1,000 to 1,000,000 startups

OK, now let's talk about what 2021 has been like for STATION F. When we launched STATION F in 2017, filling our space with 1,000 startups seemed like an objective that was borderline ridiculous. Many people thought that there may not even be 1,000 startups in the whole of France to begin with. Yet, during our first year, we amassed some 11,000 startup applications (from around the world). And with today's fast-paced ecosystem, we often joke that our 50,000m2 campus is in reality only a microscopic piece of the local ecosystem. Company creation in France is at an all-time high and some estimates put the number of France-based startups over 1 million (not my number, calm down you internet trolls 😜). Whatever the actual figure, the number is clearly on the rise - which is exciting but also means that it is now time to double down on other issues. All this to say that the question is no longer "do we have enough startups?" but rather "what can we do to take things to the next level?"

What did we do in 2021?

Well... a lot. Naturally, everything we do at STATION F ties back to our mission of empowering the next generation of entrepreneurs. But if I had to resume this year in 10 projects, here is what it would look like:

1. We launched our first fully online program, Launch by STATION F

Let me start with perhaps one of the biggest projects we developed this year. Launch by STATION F was released in October and is our first fully online program that features the basics of entrepreneurship. The program is designed to be as accessible as possible; it is online, €9.90 per month and available in both English and French. We built this program because we know that many people have great ideas but often don't really know what comes next; there are so many great resources online but it's often hard to know where to start. Launch by STATION F will take you through the basics of validating your idea, building a prototype, a brand, a team and more. While the program has only been live for a short while, we are already well on our way to train 10,000 people within the first year. We have also made the program entirely free of charge to a network of partners - including French Tech Tremplin, Singa, Les Determinés and more.

2. We saw lots more funding for the 3rd edition of the Future 40

In November, we hosted the 3rd edition of Future 40 - an event that unveils the 40 most promising seed and pre-seed companies we have at STATION F to investors. As we noticed a lot more competition for pre-seed and seed deals in the ecosystem, this event received a lot of interest from startups and investors alike. As with every year, in order for companies to make the cut, they need to have raised maximum €1 million to date, have excellent metrics over the last 6-12 months and be recommended by their program. We were extremely proud to see that this year's selection included more cleantech and crypto than previous editions, probably pointing to a trend in the greater ecosystem as well. In less than 1 month, our 40 companies collectively received over 500 investor intros through our platform (and additional intros outside of the platform and at our Future 40 dinner). Cherry on the cake? We even had a famous musician-turned-investor get in touch to meet some of the companies through our platform.

Now, this year's companies are well on their way to securing their funding rounds. However, we were also very pleased to see many startups from previous editions hit their funding goals - including 900.care (Edhec & L'Oréal Programs), Avostart (Founders & Facebook Programs), Chaintrust (Founders Program), Fintecture (HEC Program), Axel (Founders Program) and more which are yet to be announced (stay tuned!).

And of course we also have non-Future 40 companies that raise. For example alumni Nym Technologies (Founders Program), who is the first startup to raise with a16z in France. In fact, our VC community more than doubled in size and now has more than 220 organizations that our regularly interacting with our companies.

3. We got (even more) serious about diversity

By now you probably know how much diversity and inclusion means to us at STATION F. That said, we still feel that we can and should do more.

This year, we teamed up with TikTok to strengthen the Fighters Program (our flagship program for underprivileged entrepreneurs) - but also hosted our first-ever Fighters Day. We had to keep the event smaller than initially planned due to Covid. Despite restrictions, it still became Europe's biggest diversity event, with a number of different organizations taking part. We also featured past and present Fighters Program companies and some big name speakers, including Balmain's Olivier Rousteing. As this event is a great opportunity for potential Fighters to simply discover STATION F, the program and our ecosystem, we are looking forward to hosting an even bigger second edition of Fighters Day next year.

Now, when we talk about diversity we are also talking about people from different countries and origins. While the French ecosystem is becoming more international by the day, the experience of arriving and living as a foreigner in France still isn't as smooth as it ought to be. This is why we teamed up with La French Tech to host the International Community that goes far beyond just STATION F. Through this community we hope to make the lives of all foreign talent in France - both founders and teams - that much easier.

And how can we talk about diversity without mentioning gender diversity? We are always trying to encourage more gender diversity on campus and we actively work with all of our partners to do so. We also believe that one of the ways to do so is to continue to support up and coming female entrepreneurs - which is why we continued to reinforce the Female Founders Fellowship in partnership with Goldman Sachs, highlighting 10 female-founded companies to watch on campus.

4. We launched a new in-house program for Femtech companies

The FemTech Program is the first new in-house program that my team has launched since the beginning of STATION F. It's also the first-ever sector-specific program that we have run. Why? We realized that Femtech companies were facing a lot of additional challenges that other companies do not face. For example, they were having difficulty accessing basic tools and platforms because they were being incorrectly categorized as inappropriate content rather than health. In addition, they were struggling to find investors that understood the problems and markets they were addressing. After a pilot program in the beginning of the year, we launched our first batch with 14 companies in the fall - and we received unparalleled support for the program and companies.

5. We teamed up with 200+ VCs, Indeed & Mazars to dig into talent & the future of work

With all the money being pumped into our startups, we can feel the talent wars heating up. We also know that in a post-Covid world, the future of work is a constantly changing topic. This is why we decided to team up with Indeed, Mazars and over 200 VC funds to conduct a study on talent. When publishing our results, we also discovered that the general public still has gross misconceptions with regards what startups pay in terms of salary, the roles they hire for, the types of company cultures they build and more. Many of these misconceptions can be extremely off-putting and even alienate potential talent that our startups so badly need. We need to work hard to demonstrate that working in a startup is not synonymous with being under-paid, exploited, immersed in bro-culture, and for developers only. In fact, the findings of our study show that the reality is quite the opposite.

6. We welcomed a ton of new partners

At STATION F, we are so honored to be able to work with a huge network of top companies and partners. In the same way that we are selective about our startups, we are also selective about our partners.

Some of the partners we welcomed to the STATION F community this year include Twilio, Shine, Palantir, Square, Tiktok & more. Not all of these partners have a permanent presence on campus but they all contribute to our community in different and impactful ways.

7. We launched 3 new partner programs on campus

While the majority of our partner programs don't change on a yearly basis, we do try to regularly renew and upgrade our program offering. This year we decided to add 3 new partner programs to STATION F with Ecole 42, CentraleSupelec & Cegid's Data Lab.

The Cegid program is actually run by a former STATION F entrepreneur, the founder of Crafty, who's company started in the Founders Program and later went on to be acquired. There is nothing we love more than having our entrepreneurs continue to give back to the community in different ways. You can read more about his story here.

In addition to welcoming new programs to campus, we've also seen some of our existing programs reposition themselves. One great example from this year is Microsoft, who decided to shift its program to sustainable innovation rather than AI.

8. We tested consulting for an international campus

Since our opening we have been contacted by numerous organizations around the world that want to launch similar initiatives. Some countries have even gone on to announce their own local version of STATION F - and we could not be more delighted that our model is inspiring to other ecosystems around the world.

Many ask us if we are planning to franchise, invest in or buy additional campuses around the world. At the moment we are very focused on what we are building in Paris but this doesn't mean that we cannot support similar projects elsewhere. This year, we tested consulting for an international campus that would like to learn from our playbook. While this is unlikely to become part of our core offering, we are happy to explore similar projects when it makes sense for us.

9. We continued to upgrade our campus infrastructure & services

Some of the campus upgrades we launched this year may be less visible than the Beta Bar we installed at the entrance of STATION F during Covid. That said, we are continually finding ways to improve our building equipment and services in order to reduce friction and help entrepreneurs save time. Our building is complex and we host a lot of different type of organizations and people, therefore we have had to adapt some of our spaces over time. I won't detail all of the equipment installations we did this year as not all of them were visible - but there were a lot. In addition, some of our extension projects have made great progress and should be revealed in the beginning of 2022.

10. We grew & strengthened our incredible team

And now, after sharing (almost) everything we have worked on this year, how could I possibly finish this post without mentioning the incredible team at STATION F?!

We had quite a few people join & evolve within the 40+ person team this year. We also had a few people leave the team to build their own companies, become a product manager and more - and we could not be more proud of them for the next step in their careers. I personally consider myself incredibly lucky to be working with such a diverse group of passionate, driven & skilled people. My team has been nothing short of brilliant in accomplishing all the projects above and more, but also in navigating a lot of unknowns in running a massive campus during Covid. All this to say that my team is truly the best and if you are interested in joining us, take a look at our openings here 😬

That's (not) all folks

Alright, now that we have reviewed the different projects from 2021, we are eager to show you what we have lined up for 2022. No spoilers here (except the ones we mentioned above), but we believe that we have a unique platform and we can build even more to help early-stage companies and our local ecosystem.

We'd also like to take this time to thank all of our startup, partners, community & friends who have continued to support us from the beginning, both in France and abroad. STATION F only works because of you.