esi: Who are you, what do you do and what makes you an expert on your start-upcountry?
Elise: We are the first French accelerator based in Paris created in January 2011 and hosted in Numa, a new place of 1700 m2 in the heart of Paris dedicated to innovation and entrepreneurs. Basically, we are a four month-program aiming to help web and innovative start-ups to grow. We do have great results: 60% of our start-ups have raised funds – which is impressive when you think that the average in Europe is 25%, and it means 9 Mio. EUR of funds raised. Also 189 jobs have been created. We encourage our start-ups to bootstrap and think about how they can make money on their own, by having clients and users willing to pay for their products. The consequence: 60% of our start-ups leave Le Camping with clients in hands.
esi: What is cool about your start-upcountry, what inspires you and keeps you thriving?
Elise:The Parisian scene is becoming more and more dynamic thanks to what we have done. Really: During the last two years, we have seen an explosion of projects: co-working spaces, accelerators, events have sprung up. More and more fresh start-ups are being created each year and the quality is extremely good. Something is happening in France. Each day we see a lot of creativity and enthusiasm. We do have great engineers, designers and business school graduates, which we just have to connect and teach to collaborate. This is what we do at Le Camping. Because we have a bigger-picture role in the ecosystem. A federative role.
esi: What makes you shake your head about your start-upcountry, what needs to be improved?
Elise: We need to overcome some typical French obstacles: to succeed and to make a place for your start-up in an international competitive world, you neither need one century to succeed nor a perfect product. Time is time, but go fast. Don’t lose time. It’s precious. Take care of it and trust in your power. Secondly, don’t forget: „Fake it and make it“. Thirdly, „Think Big from day one”.
esi: Thank you for the interview.
About the interviewpartner:
Elise Neboutused to be a journalist before joining Le Camping.
