In a cavernous former railway depot in Paris's 13th arrondissement, Roxanne Varza is celebrating the opening of Europe's biggest startup project. Varza, 32, is director of Station F, a 34,000-square-metre space that, since the end of June, has played host to 1,000 small technology companies from around the world. Backed by a €250 million (£220m) investment from French telecoms billionaire Xavier Niel, Station F - which takes its name from engineer Eugène Freyssinet, who built the original freight station in 1929 - aims to turn Paris into a global startup centre. As the project kicks off, is Varza feeling nervous? "Not at all!" she laughs. "This is where the fun begins."
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The idea for Station F dates back to 2013, when Niel - who also funds 42, a coding school without teachers, syllabus or fees - bought the site from the Parisian government. He wanted to give the diffuse Paris startup scene a point of focus, and, as part of his research, he got in touch with Varza, a former TechCrunch journalist and Microsoft's lead for startup investments in France. "He asked me to visit various international ecosystems and share my ideas," she recalls. That included Silicon Valley, where Varza had an advantage: she'd grown up in Palo Alto, not far from the headquarters of Google, Facebook and Apple. So how did she end up in France, where, as George W Bush famously commented, they don't even have a word for entrepreneur?
"Somehow I just feel more at home on this side of the pond," she says. "I moved here in 2009 to do a master's and discovered a budding ecosystem. It was a lot more exciting than Silicon Valley, where everything already kind-of existed."
Inside, Station F is split into three areas. The startup zone, which has 3,000 desks, will be run by 20 independent partners covering fields from medicine to food to fashion. Global software firm Zendesk and e-commerce company Vente-privee have signed up to run programmes, as have business schools HEC Paris and EDHEC.
In April, the project received a boost when Sheryl Sandberg announced that Facebook would be taking 80 desks for its first startup incubator. Station F also runs its own programme for 200 early-stage startups, which pay a monthly fee of €195 per desk. "We take no equity," Varza says. "We're not here to make money with this project and we are just expecting to break even within the first few years."
The other zones offer space for meetings, events and relaxation, and Station F also plans to launch housing for entrepreneurs in 2018. Not every plan proceeds smoothly, as Varza discovered when Station F's opening was delayed for three months after a flood on the site.
But, even if the elements can't be relied on, events could be turning in their favour, as political uncertainty in Britain and the US makes France look more attractive to entrepreneurs. "A lot of startups mentioned factors like Brexit in their applications," says Varza. "We also had startups mentioning Donald Trump or expensive prices in Silicon Valley." In France, by contrast, newly elected President Macron is making all the right noises. As someone once (almost) said: startups will always have Paris.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
