120 → 450
students / year
Scaled Le Wagon Paris as first operational hire → General Manager (2016-2022). Revenue grew €540K → €3.1M ARR. North-star metric: NPS, consistently above 70.
Application artifact · Startup Partnerships, France & Southern Europe
The map I’d start from on day one.
A curated view of the startup ecosystem across France, Spain, Italy and Portugal: the funds, accelerators, campuses and communities I would wire into Claude’s startup motion, and how I’d run the first 90 days.
Edouard Foussier|operator: first ops hire → GM, Le Wagon Paris|builder: 4 hackathon wins in 2026, shipping with Claude daily
- organizations mapped
- 78
- hub cities from the JD
- 5
- in the French startup ecosystem
- since 2011
- public data, by design
- 100%
Why me, in six receipts
An operator’s track record, a builder’s proof of work.
402 events
17,033 registrations
The event machine: 88 ApéroTalks with the founders of BlaBlaCar, Hugging Face, Alan, Back Market… 40+ Demo Days, 150+ technical workshops. Moved fully online in 2020 (102 events).
10 funds
at our investor pitch nights
Recurring sessions connecting Le Wagon alumni founders with Partech, XAnge, Otium, Kerala Ventures, Idinvest, ISAI, Ring Capital, Newfund, id4 and Bpifrance.
4 wins
hackathons, 2026
Voodoo × Anthropic (Claude Opus pipeline), GOSIM (solo), RAISE Summit Cursor track (solo), Mistral Vibe. Plus a 3rd place in GPU Mode's LLM pre-training track.
Claude, daily
and I can show it
Diffender's vision reviews run on Claude. Claude Vision in production for a Paris retailer. MCP servers my own agents query every day. Claude Code as the daily driver.
~500 / month
ApéroEntrepreneurs SF
Grew the San Francisco chapter to ~500 monthly attendees, then led the global association from 2013, expanding to Kuala Lumpur, Seoul, Singapore and Shanghai through coached local ambassadors.
The territory
78 organizations, four countries, one motion.
VCs to wire into the partner program, accelerators and campuses to run programs with, communities to build alongside. Hand-curated: every entry is one I can speak to. Terracotta dots mark publicly documented Anthropic touchpoints; sage dots mark my own network.
Bubble size = organizations per city · Map tiles © CARTO · © OpenStreetMap contributors
| Organization | Type | HQ | Stage | Signals |
|---|---|---|---|---|
360 Capital Deeptech fund bridging France and Italy: dual-territory asset | VC fund | Paris & Milan | seed/Series A | — |
42 Largest French coding school community | School | Paris | n/a | Anthropic touchpoint |
50 Partners Founder-backed accelerator | Accelerator | Paris | seed | My network |
Agoranov Public deeptech incubator (Alan, Doctolib alumni) | Incubator | Paris | pre-seed | — |
Alpha Intelligence Capital AI-dedicated global VC based in Paris: #32 most active FR H1 2026 (Dealroom) | VC fund | Paris | Series A/B | — |
Alven B2B software & AI-heavy French portfolio | VC fund | Paris | seed/Series A | — |
Blast Club Angel investment club (Anthony Bourbon): #4 most active FR investor H1 2026 (Dealroom) | VC fund | Paris | pre-seed/seed (angel club) | My network |
Bpifrance State bank: French Tech programs, Large Venture, AI plan funding | State fund | Paris | all stages | My network |
Breega Active French/European fund | VC fund | Paris | seed→B | — |
Daphni Community-driven fund | VC fund | Paris | seed/Series A | My network |
Drysdale Ventures #3 most active investor in France, H1 2026 (Dealroom) | VC fund | Paris | seed | My network |
Elaia Deeptech & AI-first thesis | VC fund | Paris | seed/Series A | — |
Eurazeo (ex-Idinvest) Large multi-stage platform | VC fund | Paris | seed→growth | My network |
Founders Future Founder-led fund (Marc Menasé): #7 most active FR investor H1 2026 (Dealroom) | VC fund | Paris | pre-seed/seed | — |
France Digitale Largest EU startup association; policy + ecosystem events | Community | Paris | n/a | My network |
Frst Pre-seed conviction fund for French founders | VC fund | Paris | pre-seed/seed | My network |
Galion Project Influential French scale-up founders think-tank | Community | Paris | n/a | — |
Hexa ex-eFounders startup studio, AI-product wave | Startup studio | Paris | pre-seed studio | My network |
Hugging Face (Paris) Global open-source AI hub with Paris roots | Community | Paris | n/a | Anthropic touchpointMy network |
id4 Ventures Early-stage French fund | VC fund | Paris | pre-seed/seed | My network |
ISAI Entrepreneurs' fund, strong founder network | VC fund | Paris | seed→growth | My network |
Kerala Ventures Hands-on early-stage French fund | VC fund | Paris | pre-seed/seed | My network |
Kima Ventures Highest-volume pre-seed investor in France (Xavier Niel) | VC fund | Paris | pre-seed | — |
Korelya Capital Europe-Asia tech bridge | VC fund | Paris | Series A→growth | — |
Motier Ventures Hyperactive on French AI-native seed rounds (publicly in Mistral seed) | Family office | Paris | seed | My network |
Newfund FR/US early-stage fund | VC fund | Paris | pre-seed/seed | My network |
Otium Capital Very active French family office (P-E Stérin) | Family office | Paris | seed→growth | My network |
OVNI Capital International-ambition French seed fund: #11 most active FR H1 2026 (Dealroom) | VC fund | Paris | pre-seed/seed | — |
Partech Multi-stage fund, active AI/B2B software portfolio | VC fund | Paris | seed→growth | My network |
Ring Capital Growth & impact tech | VC fund | Paris | Series A/B + impact | My network |
Serena Historical data/AI practice (Serena Data Ventures) | VC fund | Paris | seed→B | — |
Singular New-generation French fund, AI-native deals | VC fund | Paris | seed/Series A | — |
Sofinnova Partners Deeptech & life-sciences leader (AI-health angle): #25 most active FR H1 2026 (Dealroom) | VC fund | Paris | seed→growth | — |
Station F World's largest startup campus: named explicitly in the JD | Campus | Paris | n/a | Anthropic touchpointMy network |
Supernova Invest Deeptech specialist (CEA ecosystem): #31 most active FR H1 2026 (Dealroom) | VC fund | Paris | seed/Series A | — |
Unaite French AI community (ex-Federation) | Community | Paris | n/a | Anthropic touchpoint |
XAnge Active French seed fund, digital/deeptech | VC fund | Paris | seed/Series A | My network |
Inveready Deeptech-leaning Spanish fund | VC fund | Barcelona | seed→B | — |
Itnig Startup studio & fund (Factorial ecosystem), strong founder media | Startup studio | Barcelona | pre-seed | — |
JME Ventures Spanish seed fund | VC fund | Madrid | seed | — |
Kfund Leading Spanish early-stage fund | VC fund | Madrid | pre-seed→A | — |
Kibo Ventures Active Spanish fund | VC fund | Madrid | seed/Series A | — |
Lanzadera Juan Roig's accelerator, huge cohort volume | Accelerator | Valencia | pre-seed/seed | — |
Samaipata Seed fund for digital platforms, EU-wide from Madrid | VC fund | Madrid | seed | — |
Seaya Largest Spanish VC (early Glovo) | VC fund | Madrid | Series A→growth | — |
South Summit Flagship Spanish startup event | Event | Madrid | n/a | — |
Wayra (Telefónica) Corporate accelerator with LatAm bridge | Accelerator | Madrid | seed | — |
B4i (Bocconi) Bocconi's startup program | Incubator | Milan | pre-seed | — |
CDP Venture Capital Italian sovereign VC, major national AI push | State fund | Rome | all stages | — |
Exor Ventures Agnelli family office, AI-active (publicly in Mistral) | Family office | Turin/Amsterdam | seed→growth | — |
H-Farm Historic Italian venture & education platform | Startup studio | Treviso | pre-seed/seed | — |
Italian Founders Fund Founder-LP fund, new generation | VC fund | Milan | seed | — |
P101 Active Italian digital fund | VC fund | Milan | seed/Series A | — |
PoliHub Politecnico di Milano deeptech incubator | Incubator | Milan | pre-seed | — |
Primo Capital Italian deeptech fund | VC fund | Milan | seed | — |
United Ventures Italian software/deeptech fund | VC fund | Milan | seed→B | — |
Vento Exor-backed builder program (Diego Piacentini) | Startup studio | Milan/Turin | pre-seed | — |
Armilar Venture Partners Top Portuguese fund (early OutSystems, Feedzai) | VC fund | Lisbon | seed/Series A | — |
Faber Explicit AI/data/deeptech thesis for Iberia | VC fund | Lisbon | pre-seed/seed | — |
Indico Capital Leading Portuguese early-stage fund | VC fund | Lisbon | pre-seed→A | — |
Portugal Ventures State VC arm | State fund | Porto/Lisbon | pre-seed/seed | — |
Shilling Capital Active Portuguese early-stage fund | VC fund | Lisbon | pre-seed/seed | — |
Startup Lisboa City-backed incubator at the center of the Lisbon scene | Incubator | Lisbon | pre-seed | — |
Unicorn Factory Lisboa Lisbon's scale-up hub | Campus | Lisbon | n/a | — |
Web Summit Global flagship event headquartered in Lisbon | Event | Lisbon | n/a | — |
Accel Top pan-EU fund, very active on AI-native | VC fund | London | seed→growth | Anthropic touchpoint |
Atomico Pan-EU fund, State of European Tech report | VC fund | London | Series A→growth | — |
Balderton Top pan-EU fund | VC fund | London | seed→growth | Anthropic touchpoint |
Earlybird European fund, AI-active | VC fund | Berlin/Munich | seed→B | Anthropic touchpoint |
Entrepreneur First Talent investor with heavy AI cohort share in Paris | Talent investor | Paris & London | pre-seed | — |
General Catalyst (× La Famiglia) Merged with La Famiglia; deep EU AI coverage | VC fund | London/Berlin | seed→growth | — |
Headline Global fund with EU presence | VC fund | Berlin/Paris | seed→growth | — |
Index Ventures Top pan-EU fund, AI-heavy | VC fund | London | seed→growth | — |
Lightspeed (Paris) US fund with Paris presence; led Mistral AI seed (public) | VC fund | Paris | seed→growth | — |
Point Nine B2B SaaS/AI seed specialist | VC fund | Berlin | seed | — |
Seedcamp Pan-EU pre-seed platform | VC fund | London | pre-seed | — |
Speedinvest Pan-EU seed fund | VC fund | Vienna | pre-seed/seed | — |
Y Combinator US accelerator, #5 most active investor in French deals H1 2026 (Dealroom): heavy AI-native cohorts | Accelerator | San Francisco | pre-seed batches | — |
Showing 78 of 78 organizations. Hover the badges for details; every signal is publicly sourced.
Organizations by market
Organizations by type
From map to motion
The first 90 days.
Days 0–30
Wire the network
- Prioritize the French funds on this map and open VC Partner Program conversations, starting with the ten I've already worked with.
- First founder salon in Paris, co-hosted with a fund from the map.
- Analytics from week one: pipeline, activation and credits dashboards in Hex.
Days 31–60
Flagship & cadence
- A flagship Station F program: office hours, credits fast-track, builder workshops.
- Lock the fall calendar: hackathons and salons with partners like 42, Hugging Face and Unaite.
- French-language enablement content: Claude Code workshops founders actually attend.
Days 61–90
Southern Europe
- Ambassador playbook in Madrid, Milan and Lisbon: local chapter leads recruited and coached before any headcount, as I did across Asia for ApéroEntrepreneurs.
- First events with local anchors (Kfund, P101, Indico Capital…).
- 90-day ROI review: double down on what the data validates.
The operating system
How I’d run it.
The stack
- Twenty: Open-source CRM as the pipeline backbone. MCP-enabled, so Claude reads and updates it in natural language.
- Hex: Program dashboards and ROI reporting, in the team's own stack.
- Luma: The event machine, heir to my Meetup and Eventbrite years (400+ events shipped).
- Claude Code: Everything custom: this page took a day. Enrichment workflows stay under a strict privacy bar (public, professional data only).
The measurement
- North-star: token usage per partner portfolio. Activation and consumption over meeting counts.
- Stage-adjusted thresholds: a pre-seed AI-native and a Series B don't share the same healthy-usage bar; cohorts compare like-for-like.
- Credits → paid conversion, and time-to-first-production-token per program.
- Benchmarked against sister markets (UK, DACH, US) to know where France & Southern Europe over- or under-perform.
The fall 2026 circuit
- SeptFrance Digitale Day · Paris
- Sept–OctItalian Tech Week · Turin
- OctBpifrance Inno Génération (BIG) · Paris
- OctVDS (Valencia Digital Summit) · Valencia
- NovWeb Summit · Lisbon
- Novai-PULSE · Paris
- NovSlush (pan-EU VC density) · Helsinki
- Year-roundhackathon circuit & Station F demo days, from the inside · the territory
Beyond the job description
Three ideas I’d bring on day one.
Flagship idea
An Anthology Fund for Europe
Anthropic runs the Anthology Fund with Menlo Ventures in the US: investment plus credits for AI-native startups. There is no European equivalent. I’d scope a sister vehicle with a European partner fund, piloted from Paris, where the AI-native seed wave and the Station F density make the case obvious, then extend it to Southern Europe as the motion matures.
The ambassador playbook
I’ve scaled communities without headcount before: recruit and coach local chapter leads, give them the playbook, keep the quality bar. It carried ApéroEntrepreneurs from San Francisco to Kuala Lumpur, Seoul, Singapore and Shanghai. The same motion opens Madrid, Milan and Lisbon for Claude before the first local hire.
Activate the winner network
Hackathon winners are the highest-signal builders in every city. Having won four this year, I know that circuit from the inside. I’d turn it into a Claude Builders community: winners as first members, ambassadors and workshop leads. Paris first, then the map above.