#fadel would thrive

[deathandnonexistentialdread]

FadelStyle Way of the Househusband AU

[shannonsoftball]

Attraction or Feelings?

At the end of episode 2, we can clearly see that Style had an influence on Fadel. I've seen a few people say that this is were Fadel starts to fall for Style and I have to disagree slightly. I think it is more of an interest or curiosity rather than actually falling for someone. Fadel has been vocal to Bison that they do not need anyone else in their lives except for one another, it would not be too far off to assume that Fadel is not like Bison in a sense that he goes off and has one night stands or hooks up with people now and then. His personality is also rather off putting and his outward appearance does come across as standoffish. That being said, he most likely has never encountered someone as shameless and forward as Style, or had interacted with someone as vocal about their "liking" towards him as Style has. I think the last scene gave us insight into Fadel's character and his perspective on the entire sauna scene. You can see that he reverts back into his stoic self once he's done and almost realizes what he has just done. Like he recognizes that he gave into temptation and he almost regrets that he was so easily tempted.

On the flip side, I do not think that Style has any feelings for Fadel yet. I think that you can see it during the entire locker room scene. The second and third kiss were all about control and dominance. There was no love and feelings behind them at all. Style kissed Fadel as a way to try and show that he meant what he said about liking Fadel. It almost felt like an act, because of how Style chooses to kiss him. On top of that, he made it clear in his conversation with Bison that he didn't think that he would fall for Fadel, during that time between the restaurant and the gym, Style didn't suddenly develop feelings for Fadel. He is 100% still pursuing Fadel in hopes of getting Kant's car and for his own ego. He thrives on getting a reaction from Fadel after the initial rejection he faced.

I would like to hear what other people think about where both Fadel and Style stand in regards to their feelings to one another after the second episode.

[nnnn99999]

It's honestly insane how rewatchable thk is considering it only has 2 episodes out. But the more I watch, the more I notice. So here's an unnecessarily long rant on whatever pops up in my mind as I rewatch the 2 episodes together (I say as if I didn't watch these 2 episodes separately at least 10 times already). I'll probably divide it into multiple parts because otherwise the post will truly be too long. Anyway let's start.

I'm pretty sure I mentioned this already but Bison's expression when the first target pushes his face to his stomach is so interesting. It's a weird mix of disgust and satisfaction. The disgust coming from, I'm assuming, having a man who supposedly does bad things acting like he can own anyone he wants just because he has the money and power. And honestly, if Bison wasn't a hitman, the man probably could own him. He did pick him from a bunch of other guys like he was shopping for clothes. And for freedom loving Bison, that kind of objectification and show of power must be very suffocating.

The satisfaction is the more interesting part though. Because to me it feels like Bison thrives on having control over others. Yes, the man in his arms is the one with the money and the power. But at this very moment, Bison is the one who can control the trajectory of his life. Being trapped in a life he doesn't want, I think these are the moments when Bison can taste true freedom and control. Because he knows at this moment, the man is in the palm of his hands and playing to Bison's rhythm.

This desire for control bleeds into every relationship Bison has. Although he loves Fadel and cares about him, whenever Fadel is around, it is Fadel who is the one in charge and for good reason too. Bison's overwhelming desire for control does not equal to the ability to handle any situation. Bison is impulsive, rash and reckless, which makes his desire for control all the more dangerous. Fadel is calm, calculating, sensible and responsible. He is capable of handling any situation, no matter how sudden or dangerous. He can calmly assess the situation and decide the best course of action. This is why he is the one in charge during their assassination missions. Because if it were left to Bison, who knows what crazy stunt he would pull. I think Bison himself knows that which is why he doesn't fight for control with Fadel during the missions. Crazy as Bison is, he wants to be free, not rot in jail.

I also find the difference in expressions between Fadel and Bison after they shoot the man very fascinating. Fadel's face has nothing. No emotion whatsoever. I think at this point Fadel really does not feel anything after killing his targets. He has convinced himself that they are enforcing justice by killing, and he bottles up whatever emotions he might have so deep down that it feeels like he doesn't have any emotions at all. Bison, on the other hand, is not emotionless like Fadel. He is also very used to killing people now, but you can detect a hint of that sick satisfaction in Bison's expression after the kill. I genuinely think Bison is the most terrifying of the 4 main cast.

Khaobos doing such a wonderful job of playing Bison. I love him so much.

Special appreciation to the lighting and coloring throughout the show. It adds so much context to the whole scene.

Also the music. The music brings so much nostalgia and character to the whole experience. I have watched these scenes so many times already and I am not sick of the music yet so I take that as a win for the music. But yeah, for me the music makes the whole experience more fun.

[deniscollins]

‘Is Exxon a Survivor?’ The Oil Giant Is at a Crossroads.

Exxon, for decades one of the most profitable and valuable American businesses, lost $2.4 billion in the first nine months of the year, and its share price is down about 35 percent this year. In August, Exxon was tossed out of the Dow Jones industrial average, replaced by Salesforce, a software company. If you were an Exxon executive, would you spend (1) more, (2) the same, or (3) less on oil exploration and production? Why? What are the ethics underlying your decision?

Over the last 135 years, Exxon Mobil has survived hostile governments, ill-fated investments and the catastrophic Exxon Valdez oil spill. Through it all, the oil company made bundles of money.

But suddenly Exxon is slipping badly, its long latent vulnerabilities exposed by the coronavirus pandemic and technological shifts that promise to transform the energy world because of growing concerns about climate change.

The company, for decades one of the most profitable and valuable American businesses, lost $2.4 billion in the first nine months of the year, and its share price is down about 35 percent this year. In August, Exxon was tossed out of the Dow Jones industrial average, replaced by Salesforce, a software company. The change symbolized the passing of the baton from Big Oil to an increasingly dominant technology industry.

“Is Exxon a survivor?” asked Jennifer Rowland, an energy analyst at Edward Jones. “Of course they are, with great global assets, great people, great technical know-how. But the question really is, can they thrive? There is a lot of skepticism about that right now.”

Exxon is under growing pressure from investors. D.E. Shaw, a longtime shareholder that recently increased its stake in Exxon, is demanding that the company cut costs and improve its environmental record, according to a person briefed on the matter. Another activist investor, Engine No. 1, is pushing for similar changes in an effort backed by the California State Teachers Retirement System and the Church of England. And on Wednesday, the New York State comptroller, Thomas P. DiNapoli, said the state’s $226 billion pension fund would sell shares in oil and gas companies that did not move fast enough to reduce emissions.

Of course, every oil company is struggling with the collapse in energy demand this year and as world leaders, including President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr., pledge to address climate change. In addition, many utilities, automakers and other businesses have pledged to greatly reduce or eliminate the use of fossil fuels, the biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions, and have embraced wind and solar power and electric vehicles.

European companies like Royal Dutch Shell and BP have already begun to pivot away from fossil fuels. But Exxon, like most American oil companies, has doubled down on its commitment to oil and gas and is making relatively small investments in technologies that could help slow down climate change.

As recently as last month, Exxon reaffirmed it plans to increase fossil fuel production, though at a slower pace. The company is investing billions of dollars to produce oil and gas in the Permian Basin, which straddles Texas and New Mexico, and in offshore fields in Guyana, Brazil and Mozambique.

Exxon committed to its strategy even as it acknowledged that one of its previous big bets did not go well. Exxon said it would write down the value of its natural gas assets, most of which it bought around 2010, by up to $20 billion. The company is also laying off about 14,000 workers, or 15 percent of its total, over the next year or so as it seeks to cut costs and protect a dividend that it had increased every year for nearly four decades until this year.

But if this crisis is an existential threat, there has been no acknowledgment from Exxon’s executive suite, still known in the company as the “God Pod.”

“Despite the current volatility and near-term uncertainty, the long-term fundamentals that drive our business remain strong and unchanged,” Darren W. Woods, the company’s chairman and chief executive since 2017, said at a recent shareholders meeting.

Exxon is known in the oil world as an insular company with a rigid culture that slows adoptive, pivotal change. It has been that way since John D. Rockefeller founded the company in the late 19th century as Standard Oil, a monopoly later broken up by the government.

An accountant by training, Rockefeller instilled a deep commitment to number crunching that remains in the company’s DNA. Exxon is primarily run by engineers who generally work their way up to senior roles. Its executives project determination in their ability to navigate every imaginable hurdle like OPEC oil embargoes, war and sanctions. Such confidence is perhaps necessary to run a company that does business in dangerous or inhospitable places.

As a trained electrical engineer and 28-year company veteran, Mr. Woods speaks with the same cool self-assurance as his more famous predecessors. But he has kept a lower profile than Lee R. Raymond, who dismissed concerns about climate change in the 1990s and early 2000s, and Rex W. Tillerson, whose international wheeling and dealing between 2006 and 2016 helped him become President Trump’s first secretary of state.

While Mr. Raymond and Mr. Tillerson were dominant figures in the industry, they left Mr. Woods with many problems that were at least partly obscured by higher oil and gas prices.

Mr. Raymond’s public skepticism of climate change damaged the company’s reputation. Mr. Tillerson was slow to take advantage of shale drilling, which lifted the American oil industry. His foray into the former Soviet Union and Iraq proved to be expensive failures. When he bought XTO a decade ago for over $30 billion to acquire fracking expertise and prized natural gas fields, gas prices were at their peak. As the commodity price declined in the years since, the company lost money and wrote off much of the investment last month.

“Darren Woods has inherited a company that has made huge bets in recent years that were not successful,” said Fadel Gheit, a retired Wall Street analyst who was an engineer in research and development at Mobil before its merger with Exxon in 1999.

“Exxon Mobil is like a big cruise ship,” he added. “You can’t change course overnight. They can weather the storm but not go far. They will have to transform to stay relevant.”

Mr. Raymond declined to comment. Mr. Tillerson did not respond to a request for comment. Exxon responded to questions mainly by referring to previous public statements by Mr. Woods and the company.

Casey Norton, a company spokesman, said the acquisition of XTO had “brought people and technology in addition to potential resources” that helped the company be successful in shale fields in the Permian Basin.

In the first few years on the job, Mr. Woods followed the broad strategy set by Mr. Tillerson by borrowing and investing heavily to expand production. The pandemic forced Mr. Woods to change direction. The company now plans to spend one-third less on exploration and production through 2025 than it had originally planned.

Yet the changes Exxon is making, while big in absolute terms, seem like tinkering compared with what European oil companies are doing. BP has announced that it will increase investments in low-emission businesses tenfold over the next decade, to $5 billion a year, while shrinking oil and gas production by 40 percent. Royal Dutch Shell, Total of France and other European companies are making similar moves at varying speeds.

The only major American oil company that comes close to setting European-style targets is Occidental Petroleum. It recently pledged to reach net zero carbon emissions from its operations by 2040 and from the use of its fuel by 2050. It is building a plant in Texas to capture carbon dioxide from the air and use it to push crude oil out of the ground while leaving the greenhouse gas underground for perpetuity.

“We’ve moved from the shale era to the energy transition era, so there is a greater divergence of strategies among the companies, the widest it’s ever been in modern times,” said Daniel Yergin, an energy historian and the author of “The New Map: Energy, Climate, and the Clash of Nations.” “Now the big debate is will oil peak in the 2020s or the 2030s or the 2050s?”

Exxon executives have said they recognize an energy transition is underway and necessary. But they have also asserted that it wouldn’t make sense for the company to get into the solar or wind energy business. Instead, the company is investing in breakthrough technologies. One such project involves using algae to produce fuel for trucks and airplanes. Exxon has been talking about that project for years but has yet to begin commercial production.

Exxon refineries might also someday become major producers of hydrogen, which many experts believe could play an important role in reducing emissions. The company is betting on carbon capture and sequestration. One project involves directing carbon emitted from industrial operations into a fuel cell that can generate power, reducing emissions while producing more power.

“Breakthroughs in these areas are critical to reducing emissions and would make a meaningful contribution to achieving the goals of the Paris agreement, which we support,” Mr. Woods said in a message to employees in October, referring to the 2016 global climate accord.

Energy experts said it was possible that Exxon could come up with new uses for carbon dioxide like strengthening concrete or making carbon fiber, which could replace steel and other materials.

“If Exxon and other major oil industry players crack those nuts, the entire discussion about hydrocarbons changes,” said Kenneth B. Medlock III, a senior director at the Center for Energy Studies at Rice University. “That kind of change is slow until it’s not. Think about wind and solar, which were slow until they weren’t.”

A big increase in oil and gas prices could also allay some of the concerns about the company, at least temporarily. In recent weeks, as oil prices have climbed on optimism about a coronavirus vaccine, so has Exxon’s stock.

Vijay Swarup, Exxon’s vice president for research and development, said in a recent interview that the company understood it needed to lower emissions and was developing better fuels, lubricants and plastics.

“As we are developing that pathway to get there, we can’t stop providing affordable, scalable energy,” Mr. Swarup said.

But John Browne, a former BP chief executive, said it was not clear that Exxon and the other big American companies would transform their businesses adequately for a low-carbon future.

“They may decide just to carry on and harvest and say, ‘Let’s see what happens in the long run,’” he said. “That’s quite a risky strategy nowadays.”

[adrianodiprato]

+ “The Garden of Eden is no more. We have changed the world so much that scientists say we are now in a new geological age - The Anthropocene - The Age of Humans.” ~ Sir David Attenborough | Broadcaster and Naturalist

 The Age of Humans

Our world is changing, and we’re being forced to change with it. So, what is the point of education today?

Education has always served a pragmatic purpose. It is a tool to be used to bring about a specific outcome (or set of outcomes). For the most part, this purpose is economic.

Today’s educational environment is somewhat mixed. One of the two goals of the 2019 Alice Springs (Mparntwe) Education Declaration is that:

All young Australians become confident and creative individuals, successful lifelong learners and active and informed members of the community.

But the Australian Department of Education believes:

By lifting outcomes, the government helps to secure Australia’s economic and social prosperity.

We know the world is in constant evolution. The evidence of dramatic change is all around us and it’s happening at exponential speed. The Fourth Industrial Revolution is bringing together digital, physical and biological systems like no other time in our history, especially through the rise of Artificial Intelligence, automation and robotics.

Humans have always been using tools. We shouldn’t therefore be fearful of new technology tools and the impact of them on the future of work, education or our lives. Technology has become a crucial partner in our lives. And in today’s age, advancements in technology has allowed it to become more individual, more accessible and highly inclusive. Think about these three provocations:

Personalised: Technology has made it possible for a more personalised experience. Think about it, no two smartphones’ content are the same.

Collaboration: Technology values the partnership and interaction between itself and us. Technology is our partner, an assistant in curating understanding if you like. We often ask computers or the Internet of Things to learn how to assist us with a multitude of tasks.

Connectivity: Technology is quickly adapting to us. We don’t need an awful lot of training to use technology anymore. User interfaces are becoming more human.

At the heart of each are basic human needs to be known, to be valued and have a greater sense of belonging.

As a result, the future of work is going to look very different, as automation and Artificial Intelligence make many manual, repetitive jobs obsolete. “Anything that is routine or repetitive will be automated,” said Minouche Shafik, Director of the London School of Economics at Davos in January 2019. She also spoke of the importance of “the soft skills, creative skills. Research skills, the ability to find information, synthesise it, make something of it.”

The keyword with all of this for education therefore is relevance. For education to remain relevant in today’s world the future of education and schooling must evolve. The content and style of teaching hasn’t changed much over the last few decades. However, it must to ensure education remains relevant. We need a new renaissance in education that re-structures our relationship to learning and life, our relationship to the planet and our relationship to the world of work. We need a different educational model that has a value shift to a new learning ecosystem that allows us to meet the basic needs of every human on the planet, in order to thrive in an era of constant uncertainty.

Andria Zafirakou, the 2018 winner of the Global Teacher Prize, spoke about the future of education at Davos in January 2019 around the key to unlocking children’s futures, stating “We need children to be the problem-solving generation, and unless we teach them problem-solving skills, which come from the creative subjects, it won’t happen.”

I believe that these human skills that Zafirakou refers to are central to an educational renaissance that will allow each young person to thrive in a new world environment. The notion of including human skills for life in the Australian curriculum is not a new one. But it is, perhaps, needed to be more embedded than ever before. The Australian Curriculum, which is now ten years old, specifies seven general capabilities: digital capability, critical and creative thinking, literacy, numeracy, ethical understanding, intercultural understanding and personal and social capability.

There is widespread agreement among educators about the importance of capabilities, with last year’s Gonski 2.0 report recommending strengthening how the general capabilities are taught, assessed and reported.

At Marcellin we have developed a new vision for faith, learning and life, titled Polaris. Central to the philosophical thinking of Polaris is our Skills for Life-Long Learning framework (below), an adaption from the Centre of Curriculum Redesign, in fostering the fundamental human skills, knowledge and attributes young people will need to cultivate in order to flourish in tomorrow’s world.

From 2020 the Polaris Skills for Life-long Learning framework will inform our teaching and learning pedagogical practice. Enabling, creating and sustaining intrinsic student motivation relies on a teacher’s understanding of how to engage with the interdependence of these human skills, knowledge and attributes as an integral part of everyday classroom instruction.

Nobel Prize-winning scientist Paul Crutzen first suggested, back in January 2011 in Yale Environment 360 online magazine, that we were living in the Anthropocene, describing the value of this new framing for our current Earth history. He stated “Students in school are still taught that we are living in the Holocene, an era that began roughly 12,000 years ago at the end of the last Ice Age. But teaching students that we are living in the Anthropocene, the Age of Men [Humans], could be of great help. Rather than representing yet another sign of human hubris, this name change would stress the enormity of humanity’s responsibility as stewards of the Earth. It would highlight the immense power of our intellect and our creativity, and the opportunities they offer for shaping the future.”

To master this huge shift, we must change the way we perceive ourselves and our role in the world. We need a new story about how we want to live and learn. Schools therefore need teach the curriculum of the future, not the past. Schools need to teach students how to learn, unlearn and relearn, not just what to learn. We have a responsibility to lay the foundations for the innovation and growth of tomorrow. The interdependence of human skills and digital skills is crucial to this realisation. Both are central to the future of education and the future of all human advancement.

 References

'The Garden of Eden is no more' speech by Sir David Attenborough was presented at the 25th Crystal Awards at Davos, World Economic Forum (WEF) 21 January 2019.

Crutzen, P. & Schwägerl , C. (2011) Living in the Anthropocene: Toward a New Global Ethos, Yale Environment 360. January 24. Retrieved from https://e360.yale.edu/features/living_in_the_anthropocene_toward_a_new_global_ethos

Fadel, C., Bialik, M., & Trilling, B. (2015). (Ed.). Four-Dimensional Education: The Competencies Learners Need to Succeed. Retrieved from https://curriculumredesign.org/wp-content/uploads/Four-Dimensional-Education-Excerpt-Chapter-1-and-2-partial-CCR.pdf

Gonski Report 2.0: Through Growth to Achievement. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.appa.asn.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/20180430-Through-Growth-to-Achievement_Text.pdf

World Economic Forum. (2016). What is the Fourth Industrial Revolution? Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpW9JcWxKq0

[homeralderman42-blog]

An Unique Meeting On How You Can Mend Popular Music Boxes And Various Other Technical Antiques.

The majority of children have to participate in the school's Scientific research Fair, however that could be actually difficult to come up along with a good job tip that is initial, not also hard, and appealing. Baggy Music was created popular by imitate The strengthindiet-blog17.info Mock Turtles, Flowered Up as well as The Soup Dragons. That's type of just like high speed photography but with noise when you slow down any type of audio to 15% this's no more familiar but it is a quite appealing audio to earn songs with! Songs therapy supports in social interaction, social interaction, shared attention, moms and dad little one relationships, interaction abilities, social emotional reciprocity, self-regulation, as well as interest! In fact, I possess issue observing just how the HomePod inspections any of the boxes that Steve Jobs, Johnny Ives and also Tony Fadell checked out when they presented the gadget that performed, absolutely, reinvent music - the iPod as well as iTunes - back in 2001. The idea is to allow pupils to discover how to grasp the instrumental strategy then educate all of them to review the songs, therefore they may pay attention to the technique and also certainly not split their focus between each learning to review songs and also learning to master the equipment. Logic Workshop is a totally capable, qualified high quality music editor/recording program. When our experts are more youthful that our team would certainly never listen to presently, that's secure to state a great deal from us listen to music.

Contrasting the lifestyles and also professions of Money as well as Brooks reveals that modern and also traditional country and western differs certainly not merely in noises, however likewise in tools, functionalities, and influences. The whole entire music market thrives on popularity and also approval of tunes that are actually the rage one of adolescents, young people and certainly; the seniors. OUR POINTER: Harp music is good for this, like for cooking biscuits to. That does not take the emotions. Your psyche will sound to your outside world and also influences your songs preference. Alibaba, as an example, authorized a bargain this month with Tencent, in which Tencent is going to sub-license popular music coming from Sony Music, Warner Songs as well as Universal Songs to Alibaba. Spotify additionally uses a comparable on the web music solution, yet they have a number of major conveniences over Pandora, along with a much larger track magazine, a far better platform and much better assimilation with social networking sites. That is safe to state that dancing music is actually greatly influenced through dark popular music in the previous times. In yet another study, Sook shinbone as well as Hee Kim 37 explored the impact of popular music on stress, stress as well as maternal accessory during Transvaginal Ultrasound examination Examination from unborn children in pregnant girls. If you must, shuffle your popular music player and also inform your own self that the first song that plays will definitely be just what you locate your personality on. This song is going to be the motif of their life or tell the tale from their past times. I simply think music is modifying in relations to the gatekeepers and also the electrical power that be, the energies that be actually. And I seem like that resides in an extra democratic time this's like the power is in the performers' palms and in the fans' hands.

[endenogatai]

12 Paris-based VCs look at the state of their city

Four years after the Great Recession, France’s newly elected socialist president François Hollande raised taxes and increased regulations on founder-led startups. The subsequent flight of entrepreneurs to places like London and Silicon Valley portrayed France as a tough place to launch a company. By 2016, France’s national statistics bureau estimated that about three million native-born citizens had moved abroad.

Those who remained fought back: The Family was an early accelerator that encouraged French entrepreneurs to adopt Silicon Valley’s startup methodology, and the 2012 creation of Bpifrance, a public investment bank, put money into the startup ecosystem system via investors. Organizers founded La French Tech to beat the drum about native startups.

When President Emmanuel Macron took office in May 2017, he scrapped the wealth tax on everything except property assets and introduced a flat 30% tax rate on capital gains. Station F, a giant startup campus funded by billionaire entrepreneur Xavier Niel on the site of a former railway station, began attracting international talent. Tony Fadell, one of the fathers of the iPod and founder of Nest Labs, moved to Paris to set up investment firm Future Shape; VivaTech was created with government backing to become one of Europe’s largest startup conference and expos.

Now, in the COVID-19 era, the government has made €4 billion available to entrepreneurs to keep the lights on. According to a recent report from VC firm Atomico, there are 11 unicorns in France, including BlaBlaCar, OVHcloud, Deezer and Veepee. More appear to be coming; last year Macron said he wanted to see “25 French unicorns by 2025.”

According to Station F, by the end of August, there had been 24 funding rounds led by international VCs and a few big transactions. Enterprise artificial intelligence and machine-learning platform Dataiku raised a $100 million Series D round, and Paris-based gaming startup Voodoo raised an undisclosed amount from Tencent Holdings.

We asked 12 Paris-based investors to comment on the state of play in their city:

Alison Imbert, partner, Partech

Alexandre Mordacq, partner, 360 Capital Partners

Emmanuel Delaveau, partner, Partech

Boris Golden, partner, Partech

Jean de La Rochebrochard, managing partner, Kima Ventures

Paul Bolardi, associate, AXA Venture Partners

Shiraz Mahfoudhi, Speedinvest

Guillaume Dupont, founding partner, CapHorn

Martin Mignot, partner, Index Ventures

Bartosz Jakubowski, principal, Alven

Pierre Entremont, founding partner, Frst Capital

Pierre-Eric Leibovici, founding partner, Daphni

10 Berlin-based VCs discuss how COVID-19 has changed the landscape

Alison Imbert, Partech

What trends are you most excited about investing in, generally?

All the fintechs addressing SMBs to help them to focus more on their core business (including banks disintermediation by fintech, new infrastructures tech that are lowering the barrier to entry to nonfintech companies).

What’s your latest, most exciting investment?

77foods (plant-based bacon) — love that alternative proteins trend as well. Obviously, we need to transform our diet toward more sustainable food. It’s the next challenge for humanity.

What are you looking for in your next investment, in general? Impact investment: Logistic companies tackling the life cycle of products to reduce their carbon footprint and green fintech that reinvent our spending and investment strategy around more sustainable products.

Which areas are either oversaturated or would be too hard to compete in at this point for a new startup? What other types of products/services are you wary or concerned about? D2C products.

How much are you focused on investing in your local ecosystem versus other startup hubs (or everywhere) in general? More than 50%? Less? 100% investing in France as I’m managing Paris Saclay Seed Fund, a €53 million fund, investing in pre-seed and seed startups launched by graduates and researchers from the best engineering and business schools from this ecosystem.

Which industries in your city and region seem well-positioned to thrive, or not, long term? What are companies you are excited about (your portfolio or not), which founders? Deep tech, biotech and medical devices. Paris, and France in general, has thousands of outstanding engineers that graduate each year. Researchers are more and more willing to found companies to have a true impact on our society. I do believe that the ecosystem is more and more structured to help them to build such companies.

How should investors in other cities think about the overall investment climate and opportunities in your city? Paris is booming for sure. It’s still behind London and Berlin probably. But we are seeing more and more European VC offices opening in the city to get direct access to our ecosystem. Even in seed rounds, we start to have European VCs competing against us. It’s good — that means that our startups are moving to the next level.

Do you expect to see a surge in more founders coming from geographies outside major cities in the years to come, with startup hubs losing people due to the pandemic and lingering concerns, plus the attraction of remote work? For sure startups will more and more push for remote organizations. It’s an amazing way to combine quality of life for employees and attracting talent. Yet I don’t think it will be the majority. Not all founders are willing/able to build a fully remote company. It’s an important cultural choice and it’s adapted to a certain type of business. I believe in more flexible organization (e.g., tech team working remotely or 1-2 days a week for any employee).

Which industry segments that you invest in look weaker or more exposed to potential shifts in consumer and business behavior because of COVID-19? What are the opportunities startups may be able to tap into during these unprecedented times? Travel and hospitality sectors are of course hugely impacted. Yet there are opportunities for helping those incumbents to face current challenges (e.g., better customer care and services, stronger flexibility, cost reduction and process automation).

How has COVID-19 impacted your investment strategy? What are the biggest worries of the founders in your portfolio? What is your advice to startups in your portfolio right now? Cash is king more than ever before. My only piece of advice will be to keep a good level of cash as we have a limited view on events coming ahead. It’s easy to say but much more difficult to put in practice (e.g., to what extend should I reduce my cash burn? Should I keep on investing in the product? What is the impact on the sales team?). Startups should focus only on what is mission-critical for their clients. Yet it doesn’t impact our seed investments as we invest pre-revenue and often pre-product.

What is a moment that has given you hope in the last month or so? This can be professional, personal or a mix of the two. There is no reason to be hopeless. Crises have happened in the past. Humanity has faced other pandemics. Humans are resilient and resourceful enough to adapt to a new environment and new constraints.

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8204425 https://ift.tt/32JyIV9 via IFTTT

[enzocalamo]

The Designer of the iPhone Worries That His Grandkids Will Think He’s the Guy ‘That Destroyed Society’ | Thrive Global

Tony Fadell didn’t anticipate the impact his creation would have on the world.

[faiz7869]

Why This Photographer Set Out to Break Muslim Stereotypes

At the point when Lynsey Addario moved to India in 2000 and started covering Muslim people group all through Asia, she was acquainted with nuanced perspectives of Islam and the general population who rehearse it. In the wake of returning home to visit the U.S., she saw the religion depicted in a non specific, one-dimensional way that didn't catch what she saw somewhere else on the planet.

That divergence pushed her to work with Muslim people group crosswise over America with an end goal to recount their stories broaderly. Addario's pictures show up in the component story "How Muslims, Often Misunderstood, Are Thriving in America," distributed in the May 2018 issue of National Geographic magazine. She conversed with us about her experience recording these groups and how it has urged her to analyze her own confidence.

Read Prophet Muhammad’s Quotes

JEHAN JILLANI: You have been capturing the Muslim world for more than eighteen years now. What influenced you to need to turn the focal point without anyone else nation? Also, how was it covering this point?

LYNSEY ADDARIO: I experienced childhood in the United States, however have been living abroad since 2000, when I moved to India, and began covering life under the Taliban in Afghanistan. That was the first of numerous treks everywhere throughout the Muslim world– I at that point moved from South Asia to the Middle East to Africa. Every single one of these treks acquainted me with a more nuanced perspective of Islam—from the different translations of the religion to the assorted variety of the general population who rehearsed Islam. Also, each time I would return home to the U.S to invest energy with my family, I would watch the news and tune in to encompassing discussions, and would definitely observe an extremely one-dimensional perspective of the religion, and Muslims as a rule. It was astonishing to me, in light of the fact that there were these broad speculations being made about Muslims, as though everybody was the same, and it appeared to be greatly uninformed. It is the reason I chose to pitch this story quite a long while prior to demonstrate the broadness and assorted variety inside the religion.

JILLANI: Islam in America, as Leila Fadel's piece clarifies in more noteworthy detail, is a standout amongst the most differing religions in the United States. How could you choose which groups to photo?

ADDARIO: Well, as a matter of first importance, there are so a huge number of pictures that I shot, and individuals I concentrated on who never made it into the story, for the most part by virtue of space. I endeavored to photo the range, from the religiously traditionalist to the more liberal, from astounding scenes—like a group of five sisters, three of which were dark belts in taekwondo—to the more common scenes we see—like supplication, to ladies with and without hijab—to appear, essentially, that these generalizations [that are] regularly propagated simply don't frequently hold.

As in any populace of individuals who fall under any religious gathering, from Christianity to Judaism to Islam, there is assorted variety inside. There are those that are more faithful, and the individuals who all the more freely see; there are unimaginably proficient, respectable individuals, and afterward there are crooks. It is imperative to perceive this. In America, I frequently observe Muslims in an indistinguishable sentence from the word fear based oppressors, and this is simply excessively shallow for a various nation like America. Indeed, there are Muslim psychological oppressors, however there are additionally American fear based oppressors who have been in charge of numerous mass shootings over the US. In any case, shockingly, they aren't frequently alluded to as psychological militants.

JILLANI: On a related note, might you be able to address what you seen about the racial assorted variety of Muslim Americans?

ADDARIO: I think there is a vast misguided judgment that Muslims are frequently Arab or South Asian, however 13 percent of the Muslim people group is African-American, starting back to the season of servitude in the U.S. what's more, to the individuals who brought their religion over from Africa. There was likewise incredible expansion among the African-American people group at the season of Malcolm X and the social equality development, and today, there are an immense number of believers to Islam– just about 23% of the whole Muslim American population– from each ethnicity and a scope of groups the nation over. I needed to incorporate this racial assorted variety in the piece.

JILLANI: This is a quite individual inquiry, however given the idea of this story, I am interested to hear: What is your relationship to confidence?

ADDARIO: I was raised Italian Catholic, with the custom of going to chapel each Sunday, before a major family lunch at one of my grandmas', and religion classes on Tuesday evenings. Yet, as I developed into a young lady, I recognized less with Catholicism, and figured out how to acknowledge diverse parts of various religions. I am a profound individual, and I have awesome regard for every single distinctive religion, yet I for one never again go to chapel each Sunday. It's intriguing, in light of the fact that I have been capturing in moderately perilous spots for quite a while now, and have invested a lot of energy with individuals from various religions. I regularly get messages or messages or calls from companions the world over, saying that they are petitioning God for me—regardless of whether Christian or Catholic or Muslim. My grandma, who is 104, dependably goes to Saint Ann for me, and my dear companion Lubna, who lives in Saudi, will actually go to Mecca to appeal to God for me when I have gone to Syria previously. I adore and regard that about confidence, that everybody has his or her convictions which bring them through troublesome circumstances.

JILLANI: In reporting, one will definitely need to cover groups that one isn't a piece of. In any case, I question that it is dependably a simple or agreeable experience. How would you explore that line between being both aware and curious?

ADDARIO: I have dependably trusted that it is vital to be curious, to make inquiries, to instruct oneself about the obscure. I suspect as much contempt and misconception originates from obliviousness and pomposity, and that is a disgrace. Indeed, I felt unusual as a non-Muslim, shooting this thorough piece on Islam—however I don't fake to comprehend what I don't have the foggiest idea. I simply shoot what I see, and what I accept is a reasonable portrayal of a story.

Read Prophet Muhammad’s 100 Quotes

[foursproutwealth-blog]

Christmas In Liberated Aleppo

New Post has been published on http://foursprout.com/wealth/christmas-in-liberated-aleppo/

Christmas In Liberated Aleppo

It’s been just over one year since the liberation of Aleppo from radical Islamist insurgent groups which were backed by the West as well as Gulf states like Saudi Arabia and Qatar. And this Christmas has witnessed huge public celebrations, tree lightings, concerts, and dances in a city which only a short while ago was associated with death, mortars, airstrikes, assassinations, and suicide bombings. 

Though occasional mortar fire and explosions still enter the city environs, Christmas 2017 has been marked by carefree exuberance and and a sense of relief as the city rebuilds, and as some 600,000 displaced residents return to reclaim properties and possessions, ready to resume their normal lives again.

Christmas tree in Aziziya square on the first anniversary of Aleppo’s liberation, via Syrian social media.

But one wonders: should the al-Qaeda linked fighters who once occupied the eastern part of Aleppo have been victorious and imposed their ‘revolution’ on the whole of the city… would Aleppines be celebrating Christmas this year? The answer to this question is of course an obvious no.

Merry Christmas ???? to all of you ???? Pics from #Aleppo ???? pic.twitter.com/58ZQhGpqp6

— Majd Fahd ???????? (@Syria_Protector) December 24, 2017

Looking back to the time of the most intense phase of fighting in Aleppo as it unfolded in 2016, veteran journalist Stephen Kinzer took to the editorial pages of the Boston Globe to remind Americans that the media had created a fantasy land concerning Syria. Kinzer painted a picture quite opposite the common perception:

Coverage of the Syrian war will be remembered as one of the most shameful episodes in the history of the American press… For three years, violent militants have run Aleppo. Their rule began with a wave of repression. They posted notices warning residents: “Don’t send your children to school. If you do, we will get the backpack and you will get the coffin.” Then they destroyed factories, hoping that unemployed workers would have no recourse other than to become fighters. They trucked looted machinery to Turkey and sold it…

The United States has the power to decree the death of nations. It can do so with popular support because many Americans — and many journalists — are content with the official story.

Now, during the first full Christmas season of relative peace and calm, Aleppo residents are showing the world that they’ve rejected a future of Saudi-style Wahhabi Islamist rebel rule imposed from outside, instead proudly displaying their pluralistic culture and toleration through mass public Christmas displays in the heart of the Middle East.

Aleppo has for many centuries going back through the middle ages been home to one of the largest Christian populations in the Middle East – a religious demographic which was under direct threat from the armed opposition groups which attacked the city starting in July of 2012. Beyond the Christian community, Syrians of all backgrounds have also traditionally participated in public festivities connected with Christmas – something long encouraged by the ruling secular nationalist Baathist government. 

Indeed, Syrian urban centers have for decades been marked by a quasi-secular culture and public life of pluralist co-existence. Aleppo itself was always a thriving merchant center where a typical street scene would involve women without head-coverings walking side by side with women wearing veils (hijab), cinemas and liquor stores, late night hookah smoke filled cafés, and large churches and mosques neighboring each other with various communities living in peaceful co-existence. 

Christmas in Aleppo!!! do you really think if Aleppo had fallen to the NATO backed jihadis, this would have been possible?????? #Syria #Christmas pic.twitter.com/DXvBn2tot0

— Edward Dark (@edwardedark) December 24, 2017

And by many accounts, the once vibrant secular and pluralist Aleppo is now coming back to life – today’s street scenes in Aleppo and throughout many major Syrian cities recently liberated from ISIS and the scourge of al-Qaeda insurgents look pretty much like scenes straight out any other place on the globe where Christmas is celebrated.

And like many places in the West, Syrians just want to be left alone to celebrate Christmas without jihadists or foreign nations occupying territory within their borders.

Below are images and video clips of Christmas displays and parties throughout other cities and villages in Syria. Merry Christmas from liberated Syria!…

Christmas in Homs. The city has one of the largest Christian communities in Syria. The war has destroyed large parts of the city, but despite the destruction people haven’t lost their Christmas spirit. pic.twitter.com/8Do6WsaxJI

— Brenda Stoter Boscolo (@BrendaStoter) December 23, 2017

Children in Mhardeh celebrate Christmas. Mhardeh is the largest Christian city in Syria and hosts a very large population of displaced Syrians from all religions. pic.twitter.com/G9o8wdThDY

— Leith Abou Fadel (@leithfadel) December 24, 2017

Christmas in #Damascus. #Syria pic.twitter.com/J3VqzLKNqB

— vanessa beeley (@VanessaBeeley) December 22, 2017

#MerryChristmas from #Tartus #Syria pic.twitter.com/5KiqXsssBE

— maytham (@maytham956) December 19, 2017

??? ??? #???_???? #?????_???? #????? #????_????? #MerryChristmas pic.twitter.com/0QrBCJDsXc

— ???????? ??????? (@TheSyrianTweet) December 19, 2017

The Lighting of #Christmas_Tree in #Blat village – #Wadi Alnasara. #Syria comes alive with Christmas lights & love everywhere that international terrorism has been defeated. No trees in #Idlib that UK FCO calls “Free Syria”. #Proud_To_Be_British? Happy Christmas everyone! pic.twitter.com/S1QJJlQb6g

— vanessa beeley (@VanessaBeeley) December 22, 2017

[foursprout-blog]

Christmas In Liberated Aleppo

New Post has been published on http://foursprout.com/wealth/christmas-in-liberated-aleppo/

Christmas In Liberated Aleppo

It’s been just over one year since the liberation of Aleppo from radical Islamist insurgent groups which were backed by the West as well as Gulf states like Saudi Arabia and Qatar. And this Christmas has witnessed huge public celebrations, tree lightings, concerts, and dances in a city which only a short while ago was associated with death, mortars, airstrikes, assassinations, and suicide bombings. 

Though occasional mortar fire and explosions still enter the city environs, Christmas 2017 has been marked by carefree exuberance and and a sense of relief as the city rebuilds, and as some 600,000 displaced residents return to reclaim properties and possessions, ready to resume their normal lives again.

Christmas tree in Aziziya square on the first anniversary of Aleppo’s liberation, via Syrian social media.

But one wonders: should the al-Qaeda linked fighters who once occupied the eastern part of Aleppo have been victorious and imposed their ‘revolution’ on the whole of the city… would Aleppines be celebrating Christmas this year? The answer to this question is of course an obvious no.

Merry Christmas ???? to all of you ???? Pics from #Aleppo ???? pic.twitter.com/58ZQhGpqp6

— Majd Fahd ???????? (@Syria_Protector) December 24, 2017

Looking back to the time of the most intense phase of fighting in Aleppo as it unfolded in 2016, veteran journalist Stephen Kinzer took to the editorial pages of the Boston Globe to remind Americans that the media had created a fantasy land concerning Syria. Kinzer painted a picture quite opposite the common perception:

Coverage of the Syrian war will be remembered as one of the most shameful episodes in the history of the American press… For three years, violent militants have run Aleppo. Their rule began with a wave of repression. They posted notices warning residents: “Don’t send your children to school. If you do, we will get the backpack and you will get the coffin.” Then they destroyed factories, hoping that unemployed workers would have no recourse other than to become fighters. They trucked looted machinery to Turkey and sold it…

The United States has the power to decree the death of nations. It can do so with popular support because many Americans — and many journalists — are content with the official story.

Now, during the first full Christmas season of relative peace and calm, Aleppo residents are showing the world that they’ve rejected a future of Saudi-style Wahhabi Islamist rebel rule imposed from outside, instead proudly displaying their pluralistic culture and toleration through mass public Christmas displays in the heart of the Middle East.

Aleppo has for many centuries going back through the middle ages been home to one of the largest Christian populations in the Middle East – a religious demographic which was under direct threat from the armed opposition groups which attacked the city starting in July of 2012. Beyond the Christian community, Syrians of all backgrounds have also traditionally participated in public festivities connected with Christmas – something long encouraged by the ruling secular nationalist Baathist government. 

Indeed, Syrian urban centers have for decades been marked by a quasi-secular culture and public life of pluralist co-existence. Aleppo itself was always a thriving merchant center where a typical street scene would involve women without head-coverings walking side by side with women wearing veils (hijab), cinemas and liquor stores, late night hookah smoke filled cafés, and large churches and mosques neighboring each other with various communities living in peaceful co-existence. 

Christmas in Aleppo!!! do you really think if Aleppo had fallen to the NATO backed jihadis, this would have been possible?????? #Syria #Christmas pic.twitter.com/DXvBn2tot0

— Edward Dark (@edwardedark) December 24, 2017

And by many accounts, the once vibrant secular and pluralist Aleppo is now coming back to life – today’s street scenes in Aleppo and throughout many major Syrian cities recently liberated from ISIS and the scourge of al-Qaeda insurgents look pretty much like scenes straight out any other place on the globe where Christmas is celebrated.

And like many places in the West, Syrians just want to be left alone to celebrate Christmas without jihadists or foreign nations occupying territory within their borders.

Below are images and video clips of Christmas displays and parties throughout other cities and villages in Syria. Merry Christmas from liberated Syria!…

Christmas in Homs. The city has one of the largest Christian communities in Syria. The war has destroyed large parts of the city, but despite the destruction people haven’t lost their Christmas spirit. pic.twitter.com/8Do6WsaxJI

— Brenda Stoter Boscolo (@BrendaStoter) December 23, 2017

Children in Mhardeh celebrate Christmas. Mhardeh is the largest Christian city in Syria and hosts a very large population of displaced Syrians from all religions. pic.twitter.com/G9o8wdThDY

— Leith Abou Fadel (@leithfadel) December 24, 2017

Christmas in #Damascus. #Syria pic.twitter.com/J3VqzLKNqB

— vanessa beeley (@VanessaBeeley) December 22, 2017

#MerryChristmas from #Tartus #Syria pic.twitter.com/5KiqXsssBE

— maytham (@maytham956) December 19, 2017

??? ??? #???_???? #?????_???? #????? #????_????? #MerryChristmas pic.twitter.com/0QrBCJDsXc

— ???????? ??????? (@TheSyrianTweet) December 19, 2017

The Lighting of #Christmas_Tree in #Blat village – #Wadi Alnasara. #Syria comes alive with Christmas lights & love everywhere that international terrorism has been defeated. No trees in #Idlib that UK FCO calls “Free Syria”. #Proud_To_Be_British? Happy Christmas everyone! pic.twitter.com/S1QJJlQb6g

— vanessa beeley (@VanessaBeeley) December 22, 2017

[endenogatai]

12 Paris-based VCs look at the state of their city

Four years after the Great Recession, France’s newly elected socialist president François Hollande raised taxes and increased regulations on founder-led startups. The subsequent flight of entrepreneurs to places like London and Silicon Valley portrayed France as a tough place to launch a company. By 2016, France’s national statistics bureau estimated that about three million native-born citizens had moved abroad.

Those who remained fought back: The Family was an early accelerator that encouraged French entrepreneurs to adopt Silicon Valley’s startup methodology, and the 2012 creation of Bpifrance, a public investment bank, put money into the startup ecosystem system via investors. Organizers founded La French Tech to beat the drum about native startups.

When President Emmanuel Macron took office in May 2017, he scrapped the wealth tax on everything except property assets and introduced a flat 30% tax rate on capital gains. Station F, a giant startup campus funded by billionaire entrepreneur Xavier Niel on the site of a former railway station, began attracting international talent. Tony Fadell, one of the fathers of the iPod and founder of Nest Labs, moved to Paris to set up investment firm Future Shape; VivaTech was created with government backing to become one of Europe’s largest startup conference and expos.

Now, in the COVID-19 era, the government has made €4 billion available to entrepreneurs to keep the lights on. According to a recent report from VC firm Atomico, there are 11 unicorns in France, including BlaBlaCar, OVHcloud, Deezer and Veepee. More appear to be coming; last year Macron said he wanted to see “25 French unicorns by 2025.”

According to Station F, by the end of August, there had been 24 funding rounds led by international VCs and a few big transactions. Enterprise artificial intelligence and machine-learning platform Dataiku raised a $100 million Series D round, and Paris-based gaming startup Voodoo raised an undisclosed amount from Tencent Holdings.

We asked 12 Paris-based investors to comment on the state of play in their city:

Alison Imbert, partner, Partech

Alexandre Mordacq, partner, 360 Capital Partners

Emmanuel Delaveau, partner, Partech

Boris Golden, partner, Partech

Jean de La Rochebrochard, managing partner, Kima Ventures

Paul Bolardi, associate, AXA Venture Partners

Shiraz Mahfoudhi, Speedinvest

Guillaume Dupont, founding partner, CapHorn

Martin Mignot, partner, Index Ventures

Bartosz Jakubowski, principal, Alven

Pierre Entremont, founding partner, Frst Capital

Pierre-Eric Leibovici, founding partner, Daphni

10 Berlin-based VCs discuss how COVID-19 has changed the landscape

Alison Imbert, Partech

What trends are you most excited about investing in, generally?

All the fintechs addressing SMBs to help them to focus more on their core business (including banks disintermediation by fintech, new infrastructures tech that are lowering the barrier to entry to nonfintech companies).

What’s your latest, most exciting investment?

77foods (plant-based bacon) — love that alternative proteins trend as well. Obviously, we need to transform our diet toward more sustainable food. It’s the next challenge for humanity.

What are you looking for in your next investment, in general? Impact investment: Logistic companies tackling the life cycle of products to reduce their carbon footprint and green fintech that reinvent our spending and investment strategy around more sustainable products.

Which areas are either oversaturated or would be too hard to compete in at this point for a new startup? What other types of products/services are you wary or concerned about? D2C products.

How much are you focused on investing in your local ecosystem versus other startup hubs (or everywhere) in general? More than 50%? Less? 100% investing in France as I’m managing Paris Saclay Seed Fund, a €53 million fund, investing in pre-seed and seed startups launched by graduates and researchers from the best engineering and business schools from this ecosystem.

Which industries in your city and region seem well-positioned to thrive, or not, long term? What are companies you are excited about (your portfolio or not), which founders? Deep tech, biotech and medical devices. Paris, and France in general, has thousands of outstanding engineers that graduate each year. Researchers are more and more willing to found companies to have a true impact on our society. I do believe that the ecosystem is more and more structured to help them to build such companies.

How should investors in other cities think about the overall investment climate and opportunities in your city? Paris is booming for sure. It’s still behind London and Berlin probably. But we are seeing more and more European VC offices opening in the city to get direct access to our ecosystem. Even in seed rounds, we start to have European VCs competing against us. It’s good — that means that our startups are moving to the next level.

Do you expect to see a surge in more founders coming from geographies outside major cities in the years to come, with startup hubs losing people due to the pandemic and lingering concerns, plus the attraction of remote work? For sure startups will more and more push for remote organizations. It’s an amazing way to combine quality of life for employees and attracting talent. Yet I don’t think it will be the majority. Not all founders are willing/able to build a fully remote company. It’s an important cultural choice and it’s adapted to a certain type of business. I believe in more flexible organization (e.g., tech team working remotely or 1-2 days a week for any employee).

Which industry segments that you invest in look weaker or more exposed to potential shifts in consumer and business behavior because of COVID-19? What are the opportunities startups may be able to tap into during these unprecedented times? Travel and hospitality sectors are of course hugely impacted. Yet there are opportunities for helping those incumbents to face current challenges (e.g., better customer care and services, stronger flexibility, cost reduction and process automation).

How has COVID-19 impacted your investment strategy? What are the biggest worries of the founders in your portfolio? What is your advice to startups in your portfolio right now? Cash is king more than ever before. My only piece of advice will be to keep a good level of cash as we have a limited view on events coming ahead. It’s easy to say but much more difficult to put in practice (e.g., to what extend should I reduce my cash burn? Should I keep on investing in the product? What is the impact on the sales team?). Startups should focus only on what is mission-critical for their clients. Yet it doesn’t impact our seed investments as we invest pre-revenue and often pre-product.

What is a moment that has given you hope in the last month or so? This can be professional, personal or a mix of the two. There is no reason to be hopeless. Crises have happened in the past. Humanity has faced other pandemics. Humans are resilient and resourceful enough to adapt to a new environment and new constraints.

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8204425 https://ift.tt/32JyIV9 via IFTTT

[endenogatai]

12 Paris-based VCs look at the state of their city

Four years after the Great Recession, France’s newly elected socialist president François Hollande raised taxes and increased regulations on founder-led startups. The subsequent flight of entrepreneurs to places like London and Silicon Valley portrayed France as a tough place to launch a company. By 2016, France’s national statistics bureau estimated that about three million native-born citizens had moved abroad.

Those who remained fought back: The Family was an early accelerator that encouraged French entrepreneurs to adopt Silicon Valley’s startup methodology, and the 2012 creation of Bpifrance, a public investment bank, put money into the startup ecosystem system via investors. Organizers founded La French Tech to beat the drum about native startups.

When President Emmanuel Macron took office in May 2017, he scrapped the wealth tax on everything except property assets and introduced a flat 30% tax rate on capital gains. Station F, a giant startup campus funded by billionaire entrepreneur Xavier Niel on the site of a former railway station, began attracting international talent. Tony Fadell, one of the fathers of the iPod and founder of Nest Labs, moved to Paris to set up investment firm Future Shape; VivaTech was created with government backing to become one of Europe’s largest startup conference and expos.

Now, in the COVID-19 era, the government has made €4 billion available to entrepreneurs to keep the lights on. According to a recent report from VC firm Atomico, there are 11 unicorns in France, including BlaBlaCar, OVHcloud, Deezer and Veepee. More appear to be coming; last year Macron said he wanted to see “25 French unicorns by 2025.”

According to Station F, by the end of August, there had been 24 funding rounds led by international VCs and a few big transactions. Enterprise artificial intelligence and machine-learning platform Dataiku raised a $100 million Series D round, and Paris-based gaming startup Voodoo raised an undisclosed amount from Tencent Holdings.

We asked 12 Paris -based investors to comment on the state of play in their city:

Alison Imbert, partner, Partech

Alexandre Mordacq, partner, 360 Capital Partners

Emmanuel Delaveau, partner, Partech

Boris Golden, partner, Partech

Jean de La Rochebrochard, managing partner, Kima Ventures

Paul Bolardi, associate, AXA Venture Partners

Shiraz Mahfoudhi, Speedinvest

Guillaume Dupont, founding partner, CapHorn

Martin Mignot, partner, Index Ventures

Bartosz Jakubowski, principal, Alven

Pierre Entremont, founding partner, Frst Capital

Pierre-Eric Leibovici, founding partner, Daphni

Alison Imbert, Partech

What trends are you most excited about investing in, generally?

All the fintechs addressing SMBs to help them to focus more on their core business (including banks disintermediation by fintech, new infrastructures tech that are lowering the barrier to entry to nonfintech companies).

What’s your latest, most exciting investment?

77foods (plant-based bacon) — love that alternative proteins trend as well. Obviously, we need to transform our diet toward more sustainable food. It’s the next challenge for humanity.

What are you looking for in your next investment, in general? Impact investment: Logistic companies tackling the life cycle of products to reduce their carbon footprint and green fintech that reinvent our spending and investment strategy around more sustainable products.

Which areas are either oversaturated or would be too hard to compete in at this point for a new startup? What other types of products/services are you wary or concerned about? D2C products.

How much are you focused on investing in your local ecosystem versus other startup hubs (or everywhere) in general? More than 50%? Less? 100% investing in France as I’m managing Paris Saclay Seed Fund, a €53 million fund, investing in pre-seed and seed startups launched by graduates and researchers from the best engineering and business schools from this ecosystem.

Which industries in your city and region seem well-positioned to thrive, or not, long term? What are companies you are excited about (your portfolio or not), which founders? Deep tech, biotech and medical devices. Paris, and France in general, has thousands of outstanding engineers that graduate each year. Researchers are more and more willing to found companies to have a true impact on our society. I do believe that the ecosystem is more and more structured to help them to build such companies.

How should investors in other cities think about the overall investment climate and opportunities in your city? Paris is booming for sure. It’s still behind London and Berlin probably. But we are seeing more and more European VC offices opening in the city to get direct access to our ecosystem. Even in seed rounds, we start to have European VCs competing against us. It’s good — that means that our startups are moving to the next level.

Do you expect to see a surge in more founders coming from geographies outside major cities in the years to come, with startup hubs losing people due to the pandemic and lingering concerns, plus the attraction of remote work? For sure startups will more and more push for remote organizations. It’s an amazing way to combine quality of life for employees and attracting talent. Yet I don’t think it will be the majority. Not all founders are willing/able to build a fully remote company. It’s an important cultural choice and it’s adapted to a certain type of business. I believe in more flexible organization (e.g., tech team working remotely or 1-2 days a week for any employee).

Which industry segments that you invest in look weaker or more exposed to potential shifts in consumer and business behavior because of COVID-19? What are the opportunities startups may be able to tap into during these unprecedented times? Travel and hospitality sectors are of course hugely impacted. Yet there are opportunities for helping those incumbents to face current challenges (e.g., better customer care and services, stronger flexibility, cost reduction and process automation).

How has COVID-19 impacted your investment strategy? What are the biggest worries of the founders in your portfolio? What is your advice to startups in your portfolio right now? Cash is king more than ever before. My only piece of advice will be to keep a good level of cash as we have a limited view on events coming ahead. It’s easy to say but much more difficult to put in practice (e.g., to what extend should I reduce my cash burn? Should I keep on investing in the product? What is the impact on the sales team?). Startups should focus only on what is mission-critical for their clients. Yet it doesn’t impact our seed investments as we invest pre-revenue and often pre-product.

What is a moment that has given you hope in the last month or so? This can be professional, personal or a mix of the two. There is no reason to be hopeless. Crises have happened in the past. Humanity has faced other pandemics. Humans are resilient and resourceful enough to adapt to a new environment and new constraints.

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8204425 https://ift.tt/32JyIV9 via IFTTT