Happy New World!
Dear entrepreneur,
Hopes and positivity, that’s what we need for 2021!
What’s cool with these wishes is that they depend on… you, and only you ;)
I wrote this very first newsletter of the year to bring you two pieces of great news:
💌 You’ll receive our daily emails in 2021!
Your feedback and messages of love convinced us to keep sharing our viewpoints.
So you’ll be receiving our daily insights on startup culture, just like you did in December ;)
If you don’t want to, there’s always the “unsubscribe” button at the bottom of this email - and we’ll never take it personally that you decide to disconnect.
🔥 Yesterday was the 1st day of our remote program!!!
30 exciting startups have been selected, coming from 6 different geographies. We’re about to start working very hard with them so that they’re able to raise funds from world-class investors at the end of our 6-week program.
Oh yes, 2020 has been a hell of a tornado, for entrepreneurs and The Family as well. Now that a brand new cycle is about to start, I’d like to seize the opportunity to share with you, briefly, our story: why and how we do what we do.
What’s The Family’s mission in 2021? Empowering ambitious entrepreneurs!
As it always has been ;)
When we launched The Family in 2013, our goal was to build an entrepreneurial ecosystem that would lift ambitious founders up rather than bringing them down.
It required cutting ties with large parts of the Paris startup world and breaking with the bad practices that were widespread. We ruffled some feathers and we made a few enemies, but it worked! In those early days, our content on Youtube allowed hundreds of thousands of potential entrepreneurs to learn and a bunch of daring pirates jumped onboard, like the teams at Heetch, Algolia, So Shape and StarOfService...
We’re ambitious, and we’re not ashamed of it.
So we decided to expand and compete at an international level. The Family became a UK-based entity in 2014, to be able to:
- benefit from a supportive environment in terms of corporate law & business services,
- attract investments from all over the world,
- and address the needs of entrepreneurs outside of France.
As of today, our cap table and portfolio span across three continents.
From 2015 to last year, our focus was on growing at the pan-European level.
We operated offices in London and Berlin, in addition to our flagship office in Paris.
Our thesis was simple: The Family helps entrepreneurs compensate for the downsides of the fragmented European ecosystem.
It’s been a challenge!
The fragmentation is REAL and deeply ingrained from various perspectives: language, culture, regulations. Too often European players prefer to stay at home rather than cross borders. But that’s not what we want. If The Family had stayed a franco-français operation, we would have stopped long ago - we’re multiculturalists* at heart.
Now the pandemic and our switch to a 100% remote model make it possible to expand our reach and have a truly global outlook!
Our focus is on founders who have the potential to build great companies, wherever they are — even in entrepreneurial ecosystems ridden with bad practices and devoid of the resources you need to succeed. In such environments, we’ve always been convinced that what matters is not more money at the seed stage; rather it’s the ability to join a supportive ecosystem that makes it possible to escape the local toxicity (that bitter cocktail of elitism, bureaucracy, paternalism, aversion to risk, lack of trust in the young, cronyism… you know the deal).
That’s why we provide our portfolio companies with everything they need to succeed against all odds: education, leverage, access to a growing network of world-class investors.
What I find inspiring in entrepreneurship is that it reminds us of the role humans can play in creating a better society.
Just among our new batch, you’ll find everything from a Singapore-based proptech company allowing anyone to buy their 1st house to a startup transforming advertising campaigns into micro-donations for the causes you want, and even aeronautical engineers looking to reduce the carbon footprint of logistics. By the way, if you’re an investor wanting to attend our Demo Day, reach out to mathias@thefamily.co ;)
In times when we’ve all been feeling so frustrated and powerless, always waiting for something - masks, grants, the announcement of a new lockdown, the vaccines - entrepreneurs are playing a great role in keeping our hopes high, our responsibilities real, and a desirable future close.
Happy new year, happy new world!
Take care,
Alice.
*Multiculturaslist: adj 1. Of, relating to, or including several cultures. 2. Of or relating to a social or educational theory that encourages interest in many cultures within a society rather than in only a mainstream culture.
We started our first remote batch yesterday, but you know us - we’re always looking forward! Our next remote batch will be starting in a few months, and applications are already open! No matter where you are, so long as your ambition is to build an incredible company, apply 🤗