Encouraged by the examples of Criteo or Business Objects, young companies dream of “success story” in the United States. For this, a rite of passage: the Silicon Valley. Boarding immediate.

This is a dream come true, settle in the heart of the Mecca of the companies techno-savvy in San Francisco and the Silicon Valley. Since 26 April 2015, eight start-ups selected by Bpifrance Business France are participating in the second edition of the acceleration program Ubi i/o (input/output), which is ten weeks of total immersion on a commando to attack the american market. This program, the successor to the French Tech Tour, is intended to support the international development of French start-ups with high growth potential. “Nuggets, who have the vocation to become global,” explains on-site director of innovation of the public investment Bank, Paul-François Fournier, recalling that SMES that export are also the ones who create the most jobs in France.

the Same belief among the team of Business France San Francisco, mobilized since January to prepare and coach the “start-uppers” are promising. “It must be here, because 50% of the global market is american, because the latest trends go to the Silicon Valley, because it is also the place where are installed the funds and investors : the long of Stanford, Sand Hill Road, home to the venture capitalists, concentrating 50 % of the venture capital u.s. more than 20 billion dollars”, says Stéphane Alisse, managing director of the North American division of Business France, moved to San Francisco for the past thirteen years and probably one of the best connoisseurs of the local ecosystem.

Master the elevator pitch and review his marketing

Ten weeks of intense learning to master codes, learn how to convince customers, partners and investors, integrating with the local networks… while keeping contact with the team remained in France. This kind of military service digest is for the happy elected a shock but it is also, according to the alumni of 2014, effective. To date, six of them are located in the United States, with, already, of the contracts that they would never have been able to sign as fast without it. Gold does not go fast costs money and let the competitors take the lead. Suffice to say that it is the risk of losing a battle.

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“The French are excellent in engineering, R&D, but do not know how to sell”, recalls Stéphane Alisse : a question of education, of practice. The learning of the pitch to the american is, therefore, the rite of passage. Not without suffering to all those entrepreneurs that are more or less comfortable in English. “It’s like a show where it is not to tell the whole company, but to understand the added value of the product and the quality of the team”, explain the two coaches us Page Alloo and Laura Elmore (who has coached Steve Jobs). “We took a slap in the face, we had to rebuild everything”, tell all the candidates who are not novices, since there are among them some “serial entrepreneurs”, such as Jean-Michel Cambot, who has coded Business Objects, or Fabien Potencier, creator of Symfony. The exercise is necessary, as the revision of the marketing “often obsolete” for the kings of marketing as are the Americans.

golden Rule for the Silicon Valley, the Networwing. With 600000 engineers in the Silicon Valley, 110000 registered businesses in Palo Alto, 50 000 to 60000 French settlers in the bay, it is difficult to find an ecosystem that is also dense. The community of French nationals abroad account for a good number of its members to key positions among the “champions” (Google, Apple, Microsoft, Tesla…) ; they play the role of mentors and facilitators, opening the doors of their networks, when they do not become, in their turn, investors. As summed up by Stéphane Alisse : “Go ahead, become the world: we go with you!”

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implant themselves in the Silicon Valley

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