The Exchanges

Q And what's the process to get accepted? Is there interviews? Is there Pitches. How does it work?

A Yes, so there's, uh, it's actually a three-step process, so we go through really intensive screening. Um, it's more or less the same in every location, so in France, we receive normally about 250 applications for the online form, so that's the first piece that you have to do, and we go through F-success. Very basic information about the business, the team, the funding, that kind of thing. And then we do a first interview, usually with about 50 or 60 teams, That interview will be done by technical experts from Microsoft to kind of verify not only who the team is, but also what their technical capacity is. And then we invite 20 finalists, ah, to pitch in front of us. So the, the interview is by phone. Ah, the actual pitch has to be, we have to meet the team and see them. They only get 10 minutes each, and it has to be in English. We're kind of validating that, you know, they have a strong enough English presentation skill that they can kind of go international. And that is done in front of the VCs, so we have normally five to 10 different funds in France that will help us select, as well as two partners, which are other large French corporations. And so that's a really intensive screening process, and we only picked 10 finalists, so that's 10 from 250 companies that make the cut.

AI assessment note: “it's actually a three-step process, so we go through really intensive screening.”

Q Now, you've had a phenomenally successful career from TechCrunch to Girls in Tech to Tech.eu, but where did it all start? What's the Roxanne Vasa story?

A Um, so I guess that started actually in San Francisco. Uh, I was actually, despite having grown up in the Bay Area and Silicon Valley, actually never really that enamored with tech. Um, I was actually much more interested by France, so my first job out of university was working for the French government's foreign direct investment agency, so today it's called Business France. At the time it was called Invest in France, and I was responsible for talking to all the American startups Uh, mainly in Silicon Valley about opening offices in France, and it was through that, uh, angle that I got in touch with the different Bay Area startups and started kind of falling in love with the creative, entrepreneurial, uh, overly optimistic, uh, kind of ambiance that there is in the ecosystem.

AI assessment note: “my first job out of university was working for the French government's foreign direct investment”

Q And what's the process to get accepted? Is there interviews? Is there Pitches. How does it work?

A Yes, so there's, uh, it's actually a three-step process, so we go through really intensive screening. Um, it's more or less the same in every location, so in France, we receive normally about 250 applications for the online form, so that's the first piece that you have to do, and we go through F-success. Very basic information about the business, the team, the funding, that kind of thing. And then we do a first interview, usually with about 50 or 60 teams, That interview will be done by technical experts from Microsoft to kind of verify not only who the team is, but also what their technical capacity is. And then we invite 20 finalists, ah, to pitch in front of us. So the, the interview is by phone. Ah, the actual pitch has to be, we have to meet the team and see them. They only get 10 minutes each, and it has to be in English. We're kind of validating that, you know, they have a strong enough English presentation skill that they can kind of go international. And that is done in front of the VCs, so we have normally five to 10 different funds in France that will help us select, as well as two partners, which are other large French corporations. And so that's a really intensive screening process, and we only picked 10 finalists, so that's 10 from 250 companies that make the cut.

AI assessment note: “it's actually a three-step process, so we go through really intensive screening”

Q Absolutely. And then shifting slightly to another aspect of your career, which is girls in tech. And it's going from strength to strength. What are your plans for the next few years with Girls in Tech?

A So Girls in Tech has come a long way, um, in Europe, uh, so I was involved, obviously, I'm involved still with France and the UK, and then we have a whole bunch of other, um, countries that are popping up, so I'm expecting many more teams in Europe to pop up. Today we have Italy, Spain, Luxembourg, Netherlands, and Romania, and we're expecting a few more to come shortly. Um, so aside from team development, I think that we probably have a couple of projects that we're going to See get even stronger. So in the last few years, we've done free coding classes or intro to coding classes, which were wildly successful in France. And that's essentially not about making someone become a programmer, but just about kind of what is code? Why should you care about it? What does it look like? And that, you know, we sold out within two hours. Uh, we had eight percent women because we actually let it, the, everything that we do is open to men as well. Um, but it turned out to To be very, very popular. So I, I expect that we'll strengthen, ah, all our technical kind of workshops that we do. And then we do the Lady Pitch Night with us, which is a pan-European, ah, women's pitch competition for female founded startups. And last year, we got a ton of support. We had Sheryl Sandberg, Nealey Crows, a lot of different people that actually supported. We had some of Europe's top tech conferences, Le Web…

AI assessment note: “I'm expecting many more teams in Europe to pop up”

Q And another common problem for startups, I think now, especially with the sea of new startups that's arisen, is just PR and getting media attention in the crowded market. You, with your incredible experience, um, in tech and tech publications, what can startups do to increase their media exposure? Are there any kind of tips or tricks they can do when contacting journalists?

A So I'll tell you that, um, maybe TechCrunch is a bit of a specific kind of universe, because I think it's kind of very high level, and so all we have so much, we had so much incoming information that we could really choose to be picky, um, but I would say a lot of entrepreneurs think that their product launch is news, and a lot of the time I have to sit down and tell them, that's not news. Companies are launching every day. There's no reason why yours is special. You need to find that reason. You need to sell that story, You know, a specific customer story, uh, something like that. It's not always compelling, but it can be much more compelling than just saying, oh, today we launched our product. Um, another tip that I actually give a lot of companies when they don't have news, and this worked really, really well for one company, uh, at TechCrunch, is actually publishing a guest post, because I think a lot of media outlets, uh, are still actually looking for really great content, and a lot of entrepreneurs are experts, It's in their space, and they have great expertise. So the point of a guest post is not to write about your product, but it's to really show that you have kind of a strong vision or a great understanding of a specific topic. So I had one company that published a post on why they chose a freemium model for their business, and that post actually ended up being proba…

AI assessment note: “You need to sell that story, You know, a specific customer story”

Q And another common problem for startups, I think now, especially with the sea of new startups that's arisen, is just PR and getting media attention in the crowded market. You, with your incredible experience, um, in tech and tech publications, what can startups do to increase their media exposure? Are there any kind of tips or tricks they can do when contacting journalists?

A So I'll tell you that, um, maybe TechCrunch is a bit of a specific kind of universe, because I think it's kind of very high level, and so all we have so much, we had so much incoming information that we could really choose to be picky, um, but I would say a lot of entrepreneurs think that their product launch is news, and a lot of the time I have to sit down and tell them, that's not news. Companies are launching every day. There's no reason why yours is special. You need to find that reason. You need to sell that story, You know, a specific customer story, uh, something like that. It's not always compelling, but it can be much more compelling than just saying, oh, today we launched our product. Um, another tip that I actually give a lot of companies when they don't have news, and this worked really, really well for one company, uh, at TechCrunch, is actually publishing a guest post, because I think a lot of media outlets, uh, are still actually looking for really great content, and a lot of entrepreneurs are experts, It's in their space, and they have great expertise. So the point of a guest post is not to write about your product, but it's to really show that you have kind of a strong vision or a great understanding of a specific topic. So I had one company that published a post on why they chose a freemium model for their business, and that post actually ended up being proba…

AI assessment note: “another tip that I actually give a lot of companies... is actually publishing a guest post”

Q Absolutely. And then shifting slightly to another aspect of your career, which is girls in tech. And it's going from strength to strength. What are your plans for the next few years with Girls in Tech?

A So Girls in Tech has come a long way, um, in Europe, uh, so I was involved, obviously, I'm involved still with France and the UK, and then we have a whole bunch of other, um, countries that are popping up, so I'm expecting many more teams in Europe to pop up. Today we have Italy, Spain, Luxembourg, Netherlands, and Romania, and we're expecting a few more to come shortly. Um, so aside from team development, I think that we probably have a couple of projects that we're going to See get even stronger. So in the last few years, we've done free coding classes or intro to coding classes, which were wildly successful in France. And that's essentially not about making someone become a programmer, but just about kind of what is code? Why should you care about it? What does it look like? And that, you know, we sold out within two hours. Uh, we had eight percent women because we actually let it, the, everything that we do is open to men as well. Um, but it turned out to To be very, very popular. So I, I expect that we'll strengthen, ah, all our technical kind of workshops that we do. And then we do the Lady Pitch Night with us, which is a pan-European, ah, women's pitch competition for female founded startups. And last year, we got a ton of support. We had Sheryl Sandberg, Nealey Crows, a lot of different people that actually supported. We had some of Europe's top tech conferences, Le Web…

AI assessment note: “I'm expecting many more teams in Europe to pop up.”

Q And then for you personally, how have you seen the French tech ecosystem grow since you've moved there?

A Oh my gosh, it's been incredible. So I actually often face, I tell people that, you know, the Bay Area is very impressive, and there's a lot going on in Silicon Valley, but the progress and the development that I have seen since arriving in France, uh, has really just outperformed, uh, Silicon Valley. So when I arrived end of 2009, uh, I think it was the first startup weekend events, you know, there was not a lot going on in the ecosystem. There were, there were funds, there were startups, and I think Beginning of 2010, it just really took off. We started to see new funds getting launched later that year. We had announcements for the first accelerators. And since then, I feel like France has just come an incredibly long way. We now have, um, a minister for the digital economy. They're starting to really pay attention to trying to create a stronger entrepreneurial environment, you know, place where really businesses can launch and grow. And I think that's something we didn't see Five years ago.

AI assessment note: “when I arrived end of 2009... Beginning of 2010, it just really took off.”

Q in a recent interview, you said about platform dependency and validating customer product fit as two of the biggest problems you faced with the companies. With the likes of Meerkat, you know, relying on Twitter heavily, and, and a lot of startups missing the product market fit, how do you avoid these problems at Microsoft, and what would you advise founders maybe assessing whether their product does fit the market?

A So I think we're starting to see fewer companies, uh, that have issues with platform dependency. So we've had a couple of examples, um, you know, in France, there was a few years ago a company called App Gratis, and they were, uh, they were in the Apple store. They were promoting different apps, and Apple essentially just cut them, uh, and that killed their business. Um, so I think, you know, we're, since that one, I think we're seeing fewer companies that choose one platform or one distribution channel. Um, and that is really something that we're looking for and we're encouraging, even though obviously at the end of the day, if everybody was full stack Microsoft, it would be great, but it maybe actually wouldn't be great in the long term for the company. So we're, we're trying to get that message out. And in terms of customer product fit, um, that is something that actually we do in the beginning of the ventures program to verify that before they even dive into developing their product further or their customer base further, um, That they're actually developing the right product and working with the right product in front of them. So we do a full week where they actually have to go out into the street or call up whoever they're working with and just get tons and tons of feedback. So it's not about asking one or two people. It's about getting actually 1000 of people to respond,…

AI assessment note: “we do a full week where they actually have to go out into the street”

Q And you also said about kind of compelling stories. Are there any types of stories that are much more compelling than others? Because you stated that, you know, a launch isn't actually that groundbreaking. What makes it compelling?

A So I think, uh, it, again, really depends on the product and on what you can do with it, the kind of difference that it's going to make in the world. So I, I remember I had one company, and I use this example a lot, um, I had one company that they essentially would allow you to make a magazine, so they had a software that would let you kind of make a magazine, and you could print it out, um, and so I didn't actually find that product to be really that revolutionary. I thought, you know, that's That's great, but I don't know what I'm going to write about that. And they had something like, you know, several hundred customers, but it wasn't anything really that exceptional. Um, but the founder was a bit persistent and he kept saying, no, come on, I want to meet and I have something, you know, something in there is going to be a story. So finally I said, you know, okay, great. I'll meet you. And I remember when he started pitching me the whole story, he said, oh, well, we've had, you know, customers since, you know, this date. And one of our customers was this eight year old boy. And I thought, wow, if you had said that, that would have been amazing. So your product essentially allows an eight-year-old kid to make a magazine. And so that ended up becoming the story. And once TechCrunch released, it got picked up by other publications in France. But I think sometimes it can be about…

AI assessment note: “I think sometimes it can be about looking at a really unique angle of your product.”

Q Okay, on, on the back of that then, it's coding from scratch. Where should one start?

A So I think you actually have tons of online resources, uh, that are available. You have, you know, tons of webinars, and MOOCs, and things like that. You have a lot of different programs. I think there's, you know, Econne Quaranteux, which is the 42 school that Xavier Nel has launched, is, um, is a great program as well, and it's free, and it's for everybody of all nationalities, so I think, you know, there's some initiatives like that which are really exceptional, but otherwise, I actually love to recommend, um, uh, Le Vagon, Which is a French program. Actually very inexpensive, and I've heard a lot of people have a really great experience with it, so I think that's a great one. Otherwise, obviously I'm a fan of girls in tech intro to code classes as well.

AI assessment note: “I actually love to recommend, um, uh, Le Vagon, Which is a French program.”

Q And what more do you think can be done to kind of unite the European tech communities together?

A Oh, there's so much that we can do. So I, I have to say I love the initiative for the single digital market, but I still feel like it's very vague. They have kind of like the, the basic kind of lines of what they want to work on. They want to make legislation much more uniform. They want to work on their data laws, things like that. Um, but I do think that even when you look at, for example, local lobbies, local initiatives, it still feels like a lot of European countries are competing with each other. And I often use the example of, um, Tech City in the UK, and La French Tech in France, which are more or less equivalent, and I feel like there's so little that they do together, and that is something, for example, I'd like to see more of. I think we have lobbies that are doing the same things in, in various countries, and there's no kind of forum for them to all work together and really collaborate on making that happen, and there's countries that still don't even have these organizations, so I think there's still a lot that we can do.

AI assessment note: “there's no kind of forum for them to all work together and really collaborate”

Q Okay, so they have 10 minutes. That, that's, you know, it's not a long amount of time. What would you like to hear? What, what makes you get excited?

A Well, obviously we're looking for companies, you know, we have certain criteria that we're looking for, so we want to see, you know, is it a solid team? Do they actually, are they doing the technical development in-house? Do they have actually a technical product? Because a lot of actually startups today are very services oriented, and we're actually really looking for something tech. Um, but then I think what actually gets me personally excited for any startup is really why are they doing what they're doing? And I think you can get Any entrepreneur that, you know, sees an opportunity and goes after it, but understanding what drives them, what expertise they have that can really make their business a success, that's actually quite rare. So that's what I'm usually looking to hear from them.

AI assessment note: “what actually gets me personally excited for any startup is really why are they doing”

Q And what more do you think can be done to kind of unite the European tech communities together?

A Oh, there's so much that we can do. So I, I have to say I love the initiative for the single digital market, but I still feel like it's very vague. They have kind of like the, the basic kind of lines of what they want to work on. They want to make legislation much more uniform. They want to work on their data laws, things like that. Um, but I do think that even when you look at, for example, local lobbies, local initiatives, it still feels like a lot of European countries are competing with each other. And I often use the example of, um, Tech City in the UK, and La French Tech in France, which are more or less equivalent, and I feel like there's so little that they do together, and that is something, for example, I'd like to see more of. I think we have lobbies that are doing the same things in, in various countries, and there's no kind of forum for them to all work together and really collaborate on making that happen, and there's countries that still don't even have these organizations, so I think there's still a lot that we can do.

AI assessment note: “there's no kind of forum for them to all work together and really collaborate”

Q in a recent interview, you said about platform dependency and validating customer product fit as two of the biggest problems you faced with the companies. With the likes of Meerkat, you know, relying on Twitter heavily, and, and a lot of startups missing the product market fit, how do you avoid these problems at Microsoft, and what would you advise founders maybe assessing whether their product does fit the market?

A So I think we're starting to see fewer companies, uh, that have issues with platform dependency. So we've had a couple of examples, um, you know, in France, there was a few years ago a company called App Gratis, and they were, uh, they were in the Apple store. They were promoting different apps, and Apple essentially just cut them, uh, and that killed their business. Um, so I think, you know, we're, since that one, I think we're seeing fewer companies that choose one platform or one distribution channel. Um, and that is really something that we're looking for and we're encouraging, even though obviously at the end of the day, if everybody was full stack Microsoft, it would be great, but it maybe actually wouldn't be great in the long term for the company. So we're, we're trying to get that message out. And in terms of customer product fit, um, that is something that actually we do in the beginning of the ventures program to verify that before they even dive into developing their product further or their customer base further, um, That they're actually developing the right product and working with the right product in front of them. So we do a full week where they actually have to go out into the street or call up whoever they're working with and just get tons and tons of feedback. So it's not about asking one or two people. It's about getting actually 1000 of people to respond,…

AI assessment note: “we do a full week where they actually have to go out into the street”

Q And you also said about kind of compelling stories. Are there any types of stories that are much more compelling than others? Because you stated that, you know, a launch isn't actually that groundbreaking. What makes it compelling?

A So I think, uh, it, again, really depends on the product and on what you can do with it, the kind of difference that it's going to make in the world. So I, I remember I had one company, and I use this example a lot, um, I had one company that they essentially would allow you to make a magazine, so they had a software that would let you kind of make a magazine, and you could print it out, um, and so I didn't actually find that product to be really that revolutionary. I thought, you know, that's That's great, but I don't know what I'm going to write about that. And they had something like, you know, several hundred customers, but it wasn't anything really that exceptional. Um, but the founder was a bit persistent and he kept saying, no, come on, I want to meet and I have something, you know, something in there is going to be a story. So finally I said, you know, okay, great. I'll meet you. And I remember when he started pitching me the whole story, he said, oh, well, we've had, you know, customers since, you know, this date. And one of our customers was this eight year old boy. And I thought, wow, if you had said that, that would have been amazing. So your product essentially allows an eight-year-old kid to make a magazine. And so that ended up becoming the story. And once TechCrunch released, it got picked up by other publications in France. But I think sometimes it can be about…

AI assessment note: “it can be about looking at a really unique angle of your product.”

Q And are there any further initiatives you'd like to see implemented that could improve the gender balance, be it, you know, government or, or any other startups? How would you like to see implementations done?

A So I think a lot will actually come down to education. Um, with Microsoft, we actually do this annual event called Digi Girls, where we bring in girls that are usually about somewhere between 10 and 12, and we can show them, you know, we're trying to show them what they can do with a career in the tech space, and last year was the first year I did this event, and I heard some of the most ridiculous cliches you can imagine. Girls who said, I don't want to, you know, work in tech because I don't want to spend my life in front of a screen. I want to be able to talk to people. I mean, they really just have a vision of working in tech that's not at all the reality. It's very sad. It is very sad, and when you kind of dig deeper, you realize that, you know, what is presented to them as tech in school, so they have some tech, uh, classes, or, you know, how to type and use different computer programs and things like that that they learn, but it's not presented them, uh, to them in a way that really shows how creative one can be, that really shows how Everything you can build. So this year when they came to us and you tell them, you know, I don't know if you realize this, girls, but actually all the applications you have on your phone that you love, Instagram, Snapchat, I don't know what else, this is all tech. And if you guys have great ideas for products like this, you could potentiall…

AI assessment note: “maybe we have to completely rethink tech education, um, in classrooms to really make a difference.”

Q And then for you personally, how have you seen the French tech ecosystem grow since you've moved there?

A Oh my gosh, it's been incredible. So I actually often face, I tell people that, you know, the Bay Area is very impressive, and there's a lot going on in Silicon Valley, but the progress and the development that I have seen since arriving in France, uh, has really just outperformed, uh, Silicon Valley. So when I arrived end of 2009, uh, I think it was the first startup weekend events, you know, there was not a lot going on in the ecosystem. There were, there were funds, there were startups, and I think Beginning of 2010, it just really took off. We started to see new funds getting launched later that year. We had announcements for the first accelerators. And since then, I feel like France has just come an incredibly long way. We now have, um, a minister for the digital economy. They're starting to really pay attention to trying to create a stronger entrepreneurial environment, you know, place where really businesses can launch and grow. And I think that's something we didn't see Five years ago.

AI assessment note: “So when I arrived end of 2009, uh, I think it was the first startup weekend”

Q And we mentioned the increase in funding, uh, VC funding in Europe. Have we seen also quite a big increase in US funds entering the European tech market, do you think?

A Yeah, that is something I've been surprised at. Um, that's something that we mentioned vaguely in our, in our last podcast, but a few months ago, I started to feel like I was feeling like a lot of these different US VCs, especially the top tier ones, were starting to look more and more to Europe. So I think there was, for example, Fred Wilson, uh, who published a post saying that they've actually had quite a few investments in Europe, We started to see we had, you know, it's, it's interesting to see even just which VCs come over for some of these bigger conferences. I think it's like them kind of dipping their feet in and seeing what's going on out here. Um, and then I was surprised to even see, you know, Andreessen has done investment. I think if you look at every single American top tier fund, you will have at least one European investment today.

AI assessment note: “Yeah, that is something I've been surprised at.”

Q Okay, so they have 10 minutes. That, that's, you know, it's not a long amount of time. What would you like to hear? What, what makes you get excited?

A Well, obviously we're looking for companies, you know, we have certain criteria that we're looking for, so we want to see, you know, is it a solid team? Do they actually, are they doing the technical development in-house? Do they have actually a technical product? Because a lot of actually startups today are very services oriented, and we're actually really looking for something tech. Um, but then I think what actually gets me personally excited for any startup is really why are they doing what they're doing? And I think you can get Any entrepreneur that, you know, sees an opportunity and goes after it, but understanding what drives them, what expertise they have that can really make their business a success, that's actually quite rare. So that's what I'm usually looking to hear from them.

AI assessment note: “what actually gets me personally excited for any startup is really why are they doing”

Q And then what advice would you give then to people contemplating moving?

A So I think it's been actually a huge asset, uh, living abroad. Sometimes I think, you know, had I stayed in the valley where everyone is just so remarkable, it's kind of like the top tier is really competing to stand out. I think when you change countries, by default, you actually open yourself up to a lot of opportunities because you're very unique, you have a very different profile. So I think actually, um, moving to, especially a non-English speaking country for English speaker, I got a lot of I think opportunities that I may not have had elsewhere. And then going from there to the UK, I think when you have actually access to different ecosystems, you have a completely different network, a completely different vision. So people oftentimes, you know, they come to me and they say, well, I need your help with, you know, X, Y, Z. And I think that would not be the case if I had stayed where I was.

AI assessment note: “I think when you change countries, by default, you actually open yourself up”

Q And we mentioned the increase in funding, uh, VC funding in Europe. Have we seen also quite a big increase in US funds entering the European tech market, do you think?

A Yeah, that is something I've been surprised at. Um, that's something that we mentioned vaguely in our, in our last podcast, but a few months ago, I started to feel like I was feeling like a lot of these different US VCs, especially the top tier ones, were starting to look more and more to Europe. So I think there was, for example, Fred Wilson, uh, who published a post saying that they've actually had quite a few investments in Europe, We started to see we had, you know, it's, it's interesting to see even just which VCs come over for some of these bigger conferences. I think it's like them kind of dipping their feet in and seeing what's going on out here. Um, and then I was surprised to even see, you know, Andreessen has done investment. I think if you look at every single American top tier fund, you will have at least one European investment today.

AI assessment note: “Yeah, that is something I've been surprised at.”

Q And then what advice would you give then to people contemplating moving?

A So I think it's been actually a huge asset, uh, living abroad. Sometimes I think, you know, had I stayed in the valley where everyone is just so remarkable, it's kind of like the top tier is really competing to stand out. I think when you change countries, by default, you actually open yourself up to a lot of opportunities because you're very unique, you have a very different profile. So I think actually, um, moving to, especially a non-English speaking country for English speaker, I got a lot of I think opportunities that I may not have had elsewhere. And then going from there to the UK, I think when you have actually access to different ecosystems, you have a completely different network, a completely different vision. So people oftentimes, you know, they come to me and they say, well, I need your help with, you know, X, Y, Z. And I think that would not be the case if I had stayed where I was.

AI assessment note: “moving to, especially a non-English speaking country for English speaker, I got a lot”