French Tycoon Launches Start-up Incubator

on October 23, 2014 at 3:26 pm

It’s time to move to France.

With one ceremonial push, work has begun in Paris on what French government leaders are calling the world’s largest startup incubator. Startups are not just embarked upon by the recently-graduated, they are also founded by people moving into retirement as there are plenty of reasons why starting a business in retirement can be a fulfilling venture.

Plans have been unveiled by the Journal du Net this week, that France has started construction work to create a 323,000-square-foot business startup incubator space that will be capable of housing at two 1,000 start-up companies. This will leave the companies with sorting out issues such as what payroll software to use or what employee benefits to give, but not worrying about having some fantastic space to work in.

Starting up a business can often be quite a scary thing, so this will hopefully help people feel more comfortable when they are setting up. Understandably, there is a lot that people will need to be worrying about when they do set up a business. Things like whether they should hire in an accountant to help them (e.g. they can check out these Kruze Reviews here to see if it would be worth their time), who they should employ (e.g. how many people, what skills are they looking for), is all things that people need to think about when they are starting up a new business.

The effort is being led by French entrepreneur Xavier Niel, founder of Iliad SA, the broadband and wireless company that has turned France’s telecom industry upside down with its low-cost Free service. Niel recently made waves in the U.S. with Illiad’s now-abandoned bid to acquire T-Mobile.

On Wedesday, Niel was joined in Paris by French president François Hollande to lay the first ceremonial brick for the incubator. The renovation is expected to be completed in 2017.

The French government is underwriting 10% of the costs and hopes the sheer size of the project will reboot the country’s international digital reputation, with hopes that a new startup will be in the works of making a website or product that could innovate industries of the future.

“This historic monument will become a landmark for the future,” Hollande said.