Hiring in Paris, Made International

• We rolled out innovative Plug’ and Play model Paris in November 2018
• We currently have 3 people working with our French clients
• We worked with 5 companies from Paris

Although our headquarters and most of the team are based in Berlin, we are focused on expansion to different markets, with London, where ACELR8 was originally founded, and Paris offering a great opportunity as a rising startup hub. We officially rolled out our Inhouse model on the capital of France in November 2018, after present in the city for more than a year already. Since then, we were able to build a foundation for our local office and get French clients onboard.

Currently, we have three people in the Paris team: Mark Muller, Country Manager for France, Marianne Fournier, Talent Partner with tech-recruiting experience at companies such as Accenture, and Romain Barbason, Tech Research Analyst with a business development background.

Now, having a strong base to work with, we are putting a huge effort into making the Paris startup industry more international by providing it with our expertise and knowledge in the recruitment field.

Startup industry in Paris

A few years ago, Paris’ startup industry was not as vibrant as it is right now. Big corporates backed by the government mostly ruled the tech industry in France. However, recently, it started to change. With successes of companies such as BlaBlaCar or Criteo, more and more young entrepreneurs noticed an opportunity to develop their ideas in France and Paris itself.

A huge boost in the development of the startup community in France is a result of Emmanuel Macron’s work, who, as the French president, focused on making it easier for the tech industry to grow. He achieved it by modernising the legal structure, giving startups more flexibility, and providing access to resources necessary in companies’ development. The primary goal of his actions was to stop French engineers and scientists from moving to different countries in search for better, more exciting job opportunities.

Macron’s activities also resulted in making the job market of France more international and open to non-French-speaking candidates. You can see that French companies, founders, and VCs are opening themselves to enable instant international exposure. Newly created startups already understand that having internal and external communication in English is a key to faster growth. There is even a Talent Visa that allows companies in need of specific skills to get someone to work in France without a visa.

There are also independent initiatives that help Parisian startups grow faster. Best and most-known examples are The Family (a community for entrepreneurs, also operating in Berlin and London) and Station F (a startup accelerator). They are providing startups with different resources, like technologies, office space, and mentorship to overcome the first crucial steps of an early stage company.

ACELR8 in Paris

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Observing how fast the development of startups in Paris is proceeding, we wanted to help French founders in building truly international and diverse teams with our simple approach to recruitment. Our service in Paris is exactly the same to what we offer in Berlin and London, and what we like to call “Recruitment-As-A-Service”. We are taking care of the whole hiring process in startups so that they can focus on building their products/services, saving a lot of time and money.

ACELR8 has been from the beginning passionate about technology,  scaling fast-growing companies and helping its ambitious founders reach success by hiring top talents. Emphasising early on in diversity within ACELR8 and entrepreneurial mindsets, coupled with a passion for technology and startup made it an obvious decision to open our Parisian branch.

So far our clients in Paris included fast-growing tech companies, from Series A and B to C, looking to hire the best talents from France and the rest of the world. We provided them with our hiring resources, industry knowledge, and consultancy on growing their businesses. We worked with TravelCar (where we hired Lead Engineers and Head of Product), Comet (Financial Manager, Community Manager, and their very first Operations Manager), Spendesk (Inhouse), Payfit (finding their first German and British employees who helped them tweak the product for the new markets), and most recently Shift Technology (Inhouse).

For us at ACELR8, working in Paris isn’t that much different from what we experienced in Berlin and London before. When working with clients, our goals are the same, so helping companies of Paris growing wasn’t challenging for us. Of course, there are some cultural differences, as well as the legal ones. The market is still mostly French-speaking, but having five people on board who do speak French made it a no-brainer for us. Furthermore, we are still international advocates when it comes to our partnerships in Paris.

We contribute to the success of high growth startups in France by offering a recruitment-as-a-service that:

• Is 42% cheaper than the traditional agency model
• Integrates into your culture and daily workflows
• Offers flexibility when hiring needs change
• Utilises a network of exceptional talent worldwide

Our future in Paris

Till this point, working in the capital of France allowed us to understand the market and its rules better. The way how companies do operate here are a bit different than in Berlin and London that are more open and international, but it’s great to see that Paris also want to be a part of this movement. We are glad that we can be a part of it and help local startups in their development.

This year, our main focus in France will be growing ACELR8’s talent partner team with smart and passionate people to help our current and future collaborators. It will allow us to develop our range of services in the future so that we can provide even more customised solutions to our current and upcoming partners.

Are you a founder of a startup in Paris? Reach out to Mark to boost hiring in your company.

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