They have been supported by great personalities such as Frédéric Mazzella, CEO of BlaBlaCar ; Céline Lazorthes, CEO of Leetchi ; Olivier Attia, a serial entrepreneur in New York for 15 years.

They have met big companies such as SNCF and BNP Paribas (two other partners) during two speed-dating sessions.

Le Camping is proud to present its Demo Day Tour #4

The Europas hit Berlin yesterday evening with over 1,000 guests gathering to celebrate the best of the continent’s tech entrepreneurship.

Le Camping was there, nominated in the category “Best Accelerator”! It was great to be in competition with other places in Europe like Seedcamp (winner in this category, congrats to them!), TechHub, GammaRebels, StartupBootCamping, Springboard. Furthermore, the real awards yesterday for us was to see 2 startups of us winning 2 great prizes!

Sketchfab, Best “Lightweight” Startup

Sketchfab, a startup from season 3, has been chosen as the Best “Lightweight” Startup ! They make 3D on the Web a reality and have been created by two great entrepreneurs, Alban Denoyel and Cédric Pinson. After Le Camping, they passed through the Mozilla’sWeb FWD accelerator.

Qunb, Best French Startup

Qunb, season 2, has been elected as the Best French Startup. This great team of smart and experienced entrepreneurs is composed of Cyrille Vincey and Jean-Baptiste Théard.

Having already won Le Web startup competition in december, they are receiving a lot of recognition at this moment and it makes us proud.

The platform  of Qunb permits you to find any number you need, with the certainty you are using valide data, and they are now working at “The Chaudron”,  a co-working space created by the season 2 startups. 

If you’re a startup you may been wondering how Le Camping selection process works and what goes on behind the scenes of this community-based accelerator.

Le Camping opened applications for Season 4 34 days ago. D-5 ! 

During this application period, many startups came to Le Camping to learn more about the program and experience the environment that makes it so unique. About 100 entrepreneurs came to Le Camping to attend the Insiders Sessions that have been going on since December.

WHAT LE CAMPING LOOKS FOR IS SIMPLE

Great entrepreneurs in complementary teams:

** Ready to execute a brilliant idea, hand in hand with users

** Able to listen and use Le Camping’s pool of mentors and experts,

** Capable of understanding the meaning and value of a growing community.

PHASE 1: from January 22th to February 5th

Thirty of Le Camping’s mentors and experts, and also Campers from seasons 1, 2 and 3, are assigned relevant applications based on their expertise and skills. Many are entrepreneurs, some are investors and others are experts in a particular field. This wide variety of skills makes for an excellent panel of evaluators.

Each application is reviewed by at least 3 evaluators and rated on a 6-star system based on 3 main criteria: team, product, innovation. Evaluators add comments for the teams in order to provide feedback. In the end, 50 applications remain…!

PHASE 2, SKYPE TIME (Feb. 10, 11, 13, 14)

Each team is scheduled for a video conference interview with a panel of 5 people. We spend time learning about the team and understanding how they view their project.

It’s not about the idea, but rather about the team, their vision and their fit with Le Camping.
From this phase, only 24 teams are retained.

PHASE 3, FORMAL MEETINGS (Feb. 20-22)

With participation from mentors, experts and partners, the panel of 8 evaluators becomes even more diverse. The teams pitch and demo for 8 minutes.

The pitch is followed by a Q&A session with the team that helps us learn more about the project and clarify any unclear points.

In addition, it’s the best time to feel the people. We like motivation, excitement, passion and contribution. If it’s the right fit, then the team moves into the big leagues. The 12 selected teams have a chance to make history as Le Camping’s fourth class.

We thank all the participants for the trust they have put in us ! 

Le Camping Team

We are currently looking for an amazing EIR able to challenge, boost, and make the start-ups of  season 4 reach higher and higher :

Someone with real knowledge and experience of what means to create a startup, how specific it should be, internationally connected, smart, english-native, with its own personality… well, a gem hard to find !

The EIR holds a great responsibility, as he is responsible for the general direction and acceleration of the startups in residence.

To be a good fit with our program and our team, you should have already created your startup or being associated to, have a good understanding of startup financing, be comfortable with product development methods and truly enjoy working with and challenging motivated entrepreneurs !

Key Responsibilities

The Entrepreneur in Residence at Le Camping is a critical role for the operation and growth of the program and is in charge of:

Startup Management

*** Challenge and solve problem with Le Camping startups day-to-day

*** Apply pressure to startups to accelerate development, big picture and granular, respectively

*** Understand problem areas and what category mentor they should be connecting with

*** Hold startups accountable to various deliverables throughout the program

Mentor Relations

*** Effectively connect startups to mentors with complementary skill sets or expertise

*** Work with Community Manager to better engage mentors with the program

Program Execution

*** Ensure startups are participating within the greater curriculum

*** Collect and qualitatively analyze deliverables and progress

*** Assist startups in preparing for various milestones in four core categories: 1) Product Development 2) Customer/Business Development 3) Fundraising 4) Talent Acquisition

Investor Relations

*** Interface directly with the local investment community

*** Evangelize LE Camping companies to relevant investors

*** Assist in the planning and execution of large events (Demo Day, exhibitions, shows, Media Day, etc.)

Job Criteria

*** Ability to effectively analyze and spot problem areas (need to pivot)

*** Strong communication, interpersonal and networking skills

*** Self-starter, strong time management skills and ability to multi-task

*** Experience in one or more web startups

*** Deep understanding and appreciation for leveraging web technology

*** Able to learn, adapt and implement new skills

Other Details

*** The EIR role requires a native English speaker !

*** Le Camping will assist in the acquisition of your work visa.

*** Timeframe – As soon as possible through August 2013

- January and February 2013: Selection of Le Camping’s next 12 startups

- March 2013: Beginning of the Program

- May 2013: Demo Day – Paris -  London, Berlin

- September 2013: Media Day

*** Contact: elise@lecamping.org ***

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What is Le Camping ?

Our program helps innovative teams and Web entrepreneurs to accelerate their development by providing free space to gathering 12 startups 24/7 in the former stock exchange building (La Bourse), located in the middle of Paris.

60 mentors are dedicated to supporting the 12 teams by providing them their expertise and opening their networks to help the startups grow rapidly.

Le Camping’s team consists of 3 people full-time dedicated to creating a customized, adapted and flexible program.

In addition, lawyers, accountants and a public relations support are included for free. The Camping experience is focused on rapid acceleration, but also immerses startups into a strong community of young and passionate entrepreneurs.

Because here at Le Camping, we definitely didn’t. Christmas spirit got us all. The stockings are empty, the gifts have been unwrapped, the food has been devoured, and Christmas is over — or is it?

Because we’d love to extend a little bit more the “gifts’ time”, a selection of our start-ups has decided to spoil you a little. Dear readers, I invite you to discover what they have concocted you. It’s also the perfect time, before the beginning of the new season 4, to get to know them better and update you with their last news.

	Poutsch offers a new widget to easily integrate issues in blogs or websites. It allows publishers to increase their interactivity and to make community grow faster. Check all the info here. And for those who want to integrate it now, the instructions are available here. Merry Christmas !
	Jellynote offers you the sheet music of the most famous christmas song“White Christmas” by Bing Crosby. This song has been performed for the first time on NBC on Christmas Day 1941. » Happy whatever to the community ! Click and see your gift.
	TVShow Time, lot of happy time in front of your favorite series. A special christmas article to discover !
	Sketchfab offers you a playmobil santa !
	Augment offers you a Christmas tree to print at home ! But first, test it on your desk in Augmented Reality with Augment.

The applications for

Let’s get it started,  show us what your start-up is made of and live the great experience of 6 months of acceleration. 

After three successful seasons comprised of 36 startups in full acceleration, 55% raised funds, 60% have clients and 100% have created innovative and cohesive communities, Le Camping is trucking forward and launching a 4th season.

Entrepreneurs, engineers, designers, marketers, developers, WOMEN, doers, come on!

Accelerate the development of your startup, from prototype to business, and live an immersive experience in full within the local technology ecosystem.

Season 4… from March to August 2013!

Important dates

• December 11th, to end of January: candidates apply! Go!
• February: Selection process in 3 phases
• March: Season 4 begins! (with a Demo Day at the end of May)

Do you need more info about Le Camping ?

To answer all your questions (about the program and the founding principles), we are organizing Insiders Sessions once every two weeks, until the 21st January, last deadline to apply. The first Insiders Session will take place on Thursday 13th Dec. at 7.00 pm at Le Camping. Sign up here!

Next sessions (to register, write an email to aviva@lecamping.org)

• December, 27th
• January, 8th
• January 15th

The applications will be opened on Tuesday 11th Dec. !! (already)

Will you be among the 12 teams and have the chance to live the experience…?

After three successful seasons comprised of 36 startups in full acceleration, 55% raised funds, 60% have clients and 100% have created innovative and cohesive communities, Le Camping is trucking forward and launching a 4th season.

CHECK OUT SOME FRESH DATA !

Entrepreneurs, engineers, designers, marketers, developers, WOMEN, doers, come on!

Accelerate the development of your startup, from prototype to business, and live an immersive experience in full within the local technology ecosystem.

Season 4… from March to August 2013!

Important dates

• Tuesday, December 11th, to end of January: candidates apply! Go!
• February: Selection process in 3 phases
• March: Season 4 begins! (with a Demo Day at the end of May)

Program: from prototype to product, from product to clients, from raising funds to international markets

Ressources: 3+ dedicated team members – One community of Amazing Campers – 60 mentors – One open space in the former Stock Exchange place – 4,500 euros per team – 0% equity

Do you need more info about Le Camping ?

To answer all your questions (about the program and the founding principles), we are organising an Insiders Session on Thursday 13th Dec. at 7.00 pm at Le Camping. Sign up here!

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Learn more about Le Camping!

Le Camping is a response to the needs of a new generation of Web entrepreneurs

This concept of accelerated incubation was launched in 2005 by the now notorious, Y-Combinator, in the heart of Silicon Valley. DropBox and AirBnB are among the success stories that have solidified the model and endowed the program with its reputation.

Ever since, we have been at the forefront of an emergence of this model, where in the US now more than 50 accelerator programs have been launched.

France, a country of excellent engineers and designers, world-renowned talent and entrepreneurs willing to adapt an international dimension to their projects, could not afford to do without an accelerator. In order to respond to this need and address this challenge, Le Camping was created less than 2 years ago, in january 2011.

The experience from season 1,2 & 3!

Le Camping has accompanied 36 startups. In all, 5 million euros were raised by 55% of them;  jobs were created (+150) and 60% have signed with clients including large companies like SNCF, Orange, Bouygues…

The experience is extremely beneficial for the selected entrepreneurs and furthermore fundamental in encouraging and communicating entrepreneurial culture.

The entire Camping model was founded on the philosophy of community between those that have seen success and those that are just beginning their own adventure. After almost two years, it’s also a Alumni network of 100 entrepreneurs making up the “Brotherhood”. This type of exchange is integrated into the program and continues after the 6 months of acceleration.

The Camping program

Upon arrival in the prestigious Palais Brongniart, the former Paris stock exchange building, the startups enter into a 3 month phase of acceleration with one goal: create a Beta version of their product, find their first clients or users, learn to pitch.

This phase culminates with Demo Day: in Paris, London, and Berlin for the season 3, the 12 teams present their projects in front of more than 100 French and international investors.

This exercise drops them into the reality of the startup world and allows them to develop links with business angels and funds.

The 3 following months are built on raising funds, developping the product and community, international penetration and preparation for what comes next.

Over 6 months, mentors – seasoned and willing Web entrepreneurs, inspirationnal people – intervene each week in order to share their experiences, listen to and challenge the young Camping teams.

Silicon Sentier

Le Camping is a project launched in 2011 by Silicon Sentier. Created in 2000, Silicon Sentier aided in the growth of the digital economy and participated in the emergence of an innovative ecosystem in Ile-de-France.

Year after year, the ambition of the association involved the deployment of new projects such as the opening and development of a network of Cantines (branded co-working spaces) in France and abroad, and the establishment of Silicon Xperience, a user testing lab for innovative SMBs.

Come to pitch!

On Thursday 8^th November (14.00 – 16.00pm), Bernard Liautaud, partner in one of the most important VC firms in Europe, will be hosting an Open House session at ATEAC Trocadéro.

What is it? In what kind of startups does Balderton Capital invest generally? Lucy Baker answers our questions!

15 minutes to convince

The “Open house session” is a great opportunity for 8 startups to pitch in front of Bernard Liautaud (15 minutes). Applicants are advised to bring a short presentation&demo and should be able to answer these questions: what problem are you trying to solve? Who and how big is your target market? What’s unique about your product versus what is offered in the market today?

Can you tell us more about Balderton Capital and Bernard Liautaud?

Bernard Liautaud is one of Europe’s most successful entrepreneurs and a high profile investor.

Having founded Business Objects in 1990, the company became the world leader in Business Intelligence and it was subsequently acquired by SAP AG for $6.7 billion, making it the third largest software acquisition at the time.

Bernard now works as a General Partner at Balderton Capital(@Balderton), one of the largest Venture Firms in Europe. Balderton has c. $2 billion funds under management and their notable investments include Bebo, wooga, Wonga, YOOX, MySQL, and Betfair.

In what kind of startups does Balderton Capital invest generally? High tech, social gaming, social media, education, Health, etc.?

We are open minded and will look at any sector, however we focus on markets that are ripe for disruption. Naturally, this tends towards high-growth technology markets, such as e-commerce, consumer internet and software.

In which startup Balderton has invested, succesfully, and why?

We recently invested in Tictail, dubbed as the “Tumblr of ecommerce” by Wired magazine. It allows anyone to create a bespoke online store for free and has a unique approach to the user interface: the ‘to-do feed’.

It serves as a personal marketing and sales assistant, generating daily tasks tailored to each retailer to improve customer relations. Tictail’s ambitions have been global from the outset and their technology is truly disruptive, but what really stood out for us is the fit between the potential of the opportunity and the DNA of the team.

To apply for a slot please like us on Facebook, then send us a direct message giving an overview of your business. We will endeavour to confirm successful applicants by Friday 2nd November.

]]> http://www.lecamping.org/event/opportunity-to-pitch-to-balderton-capital/feed/ 0 http://www.lecamping.org/news/remixjobs-is-getting-involved-with-le-camping/ http://www.lecamping.org/news/remixjobs-is-getting-involved-with-le-camping/#comments Fri, 12 Oct 2012 08:42:02 +0000 Elise http://www.lecamping.org/?p=10055 Why do we love mini-partnerships?

Because they spread a lot of happiness around the place! Happy are the Campers who’ve got a high-performance tool that makes their lives easy ; and happy is the startup which develops the tool and sees it introduced within the active community of startupers and dynamic entrepreneurs, opening new developmental horizons.

“A job board designed for web-based professionals”

The most recent one? RemixJobs. What exactly is it, though?

Florent Paret is a 23-year-old business developer at RemixJobs, speaking from Bordeaux, where he spends most of his working days. He gave us the low down on RemixJobs.

“RemixJobs is a job board designed for web-based professionals, created in 2010. It’s made up of over 40 000 enrolled applicants who specialize in technical or other domains (developers, designers, SEO/SEM managers, community managers…). It’s also a modern job board which takes after French start ups: young, dynamic and passionate.”

“So very logical to get involved with Le Camping!“

“We’re really happy to be working with Le Camping, which has this young dynamic and passionate vibe going on that we just love.

The startups there are very promising and it seems like they really want to go that one step further.

We support a great deal of creation and development within startups in France. It was a real no-brainer to get involved with Le Camping, with whom we share many common goals”.

***To get an idea, check this video out***

It gives us great pleasure to see our model reproduced in the ecosystem in the South of France.

Manon Sibra, co-ordinator of both TIC Valley and Le Camping Toulouse came up in May to have a look at the way things worked with the outlook of creating a new accelerator.

A few months later, here we are, Le Camping Toulouse is open for business, ready to welcome 6 new startups… Know more about it in this post!

Young, fresh out of ESC Toulouse, Manon has been passionate about the startup spirit ever since she did an internship at Scoop.it (which was, at the time, called Goojet). A challenge-aholic, she labors with the conviction that whatever can be done to promote startups should be done.

“A golden opportunity “

“We took full advantage of the inauguration of the new TIC Valley headquarters to announce the 6 projects selected to be part of Le Camping Toulouse. These companies moving into our new building at TIC Valley really does mark a page in the history of the organization which has clearly establish its strong dynamic prioritizing innovation and startups.

At the inauguration, with the many different economic players present, not to mention many investors, it truly was a golden opportunity to introduce our Campers!

Little by little, these fledgling startups will build their buzz and we hope that they will take flight and become real success stories.

The mentor will help for that, as Marc Rougier from Scoop.it, Ludovic Le Moan from Sigfox, Thierry Merquiol from Wiseed, Stéphane Contrepois from MyFeelBack, Maxime Garrigigues, Associate Director at X-PRIME Groupe. Check them out!

And those little seeds of yours, what are they like?

The startups at Le Camping Toulouse are truly promising and hold huge potential for innovation!

The fields differ: the protection of personal privacy with regards to social networks ; the internet of things ; event recommendations ; tailored travel packages ; collective fundraising platforms for independent fashion designers ; the creation of a reader to identify and interact with all mobiles.

“Now, we have to put into practice all the advice we’ve received“

“It’s only the beginning so there’s obviously lots of work both for them and us but the next big challenge will be to put into practice all the advice we’ve received from the mentors and the talents of the various collaborators from TIC Valley to push their projects forward. At the end of the first three months we’re also planning a Demo Day, inspired by what Le Camping Paris does”.

<3 Check out the Facebook Page & Twitter and follow Le Camping Toulouse <3