Station F was a center of innovation, even before it was Station F

A couple of years ago an online magazine asked me to do a light feature on Station F as a tourist attraction for architecture buffs and history buffs. With Station F going from success to success and becoming the ever-stronger heartbeat of innovation in France, it occurs to me now that a few first-time visitors might like to know  the story behind Station F. This is what I said in 2022. (Some of the data has been overtaken by subsequent events. Please forgive me.)

Station F: A technology campus that actually has class

I was surprised by my reaction to Station F, the world’s biggest startup campus, a mammoth almost 54,000–square-foot structure in Paris. This sucker is huge. It is slightly longer than the Eiffel Tower is tall. I’ve seen a lot of technology-focused buildings in Southern California and they generally have about as much charm as a suburban hospital.

Would Paris come up with something that lame? Thank God, no! This thing really grabbed me.  It has a long history of being a home to innovation. The entrepreneur who created Station F,  Xavier Niel, intended to build a facility for the innovators who will create the future while paying homage to an innovator of the past. And I think he succeeded. 

The original building was a railway freight terminal called La Halle Freyssinet, named after structural and civil engineer Eugène Freyssinet, who designed it in the 1920’s. Freyssinet employed many techniques that were viewed as innovative in his day. After it ceased to be used as a freight terminal, there were times when it might have been demolished but the structure is now protected as a national monument.

The renovation to turn La Halle Freyssinet into Station F shows genuine respect for the original industrial character of the space and you can feel it. The low-key nod to Freyssinet is even subtly reflected in the cafe out front, the Anticafe with its exposed steel structural members and industrial-style lighting.

I spent some time in the Anticafe to see if the vibe there was about the same as what I have sensed in the cafes where tech workers set up their laptops in San Francisco and San Jose. Yes it was. 

The Anticafe charges for your time there because it encourages its use as an incredibly informal co-working space. I bought 15 minutes and an espresso. I overstayed my 15 minutes to see what would happen. Nothing happened. The barista was quite accommodating.

Within the historic walls of Station F there are more than 1,000 startup businesses. About a third of them are from outside France and 40% of these companies were founded by women. Station F is working hard to encourage and support female startup founders and I’m glad to see that.

It has always seemed to me that trying to pull off something like Station F was a gutsy play. As it turns out, the people who launched it were quite aware of the possibility that this adventure might turn out to be a costly train wreck.

Station F’s director, Roxanne VARZA , recalls what it was like in the beginning:  “When we launched Station F in 2017, filling our space with 1,000 startups seemed like an objective that was borderline ridiculous. Many people thought that there may not even be 1,000 startups in the whole of France to begin with. Yet, during our first year, we amassed some 11,000 startup applications from around the world.”

Years later, France is really “on a roll” in its effort to become a “startup nation.”  One of the first things French President Emmanuel Macron did after taking office was to fly to California to speak to a gathering of venture capital and technology investors. He made it clear that France is putting out the welcome mat for startups and venture capital.

Not long after that. Macron established a goal for France to have 25 home-grown “unicorns,” startups with valuations of $1 billion or more, by 2025.  This January (2022 when I wrote this) the French warehouse robotics startup  Exotec raised $335 million of new capital and achieved a valuation of $2 billion.  Macron announced that France had its 25th “unicorn” – three years early.

The venture capital researcher PitchBook informs me that in January (2022) venture capital investors put more money into startups in France than in Germany which is Europe’s biggest economy. Things are looking good for startups in France. Station F in Paris could be on its way to becoming the beating heart of innovation in Europe.