8 French Start-ups will live the American Dream thanks to the "Creative Lab Program"

 8 French start-ups to live the American Dream thanks to the “Creative Lab Program”

The creative lab program helps french start-ups to set up in the USA

When asked about France, many Americans refer to its gastronomy, its luxury industry, its culture or its « French art de vivre », and globally, they are right. Culture is an increasing market, with many business opportunities. In 2014, the cultural departments of the French embassy decided to launch a program in order to promote French start-ups in the United States, with a common cornerstone - culture.

Free for the last two years, the Creative Lab program is now a fee-paying service. A 3,600 euro participation per start-ups is required. This amount allows the organizers to cover a quarter of the final cost. The other three quarters are funded by sponsors, the French cultural departements and Business France^*

New York is the main target

The “French-American creative lab” supports French start-up working in the cultural and creative industry such as imaging, virtual reality, edition, creation, fashion etc. In order to make these abroad implantations easier, this “tailor-made” program provides individual advice and support regarding business meetings and seminars with local players, particularly in New York.

Goals

The purposes of these immersions within the American market are :

• Adapt the products or services to the American client.                                        
• Establish a market strategy for the American Market
• Gain contacts with potential clients and patners in order to launch their product.
• Put the start-ups in contact with the leaders of the creative and cultural sector as well as the most innovative companies on the market and American mentors / experts.
• Increase their visibility in French and American media.
• Discover American cultural and creative trends.

The chosen ones

The 8 chosen start-ups^** for the third edition of the “Creative lab program” are BEAR (augmented reality), BIIN (Apps design), EUVEKA (Smart adaptable manikin), FIREFLY CINEMA (Color management tools), IMITAG (Protection of photos), RACONTR (Creation process), SHORT EDITION (editing), and SKYBOY (Augmented reality).

The participants have been chosen by a jury mostly constituted of American experts, coming from various areas such as technology, media, big corporate groups, investment etc. This year, in order to increase the chances of success, the criteria have been reinforced. For the two previous editions, very young start-ups had been chosen. However, too few of them succeeded to set up, because it was too early for them. This is why, in 2017, mature start-ups, with a solid concept and enough funds, have been preferred, in order to obtain the best chances of sticking with the American market.

“Tailor-made”

The start-ups will fly to America on Novembre 6th and come back on the 15^th. During this period they will be individually supervised by local mentors with the concrete goal of doing business in the United States. To do so, the start-ups will receive help on a one-to-one basis, a kind of “Taylor made” support. Several workshops will be organised to train them and give them knowledge about the local environment for example. Finally, each company will be invited to events dealing with their own business sector, so that they all can enjoy an individualised program, more accurate and more likely to be successful. Thus, they will meet collaborators, clients, and investors, either in groups, or during little individual meetings.

Los Angeles

Previously, the development program only took place in New York.

This year, the city of  Los Angeles has been added to the program. What was originally only an option has become concrete after all start-ups showed a real interest in the location. Following in the footsteps of Silicon Valley, the start-up ecosystem of Los Angeles is fast-growing, and the city has a worldwide reputation culture wise. The cultural and creative industry is thus burgeoning in Los Angeles. With many investment funds, and the Holywood Cinema industry, the city is a very attractive place for start-ups in the creative and cultural industry. Thanks to the presence of giants such as Google, YouTube, Snapchat or Occulus, Los Angeles has become the third technological hub of the United States.

An inescapable location for French start-ups in quest of conquering the United States.

Quentin Bernard

* Agency dedicated to the internationalization of the French economy. http://www.businessfrance.fr/

** http://bear2b.com/ ; https://www.biin.fr/fr/ ; http://euveka.com/fr/accueil/ ; https://fireflycinema.com/ ; https://imatag.com/ ; https://racontr.com/ ; http://short-edition.com// ; http://www.sky-boy.com/Technologie-offre/