Hollande Charms San Francisco and Unveils New Kludge

It is hard to ignore that Francois Hollande paid a quick visit to San Francisco on Wednesday, Feb. 12, during his state visit to the United States! In barely 12 hours, the president must have pulled off a masterful stroke of communication. Flanked by several heavy hitters of his government, like Laurent Fabius, Arnaud Montebourg, Nicole Bricq and Fleur Pellerin, Hollande succeeding in delivering a love letter to entrepreneurs who certainly were not expecting one.

So that we can judge for ourselves: the mayor’s delivery of the city keys, lunch with Silicon Valley heavy hitters, like Jack Dorsey (Twitter), Eric Schmidt (Google) and Sheryl Sandberg (Facebook), launch of the French Tech Hub, but what’s that then … — meeting with French entrepreneurs like Carlos Diaz, founder of The Pigeon Movement, then meeting with 2,800 French people in the area before hopping on the plane for Paris … the president kept busy!

A Well-Executed Communication Operation

And we have to be honest: The affair was conducted with talent and skill, by a president in good spirits, but quite frankly, it was not a win. The French people living in the San Francisco Bay Area, who had not seen a president of the Republic since Francois Mitterand 30 years ago, are not known for their friendships with the left.

In politics, everything is often in the tempo, agenda and that pinch of spice that gets the sauce going. We had all of that.

The speech was carefully choreographed to charm, both during the meeting organized with hand-picked entrepreneurs and according to the French community, which received kind words of affection and honored the president with a bath of warm wishes, of which he availed himself with visible pleasure. And the now-famous “hug” for Carlos Diaz, founder of the Pigeon Movement, in the guise of a sign of peace … frankly, that was well-played.

Some Political Posturing, But …

But, look! Behind the façade and very pretty spectacle, another reality is shaping up. First, the president did not broach those subjects that make people angry. Yahoo! — the Dailymotion affair and the company pulling out of France and into Ireland, largely for financial reasons — was not a part of it, nor was the delicate tax business with Google approached, and Netflix, the online video platform that we may potentially see in France this fall, was not on the agenda either. In short, we were satisfied with pure and strong communication. It is true that Hollande met with Carlos Diaz courageously, and their embrace will go down as one of the great moments of this visit, but still, it’s a matter of communication first.

The president’s declarations are interesting, but that’s it. The kind words are useful, but they are insufficient in establishing a lasting relationship.

A Kludge … Another One!

Finally, and most importantly, the launch of the French Tech Hub was not convincing. In San Francisco, a multitude of bodies that look to facilitate business, in every sense, already represent France: to France, from France, between the French, with the French, to the regions, from the regions. They are called the Consulate General, French-American Chamber of Commerce, UBIFrance, Prime — for the Ile de France region…. To think, over 60,000 French people work in the area, and a good part of them are only there to help the other ones. In short, the measure is unreadable, and the money is scattered. Instead of simplifying — putting under one roof all of its discordant egos, like Switzerland with its Swissnex, for example — France, yet again, adopts an extra measure.

The French Tech Hub, meant to guide French startups looking to get a foothold in Silicon Valley, thus adds to all of that. It is incidentally born of a previous presence, HubTech 21, quickly repainted with the colors of its new sponsors. Yet, history shows that French companies with a serious chance of taking root in Silicon Valley very successfully pass on this type of service, which provides fairly limited added value. It is more efficient for them to jump headfirst into the pool of the local, numerous and very efficient incubators, which will more directly give them access to a much more interesting network, allowing them to attain a more tested level of support. In short, another kludge that the French scene in Silicon Valley could very well do without.

We will hold onto the kind words, the embraces and the “unexpected” crowd for the president. A very nice surprise. And we will surely forget the rest very quickly.