That's a valid problem. If you look beyond startups, the french economy is mostly benemoth (think Total, Bouygues, etc) and small shops (your local boulangerie)

That's a valid problem. If you look beyond startups, the french economy is mostly benemoth (think Total, Bouygues, etc) and small shops (your local boulangerie). There aren't that many mid-size successful companies - even less so in the software space where a big part of the enterprise market is dominated by services led companies. I personally think it has less to do with regulation, and more with the way credit and the banking system works for these kinds of companies - once you're no longer interesting for VCs, the ability to get investments or loan goes down. It may also have to do with the size of the french market overall.