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Hack Day Paris: a 40-hour R&D marathon on November 4-6
- narkee 15y agoIsn't the term R&D being overused? I don't think any research actually happens. Almost by definition, hacking and building things is just development.
- motdiem 15y agoR&D is commonly swapped with 'devs' in French companies
- tripa 15y agoFor fiscal reasons.
- ovi256 15y agoI wanted to share juicy anecdotes about a company I know that does this, but that would be counterproductive. Let's just say asking for tax discounts and credits because you do R&D (or you classify your software dev as R&D) is very usual in France. A key phrase to research if you want to know more is "JEI - jeune entreprise innovante".
- sgentle 15y agoHuh, fascinating. My dilettante translation of the French Wikipedia entry: "The statute of Jeune Enterprise Innovante (JEI), created in the 2004 budget bill, applies to small to medium businesses (in the EU, that means <250 employees, <50mil turnover, <40mil assets). The businesses must be less than 8 years old with R&D representing at least 15% of their expenses." The benefits seem ridiculous. The article says they include exemption from revenue tax, payroll tax and an exemption from capital gains tax for associates (investors? not sure if I read that bit right). Seems like the Wikipedia article might be a bit out of date, though. A French government website had a different list of benefits not including anything about capital gains, but adding an exemption for property tax. Someone native should probably check my understanding, but it looks like you get a pretty sweet deal if you can convince the French government you're doing R&D.
- tripa 15y agoIndeed you get a pretty sweet deal, and I know a few that do. But the R&D benefits aren't only for startups, most big companies try to fit all they can under CIR ("Crédit d'impôt recherche"—research tax exemption).
- skylar 15y agoGood point. It's intended more as a metaphor. Arguably, most companies' R&D departments are little more than "development" anyway. But it is a place where experimentation & innovation is the focus. Hackathons often come out as equally effective sources of R&D compared to formal corporate divisions. But this is Hacker News. It's a bit trite splitting hairs over the definition of "research" and "hack" here, no? :)
- Amokrane 15y agoCool, I think I'll be in! Are there any limitations regarding teams compositions? Is it [1...Inf]?
- alain94040 15y agoUnrelated, but if you are reading this you are probably an entrepreneur in Paris, so you should know that you can join a group of HN-minded people with the Founder Institute Paris's new session. More info at http://founderinstitute.com/apply/paris http://founderinstitute.com/apply/paris
- sgentle 15y agoI'm curious about something. The website's in English (with no French translation), even though presumably all the people involved speak French. Is this a common in the French startup scene? I remember seeing a video from TCFRecipes that was in English too...
- eneveu 15y agoSmall data point, but we all spoke English at the first Paris Hacker Meetup ( http://parishackers.org/ http://parishackers.org/ ), since a few hackers weren't French. This might have been biased, since most people were HN, and HN is in English... ParisJUG (Paris Java User Group) is in French, but we sometimes have foreign speakers giving talks in English. That being said, developers usually know English better, since English is the lingua franca of development.
- ovi256 15y agoEnglish is very fashionable in France, and has been for some while. And most people who went to college will speak it, quite well. Many French startups, if not most, target the wider market, not just France, so English is a must for them.
- mtrn 15y agoNice. I guess I'll take a visit to Paris.