**The role of accelerator hubs within mixed-use communities**
BY GREGOIRE MARTINEZ STATIONF.CO
We spoke to Gregoire Martinez, Head of Community and Communications at STATION F about how accelerators and start-up campus’ could become the future anchor for mixed-use.
STATION F is the biggest start-up campus in the world. Located in central Paris and backed by entrepreneur-investor Xavier Niel, the 34,000 sq meter building hosts an entire start-up ecosystem under one roof.
BNPPRE: People hear the terms incubator, innovation hub, start-up accelerator and don’t really know the difference. How would you describe STATION F? Gregoire Martinez (GM): We usually describe ourselves as a start-up campus and not an incubator, for the main reason that at STATION F you will find a wide range of services that are needed by entrepreneurs. Services range from an investor community with 150+ funds, to workshops, but most importantly, acceleration and incubation programs for start-ups. We have programs from Microsoft, Ubisoft, Thales, BNP Paribas, HEC, EDHEC and more. We offer 30 different acceleration and incubation programmes, which focus on their specific vertical. For example, BNP Paribas is working with FinTech start-ups and Microsoft is working with AI start-ups. We also host more than 30 public administrations that are based at STATION F who meet with entrepreneurs.
Additionally, we host mentorship offices from Apple, Google, AWS and OVH and the biggest restaurant in Europe, which is open to the public. That is why we see ourselves as more than just an incubator.
BNPPRE: We think that accelerators or start-up campuses could be an effective anchor for activating and making mixed-use developments more exciting. Does the concept only work in a city or could it be successful in a regional or rural location? GM: Start-up campuses and incubators definitely have a role to play within mixed-use. In terms of where it could work, I think it depends on the scale. You need to have enough start-ups to fill the space. You need to have services around to ensure you can attract people. If you want to draw in the best people from overseas, you need to ensure that your scheme is really attractive. Where you’re located is important, because people are happy to leave their country to live in places like Paris because it’s a global city. It’s possible to achieve the same outside a city, providing that the place where you are located is really attractive and has the right amenities.
BNPPRE: Living costs in major global cities can be prohibitively expensive. You recently launched your co-living offer, ‘Flatmates’. Have you had good take up so far? GM: Housing in Paris can be tricky, it is very expensive, and there are many criteria you have to meet. One third of our entrepreneurs come from overseas – when they arrive in Paris, they don’t meet any of these criteria so are not able to find a place. We even saw people living and sleeping at STATION F. Therefore, we thought it was important to do something and that’s why we decided to create Flatmates in 2019. Rent starts at €399 per month which includes everything – Wi-Fi, bills, cleaning, so it is much cheaper than a normal place in Paris. It also offers services and communal spaces. There’s a grocery store, a bar, a lounge where you can watch movies and play games and a kitchen where you can cook. We have an event space, a laundry and a gym for residents. Everything is there to make life as easy as possible.
BNPPRE: Moving away from the physical real estate of STATION F, how do companies perform within these kinds of environments? Are there any kind of formal metrics which you can use to measure the success of companies that go through a start-up campus, as opposed to in isolated offices? GM: It’s not easy to measure as we have companies with different values and from different sectors, so they don’t use the same metrics for success. The thing that we monitor very carefully is the number of start-ups that fail. What’s great is that only 3% of our companies have ceased to exist since we launched STATION F three years ago – a much lower level than for start-ups within France. This is because we’re selective about the start-ups who join. We only select around 9% of the companies who apply. It’s not like co-working, where you can just enter and say, ”Hi, I want to rent five desks for six months”. You have to be selected after applying to a specific programme.
BNPPRE: Do corporates and start-ups pay different rents within the space? Is that a discounted rate compared with the broader Paris market? GM: Everyone’s pays the same price of €205 per desk per month. For a desk in a co-working space in Paris, it costs €600-€800 per month without all the services and all the incubator acceleration programmes. Because of the way in which Xavier created STATION F, we’re able to charge really low prices for start-ups.
BNPPRE: Are there things to be learnt for corporates at STATION F in terms of the way in which teams are set up and sit alongside each other, maybe by skill set rather than by sector? GM: What’s important and it’s not really in terms of space, but it’s really in terms of animation, is that you need to ensure that people are meeting each other, even if they are divided spatially inside the building. If you want innovation to work, you really need to ensure that people are meeting people working on other projects, with other backgrounds. For example, a marketing individual will meet with someone in technology, even if they’re not in the same company. If people are only meeting other entrepreneurs or people with the same background and professions, it’s going to be much more difficult to create great projects.
