This will be interesting to follow. France is a great place, but needs to work with their rules around taxes and social obligations from employer to employee. It is too scary to be an entrepreneur in France and there is a lot of overhead. I hope they find a good model for startups since the country needs that energy and has the talent.
France already privileges work-permit applications from engineers, who probably have an easier time than anyone else getting visas and legal employment in France. This has been the case for many years. Ironically, they seem to be taking a page from the startup book by "relaunching" their own policy.
France's real problems are its education system, which focuses on rote learning rather than Montessori-esque problem-solving, and its heavy state, which taxes and regulates businesses out of existence.
Together, those two factors encourage companies unable to adapt quickly to market conditions.
IMHO, TechCrunch focuses way too much on France and its "tech scene" for the simple reason that Romain is based there, instead of Berlin, London or Stockholm, where much more is happening.
Heh, this is odd. France used to be a place where you best work for a large corporation, and keep your job for the rest of your life. Maybe they're eagerly looking at the Berlin scene... Which in itself hasn't been performing as good as it should have. Meh.
"Welcome to France, entrepreneurs! It's a wonderful place to do business in, what with the lax regulation and light bureaucracy and all. Oh, and far be it from our economy to be drowning in taxes. Very far.
But don't you fucking DARE to become 'rich', you bastard! -If you earn more than our socialist overlords deem appropriate, we'll just confiscate 75% of the 'excess'. Fuck you, slave. But, you know.. welcome."
