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Startup Class '07 and '08 at Telecom ParisTech

Apr 21, 2009
review

In my previous post if been detailing 9 steps to make sure your startup exists. Inspired by an initial idea of Chris Exline, I decided to make a small survey of the startups admitted at the Incubator of Telecom ParisTech in 2007 and 2008 (startups are hosted 18 months by the incubator, and then kicked-out, that’s the rule).

To figure out how well the startups of the incubator were doing, I came up with a simple score the startup websites.

Survival test for startup websites

The maximal score for this test is 10. One can argue that this test is very subjective. Frankly, after reviewing 50 companies, I rather think otherwise.

Any website with a decent, professional looking is ranked as GOOD with 2 points - no need for flashy graphics, decent is enough. In the other hand, if the website feels amateurish (colors messed-up, random layout) but still functional, then it’s OK, you get 1 point. If the website is utterly broken in design or in navigation, then it’s zero point.

Same for the benefits. If I can get a rough idea, in less than a minute, of the added-value of your company, then you get 2 points. I mean no need for detailed ideas, big picture is enough. If I have to struggle for 5 mins to finally guess what could be your added value, then it’s 1 point. If after 5 mins, I am still utterly clueless, then it’s zero point.

Concerning the PageRank, I am putting a much lower threshold for B2B website, because those folks typically need 100x times less customers than B2C companies to be profitable.

Not having a English version is like shooting yourself a bullet in your feet. The French market is small, so small, compared to USA+UK+Canada+India+Australia. To get 1 point here, you don’t need to have translated everything in English, any portion that makes sense is enough.

In my opinion:

I have collected raw data for 52 startups (raw results below, and here are the results at present date 2009-04-21.

Disclaimer: I have a strong bias toward Lokad since it’s my own company so it was removed from the study.

07 class

Average score: 5.5

‘08 Class

Average score: 5.3

To be honest, those results look rather poor to me.

Moreover, startups do not improve much over time. Considering 2007 vs 2008, if feel like if there were two categories of startups:

Yet, my own experience told me it’s so obviously not true. Just have a look at the first version of the Lokad website and compare with the current one. Granted, I am still far from what branding geniuses like Apple could produce, but still.

I would be interested to see how other incubators are doing on their own.

Raw results

2007

Startup name website b2b or b2c stealth look & feel benefits happy talk pr alexa eng buy news community Score
DisMoiOù www.dismoiou.fr b2c no good yes no 5 130K yes yes yes yes 9
Lingueo www.lingueo.com b2b no good yes no 4 900K yes yes no yes 9
Helia www.helia.fr b2c no good yes no 4 144K no yes yes yes 8
La Cartoonerie www.lacartoonerie.com b2c no good yes no 5 29K no yes yes yes 8
LivePepper www.livepepper.com b2b no good yes no 4 2.5M yes yes no no 8
Netineo www.netineo.com b2b no good yes no 4 900K yes yes no no 8
PREXENS www.prexens.com b2b no good yes no 3 4M yes yes yes no 8
FrenchSet www.frenchset.com b2c no good yes no 3 23M no yes yes no 7
Teacheo www.teacheo.com b2c no good yes no 0 1.6M yes yes yes no 8
Adminext www.adminext.com b2b no good yes no 4 14M no no yes no 7
Connecthings www.connecthings.com b2b no good yes no 5 6M yes no yes no 8
EtherTrust www.ethertrust.com b2b no ok yes no 4 3M yes no no no 6
InovaCours www.inovacours.com b2c no good yes no 3 16M no yes no no 6
FamilyBy www.familyby.com b2c no good yes no 3 1.9M no no no no 5
Lixys www.lixys-sa.com b2b no horrid struggle no 4 13M yes no yes no 5
Tellus www.tellus.fr b2c no good yes no 3 22M no yes no no 6
Adipsys www.adipsys.com b2b no ok struggle no 4 0 yes no no no 5
Needer www.needer.com b2c no good struggle no 4 10M no no no no 4
Connect and Go www.connectandgo.fr b2c no horrid yes no 3 0 no no no no 3
MobiNear www.mobinear.com b2b no horrid no clue yes 5 6M yes no no no 2
Nexess www.nexess.fr b2b no ok struggle yes 4 0 no no no no 3
Patent Organizer Software www.patent-organizer.com b2b no ok struggle yes 6 0 no no no no 3
Alphacode www.alphacode.eu b2b yes horrid no clue no 0 0 no no no no 1
Système Polaire www.systeme-polaire.com b2b yes horrid no clue no 3 17M no no no no 1
Takys www.takys.fr b2b no horrid no clue yes 3 0 no no no no 0

20098

Startup name website b2b or b2c stealth look & feel benefits happy talk pr alexa eng buy news community Score
Lokad www.lokad.com b2b no good struggle no 6 320K yes yes yes yes 9
Accessif www.7hls.com b2c no good yes no 4 4.8M no yes yes yes 8
Haploid www.haploid.fr b2c no good yes no 4 2.3M yes yes yes no 8
Hellocoton www.hellocoton.fr b2c no good yes no 4 50K no yes yes yes 8
OOdesk www.oodesk.com b2c no good yes no 4 1.2M yes yes yes yes 9
PlayAdz www.playadz.com b2c no good yes no 0 3M no yes yes yes 8
CapAngel www.capangel.com b2c no good yes no 4 800K no yes yes no 7
Jaxio www.jaxio.com b2b no good yes no 4 8.4M no no yes no 7
OhMyMode www.ohmymode.com b2c no good yes no 4 1.9M no no yes yes 7
Quelle Energie www.quelleenergie.fr b2c no good yes no 4 780K no no yes no 6
Actimos www.actimos.com b2c yes good yes no 3 29M yes no no no 6
Ecce Vino www.eccevino.com b2c no good yes yes 4 1.1M no yes yes no 6
Kwaga www.kwaga.com b2c yes good yes no 3 2M yes no no no 6
Eyes Triple Shut www.eyes3shut.com b2b no horrid yes no 3 17M yes no no no 4
Ineovation www.ineovation.fr b2b no ok struggle no 4 28M no no yes no 5
Aquilant Technologies www.aquilant.com b2b no ok struggle yes 2 29M yes no no no 3
Hedera Technology www.hederatech.com b2b yes ok yes no 3 17M no no no no 4
Absysseo www.absysseo.com b2b no good struggle yes 3 25M no no no no 3
Faveod www.faveod.com b2b no ok struggle yes 3 8.5M yes no no no 3
FI Technologies www.fitechno.com b2b no horrid struggle yes 0 8.5M yes no no no 2
Media Mobility www.media-mobility.com b2b no horrid struggle yes 0 0 yes no no no 2
Plugnsurf www.plugnsurf.fr b2c no ok no clue no 4 0 yes no yes no 4
The Metrics Factory www.themetricsfactory.com b2b no horrid no clue no 4 15M yes no no no 3
nYouLinK www.nyoulink.com b2c yes ok no clue no 0 3M no no no no 2
SeQureNet www.sequrenet.fr b2b no ok struggle yes 0 0 no no no no 2

Reader Comments (2)

Hey, I almost entirely agree with your rankings, so I do not think it’s a subjective exercise either… There’s definitely room for improvement in most cases Julien April 22, 2009 | Julien C

This is an excellent and quite original article Joannes ! I wonder what the results would be if you extrapolate the test to other start-ups incubated in other French … or US (!) incubators ? I should try to apply this the test to the start-ups at the Agoranov Paris incubator ! I will keep you posted. All best, Emmanuel April 23, 2009 | Emmanuel