Station F - The world’s largest startup facility!

By Visakh Ram, ESSEC Global MBA 2019-2020 Strategy & Management major


Station F has its name derived from a former rail freight depot called La Halle Freyssinet, which was remodeled into the present-day Station F. The facility expands over 34000 square meters and houses around 1000 startups.

Station F’s partners include:

  • Facebook, 
  • LVMH, 
  • Google 
  • Microsoft
  • among other big names.

Our ESSEC #GlobalMBA students got an opportunity to visit this enormous campus and got a chance to interact with the leaders of some brilliant and innovative start-ups.

The day started with expert talks from the Station F program called founder’s club. Most of these ideas already received funding from investors. The first speech was by Marc Prempain who is the founder of Vibe. The company focuses on Tech support through video conferencing. Then we had Blaise from Nyctale, a blockchain and business intelligence firm, Simo from an apple refurbished products company (RefurbMe) and Dan from a video classifieds company (Pop Eye) explaining us their vision for their respective companies. It was amazing to see their passion and energy to discover and solve real world problems.

In a program modelled around the popular show the Dragon’s Den, we had to listen to pitches from 8 start-ups from the Station F program called the Fighter’s program.

·       The first pitch was by Yama on SensAi, the startup he created so that he could help teach boxing to kids from Afghanistan, his home country
·       Chanssee is a startup created to give amateur footballers a chance to be seen. It connects them with mentors and football clubs
·       Montasser spoke how he would like to revolutionize the online job searching and recruitment industry by advanced location-based matching in Handy Catch
·       Lovel knew that the biggest problem of the online dating world is ice-breaking. Lovel solves this by creating challenges based on interest to let its member connect quickly with their dates.
·       How many of the expatriates and tourists are scared to visit a Doctor in France because of the language barrier? Do you think too many? Alia Tech tries to solve this very problem with its advance translation system optimized for Medical context.
·       Are you a musician who wants to book a studio at affordable prices or a studio manager who wants to avoid ‘no-shows’ after booking? BookMyStudio is there for the rescue
·       MyShowPass is a startup that help create a subscription to let you enjoy more concerts, expos and spectacles at affordable prices
·       Sometimes it’s better if someone else could tell your crush that you are a good match for him or her. Josh could become that someone. The app gives anonymous suggestions to help you out.

While most start-ups decide to talk or present, there was one which found another way of pitching – Food! Meet my mama served delicious Iranian food during the cocktail. The startup trains and brings together woman skilled at cooking to deliver great food.


We went across the amazing campus. Some of us even have plans to become Entrepreneurs or work for companies at the Station-F.  It was a great visit. Thank you ESSEC, along with Carina and Yama for organizing this.

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