Entrepreneur du Jour: A Day in the Life of a Parisian Entrepreneur

June 2016

Alarm goes off, 7.00am - no snooze, that's just postponing the unavoidable - I get up. I find the kids’ glass bottles which I fill up with milk and shove them into the microwave. While it's heating, I wonder about how safe the microwave is…I should probably boil milk on the stove instead but then there’s this extra pan to wash, plus checking the milk so it does not burn... DING, done! We'll think about it later. When I turn back, I see my little girl already on the couch: she always wakes up first as soon as she hears some noise. Good morning! I shake the warm bottle with cereal and hand it to her. Time to wake up my boy, it's gonna be a little more difficult to make him move but he finally crawls to the couch, asks for his blanket (he's cold) and his milk. What do you say to Daddy when I hand you the bottle ? No reaction. Sip Sip. "I'm done" he says. Oh well... My wife's up, she'll take over and dress the kids. In the meantime, shower, get dressed and we're ready to go to school. The school is literally 3min away if you walk the pace of a 4 year old, but today we have to rush and run a bit. We say “hi” to some school friends on the way, the same ones that are also a little late every day. Since what happened in Paris in January and December, after 8.30am you can no longer go inside the school and have to leave your kids at the door. Luckily we make it on time. Jackets off, we go into the classroom, say "Bonjour" to the teacher and the assistant, put the sticker with their name on it on the wall and it's time for the good-bye "bisou".

I'm off to work. I head to the Velib station (Paris free bicycle service). From a distance I can see there are 3 bikes left, I'd better hurry. The first one has a flat tire, the second one looks OK, here I go ! Since I became an entrepreneur and co-founded a startup, I work 10 min away from home by bike: that's luxury in Paris. In my previous job, I had to take the metro and 2 buses which added up to an astronomical 1h30min commute each way ! The only good thing about a long commute is that you can read if you don't mind reading standing up and balancing in a rushing bus. It's much harder on a bike. After the little hill around Gare du Nord, I get to my space: it opens at 10 am so I start my day in the coffee shop next door. This one looks a lot like what you find in NYC or SF; it's owned by Americans, I like the cozy ambiance, and it reminds me of my years in the States. From 9 to 10am, I try to take a little distance from my work, resist the urge to read emails first thing in the morning and start planning my day. I plan work and personal life together; since I'm my own boss, the distinction between the two is harder to make. At 10am or so, I get to my work space: it's a really cool co-working space which also has a sort of FabLab attached to it so you can do office work and make things in the same place--that's great for prototyping. “Hi everybody.” I take my seat--my associate is already there on the phone with the product designer. The day will be dense. A few phone calls, meetings, admin work and it's already lunch time. “Where do we eat today?” I ask. Let's go to the supermarket. Downstairs, they have the food section: I grab a few fruits for dessert and for the afternoon. My main dish will be a microwavable version of a duck risotto and today I'll treat myself to a lemon tart. My shopping basket makes me think I should probably re-think my lunch diet. We come back to our space and eat with coworkers. Quick coffee and we're back to work. At 5pm, I have a meeting with my accountant--I'll ride my bike there. When I'm done, it's time to head home, but before that, I go pick up the vegetable basket at the local AMAP (Association for local farming agriculture): the farmer is there and tells us about what's in the basket this week. Carrots, potatoes, leeks, sprouts, lettuce, onions and some vegetables I don't even recognize... They're all a little dirty, have a weird shape but they taste much better, are organic and local! I go back home with my little basket, say hi to the kids and my wife, we fix some dinner, give the bath, brush their teeth, put them to bed, tell a story and switch off their bedroom light: sweet dreams! We finish cleaning up the table and pick up toys, go back to the room to tell them no there is no wolf around their bed, and I finally go back to work: a few emails I have to answer, some articles I wanted to read. 11pm, it's already bedtime. I try to sleep about 8 hours every night, it helps me see the bright side of things and boosts up my immune system. Too late to read my book… maybe tomorrow. I switch off the light. Before falling asleep I have a few minutes to think about my life as an entrepreneur. It all started when my last employer let me go. I seized the opportunity. The first thing I did when I decided to start my own company was to go work in the Versailles park: I thought I would get some inspiration in such a grandiose set up! Then I met my associate, we created the concept, gathered a little and started off. I have no idea how it's going to end, but I have already learned 2 or 3 things along the way which are inspirational to my life now: you cannot improve if you don't go out of your comfort zone, you don't succeed without risking failure, your real professional strength is the people you meet, and you don't need time management until you have kids... Tomorrow is another day, I take the train early to get to a pitch competition, I'd better get some good sleep. End of the day.