Pullman Voices: Roxanne Varza

0:00What does it take to be a game changer today? and what impact can you have on the wider world when you centre progressive leadership. This is Pullman Voices, a podcast by Monocle Radio that offers fresh perspectives from cultural pioneers, business leaders and creative minds challenging how we see and engage with the world. I'm your host, Tom Edwards. Today's episode is all about leading lights and our guest is Roxanne Vaza, who's director of Station F, the world's largest start-up campus. So we've had to go out and build partnerships and go find entrepreneurs where you least expect them. But we've had people from living from the street, people coming out of prison, coming to Station F and building companies.

0:42Station F opened in Paris in 2017. It's a business incubator located in a disused railway depot in the 13th arrondissement. As well as providing office space to the companies it invests in, it also has a large live-in campus for the people who work there, making it something of a mini village full of people with big ideas for the future. The companies that live under the Station F umbrella range hugely across many sectors, but at the heart of them all is human-centric technologies that seek to make positive changes for society. There are multiple programmes at Station F that spearhead the incubator's commitment to diversity, whether that's to give opportunities to business leaders from underprivileged backgrounds or to ensure that fair gender representation becomes the norm in hiring processes.

1:26Roxanne Vazer has long been a leading light in tech. Before being headhunted to run things at Station F, she was the head of Microsoft's French Startup Activities and was named by Business Insider as one of the 30 most influential women under 30 in the tech sector. In this episode, Roxanne tells us what it's like to run a campus full of pioneers, what it takes to be a Station F company and how to be a champion for progressive change in the workplace.

1:58a roxanne a warm welcome we're talking a bit about i guess pioneering spirits brought in in broad terms and how that drives impact how that drives positivity um and i guess really look that's at the core isn't it of what station f was devised to do and then has now this this track record of doing tell us a bit about the core values that were at the heart of station f when it got started? Sure. So Station F is a massive startup campus based in central Paris. We opened in 2017, in the summer of 2017, right after Macron became president. So it was the first presidency. And at the time, entrepreneurship was not looked down upon, but it was very underdeveloped in France.

2:40And I think most young graduates coming out of school wanted to work in the public sector or in large corporations. Nobody essentially dreamed of building a company. And so we built Station F with the idea of housing 1 ,000 early stage companies. And at the time, people were like, are there even 1 ,000 early stage companies in Paris? But actually, as we launched and as we created Station F, we really wanted to become kind of the home for entrepreneurs. We wanted to help people who had this kind of these crazy ideas and these great ambitions to take those first steps. You don't fill a space like Station F if everybody is coming from the same background, if everyone has the same idea.

3:18So we really wanted to cater to a very diverse audience, whether that be people coming from different countries, different genders, different socioeconomic backgrounds. We really wanted to get the biggest mix of people in the building as we possibly could. Talk to me about that because, you know, I think people who know your career and interests in your work, not just at Station F but before, you know, you champion diversity and equality and you deliver. There are use cases. It's not just rhetoric. What's the mechanics of doing that specific initiatives, programs? What are the nuts and bolts of ensuring that you come good on that?

3:50Yeah. To start off, being international means you communicate in English. We actually changed our name. We weren't initially called Station F. and when I joined the project, I was like, nobody outside of France is going to be able to say our name. It was La Alphacine. It's a historical monument, but we knew that if we wanted people to come from abroad, we would have to have a much more accessible name. So even just changing our name, communicating in English, that was meant to cater to this international audience. But actually in 2019, we went a step further. We launched housing and this was actually a big component to anybody outside Paris when they join a place like Station F, they want to live close to where they work.

4:27And we needed to make it easy, affordable, flexible. So we have actually apartments for 600 people that work at Station F. With regards to gender diversity, we actually have integrated clauses into all of our contracts at Station F. Because in the early years, we didn't have the numbers that we have today. Today, we're around 41 % of our companies that are founded or co-founded by a female. And so we actually had to work with all the partners that are are running programs on campus to not select people because they're female, but to actually go out and find female candidates for their program.

5:00And usually that impacts conversion. And finally, the socioeconomic background piece is probably the hardest one, but it was actually something that our founder was very attached to. So he actually said, I want you to develop a program where essentially anybody can come and build a startup here. He didn't know what that looks like. And so we've had to go out and build partnerships and go find entrepreneurs where you least expect them. But we've had people from living from the street, people coming out of prison, coming to Station F and building companies. Well, another big theme, I guess, where the discourse has maybe caught up a little bit with some of the early adopters is around sustainability.

5:38And hopefully we're getting better at not just chucking the word on, but a greenwashing. There's real substance behind it. But I know that there's a program, and I think you announced another program last year, perhaps to fund businesses specifically addressing that. Tell me a bit more about that and why that's so important. Because occasionally people use that as a bit of a stick to beat, you know, big tech with that, look, you know, what's the environmental cost and so on. I know you guys have addressed it head on. Tell me about it. Yeah, so we're a generalist campus, which means that we cover all topics and we'll change our topics regularly, kind of according to the ecosystem.

6:09But we did decide a few years ago, we really want to double down on three key areas where we feel that France and Europe are well positioned to lead for various reasons. One of them is obviously AI. The second one is quantum, because we do feel France has quite a few Nobel Prizes. The government has put a lot of funding into quantum. We have some great players in that space that are emerging. And the third one is climate. And I think climate is also because we feel consumer behavior in Europe is very, very strong in favor of climate technologies. and also the regulatory environment. Often we bash Europe and we say, oh, the regulation here doesn't let us do anything.

6:46But actually this is where regulation is potentially accelerating innovation. So we've had a number of different initiatives to kind of support climate tech. We announced a new partner last year called Marble Studio. They actually are a startup studio, meaning that they're creating the companies themselves directly at Station F. And these are a lot of very deep tech companies working on very complex technologies and problems. How do you choose a company? How do you know that something's going to succeed? I guess you're not infallible, but you've got a pretty good eye for it. What can you see? What are the telltale signs?

7:24So I'd say there's some pretty basic criteria that when we're picking startups for Station Neff, we want to see, for example, that a team is a full-time team. They're committed to what they're doing. We want to see, for example, if it's a technical project that the tech team is internal, it's not being outsourced. So they're really taking responsibility for what they're building. We want to see that they've built something, they're executing, that someone's using it, there's some proof. But I would actually say there's two criteria that we started to pay way more attention to recently. And one of them is who they're able to surround themselves with, who's investing, who's using.

7:57A lot of people have now what they call design partners. So these are the first companies that are going to be testing or co-building the product with them. We want to see who those names are, who they've gotten to join the team. So actually being able to see who they bring in is really, really important. And I would say the second one that we may be somewhat underestimated or undervalued in early years because the ecosystem wasn't there is the speed of execution. And today we want to see, OK, somebody has built something, onboarded customers, started commercializing very, very quickly. And we can't afford to spend six months, 12 months, 18 months just thinking about a product and kind of taking baby steps.

8:34And it's interesting. You mentioned the power of having this physical space. And the fact that Station F has been involved in, in a way, in this kind of placemaking, right? Building this kind of neighbourhood, if you like. That's another consideration to make, right? Because people are in a physical space together. Has that shaped selection process and your experience in bringing all of these different stakeholders together in a different way than if it was an abstract grouping of companies? The fact that there is this physical space must present a different kind of opportunity. Yes, I don't think I'll ever be able to verbalize just how important physical space is.

9:08And I think every year I become more amazed by just what a key role it plays in who you meet, how you interact, how you think. Just space, I think we really take it for granted. For example, at Station F, we've seen all kinds of really interesting behaviors because people are in the same space in an open floor plan configuration where everything is very transparent. and people can really see and communicate. It's really not a place to be if you're building something ultra-confidential and you don't want to share it with anybody. But I would say, for example, we've had neighboring companies where one company has been on the brink of failure and shutting down and the neighbor will acquire the team.

9:45We've had two completely different industries, video games and kind of like a communication software, where actually they teamed up and they were able to do a partnership that nobody ever would have imagined. So I think there's so many things that happen when people are just in the same place at the same time that we don't value that enough. And it's so important when you're building a company. And that's really interesting because you get a change then in the physical setup, like you said, with walls between companies disappearing. But you start to change almost the social fabric as well, right?

10:19I mean, is that too lofty a goal to think that something like Station F can do that? because it obviously changes the startup scene and it generates an incredible amount of GDP, firepower, job creation and so forth. But it's also doing something powerfully socially, culturally almost. Is that part of the deal? I think when you have a physical space and especially when it's one on kind of the scale that we're on, it's like a tiny piece of the city. You have an internal culture for sure and you can mold that culture as well. So I think we have been way more intentional about it recently. I think in the early days of Station F, we didn't fully grasp how important it was.

10:59But just for example, in France, when you walk down the street in Paris, you won't spontaneously say hello to someone. In France, that's looked down upon. People will think you're crazy. At Station F, if you don't say hi to people, it won't be as easy for you and as natural to have a conversation with someone. So we're trying to get people to kind of bring down those walls and change their behavior, at least inside the building. Listen, you said the I word there, intentionality. Is that one of the markers of the mindset of an effective pioneering spirit? I just wonder, to get things done, you've mentioned some of these qualities already.

11:34Obviously, you've got to be creative, you've got to have a great idea and work hard. There's no lazy, there's very few lazy sort of entrepreneurs there. What are some of those other pioneering sort of mindset qualities? Is that intentionality very important? Yes and no, actually, because something that surprised me growing up in the U.S. and when I arrived in France, I actually found that the French approach was way more theoretical and analytical and almost not enough in action compared to the U.S. Maybe U.S. is on the complete opposite end of the spectrum. But I did feel that a lot of time people will prepare.

12:07They'll just plan too much and overthink and overanalyze. And that creates inertia. So I think especially when you want to do something, we talked earlier about how important it is to execute and to just start building. You're never going to be able to plan for everything. You're probably going to have to adjust for things that you misplanned for. So I would say that actually it's striking that balance between intention and also adjusting and just moving. Well, let's talk about some specifics. In particular, you know, maybe some of the businesses under the sort of station F umbrella that have already been driving really positive progress.

12:43And I guess AI is an interesting place to start. I know you've got a few examples in health care, for example. Even AI skeptics seem to be convincible that, you know, whether it's about diagnostics or drug discovery, you know, those use cases seem fairly obvious. Give me a few examples of some driving really positive progress. Yes. I mean, essentially all of our companies. So it's going to be hard to choose a few. But if I have to think of a few in various key spaces, I would say one is a company called Biolevate. They're building on the brink of AI and healthcare. And I think because, for example, to give a description of what they do, a lot of medicines never hit the market because of all the documentation that's required to publish.

13:25And so they have developed AI tools that can actually help speed up that process. And so they have raised money and they're working on this with a lot of big pharma companies. and actually they've been around for probably less than a year and a half. So quite an incredible team. Another one that we really, really like is one called Spore Bio. They use AI to be able to detect bacteria in food and cosmetics products faster than a lab. So actually now companies can have their tool on premise and not have to request lab results that usually take several days. So we're actually able to potentially stop food scandals from happening.

14:01So these are just two examples. I could talk for hours about more companies. And again, do you have, I can't make you choose favorites. It's like getting people to choose their favorite offspring. But what's in that kind of, in that Venn diagram, what's right in the middle of something that delivers for you? Is it something where there's tech, but there's also, there is an environmental angle or there's a, I don't know, a human rights angle or a gender equality angle? Is there something that would represent the thing where you're like, that's a kind of, that's a Roxanne, you know, grade A. I mean, I think a lot of them are just caring about.

14:35It's funny because we forget about people when we talk about technology, but I just think they're human centric technologies. So these examples that I just gave are two examples. I can take two more just to kind of illustrate that. And they're very different companies. One is Hugging Face, which is one of our unicorns at Station F. So they're essentially an AI community where people can share different elements from the AI landscape. And so this is human because it's very community and socially driven, even though it's very B2B and it's very tech. It's based on this kind of human sharing and collaboration.

15:08And another company that's very, very different from that is one called Yuka. It's a consumer app that has essentially exploded in France and now they're launching in the U.S. And they have, you know, I think they've probably around 50 million downloads. But you can scan your food products and cosmetic products and get a better understanding of is this harmful or not for me. which is something where you can see they're caring more about people and their safety than the products that we're selling on the shelves talk about people first you've you know we've mentioned some lots of your pioneering values and you're a champion of kind of women in tech as well you know and i think the industry broadly has made some progress but tell me about it i don't know you'll laugh let's see maybe not far enough but talk to me a little bit about girls in tech because that's there's girls in tech in paris in london i think and maybe other outposts at the risk of asking an obvious question why is that so close to your heart but tell me also about how you've gone about actually moving the needle on that sure so girls in tech is a is a u.s organization and i launched the french branch in 2010 and the uk branch in 2012 when i lived here briefly and i went back to france and we transformed the organization into some a group called start her which is now part of the sister organization sister is this big group in france we kind of decided it didn't make sense to have divided groups.

16:25We're all part of the same cause. Let's all team up. And so why is it so important? Well, essentially, when I started out, I was so frustrated going to all these tech conferences and seeing the same men always speaking on stage and everybody always saying there's no women. And I'm sitting here going, well, actually, I know tons of women and no one's inviting them to talk. So we thought we'll just do the same thing, but we'll do tech conferences or tech events and only invite women to speak. And actually, it was incredible the amount of support and attention that we got. And a lot of men also wanted to come and see, well, where are the women?

16:55And we've been saying we don't know where they are. They exist. We'd like to see who they are. And over the years, it's changed a lot. I would say that back in the beginning, it was hard to actually find speakers. There were not so many women. Today, I feel there's such a consciousness, such an interest also from women in the tech environment that we're seeing so many women creating really technical companies. At Station F, I often love giving examples of, you can't name a woman in Bitcoin, we have one. You can't name a woman in AI, we have one. So pick a topic, I probably have a female founder for you.

17:26Where it's still very difficult, I would say, is in funding. Women definitely are very, very absent when it comes to raising funds. And actually being in the technical seat. So when you talk about engineers, those are the two topics we still have a lot of progress we need to make in. What have you learned from the entrepreneurs that have come through the Station F ecosystem? I guess what must be incredible about it as the pace of change is so rapid is that you could learn something tomorrow, some unimaginable lesson today, tomorrow. Is that the big thrill or can you actually think back and say, oh, no, there are these key markers, these key moments when from the success of this enterprise, I learned this.

18:06Or from this one particular inspirational woman that I met, her story told me X, Y, Z. I don't know. How do you sort of calibrate those learnings? I mean, I think literally every entrepreneur I speak to, I learn something. That's what I love about my role is that I love ideas. I love people. And every single person in the building is building something different. They have a different industry. They have a different insight. They experience something different that led them to build that business. So every time I speak to someone, they say, we're doing this and this is why. And your mind is blown.

18:38And does it mean you consistently change your worldview? Approach, your worldview, your ideals, but even, you know, again, the mechanics of how you prosecute your business day to day. Does that change reactively to those influences? Is that part actually of being successful is that you have to retain that flexibility to maneuver? Yes. Actually, it's a very good question. Yes. I think a lot of people who have set out to kind of replicate and build innovative spaces like Station F, that is a pitfall is that they think you do something and you just keep doing that. And actually, if we've learned anything at StationEv, it's that you must change constantly what you are doing.

19:19Thanks to Roxanne Vasa for that illuminating conversation. This is Pullman Voices, a Monocle Radio production for Pullman Hotels. This episode was produced by Holly Fisher and researched by Paige Reynolds. I'm Tom Edwards. Next time, we speak to the architect Oli Sheeran about how buildings have the power to cross social, cultural and geographical divides. I think sometimes bridging a divide can be a very spatial operation, but sometimes it can also be a very notional operation, where you say, how are people using space? What kind of qualities of things are they used to? And how can you incorporate these qualities or reinterpret these qualities in a piece of contemporary architecture?

20:01For more on Pullman Voices, head to Pullman's Instagram page at Pullman Hotels. And for more information and hotel bookings, you can visit pullman.accor.com. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, head to monocle.com forward slash radio or wherever you get your podcasts to follow and subscribe.