Rude Baguette’s Paris Founders Event
Three standouts from the French company’s recent event showcasing super-smart startups
Rude Baguette—which began as a blog and a daily newspaper—is a French startup supporter that’s growing as fast as the needs of the creative community. The blog combines breaking news with analysis and opinion to cover startups, foreign companies operating in France and the government’s digital strategy. It’s built a strong and reliable relationship among readers and various stakeholders in the startup sphere since 2011 which has allowed them to expand and offer new services—including Rude List.
The Rude List is a startup database consisting of a catalog of French startups, investors and entrepreneurs. Provided for free by Rude Baguette, it comprises all relevant information about the various startups such as staff members, founders, funders and products.
Among their services and activities to support innovation, the company organizes meetings and events, attracting thousands of attendees. For example, the Paris Founders Event is a networking bonanza that gathers entrepreneurs, investors, startup enthusiasts and everybody between, for the launch of five new products selected by Rude Baguette from projects submitted online.
We attended the eighth edition, which took place in Google’s Paris offices. Along with the tech giant, on site were representatives from PayPal, Orange and La French Tech. And, among the five finalists, three innovations stood out—promising either plenty of help, or plenty of fun.
Siilar (developed by Niland company, created in 2013) is a music search engine designed to help professionals find the right music for advertising, video games, TV and movies. Based on the concept of using music to find music, Siilar relies on the company’s own technology, using acoustic signals to build catalog mapping. Queries operate by tags and make it possible to find all the tracks that sound similar to any musical reference—and there are extra advanced parameters, such as searching for similar songs but with/without certain factors like vocals.
Music Battle (conceived by Phonotonic, a company created in 2011) is an interactive game that makes music. After selecting a music style and basic rhythm within the app, people can pick an object and start battling or just dancing. Thanks to motion-sensors tracking the way people move, the app turns movements into real-time music—meaning the music is composed and listened to on the spot. The performances can be recorded and shared and it allows for group composition, but works also for those who like dancing alone it their bedroom.
Kosmo makes quitting smoking easier. And it’s as simple as a smart e-cigarette paired with a smartphone. This clever app—acting as a personal coach—analyses smoking habits and uses the data to compute the best quitting program for the user. The e-cig comes with two tanks (one with nicotine and the other nicotine-free) and the app instructs the quitter which one to smoke while the app’s dashboard displays nicotine consumption—plus allows users to check their improvement, achievements and their goals. The opportunity to share and connect with a community is also available. Kosmo is still funding and earlybirds can pre-order it for $99 with delivery expected in August.
Screengrabs and images courtesy of respective companies
