Education
A hit victim of the French startup support COVID-19, Family Scales Back to Bottom
Tech.eu heard that the Paris based business has been especially hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic which has enabled hundreds of European technology entrepreneurs to start and to develop their companies for most of the past ten years.
His revenues were almost in no time decimated by his efforts to realize his global dreams, forcing him to make important changes so as to plot a path for the better future.
The business has had to drastically reduce its core (plus later on) staff and shut down its physical offices and operations in London and Berlin, but possibly also has to shut up its central hub in the European tech ecosystem of Paris, which has become an important venue.
We recognize that some of the restructuring was in progress, but the outbreak of the virus pulled The Family into a situation where it had to make drastic changes quickly.
From its foundation back in 2013 until today, the family has always been a strange bestial to me personally. It wasn't and isn't really an accelerator for a technology start-up, not really a business consultant, it's not really a seed-investment company, it's not really an incubator, it's not a real spot for founders. Sorta kinda. Sorta sort kinda.
Wherever necessary, the company has raised about € 25 million to build up an impressive portfolio with stakes in more than 200 start-ups from a host of reputable VC companies, including Index Ventures.
It has sponsored Algolia, Preply, Docker, TOA Berlin and Heetch as well as PayFit.
The Family has also held the majority shareholders in a group of companies, including Kymono (which mainly sells "startup fashion," Lion Entrepreneurship School and Pathfinder, the corporate innovation consultancy team.
However, earlier this week, during a video call with Family co-founder Oussama Ammar, we heard that the key organization as well as its related business constellation have seen its revenue fall from the cliff in a mere week because of COVID-19.
With physical events in its Paris hub, Ammar, its co-founders and its team's time away from the key founding principles of supporting start-up founders, the Family had been very much dependent upon revenue from 'human interaction' and travel overloads.
In effect, it was relied upon so strongly that after the COVID-19 pandemic shook the planet, no other decision had to be taken than to substantially scale down to the basics of negotiation.
A year ago, many months before the world was shocked with coronavirus, Ammar said he already had plans to be "together virtual" with The Family, but there was now basically no other option left.
Ammar also stated that at one point, 20 people worked almost exclusively to make their physical events part of the company smoothly and quickly and almost completely dry up as a result of the virus outbreak.
Halved, from 24 to 12 persons, the Family Core Team (which means that there are not 'related' employees in its mainstream side business) has now discontinued its Berlin and London offices. It's not just doom and dumbness, however.
Actually, Ammar seemed extremely optimistic about the future of The Family. The income was greatly dived because of the outbreak of the virus, however the situation also required things to become reality and forced the company to cut and reassess its expenditure and plans for the future.
Today Ammar says that, as its competitude is forced to go digitally as well, they will finally achieve their goals to become one of the top start-up backers of all worldwide.
The business signed more investment deals than in other months in 2019 in May, and Ammar says that the family will now focus on how start-ups worldwide-including Silicon Valley – will draw their investors.
Its goal is to provide its team with a large network of investors and the sound communities that have been part of Family DNA right from the beginning, remotely 24 hours on 24, without having to think about issues such as office rental and the logistics of operating a business for physical events.
It is enough for the French company actually to take on the likes of Y Combinator, Techstars and 500 Startups, but it is clear that although this year the Family has been badly beaten, it hasn't yet thrown into the towel.
