La French Tech & Beyond: Shaping France’s 25K Startup Boom w/ Fleur Pellerin, Korelya Capital

SCS (Intro): 

Bonjour bonjour, Billion Dollar Besties. Welcome to another inspiring episode of Billion Dollar Moves, where we spotlight the stories of unicorn founders and funders shaping industries and economies across the globe. 

Today, we're thrilled to be coming to you from Paris, where we welcome Fleur Pellerin, a trailblazer who embodies resilience, innovation and cross-cultural impact. From her roots as an adopted child in Korea to becoming a pivotal force in France's digital transformation as government minister.

Fleur has broken barriers at every step. Now, as the founder of Korelya Capital, managing over €750 million in assets, she's leading the charge in bridging Europe and Asia through strategic investments in tech and premium consumer brands. Recorded in the heart of Paris, this conversation dives into her remarkable journey how transformative policies like La French Tech and her vision for global collaboration and venture capital. Let’s uncovered the moves that turned her story into billion dollar force.

SCS: 

Bonjour, Madame Fleur. Thank you so much for taking the time. When I saw you on stage, and we only had a short time because we are other panelists, I insisted that we needed some time together to tell your amazing story.

Adopted as a child from Korea, now in beautiful Paris, building one of the largest funds here, hopefully largest in Europe and most impactful. But let us begin with rapid fire questions to get to know the flow behind the scenes. 

Fleur Pellerin: 

Okay. 

SCS: 

Money or power? 

Fleur Pellerin: 

Power. 

SCS: 

Fame or fortune? 

Fleur Pellerin: 

Fortune. 

SCS: 

Fill in the blank. Success is? 

Fleur Pellerin: 

Success is a journey. 

SCS: 

Failure is? 

Fleur Pellerin: 

Necessary. 

SCS: 

Not investment advice, but favorite investing, hack or tip. 

Fleur Pellerin: 

The team is what counts more.

SCS: 

What kind of leaders do you hire? Talking about team. 

Fleur Pellerin: 

I need to hire people with whom I could spend some holidays. I need to really not be friends with them, but really feel a lot of connections also from a social and interpersonal point of view. I need to feel, you know, almost at home when I'm at work.

SCS: 

Earliest childhood memory that you still remember, which has been fundamental to your journey. 

Fleur Pellerin: 

It's not one memory, but it's probably some teachers that I got when I was in the primary school and teachers who showed me what it was to be curious, intellectually, and who gave me the taste for reading literature, this kind of thing. So that's very important for me. 

SCS: 

What is something someone said to you when you were a child that you still remember today? 

Fleur Pellerin: 

I think my mother was always repeating very like popular say like, when there is a wish, there is a will, these kind of things. So I think these, you know, got into my brain. But I'm not sure I really trusted that.

SCS: 

But talking about that, if there's a wish, there's a way. You did say that you didn't expect to end up as a minister. And yet you did. 

An adopted child of Korea. Tell us a little bit about this childhood and how you ended up as a minister.

Fleur Pellerin: 

Something that is possible in France. And I'm not sure it's, you know, very common, but it can happen in France that when you go to the public school, the school that is really funded by the government. You can really access top positions if you climb your way through, you know, through this higher education system.

We have this Grande école, which is the equivalent of Ivy league in France. Even though you don't come from a very privileged background, this can give you access to top position, top social positions. And I think that's what happened to me. So I was adopted to a French family, very young, so I don't have any memories from my childhood in another country.

And my family was very loving. My parents were not very educated, so they had, actually, my father went to university, but my mother, she didn't have, you know, the equivalent of A levels. But I think she was really keen to give me the conviction that being independent for a woman is very important.

And independent meaning financially independent. So you need to have a good job. And so I think she, without putting too much pressure, you know, in a way that would have been a bit toxic. I think she gave me the sense of effort just to acquire this freedom to choose my path.

I went to school. I skipped a form because I could read at four years old. And so I had my A levels at 16, when usually you get it at 18. And so I did a very, you know, traditional curriculum, that brought me to the top from a social ladder perspective.

It's, I think, an inspiring story. That's why it created so much attention in Korea when I was appointed as a minister. 

SCS: 

I've heard that you tell the story that your mom actually financed your father's studies as well, right?

Fleur Pellerin: 

She had a very, you know, humble position. She was an assistant, basically. But at the time, my father, she had to work because it was, the only one having revenues.

But my father was a student until maybe 20 because he was a doctor in physics. So he continued studying until maybe 27, 28. So quite late. And so during that time, my mother was paying, you know, for the, for the rent, et cetera. Um, But then, you know, she stopped working when she got kids, me and my sister.

And, uh, and I think she suffered a lot from not having a job she could talk about socially. She never really said it, but it was really something hurting her very deeply. To feel like, I'm not at par with some people with whom she could have conversations.

SCS: 

Yeah. So how did that influence you in your journey? Did you aspire? Was it, you know, the question when people asked you when you were a child, what do you want to do when you grow up? Was it minister? 

Fleur Pellerin: 

Absolutely not. I had no clue whatsoever. I had a sort of conception of what people expected from me and this I didn't realize at the time, but maybe because I was adopted, you know, I felt that somehow I really had to please everyone and to do exactly, you know, the right things. 

And so probably the fact that I went, you know, to business school, to study political science, to this very, you know,  prominent school in France called ENA that trains a high school servants.

It's really a very classical, but very prestigious curriculum. In my head, it was like, okay, if I do that, my parents will be pleased. So I think this influenced me in the way that, you know, I really kept on the good tracks, you know, the right tracks. 

But I always felt that. You know, pleasure is super important in life. So I really like to enjoy, I like to laugh, I like social gatherings. I studied hard but maybe I was wanting, expecting to have more freedom somehow. 

SCS: 

So how did you land in the government? I guess in terms of after business school and all of that.

Fleur Pellerin: 

Yeah, it's a strange coincidence because I was always interested in politics and I always had the sympathy for the socialist party. So I did some campaigns in 2002, 2007, 2012. So the first two, the socialist party didn't win the presidential campaigns. And the third one at the time, I had really an official position. The first and second time I was more working in the shadow, you know, like all these younger people who produce notes, studies, et cetera.

And then the last time I was really a spokesperson for the candidates. So I was identified as someone who started to get an expertise on the digital topics. And so when Hollande was elected, I was asked to join the government. And it's totally crazy because, you know, my mother's mother, she was a cleaning lady.

So she was watching me on television, and for her, it was absolutely, you know, unimaginable to see someone from her family getting so high in the social ladder coming from where we came from.

Really, I'm very thankful to the country. 

SCS: 

You've had not only one position, you've had multiple positions in government and digital was very strong in your portfolio.

Tell us a little bit about some of the impacts that you were looking to make in your time in government. And were you able to see some of that come through in your time? 

Fleur Pellerin: 

Yeah, so it's very frustrating because the political cycle is quite short. When you start the public policy, sometimes it takes like10 years to produce some impact. But, in my case, when I was in charge of digital, I think not a lot of people would be able to name a minister for digital before I was appointed. I was really appointed at the time when digital was super important, was making a lot of changes, substantial changes in the way we produce, in the way we work, in the way we live, etc.

And so it was really a very interesting moment to be in charge of policy at the time because I could really make a difference. And my other chance was that my bosses, so the president and the prime minister at the time, they had not a lot, a great digital acculturation. Not really tech savvy.

And so I could really write on a blank page, my roadmap, what I wanted to do. So I was let quite free to decide what my priorities would be. So I created the whole Le French tech initiative, which was to put some light on all the startups of the ecosystem. I created a very favorable tax.

And financing environments, creative regulations for crowdfunding for corporate venture. I did a lot of both, you know, hard law and also working on the ecosystem. I know that it made a difference because first, you know, everybody's talking about French tech all the time now, and also a lot of people tell me now, thank you for this. Thank you for that. And that's the best, you know, reward that you can have as a politician. 

SCS: 

Absolutely. Let's talk a little bit about the policies. Of course, we have a global audience. Actually I was sharing with you, even in America, La French Tech is something that rings off the ear and we recognize that name. So you've definitely built that brand here. 

Let's say top three things that you thought, this is what's going to change the ecosystem and to get it to where it has. 

Fleur Pellerin: 

It's very difficult to name only three because when you build an ecosystem, it's just, it's not one decision that you make or one measure that you take.

If I had to, I would say launching the Station F project. Because Station F is this big incubator that can host 1000 startups, that we created in the 13th arrondissement in Paris, and I think it was very important at the time to have a flagship place.

So, of course, it's a public private initiative. It was mostly funded by the private sector, but, you know, it's really a government led initiative, and it was very important to have somewhere where you could showcase all this innovation in France. So now, when you have big delegations coming from anywhere in the world, they go and visit Station F.

So I felt that it was very important to have this flagship place. It's a bit of communication, but I felt it was very important. Second, probably the work that we did on the tax and regulatory environment that is very, very favorable to investment and entrepreneurship, creating your business, reinvesting your capital gains into new companies. So I think that was also very important. 

And the third thing was probably, yeah, to shed some light on the ecosystem. So the fact that I took a delegation to Las Vegas, for example, to the CS and maybe 150 French startups. For the first time, it created a lot of media attention in the Anglo Saxon press, which, you know, sometimes it's not very nice to, very tender with France. There was a lot of French bashing at the time on the business environment, but this time, you know, it was quite impressive and then there were some good news and good reports in the Anglo Saxon press on the French, you know, innovation ecosystem, which was really great.

SCS: 

Yeah. So a lot of communications, a lot of strategic, I guess, flagship branding. I think that's what I'm hearing from you. Where do you see the ecosystem today? I mean, we talked about it briefly on our panel, but it's been a couple of years since you were in politics and now you are an investor yourself.

If we were to understand the French venture cycle, where are we today? Are we mature? Is there more to be desired? 

Fleur Pellerin: 

No, we're definitely more mature. There's much more money in the investment industry. I should have mentioned in the top three, you know, that we created this public bank, which is a sort of sovereign fund, that can also invest directly or in fund of funds.

And that bank played a very, very critical role. And this is a role in structuring both of this industry and also nurturing and supporting the tech ecosystem. So this bank, BPI France, played a very major role in the development of our tech ecosystem. And I think now, almost 15 years later, money is less of an issue.

Has been a bit commoditized, but I think now we stay with a very big issue, which is the exit opportunities. We still lack a very deep and very dynamic stock market for tech companies. And we still lack very big companies, very big corporates who could make acquisitions in billions. This is something that lacks a bit in Europe. 

SCS: 

Yeah. So BPI France we had Anne Germain join us. And of course, we know that they deploy something like a billion dollars every year in tech and VC. That includes fund funds. Because I think this has been a conversation with a lot of different countries, do you think there's a time limit for the government to play a role in which then, you know, once the ecosystem achieves a certain status, the government should no longer be putting public money into a high risk.

Fleur Pellerin: 

Yes, absolutely. Because when we created this mandate for this bank, uh, it's not the only mandate of that bank. They can also make it to take shares in big, big listed tech 40 companies or companies that are in distress situation. 

So they have a lot of different mandates. But so when we created that mandate for VC and for innovation, it was really to correct a market failure.

And so as long as this market failure, which is a, the lack of financing to finance good innovation, then we think that the intervention of BPI remains important. So it's less the case today than it was 10 years ago, for sure. I see it as an investor, you know, in the cases where BPI is a co-investor, as a direct investor. It's a very important signal that is given, you know, when BPI invests. 

So I think it's still very useful. And hopefully at some point the VC industry will be mature enough. For BPI not to have to stay with this, you know, direct investment mandate, but we're not there yet.

SCS: 

About 10 plus years later, you decided actually in 2016 to become an investor yourself, to participate in this economy as a key driver. Why this decision? 

Fleur Pellerin: 

I'm not sure that I really decided it. Actually, I think the circumstances sort of decided for me because my friends was the CEO of a very big company who at the time had a joint venture investment fund with another big company. Told me, why don't you, you know, become vice president of this investment fund?

Because there was a succession planning going on. The team who founded the company, they wanted to leave. So he told me, you are vice president for one year and then you've done the job and then you take the funds. So he put the idea in my head. Because I had never thought that I would do that.

And then it's also because I met with the founder of Naver, which is this amazing, you know, success story in digital in South Korea and the team of Naver, they really wanted to collaborate with me somehow because they had seen, you know, what I had done for the French tech, et cetera. 

They felt that there was something we could create together and actually they came very early on. I had not even created the company. I had not even created Korelya, but I managed to raise with them 200 million just to create this, you know, fund where we would try to find synergies between France and Korea through investment. Was an incredible luck because I realized now that I've been fundraising, for real, how difficult and challenging that is.

So the fact that I had the funds before I created, you know, the vehicle, the financial vehicle, It's something that never happens. So it was, um, I was very lucky. 

SCS: 

Yeah. So almost a full circle moment for you, but of course you almost don't have memories of, because you were so young when you were adopted, how do you see, I guess, your identity coming through in the work that you're doing?

How are you building Korelya with that in mind? 

Fleur Pellerin: 

Personally, it's very strange because I was not really interested in Korea before. I had been to many Asian countries, but not Korea. Maybe because I sort of rejected it, you know, unintentionally. And so the fact that I recreated my relationship, and that my job today is also working on the relationship between the two countries, the one where I was born and the other one where, you know, I feel really very connected to.

It's a nice closure of the cycle you were mentioning. And probably if I had not been in government, I would never have returned to Korea. Or maybe, you know, at a later stage when I'm very old, I would have been interested to visit the country where I was born.

But this really accelerated and gave me the opportunity to go back to Korea. And now I know a lot because I spend a lot of time, I have many friends. I'm really happy to be a sort of gateway to Korea. Now, when a French startup thinks about, you know, developing the business or finding a partner in Korea, they reached out to me.

SCS: 

So of course your name is Fleur, flower, a very original name. And your mother gave that name to you and you are doing something original in building bridges with Korea. How do you see the opportunity today in Asia and is there increased interest in Europe growing globally in Asia? 

Fleur Pellerin: 

My fund invested both in tech and also in consumers. So consumer is a really very recent diversification. So for the moment, we have €750 million asset under management in tech, and now we are launching a new strategy that will aim at identifying, sourcing, emerging brands in premium lifestyle sectors.

So food and beverage, fashion, accessories, beauty, wellness, asset light hospitality. Because we feel that, you know, the consumer that likes this kind of hotels usually would like this kind of spa, this kind of cosmetic, this kind of fashion. And so it's interesting to see the convergence of all these, you know, lifestyle experiences.

And when you see the strategy of LVMH or Caring, for example, that goes into entertainment, into hospitality, you can feel that there's a strong connection between the sector. Korea is a very interesting market for luxury. The first market in terms of spent per capita, and it's also a great gateway to other Asian countries.

So we identifying some brands and some trends in France or in Europe and then deploying them through Korea in Asia. We feel it's a very good strategy. I think there's still a lot of opportunities, because also Korea's, the same way the tech ecosystem has grown in France, I mean, the smart power of Korea has massively developed over the past years. That creates a lot of opportunities. 

SCS: 

So €750 million euros assets under management. You started strong with the support of Naver as, was it a co-GP arrangement with the infrastructure? 

Fleur Pellerin: 

No, no, we don't have much co-GPs in, it's not very common in France. I really own the, the, the company and then we have the vehicles.

SCS: 

So Naver was really like a strong LP from day one and they wanted you to develop. So 2016, it's been a couple of years. You have the last count. Was it seven or eight unicorns today? 

Fleur Pellerin: 

I think we must have more than 10. 

SCS:  

More than 10 unicorns. Tell us a little bit about your investing strategy.

I mean, in the beginning with tech, when you were building it in the early days, How do you think about that before the transition into now consumer?

Fleur Pellerin: 

Usually first funds are very good. A very good show, very good performances. That is, it's funny, right? Also I had no track record as an investor. My co-founder was a banker for investment banker for a long time. So we had a lot of experience in MNA, IPOs, et cetera, but not really as an investor. 

The rest of the team is a very seasoned investor team. But so it was a very strange, very original profile for an investment committee or an investing team. And so I think we decided to be generalist, to be sector agnostic. And we had in mind the fact that, you know, we wanted to maximize our access to Asia. 

So we were trying to identify companies that were not only promising and potential category leaders in their field, but also companies that could really benefit from, you know, scaling, especially in Asia. It's not really a strategy, but it was something that we didn't mind because we felt that our value added would be strong, you know, if we could find this angle. 

SCS: 

And you were still doing early stage, right? 

Fleur Pellerin: 

At first we were doing a bit, you know, between series A and series B, and then we really Focus on series B because we felt that, you know, on series B…  series A growing global is not really a priority. Usually it comes a bit later. 

We started investing in 2017, early 2017, and we see that the, probably the fund return us of this first fund. We need to stop monetizing now, actually in the tune in the next two years. 

One is a very wide bet because it was our investment in Bolt. Bolt is a competitor, only European competitor to Uber, Estonian company funded by a super young founder. He was 19 when he created the company. He's less than 30 today. So it's just crazy. 

And this company, when we invested, no VC wanted to invest because there were only strategic investors. So Daimler, Didi, the Chinese company. So the cap table was very strange and VC people, they didn't like it, but we made the bet. Because we thought that there was a lot of potential and at the time, so the valuation of the company was probably €700 million. The last round, I think last year was at €7 billion and now all the big VC, US VC came now, and joined the cap table, but we will probably IPO this company at €10 to €12 billion.

So we'll make a lot of, and it's a big line in the portfolio. So this one is probably going to be a fund returner. But it's, it was a bit of a wild bet. And maybe if we were more seasoned investors, maybe we would not have done this deal. 

SCS: 

How did you meet the boat founder and hear of this opportunity? 

Fleur Pellerin: 

We really sourced it because we looked at a similar deal in France. A company that was a French, also a ride-hailng company. And so, because we looked at that company, but we didn't make the investment. We benchmarked the market. 

And then we found that Bolt had a very interesting profile, in terms of growth, in terms of model. I think we did a, just a cold call to the founder, met with him. He was interested also with our relationship with Naver.

At some point that could have been some, you know, mapping technology that Naver could have also plugged into the company. We didn't do it, but you know, there was a potentially a technological rationale. And so that's how we got in touch with him. 

SCS: 

So building a generalist fund, I mean, there are two schools of thought, right?

I mean, LPs, I'm sure they've given you many different excuses, as I call them, or reasons for not to invest. And one of the pushbacks for some of our funds we work with is, ah, generalist fund. We're not so interested in generalists anymore. We want specialists. What are your thoughts on that? 

Fleur Pellerin: 

When we launched the first fund, there were not so many specialist funds. And it started later, so deep tech funds, health tech. And so now it seems like, indeed it's easier to fundraise, especially with institutionals. When you have a specific angle, and also like, you know, all these impact related teams, like, you know, clean tech, et cetera, are also easier to sell at the moment or to market and a generalist fund.

We still feel that it's interesting for us because we have this Asian angle that is differentiating. And so it's probably the combination between, you know, this generalist. We try to maximize the leverage that we can bring and that we can have in Asia. And we feel that there's not only one sector that is interesting for that. I mean, there's a lot of sectors where it proves very relevant. So we prefer to say generalist for the moment. 

SCS: 

Yeah. So talking about exits, the lack of exits actually in France, it's interesting that you bring sort of the Asian connection as well. 

You know, I interview a lot of toppy. I was with a peak 15 in India, Sequoia spinoff. I was with a couple of investors as well. And one of the complaints of Southeast Asia at least, and then a little bit more broadly Asia is. Even the lack of access, right? The proven returns. 

So you're in Europe and Asia where exits are not so good. So is your strategy to then push them globally to list in the US? Like how are you thinking about building your fund returners for this vintage? 

Fleur Pellerin: 

We are very opportunistic. So of course, as a former minister of France, I would prefer, you know, to have a European NASDAQ that, you know, would be very efficient, very liquid. I was mentioning earlier, this company is really European, even though, you know, now they operate in Africa. So they're very successful in many other regions of the world. 

But if they list, they will list in Amsterdam probably. So they will list in Europe. If a company told me, well, it makes more sense because my business now is in the US to list in New York on the NASDAQ. you just need to make the decision that is the most relevant for the company.

And to maximize the chances of the success of the IPO. I'm fine with that, but I would prefer if we had a more efficient market for tech companies in Europe, and I would prefer to have also big, you know, potential acquirer. 

SCS: 

Yeah, and what's the hold back here in terms of bringing this to the foreign in France?

I mean, that's been actually I was with Sofinnova yesterday as well. And a lot of them were hesitating. The lack of liquidity is very real. What causing this lack of liquidity? 

Fleur Pellerin: 

It's a bit cultural. So it's a bit related to the fact that analysts in Europe, they have a more financial profile, you know, they usually come from banks. Whereas I think in the US, you know, these guys, they've done FinTech for like 25 years.

So they know the sector super well and they know how to accurately assess the valuation of a company, a tech company. Probably we would change over time, but we lack a bit this culture of, you know, people who are very, very good specialists of like one vertical, one sector, the FinTech, health tech or whatever, and who can really, you know, provide a good analysis of the valuation.

Also maybe a more educated, you know, financial market where there's more transactions and more liquidity in the US. I think the combination of this two things is explains partially this lack of interest. 

SCS: 

It's interesting. I know one of your LPS is from one of the large families here. How is the French family office seen in supporting tech? Are they as forward thinking in their investment strategy these days?

Fleur Pellerin: 

I would say. It's really starting interestingly. So it's always a very discreet. Most of the family office, they don't even publish their portfolio or sometimes it's very secret.

So it's not easy to know where they are invested, but you can see now recently very interesting initiatives from, for example, the family office of Galerie Lafayette, Motier Ventures has been super, super dynamic. They've done a lot of investment in AI, in Gen AI. They were created maybe four or five years ago when they did like 18 investments.

Quite impressive. And then you have other players like, you know, Xavier Niel or Rodolphe Sade from CMA CGM. So big, big, big companies who are now also starting their family offices. And they're very supportive of the tech ecosystem. Acting both finance with a financial intention or strategic sometimes as well.

Because, you know, sometimes their investments can be interesting for their co businesses as well. It's an interesting segment of the market. 

SCS: 

And of course you are looking to devolve that with your consumer focus now. 

Fleur Pellerin: 

Absolutely. We realized in the discussion that we have, while we are fundraising that it's a more tangible product.

Sometimes when you're talking about quantum computing or blockchain, I mean, it's a very complicated, it's very technical. And so sometimes for family offices, who are sometimes very sophisticated, but sometimes they have a different approach than, you know, financial institutions, talking about something that is really tangible that there have been, and there still are interesting success stories, in the past years and now. And so seeing these success stories, I think gives some tangibility and motivation because it's a very resilient sector and tech, you know, has been very volatile. So it can be reassuring also.

SCS: 

So what are the trends that you're excited by now that you're shifting focus? I know you talked about, I guess, like the luxury market and how things will be add ons into the luxury space.

What else are you looking towards and are excited by to invest moving forward?

Fleur Pellerin: 

Beauty of a very interesting category, especially like the perfume. So the niche perfume brands, you can see very fast successes in this field was very interesting margin. If they're executed well, can lead to a very profitable businesses and great growth. The problem is very crowded.

Also in the food and beverage, recently you can see very interesting trends like, you know, the non alcoholic beverages. The most difficult for the moment category was probably fashion because fashion is going through a very complicated cycle, both on the mass market, you know, from mass market to luxury. Fashion is probably very difficult to execute at the moment. 

SCS: 

Yeah. And so how are you rethinking this? With venture, with tech, you're aiming for that 3x return. How are you structuring this fund? Is it still venture type returns that you're aiming for? 

Fleur Pellerin: 

Yes, definitely, because we invest at a moment where the companies are doing between €5 and €15 million revenues, let's say, close to profitability.

And so what we expect is to bring them to a level where they will be at €50 million revenue plus. And we think that we can really leverage the platform that we have with Korelya in terms of digital. So our knowledge of e-commerce and technology, you know, supporting the development of your business. I think it's a very good combination to the consumer on one side, but to also have a team dedicated to tech and have synergies between the two.

Growing the brand through tech e commerce and Asia, I think it's a very relevant strategy. 

SCS: 

You talked about both as one of your success stories.

Is there a failed investment that you reflect on and what are some of the learnings that you could share?

Fleur Pellerin: 

We are quite lucky because for the moment, and I hope it'll stay like this until we liquidate, it's like this is… (SCS: Oh touch wood here.)

We don't have a line that goes to zero. So we have companies that have been disappointing because the growth has been very flattish and, and not, you know, stellar. But it's not companies that, you know, we will have to write off, I think. Those who have been a bit disappointing were companies where I think we misanalyzed the market conditions.

So for example, there's one company which is an application for learning languages. We underestimated the power of competition. And especially the budget that this competitor had for marketing. The application is great, the founders were great, but I think it was very difficult for them to fight against a company that had raised hundreds of millions and that we're spending a lot on the customer acquisition.

So sometimes it's not totally related to either the product or the team, but our misunderstanding of the competitive environment and what it takes to be successful.

SCS: 

So as we wrap up today, I mean, you've had quite a journey. Adopted, built your life. You became valedictorian and everything that was possible basically in the best schools, as you said, minister, government and now raising more money, of course, for your mission under Korelya.

What are, I guess, the most important lessons that you've learned yourself that you'd love, that you wish your daughter, who's big now, to learn as well and to apply in her life. 

Fleur Pellerin: 

I think I would say that, if you do something when you, when you need a partner and, and creating a company is a very solitary exercise, actually.

So you really need to find partners. And it's difficult to know, you know, beforehand that you can really trust as if it was someone from your family. Because I learned, and it was not my background because I came from a civil servant, civil service background. So the relationship with money and power was totally different.

So it was not really, I'm not a very ambitious person. I'm not craving for power or for money. And so I arrived in an environment where the relationship to both power and money is not, you know, what I was used to, in the professional environment I was before, even the politics, it's a paramount, power game.

So I would say that, you know, the best advice, but it's not really an advice because I'm not giving a secret sauce to succeed is really to not make mistakes on the partner that you choose because so many adventures failed because, you know, you cannot get along or you cannot trust.

SCS: 

So, what are three questions that you would ask knowing what you know now that's the most important to ask a partner before you get into it. 

Fleur Pellerin: 

It's really feeling, you know, in, in probably in moments of hardship, how far you can trust you and rely on that person.

So it's not a question. It's not an Excel sheet. It's really something that you feel with your guts. And this is why it's so difficult to not make mistakes because, you know, they are not an obvious way to not make mistakes. You can have recipes, you can make graph goals. 

Sometimes you get excited about someone, you forget to just inquire about, you know, formal experiences, relationships with other people. And this is super important because, you know, collecting a lot of views, even if your view can be independent from them, is very important. 

So I would say no rush, take time to really try to assess as much as possible, the potential of development of your relationship with the partner. That's very important. 

SCS: 

And finally, of course we have to end with a message for the women. You've had quite a path, but a lot of women still struggle. I mean, we came together because we were trying to drive more awareness for the gender venture investment gap and catalyze capital towards it in the way that you are.

What needs to change here? What's your message for funders, capital allocators in funding women? 

Fleur Pellerin: 

I think really, LPs must change first. What we were discussing during the conference, you can see that sometimes there are things that are really vicious circles. I, as an investor, I say, Oh, my deal flow, I do, I'm doing tech late stage tech. I have maybe 10, less than 10 percent of female founders. And so if I need to commit to 25, 30 percent into companies funded by women. Then I need to report that to my LPs because you know the LPs they give you a mandate. 

If it was my money, I could make that commitment but if I'm taking someone else's money, I need to make sure that he's fine with that and actually, you find out that you know, some investors are not fine with that. They just want financial returns and if they doubt that you can guarantee the financial returns while doing some positive discrimination, then it will be very difficult for you to raise money. 

So, we need to educate, I think, LPs to have maybe more specialized LPs who would invest money into female-led fund, then would make more easily a commitment to invest in, you know, a certain quantum into female funded companies.

SCS: 

And you made an interesting comment too, at the end, actually, you said, look, there was a special law here for boards to get women in the boards. And the moment it was tied to incentives, suddenly they found all the women. 

And you think this should be applied in ventures in some way? 

Fleur Pellerin: 

I think it's very difficult to find the right way to apply it to ventures because you know, in a board, it's true that you have a responsibility towards the company.

So you need to really create the board that will be the most beneficial for the company. In a fund, you really need to give some money back. I mean, it's very, and so applying the same positive discrimination policy is not very easy, but I think there could be, you know, a sort of agreement from all sovereign funds, for example, at the European level, if all the sovereign funds that decided to create a sort of constraint. 

If the French public bank gives me 10 million that I need to invest €10 million or €20 million in France. Well, they could say you need to invest at least this amount of money into women and then maybe because it's a constraint maybe they could allocate this money with less due diligence, or maybe give you an incentive in terms of getting more carried.

There are things you could figure out. I'm sure there are things you could figure out to create this incentive that would allow GP to feel more at ease with positive discrimination. 

SCS: 

So a carrot and a stick, as you say. 

Fleur Pellerin: 

I think so. I think so. 

SCS: 

All right. Final words as we end here, to a funder and founder tuning in. Inspirational message. What's one key takeaway as they're building? 

I mean, venture today. Yes, things are getting better, but it's still tough for GPs. The fundraising winter. I don't know if it's over yet. 

Fleur Pellerin: 

I can tell you it's not over yet. I think we're in the middle of it. 

I was a late entrepreneur because I really started very late and I think I did not take enough advice. Because I was not also in an environment with a lot of entrepreneurs around me. I mean, I didn't know that many. And so I think I did too much alone. 

And this, I regret because I think I would have been smarter, listening to advice or, you know, similar experiences from friends 

SCS: 

Well, this is the very reason we have Billion Dollar Moves, to capture the sum of all your experiences, and we thank you for the privilege of your time, hosting us here in beautiful Paris in your office.

Fleur, keep making Billion Dollar Moves, and we're excited to see how Korelya expands and your impact. Thank you very much. 

Fleur Pellerin: 

Thank you. 

SCS: 

I'll give you a high five for all the work you've done, girl!