Gaultier Brun has spent his twenties between hypergrowth startups, international VC and early personal bets, including a ticket in a future unicorn. Today, at 199 Ventures, he pushes a bold thesis : investing early in founders who understand that marketing is not a layer of paint but a strategic engine. At 27, he helps craft one of the few French funds where storytelling, acquisition and product distribution sit at the center of the investment model.

In VC, every generation of investors believe they are inventing the future.

First came the “internet” decade, then the “software eats the world” decade, then the AI expansion of the past few years… and now we’re entering something harder to name. Not a new sector, but a new lens, an era where value creation means something way bigger than only growth or technological breakthrough.

WhatsApp instead of LinkedIn. 48 hours instead of 6 months. At 27, Hugo Mendes manages an early-stage fund and is shaking up the rules of venture capital.

Yoan Drahy avance à une vitesse qui met mal à l’aise. Pas parce qu’il va trop vite, mais parce qu’il va plus vite que le récit qu’on aimerait produire sur lui. Son entreprise n’est plus au stade des promesses, mais pas encore assez installée pour rassurer. Elle est entre deux états, et c’est précisément là que tout se joue.

At a time when French citizens are finding it increasingly difficult to access homeownership and pensions are drying up, rental investment appears to many as a true Homeric odyssey. Between increasingly restrictive access to credit, the multiplication of energy standards, price volatility, and the proliferation of real estate investment charlatans, individuals face a double difficulty: the absence of reliable and centralized tools, and an abundance of information that is sometimes contradictory. Worse, it can even be the people around them who contribute to a paralysis that inhibits any initiative.

À dix-sept ans, au cours d’un débat en cours d’économie au lycée, Sixtine Moullé-Berteaux découvre à quel point les idées peuvent diviser. Autour d’elle, les discussions s’enveniment, les opinions se braquent. « Je me suis dit que ce n’était pas sain, dit-t-elle. En démocratie, on doit pouvoir échanger sans se détester. » De cette intuition adolescente naît Le Crayon, média dont le mot d’ordre est « réunir », devenu en quelques années un acteur à part de l’écosystème médiatique français.

For years, venture capital in emerging markets (EM) was dismissed as niche. Interesting? Perhaps. But peripheral to the real innovation happening in Silicon Valley, London even in Shenzhen. That world no longer exist.

Behind every unicorn, every record-breaking round, every dazzling success story, there’s a crowd of investors in the shadows. But let’s be honest: venture capital fascinates as much as it intimidates.

Inflation wins. Savings accounts and euro-denominated funds no longer offer real protection. Their returns trail behind rising prices, comforting on the surface, but eroding value over time. The outcome? Many young people save, but they don’t really invest. That’s why diversification is no longer optional: stocks, bonds, ETFs, crypto… All are tools to build a […]