French Sharks is a Paris-based private investment community for experienced founders, operators, investors, and sector specialists. The community combines sector expertise, structured review, confidential member events, and independent investment decision-making.
French Sharks is a selective private community. Membership is by invitation or by application with review. The community seeks individuals who bring operational experience, sector knowledge, or investment expertise that strengthens the collective ability to evaluate technology opportunities.
Members are expected to engage actively: participating in review discussions, contributing sector insight, attending private events, and maintaining the confidentiality that enables candid evaluation. The community prioritizes depth of participation over breadth of membership.
Membership does not imply any obligation to invest, nor does it guarantee access to any specific opportunity. Each member exercises fully independent judgment in all matters.
Every company presented to the French Sharks community passes through a structured multi-step evaluation process. This process is designed to ensure rigor, relevance, and respect for both founders and members. French Sharks does not make collective investment decisions. Each member independently evaluates opportunities and decides whether to participate.
Companies are identified through the member network, sector partnerships, inbound submissions, and the broader European technology ecosystem. The founding team conducts an initial screen for sector relevance, stage, and strategic clarity.
The founding team evaluates company materials, governance quality, financing history, and founder readiness. Not all submissions advance past this stage. Companies that do not meet initial criteria are respectfully declined.
Relevant domain experts within the community provide independent sector analysis covering market positioning, competitive dynamics, technology defensibility, and strategic risks. This analysis is shared confidentially with members.
Selected companies are presented to the community in a structured, confidential setting. Members engage directly with founders, ask questions, and evaluate the opportunity through open discussion.
Each member independently decides whether to pursue an opportunity. There is no collective vote, no pressure to invest, and no pooled capital. Investment execution occurs through separate legal structures and regulated intermediaries where applicable.
Selected companies may be considered for review by the French Sharks community or for separate strategic support through CAPG GROUP. Submission does not guarantee review, presentation to the community, or any form of funding.
The evaluation process considers sector relevance (AI, Fintech, Blockchain, Cybersecurity), strategic clarity, governance maturity, founder quality, and readiness for structured investor dialogue. Companies at the earliest concept stage without product, revenue, or governance structure are unlikely to advance through the process.
Companies that are reviewed receive candid, confidential feedback regardless of outcome. French Sharks values founder time and does not engage in open-ended processes.
CAPG GROUP SAS is the separate commercial and advisory structure associated with French Sharks. CAPG GROUP provides strategic advisory and operational support to early-stage and growth-stage European technology companies. It is operationally and legally distinct from French Sharks Club SAS.
Services include strategic advisory on corporate positioning and governance, financing preparation and documentation, non-dilutive financing orientation (including CII, CIR, BPI grants, and subsidized loan instruments), commercial structuring, and founder support during capital-raising processes.
Companies supported by CAPG GROUP may or may not be presented to the French Sharks community. The advisory relationship is separate from any community review process. CAPG GROUP does not provide investment advice, personalized recommendations, financial solicitation, portfolio management, or crowdfunding services.
French Sharks hosts a calendar of private, invitation-only events in Paris and across the broader European ecosystem. These are not networking mixers. They are structured occasions for experienced operators and investors to engage in substantive conversation about technology, markets, and opportunities.
Intimate sessions where companies present to the community. Structured Q&A, confidential discussion, and direct founder dialogue.
Deep dives into AI, Fintech, Blockchain, and Cybersecurity with domain experts. Market dynamics, emerging themes, and investment implications.
Private dinners and informal gatherings connecting experienced founders with investors and operators. Relationship-driven, not transactional.
Founded French Sharks after leading La Place Fintech at Palais Brongniart. Background in technology community building, fintech ecosystems, and structured private investment. 160+ events organized, 5,000+ professional connections across European technology sectors.
Cross-border M&A, capital raising, and technology advisory with experience advising European and U.S. technology companies on corporate development and strategic transactions.
Expert in wealth structuring and high-value project development at the intersection of finance, entrepreneurship, and private investment communities. Bridges investors, executives, and project leaders.
Built and exited a Next40 scale-up (200 employees, $70M+ raised). Advises founders on strategic structuring through Ember. Focus on decision quality, governance clarity, and capital efficiency.
These principles define how French Sharks operates as a community. They are not marketing language. They are commitments that govern how we review companies, interact with founders, and engage with one another.
All company information, member discussions, and investment activity shared within the community remain strictly confidential. Breaches of confidentiality are grounds for membership termination.
No member is obligated to invest. No collective pressure is applied. Each member makes independent decisions based on their own analysis, risk tolerance, and professional advice.
Companies are evaluated through a structured process. Enthusiasm does not replace rigor. The community values honest assessment over promotional energy.
Founders who present to the community deserve candor, professionalism, and timely communication. The community does not engage in open-ended processes or unclear timelines.
Members with material conflicts of interest in a reviewed company disclose them to the community. Transparency in conflicts preserves the integrity of collective discussion.
French Sharks operates for the long term. Decisions are made to protect the reputation of the community, its members, and the founders who trust us with their companies.
French Sharks is a Paris-based private investment community bringing together experienced founders, operators, investors, and sector specialists. The community focuses on selected European technology opportunities across four sectors: Artificial Intelligence, Fintech, Blockchain and Web3, and Cybersecurity. It operates as a structured review and discussion forum where members evaluate companies through a defined multi-step process and make fully independent investment decisions. French Sharks is not a venture capital fund, accelerator, incubator, crowdfunding platform, or regulated financial advisor. It does not pool capital, manage investments, provide personalized recommendations, or execute transactions on behalf of members. The community is organized as French Sharks Club SAS, a private members community based in France.
A venture capital fund pools capital from limited partners into a managed vehicle and deploys that capital through decisions made by a fund manager. French Sharks operates fundamentally differently. It does not pool capital, does not manage a fund, and does not make investment decisions on behalf of its members. Instead, it provides a structured environment where members access information about selected technology companies, participate in analytical discussions, and engage directly with founders. Each member evaluates opportunities independently and decides whether to invest through their own legal and financial structures. There is no collective investment decision, no capital call, and no portfolio managed on behalf of the group.
Startup accelerators typically provide structured programs including mentorship, office space, and capital in exchange for equity, operating on a cohort model with defined timelines. Networking clubs focus primarily on relationship-building and social events without structured evaluation of investment opportunities. French Sharks is neither. It is a private investment community focused on disciplined, structured evaluation of selected technology companies by experienced professionals. It does not provide mentorship programs, office space, or acceleration services. Events within the community are substantive and discussion-oriented, not primarily social. The review process is rigorous and analytical, conducted by members with relevant sector expertise.
Membership is selective and operates by invitation or by application with review. The community seeks individuals with meaningful experience as founders, operators, investors, or sector specialists in technology-related fields. Prospective members are evaluated based on their ability to contribute substantively to the community's review and discussion processes, including operational experience building or scaling technology companies, investment experience in early-stage or growth-stage companies, domain expertise in AI, Fintech, Blockchain, or Cybersecurity, and professional credibility within relevant European technology ecosystems. Membership is not based on capital availability alone.
The quality of discussion and evaluation depends directly on the quality of participants. A smaller community of experienced, engaged professionals produces better analysis, more honest evaluation, and more valuable dialogue than a large, undifferentiated network. Selective membership also protects the confidentiality that founders expect when sharing sensitive company information. It ensures that discussions remain substantive rather than promotional, and that sector expertise is genuinely represented in the evaluation process. The community is not designed to maximize membership volume but to create an environment where experienced professionals engage with opportunities at a level of rigor and discretion that larger, open-access platforms cannot provide.
French Sharks evaluates companies within four European technology sectors: Artificial Intelligence, Fintech, Blockchain and Web3, and Cybersecurity. The community considers companies at early-stage and growth-stage, with particular interest in those demonstrating clear strategic positioning, defensible technology, sound governance, and credible founding teams. Companies should have moved beyond the pure concept stage, typically having a working product, initial traction or revenue, and an established legal and governance structure. The European focus means companies with significant European operations, markets, or founding teams are most relevant.
Readiness involves several dimensions beyond seeking capital: a clear, defensible strategic position, a working product or platform with demonstrable traction, a governance and legal structure appropriate for institutional engagement, a founding team with relevant domain expertise, and a financing history reflecting disciplined capital management. Companies should also be prepared for direct, substantive questioning from experienced operators and investors. The community values transparency, strategic clarity, and honest communication about both strengths and challenges. Companies at the earliest conceptual stage, without product or governance structure, are unlikely to advance through the review process.
Companies are reviewed through a structured multi-step process: opportunity sourcing through the member network, sector partnerships, and inbound submissions; initial review by the founding team evaluating sector relevance, governance quality, and founder readiness; sector-specific analysis by domain experts covering market positioning, competitive dynamics, and strategic risks; confidential presentation to the community with direct founder engagement; and independent investment decisions by individual members. Not all submitted companies are presented. Review does not guarantee presentation, member interest, or funding of any kind.
Yes. Companies may submit themselves for consideration through the French Sharks website or through referral by an existing member. Submission initiates a review process but does not guarantee evaluation, presentation to the community, or any form of funding. The founding team and relevant sector experts assess submissions based on sector relevance, strategic clarity, governance maturity, founder quality, and readiness for structured discussion. Companies that do not meet initial criteria are respectfully declined with candid, confidential feedback where appropriate. French Sharks values founder time and does not engage in open-ended or ambiguous processes.
Sector expertise is central to how French Sharks evaluates companies. The community includes members with deep domain knowledge across its four focus sectors. When a company is reviewed, relevant sector experts provide independent analysis covering technology defensibility, competitive positioning, market dynamics, regulatory landscape, and strategic risks. This analysis is shared confidentially with the broader community. The involvement of genuine sector practitioners, rather than generalist evaluators, ensures that evaluation is grounded in operational reality rather than surface-level market narratives.
No. There is no obligation for any member to invest in any opportunity presented within the community. Membership provides access to structured review, sector analysis, and confidential discussion. Whether to invest, and on what terms, is an entirely independent decision made by each individual member. The community does not apply collective pressure, does not operate minimum investment requirements, and does not penalize members who choose not to invest. Members are expected to engage constructively in discussion and review, but investment participation is always voluntary.
Independent decision-making is a foundational principle because it aligns the community's structure with both regulatory integrity and sound investment practice. By ensuring that each member makes fully autonomous decisions based on their own analysis, risk tolerance, and professional advice, French Sharks avoids the legal and operational characteristics of collective investment schemes or advisory relationships. This independence also produces better outcomes: members with different perspectives, risk profiles, and time horizons reach their own conclusions, which creates natural diversification of approach. The community provides information and discussion. It does not provide recommendations, pressure, or collective mandates.
Confidentiality is a non-negotiable operating principle. All company information shared during review processes, all member discussions, and all investment-related activity within the community are treated as strictly confidential. Founders who present trust that their strategic plans, financial data, and competitive positioning will not be disclosed. Members trust that their individual investment decisions and analytical perspectives remain private. Breaches of confidentiality may result in membership termination. This commitment to discretion enables the candid, substantive evaluation that distinguishes the community from public forums or open-access platforms.
French Sharks Club SAS and CAPG GROUP SAS are separate legal entities with distinct functions. French Sharks Club SAS operates the private members community, facilitating structured review, member discussion, and private events. CAPG GROUP SAS is a separate commercial and advisory structure that provides strategic advisory, financing preparation, non-dilutive financing orientation, commercial structuring, and founder support services. Companies supported by CAPG GROUP may or may not be presented to the French Sharks community. The advisory relationship is entirely separate from any community review process. CAPG GROUP does not provide investment advice, personalized recommendations, financial solicitation, portfolio management, or crowdfunding services.
No. French Sharks does not provide investment advice, personalized recommendations, portfolio management, or any form of regulated financial advisory service. The community facilitates structured information sharing, analytical discussion, and direct engagement between members and company founders. All perspectives shared represent individual member opinions, not recommendations from French Sharks as an entity. Each member is responsible for conducting their own due diligence, forming their own investment judgment, and consulting their own legal, financial, and tax advisors before making any investment decisions.
No. French Sharks is a private members community, not a public investment platform, crowdfunding platform, or marketplace for financial instruments. Membership is selective and not open to the general public. The community does not solicit investments publicly, does not publish investment opportunities, does not facilitate public offerings of securities, and does not operate under crowdfunding or participative financing regulations. There is no public access to company materials or investment terms. French Sharks does not receive or transmit orders for financial instruments, does not hold client funds, and does not operate any form of transaction processing infrastructure.
French Sharks does not execute investments. The community facilitates the review, analysis, and discussion phase. If an individual member decides to invest following the review process, the actual transaction occurs through separate legal structures and, where applicable, through regulated intermediaries. Documentation, legal structuring, and execution are handled independently by each member through their own professional advisors. French Sharks does not intermediate transactions, does not receive or transmit orders, does not hold or transfer funds, and does not participate in the contractual relationship between investor and company.
French Sharks Club SAS is a private members community based in France. Nothing on this website constitutes investment advice, a personalized recommendation, financial solicitation, reception or transmission of orders, portfolio management, placement of financial instruments, crowdfunding services, or an offer to buy or sell securities. Members make independent decisions and should consult their own legal, financial, and tax advisors.
Membership does not guarantee access to any specific investment opportunity. Companies reviewed by the community are not guaranteed funding, presentation to the full membership, or any particular outcome.
Members make fully independent investment decisions. French Sharks does not pool capital, manage investments, or execute transactions on behalf of members. Investment execution occurs through separate legal or regulated structures where applicable.
Investments in early-stage technology companies involve substantial risk, including the potential for total loss of capital. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and may be subject to change.
CAPG GROUP SAS is a separate legal entity providing commercial advisory and strategic support services. CAPG GROUP does not provide investment advice, personalized recommendations, financial solicitation, reception or transmission of orders, portfolio management, placement of financial instruments, or crowdfunding services.
All information shared within the community is treated as confidential. Unauthorized disclosure is a violation of membership terms.
This website and its contents are provided for informational purposes only. Prospective members and companies should consult their own legal, financial, and tax advisors.