Stéphane Distinguin

Stéphane Distinguin describes himself as an  entrepreneur, investor and player in the digital, creative and cultural industries.

A graduate of ESCP-Europe in 1997, he promptly joined Deloitte and contributed to launch Up&Up, one of France’s « early stage » investment funds.

In 2003, he created Fabernovel, which supported many large corporations as they transitioned to a digital business model. The company posted sales of fifty million euros and five hundred employees  before its acquisition by the worldwide consultancy leader EY in 2022.

Founder of and investor in many start-ups (Digitick, KissKissBankBank, Morning…) between 2004 and 2010, Stéphane was President of the non-profit Silicon Sentier, renamed Numa, an early promoter of FrenchTech.

He initiated the creation of La Cantine, the first European coworking dedicated to providing office space, exhange and sharing opportunities to the players of the Parisian ecosystem, of Le Camping, one of the first startup accelerators in the world, and, from 2008 till 2020, of PariSoma, the top coworking space of San Francisco and a favorite of foreign entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley.

From 2013 to 2016, Stéphane was a member of France’s Conseil National du Numérique.

From 2013 till 2019, he was President of Cap Digital, a joint effort to boost France’s competitiveness and digital transformation that included more than one thousand member companies (among which the main French publishing corporations) universities and laboratories.

In 2015, along with François-Xavier Marquis and Gilles Roussel, Stéphane was appointed by Prime Minister Manuel Valls to lay the groundwork of what was to become La Grande Ecole du Numérique, a school that he has chaired from day one.

He is the author of Et si on vendait la Joconde ? Plaidoyer pour une relance par l’économie de la création (Editions JC Lattès, 2022)

—