France shuts down in August. As a customer, I am always somewhere between confused and frustrated by the fact that most local businesses (especially bakeries) simply close for the whole month of August. As a French native, I am kicking myself every year to still be puzzled by it. Are most French people truly in a position to take a three-week vacation, let alone in such a seemingly coordinated fashion? Do businesses close because people are not around or do people leave because everything is closed anyway?
The situation became a lot more than just a disappointment when I had a dental emergency last week. I had to go to a dental emergency care center in Lyon, staffed by students under the supervision of only a few licensed dentists (whom I did not get to see at any point during my almost 3-hour visit). Even practices with more than one dentist close during August, with all providers vacationing in the same coordinated fashion.
As an investor, it’s hard not to experience summer in France as a massively overlooked opportunity where remote work and portfolio careers are also becoming more common. I am increasingly convinced that the most innovative companies will be built to serve consumers with alternate lifestyles, atypical schedules and caregiving needs during time periods when most people used to behave similarly but might no longer do so in the future. If you are building solutions to help small, often seasonal, businesses capitalize on under-served consumers or under-utilized labor, email me here and/or fill out this form. I look forward to hearing from you!