# Honey Lab > Venture studio made by serial entrepreneurs. We build & back the next category leaders. Operating from Paris, Buenos Aires and Miami. --- ## About Honey Lab Honey Lab SAS is a corporate venture building studio founded by Patrick Amiel in December 2017, headquartered in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France (3 avenue Perronet, 92200). RCS Nanterre 833 842 032 — VAT FR92833842032. Honey Lab is not a fund, not an accelerator, not a consulting firm. The model is built around three principles: 1. **Deep analysis, fast decision.** Weeks of primary research on a category, then commit in days, not quarters. 2. **One country first, global ambition.** Start narrow. Dominate. Expand. Global comes after proof. 3. **Equity aligns, equity commits.** We take equity, not fees. Skin in the game on both sides. The three operating principles below describe what we believe. ## Convictions ### I. Dare. Move past the status quo. Think big, partner with serial entrepreneurs who execute. ### II. Speed compounds. Analysis doesn't. We study a space deeply, then decide in days, not quarters. Founders keep their momentum. ### III. Start narrow. Dominate. Expand. One country. One wedge. One reason to exist. Global comes after proof — anchored in a network across Europe, the US, and LatAm. ### IV. Equity aligns. Equity commits. Skin in the game. We take equity and carry the weight alongside the team. --- ## What we do ### Build — Studio & co-founding URL: https://honeylab.fr/studio/ We co-found alongside the right people. Day-zero execution, shared equity, hands on the keyboard. Honey Lab takes equity, not fees, and helps ship the first product, hire the first ten people, sign the first ten customers. Then steps back, stays on the board, opens the network across Europe, the US, and LatAm. Who fits: serial operators going again, spin-out CEOs from corporates, domain experts pre-CEO. Not a fit if you want a passive cheque, want to optimize for valuation early, or aren't ready for a co-founder relationship. How it works: 1. Deep dive — weeks of primary research on a category, twenty operator interviews, write the memo. 2. Match or build — back an existing founder or co-found with operators we trust. 3. First 100 days — hands on the keyboard. Hiring, ops, GTM, first 10 customers. 4. Scale, then step back — pass the baton. Stay on the board. Open the network. ### Back — Early-stage investment URL: https://honeylab.fr/back/ Direct investments as a business angel, plus two VC partnerships in France and Greece. Pre-seed to Seed. Ticket size €500k to €3M. Decision in days. Active board seat by default. 20+ investments, 5 confirmed exits. Patrick Amiel ranked #21 Business Angel in France by Angelsquare 2025. Categories of conviction: AI-native organisations, B2B platforms, vertical software, fintech infrastructure, cross-border consumer. What we look for in a founder: operator-grade execution with shipping track record; one country / one wedge focus; founder-market fit with domain edge; capital efficiency. Notable bets include Ledger, Figures, Jump, MyBestPro (exit Vivendi 2017), EasyRecrue, Welyb, Kwiper. ### Advise — Strategic advisory URL: https://honeylab.fr/advise/ Corporate venture building for large groups that need a company built outside their walls: external CEO, separate cap table, real equity alignment. Plus strategic advisory for high-growth startups needing a seasoned outside perspective. **Method — three phases.** Venture Design (8 weeks): market validation, key-player interviews worldwide, willingness to pay, GTM conviction, business plan and financing outline, founding-team profile; ends with go/no-go. Venture Build (6 months): V1 of the product, founding team in place, first paying customers. Venture Scale (from month 9): company incorporated, founders + corporate + Honey Lab on the cap table, month-18 checkpoint for the second financing tranche. **Deal structure.** IP owned by the venture. Cap table typically 60% corporate / 20% founders / 20% Honey Lab; corporate holds a preferential option to take full control on conditions fixed at launch. Board of six: two corporate, two founders, one Honey Lab, one external entrepreneur. **Cost.** €5M–€15M per venture all-in; opex for the first 6–8 months, then equity in two tranches. **We say no when:** no PMF conviction after Venture Design; no unfair advantage at the corporate; no separate independent company; no serial entrepreneur as CEO; two-tranche financing not pre-validated. Three areas of value: - **Corporate venturing** — helping large groups think about external innovation, build a venture arm or studio, design a CVC strategy, evaluate buy-vs-build. - **Growth-stage sparring** — for founders past Series A. GTM expansion, fundraising prep, hiring senior leaders, pricing decisions. - **Board & advisory** — active board roles or formal advisory positions where operator perspective adds disproportionate value. 6 active board seats. Engagement formats: single 2-hour sparring session, quarterly board cadence, or multi-month project advisory. --- ## Geography - **Paris** — HQ (3 avenue Perronet, 92200 Neuilly-sur-Seine, France) - **Athens** — Greece / Big Pi Ventures partnership - **Buenos Aires** — Argentina / LatAm gateway - **Miami** — transatlantic platform with US partners The four geographies operate as a single canvas. Capital, talent, and founders circulate between them. --- ## Patrick Amiel — founder Serial entrepreneur, business angel, board member. Co-founder of MyBestPro / Wengo — a B2C marketplace scaled to 250+ employees across 9 countries, sold to Vivendi in 2017. Co-founder of 321 Startup Studio, a corporate venture builder partnering with industrial groups across France and Greece. Investor in 20+ companies with 5 confirmed exits. Ranked #21 Business Angel in France by Angelsquare 2025. LP / scout positions: Big Pi Ventures, Ring Capital. Active board seats: Pharmedi Group, 1point6, Mucho, Feedae, École ESPE, Quest Education Group. Education: EDHEC Business School, INSEAD. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrickamiel/ X: https://x.com/patamiel --- ## Insights (writing) Long-form pieces published at https://honeylab.fr/insights/ — reworked, expanded versions of posts originally published on LinkedIn. New writing appears every few weeks. RSS at https://honeylab.fr/feed.xml. ### Build — Notes for founders - **Three people doing the work of twenty.** (Feb 2026) — AI-native startups hitting €1–5M ARR with teams of 3–8 people. Why headcount stopped being a useful proxy. https://honeylab.fr/insights/ai-native-leverage/ - **The six pillars of French tech — and why three are cracking.** (Dec 2025) — Diagnosis of the structural strain on capital, corporates, and politics in the French ecosystem. https://honeylab.fr/insights/six-pillars-french-tech/ - **Hire for an AI use case, not a diploma.** (May 2026) — Why AI fluency is the new hiring filter for junior roles in marketing and finance, and what a good use case looks like. https://honeylab.fr/insights/hire-for-ai-use-case/ ### Back — Notes from the field - **European champions go on offence.** (May 2026) — Doctolib in the UK, Deel and Qonto acquiring, Brevo's eleven acquisitions. European tech consolidating via M&A, France over-indexing. https://honeylab.fr/insights/european-champions-on-offence/ - **Argentina, back as the LatAm gateway.** (Dec 2025) — A week in Buenos Aires. Founders forged by permanent crisis, a President opening the country, an ecosystem in motion. https://honeylab.fr/insights/argentina-latam-gateway/ - **YC and a16z: the 2026 theses.** (Nov 2025) — When YC and a16z converge, it's rarely just narrative. Read from the operator's seat. https://honeylab.fr/insights/yc-a16z-2026-theses/ ### Advise — Notes for boards - **Pay peanuts on boards, get peanuts.** (Jan 2026) — Only 30% of French startups pay their independent directors. What good board work actually costs, with a benchmark grid by stage. https://honeylab.fr/insights/board-pay-peanuts/ --- ## Engagement & contact Three ways to engage, depending on profile: - **Founders (Build / Back)** — pitch your project. Book a 30-min call directly: https://calendar.google.com/calendar/u/0/appointments/schedules/AcZssZ2qtWYuQGsMyfhJSDhesLuHCJI7maJgoiMOg3dCpi4u9XfvHhDfX1jJXIvbxH-tuVCt81nvP8je - **Investors (Back)** — co-invest with us. https://calendar.google.com/calendar/u/0/appointments/schedules/AcZssZ14wWc9Ebc0AZ43xFGM4Ir6uB5Y97X549BDvWMv1NYcEYCGscXG-eJg2oTOyZAtG2fxz9ZHTmTR - **Corporates (Advise)** — innovate externally. https://calendar.google.com/calendar/u/0/appointments/schedules/AcZssZ0aYUXE8lkMmQRIVvAF3YVNrbAPYbPspzDYPmi1oLe8ZfEI4Ab6M0QKjQ81IV_uynTwmOP5XMRx Email: hello@honeylab.fr LinkedIn (Patrick Amiel): https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrickamiel/ LinkedIn (company): https://www.linkedin.com/company/honey-lab/ --- ## Lab project — Claude en 10 jours Free 10-day program teaching how to actually use Claude (Anthropic) properly — from basic chat to delegating entire workflows. Asynchronous, 30 to 90 minutes per day. Built for entrepreneurs, executives, and curious non-technical operators. URL: https://claude.honeylab.fr/ --- ## Observatoire du Corporate Venture Building First map of companies created from zero by or with large French groups. Criteria: created ex nihilo, own legal entity, active or exited. Excluded: M&A, internal brands, non-incorporated incubations, JVs between established groups, carve-outs. Version 0 (25 September 2026): 92 candidates reviewed, 63 meeting the criteria, 26 pending registry verification, 3 excluded; 24 venture-building structures inside groups; 22 CAC 40 groups with no venture identified. Early findings: EDF Pulse Incubation spun out 7 companies, all meeting the criteria; Crédit Agricole 6; AXA (Kamet) 7 candidates, 6 confirmed. Nine confirmed ventures have closed, five in 2025-2026 (Blank, Moonshot Insurance, Watèa, Apricity, Ma French Bank). Only two of the 63 show a profit in published accounts so far. Full publication Q1 2027. https://honeylab.fr/observatoire/ ## What is corporate venture building The creation of a new, independent company by a large group, to attack a validated market problem with its own team, its own capital structure and its own intellectual property. The group brings an unfair advantage and most of the capital; a founding team led by a serial entrepreneur runs the company. Three models seen in France: captive studio, spin-out of internal expertise, co-build with an external studio. Honey Lab method: Venture Design (8 weeks), Venture Build (6 months), Venture Scale (from month 9, checkpoint at month 18); €5–15M per venture; typical cap table 60% group / 20% founders / 20% studio. Full guide: https://honeylab.fr/corporate-venture-building/ ## Press - Les Echos (9 Oct 2026), « C'est du temps que nous ont donné nos aînés » : ces dirigeants de la French Tech qui s'engagent dans la vie de leur ancienne école. Patrick Amiel on backing EDHEC's GENERATIONS fund (Ring Capital), mentoring at Station F and sitting on EDHEC's admissions jury. https://www.lesechos.fr/start-up/ecosysteme/cest-du-temps-que-nous-ont-donne-nos-aines-ces-dirigeants-de-la-french-tech-qui-sengagent-dans-la-vie-de-leur-ancienne-ecole-2256047 - Le Figaro (1 Sept 2026, print), Hugging Face, Pasqal… Le bal des occasions manquées pour la French Tech. Patrick Amiel quoted as Venture Partner at Big Pi Ventures. ## Key resources - Homepage: https://honeylab.fr/ - Build: https://honeylab.fr/studio/ - Back: https://honeylab.fr/back/ - Advise: https://honeylab.fr/advise/ - About: https://honeylab.fr/about/ - Portfolio: https://honeylab.fr/portfolio/ - Insights: https://honeylab.fr/insights/ - RSS feed: https://honeylab.fr/feed.xml - Sitemap: https://honeylab.fr/sitemap.xml - Legal notice (mentions légales): https://honeylab.fr/legal/ --- _Last updated: May 2026. This file is intended for LLMs and AI search engines (Perplexity, ChatGPT browsing, Claude search, Google AI Overviews) to retrieve canonical, up-to-date information about Honey Lab in a single fetch._