The 15 Best Startup and Entrepreneurship Podcasts in 2026
Over 200 million podcast episodes are streamed every month in France (ACPM, 2024 report). For startup founders, the format has become the number one tool for continuous learning: you pick things up during your commute, your workout, your downtime. The catch is the sheer choice. Between the generalists who interview celebrities, the ultra-specialized niches, and the podcasts that haven't published since 2023 but still linger in the search results, you have to sort the wheat from the chaff. We've done that for you. Our selection of 15 podcasts is organized by need: general inspiration, early-stage advice, growth marketing, tech/AI, and funding. Each podcast is presented with its episode count, its frequency, and its angle.
The essential generalist podcasts
Génération Do It Yourself (GDIY)
Matthieu Stefani (Orso Media) | 966 episodes | ~120 min | Weekly
The heavyweight of the French startup podcast scene. Since 2017, Matthieu Stefani has interviewed entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, and investors in long-form episodes that dig deep. Nothing superficial here: you get into the numbers, the failures, the hard decisions. If you only listen to one, make it this one.
Where to start: the episode with the founder who matches your industry. With 966 to choose from, there's bound to be one.
Silicon Carne
Carlos Diaz | 253 episodes | ~60 min | Weekly
Carlos Diaz has lived in San Francisco for 15 years and breaks down American tech with a French-American perspective. The talk-show format, refreshingly blunt, covers tech news, VC trends, and the deeper currents shaping Silicon Valley. Essential for founders thinking internationally.
Where to start: an episode on a recent funding round that caught your attention.
Sans Permission
Yomi Denzel & Oussama Ammar | ~100 episodes | ~90 min | Biweekly
The podcast that divides opinion. Yomi and Oussama share their unfiltered views on business, entrepreneurship, and tech. The tone is direct, sometimes provocative, always stimulating. Whether you agree or not, it'll make you think (and that's the point).
Where to start: an episode whose title annoys you. Seriously.
The podcasts for early-stage founders
Serial Entrepreneurs
François Allet | 248 episodes | ~45 min | Weekly
Focused on founders who have built, sold, and built again. François Allet digs into the operational side of entrepreneurship: how to structure, how to hire, how to handle your first customers. Less glamorous than GDIY, more practical for someone deep in the day-to-day. The strength of Serial Entrepreneurs: guests talk about what didn't work in as much detail as what did. That's rare, and it's valuable when you're at the stage where every mistake is expensive.
Where to start: an episode with a founder from your industry or your stage of growth.
Little Big Things
Andréa Bensaid (Eskimoz) | 73 episodes | ~120 min | Biweekly
The distinctive angle: a tech entrepreneur challenging other entrepreneurs on the most technical subjects. SEO, acquisition, infrastructure, scaling. Guests are the caliber of Nicolas Dufourcq (Bpifrance) or Anthony Bourbon (Blast Club). Long format, dense discussions, zero fluff.
40 nuances de Next
Olivier Mathiot & Solène Etienne | Variable format | ~45 min | Regular
The champions of French Tech behind the mic. The podcast explores the journeys of founders who have scaled in France and internationally. The French Tech angle gives access to profiles you won't hear elsewhere: founders of French unicorns, scale-up leaders, ecosystem investors. What many startup podcasts lack is French context. 40 nuances de Next fills that gap.
Where to start: an episode with a French Tech 120 founder you admire.
The growth & marketing podcasts
Growth Makers (Mantra)
Gabriel Gourovitch | Variable format | ~40 min | Regular
The go-to podcast for founders who want to understand acquisition. Gabriel Gourovitch interviews growth marketers and founders about their concrete strategies: acquisition channels, metrics, experiments. Every episode ends with actionable takeaways. The podcast has evolved into the Mantra brand, but the content stays focused on growth.
Marketing Square
Caroline Mignaux | 471 episodes | ~15 min | Daily
471 episodes in a short format (15 minutes). It's the daily micro-dose of marketing for founders who don't have time to read 3,000-word articles (irony noted). Caroline Mignaux covers growth, branding, partnerships, and expansion. The short format and daily frequency make it the easiest podcast to fit into a routine.
The tech & AI podcasts for builders
Underscore_
Micode | ~140 episodes | ~60 min | Weekly
The most widely followed mainstream tech podcast in France. Micode makes complex tech topics accessible with rare clarity: cybersecurity, AI, algorithms, internet culture. Not strictly about startups, but essential for tech founders who want to understand the context they're building in.
Tech Café
465 episodes | ~30 min | Weekly
Tech news for your commute. Compact format, accessible tone, broad coverage. Tech Café tracks product launches, company moves, and technology trends week after week. The perfect complement for staying informed without spending hours on it.
Les Carnets de l'IA
95 episodes | ~30 min | Weekly
The dedicated AI podcast in French. In an ecosystem where AI is redefining every sector, Les Carnets de l'IA breaks down the breakthroughs, the real-world applications, and the ethical stakes. For founders integrating AI into their product or their stack, it's essential monitoring. The episodes are technical enough to be useful, accessible enough to keep you engaged.
The funding & investment podcasts
21 Millions
Variable format | ~45 min | Regular
The French-language crypto and alternative finance podcast. Beyond Bitcoin, 21 Millions covers the funding trends that affect startups: tokenization, DeFi, new investment models. You don't need to be a crypto enthusiast to find value here. The episodes on asset tokenization and new payment rails speak directly to fintech and e-commerce founders. For founders exploring funding alternatives to traditional VC.
Les Investisseurs 4.0
Variable format | ~40 min | Regular
Investment, passive income, financial strategies. The podcast speaks to founders who want to understand the world of investing, whether to raise funds, manage their cash, or plan their personal wealth. A practical angle, less startup-centric than the others, but complementary. For founders asking themselves "and where does my own money fit into all this?", Les Investisseurs 4.0 offers a framework that purely startup-focused podcasts ignore.
Bonus: e-commerce and business models
Le Panier
Laurent Kretz | 366 episodes | ~45 min | Weekly
The first French e-commerce podcast, produced by CosaVostra (the same team behind GDIY). Laurent Kretz hosts founders of brands and online stores to unpack their strategies: acquisition, logistics, margins, scaling. If you sell a product (physical or digital), Le Panier is your MBA condensed into 45 minutes a week. The case studies are concrete, backed by numbers, and directly applicable.
How to choose and organize your listening
Building your podcast routine (15 min/day)
You don't need to listen to 15 podcasts a week. Start with 15 minutes a day, which is one episode of Marketing Square or half an episode of Tech Café. The goal isn't to consume everything, it's to build a habit.
Three steps:
- Identify your need of the moment. Customer acquisition? Listen to Growth Makers and Marketing Square. Fundraising? Serial Entrepreneurs and Les Investisseurs 4.0. Tech culture? Underscore_ and Tech Café.
- Subscribe to 2-3 podcasts, no more. Any more and you'll pile up unlistened episodes that breed guilt (the podcast backlog: nobody talks about it, but everybody lives it).
- Block off a recurring slot. Your commute, the gym, cooking dinner. The podcast replaces the LinkedIn scroll. That's a trade in your favor.
After a month at this pace, you'll have absorbed the equivalent of several business books. After six months, you'll have a startup fluency that most founders take years to build.
Podcast management apps
Spotify and Apple Podcasts dominate the market and are enough for most listeners. But power users prefer dedicated apps:
- Pocket Casts: cross playlists, fine-grained playback speed (1.2x is the sweet spot for most people), filters by duration.
- Overcast: Smart Speed automatically trims silences without distorting the voice. You save 10-15% of listening time.
- Snipd: the secret weapon of founders who listen as a team. The app automatically clips key passages using AI and lets you share them with a single link. Handy for sending an excerpt to your cofounder instead of saying "listen to the GDIY episode starting at minute 47."
Comparison table
| Podcast | Host | Episodes | Avg. length | Frequency | Category |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GDIY | Matthieu Stefani | 966 | 120 min | Weekly | Generalist |
| Silicon Carne | Carlos Diaz | 253 | 60 min | Weekly | Generalist |
| Sans Permission | Yomi & Oussama | ~100 | 90 min | Biweekly | Generalist |
| Serial Entrepreneurs | François Allet | 248 | 45 min | Weekly | Early-stage |
| Little Big Things | Andréa Bensaid | 73 | 120 min | Biweekly | Early-stage |
| 40 nuances de Next | O. Mathiot & S. Etienne | Variable | 45 min | Regular | Early-stage |
| Growth Makers | Gabriel Gourovitch | Variable | 40 min | Regular | Growth |
| Marketing Square | Caroline Mignaux | 471 | 15 min | Daily | Growth |
| Underscore_ | Micode | ~140 | 60 min | Weekly | Tech & AI |
| Tech Café | Collective | 465 | 30 min | Weekly | Tech & AI |
| Les Carnets de l'IA | Collective | 95 | 30 min | Weekly | Tech & AI |
| 21 Millions | Collective | Variable | 45 min | Regular | Funding |
| Les Investisseurs 4.0 | Collective | Variable | 40 min | Regular | Funding |
| Le Panier | Laurent Kretz | 366 | 45 min | Weekly | E-commerce/Business |
FAQ
How many podcasts should you listen to per week?
Two to three is enough for most founders. The goal isn't quantity, it's consistency. Better to listen to one GDIY episode a week for a year than to binge 20 episodes in January and listen to nothing in February.
Audio or video podcast?
The 2026 trend is toward video podcasts (YouTube, clips on social media). Silicon Carne and Sans Permission have made the switch to video successfully. But audio remains superior for multitasking: exercise, commuting, chores. Start with audio, switch to video when an episode deserves your full visual attention. Most of the podcasts on this list are available in both formats.
Which podcasts for non-French speakers?
In English, the startup essentials are How I Built This (NPR, interviews with iconic founders), The Twenty Minute VC (Harry Stebbings, the biggest VC podcast in the world, short format), and Acquired (Ben Gilbert & David Rosenthal, in-depth analyses of major tech companies). For European founders, EU-Startups Podcast covers the continental ecosystem with an investment and scale-up angle.
