More than 200 million podcast episodes are streamed every month in France (ACPM, 2024 report). For startup founders, podcasts have become a way to keep learning on the commute, at the gym, or in the gaps between meetings. The hard part is picking what to listen to. Search results mix generalist shows that interview celebrities, ultra-niche shows, and podcasts that stopped publishing in 2023, so you need to filter. We did the filtering for you. We've grouped our 15 picks by what you need: general inspiration, early-stage advice, growth marketing, tech and AI, and fundraising. For each podcast, we list the episode count (as of March 10, 2026), how often it publishes, and its angle.
The must-listen generalist podcasts
Génération Do It Yourself (GDIY)
Matthieu Stefani (Orso Media) | 966 episodes | ~120 min | Weekly
The heavyweight of French startup podcasting. Since 2017, Matthieu Stefani has interviewed entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, and investors in long episodes that go deep. Guests get into the numbers, the failures, and the hard calls. If you only listen to one podcast, make it this one. Start with an episode featuring a founder from your industry. With 966 episodes, 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 from a French-American perspective. The talk-show format is candid and covers tech news, VC trends, and the deeper shifts happening in Silicon Valley. It's essential listening for founders with international ambitions. Start with an episode about a recent funding round that caught your attention.
Sans Permission
Yomi Denzel & Oussama Ammar | ~100 episodes | ~90 min | Twice a month
The podcast that splits opinion. Yomi and Oussama share unfiltered views on business, entrepreneurship, and tech. The tone is blunt, sometimes provocative, and always thought-provoking. You won't agree with everything, and that's the point. Start with an episode whose title annoys you.
Podcasts for early-stage founders
Serial Entrepreneurs
François Allet | 248 episodes | ~45 min | Weekly
This show focuses on founders who have built, sold, and built again. François Allet digs into the operational side of entrepreneurship: how to structure a company, how to hire, how to handle your first customers. It's less glamorous than GDIY and more practical if you're deep in the day-to-day. What sets Serial Entrepreneurs apart is that 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. Start with an episode featuring a founder from your industry or at your stage.
Little Big Things
Andréa Bensaid (Eskimoz) | 73 episodes | ~120 min | Twice a month
What makes it different: a tech entrepreneur pushing other entrepreneurs on the most technical topics, including SEO, acquisition, infrastructure, and scaling. Guests include people like Nicolas Dufourcq (Bpifrance) and Anthony Bourbon (Blast Club). Expect long episodes and dense conversations.
40 nuances de Next
Olivier Mathiot & Solène Etienne | Varies | ~45 min | Regular
French Tech champions on the mic. Olivier Mathiot and Solène Etienne explore the journeys of founders who have scaled in France and abroad. The French Tech focus brings in voices you rarely hear elsewhere: founders of French unicorns, scale-up executives, and investors from the ecosystem. You get the French context that English-language startup podcasts lack. Start with an episode featuring a French Tech 120 founder you admire.
Growth and marketing podcasts
Growth Makers (Mantra)
Gabriel Gourovitch | Varies | ~40 min | Regular
The go-to podcast for founders who want to understand acquisition. Gabriel Gourovitch interviews growth marketers and founders about their actual strategies: acquisition channels, metrics, experiments. Every episode ends with two or three actions you can test. The podcast has since moved under the Mantra brand, but the content still centers on growth.
Marketing Square
Caroline Mignaux | 471 episodes | ~15 min | Daily
471 episodes in a short 15-minute format. It's a 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 cadence make it easy to build into a routine.
Tech and AI podcasts for builders
Underscore_
Micode | ~140 episodes | ~60 min | Weekly
Micode explains complex tech topics with rare clarity: cybersecurity, AI, algorithms, internet culture. It sits one step away from startups, yet it's essential for tech founders who want to understand the environment they're building in. To put it into practice, check out our roundup of AI tools for startups.
Tech Café
465 episodes | ~30 min | Weekly
Tech news for your commute. Tech Café is compact and accessible and covers a lot of ground, tracking product launches, company moves, and tech trends week after week. It's the perfect complement for staying informed without spending hours on it.
Les Carnets de l'IA
95 episodes | ~30 min | Weekly
The French-language podcast dedicated to AI. As AI reaches every profession, Les Carnets de l'IA breaks down new advances, real-world applications, and ethical questions. For founders building AI into their product or stack, it's an essential way to keep up. Episodes are technical enough to be useful and accessible enough that you won't get lost.
Funding and investing podcasts
21 Millions
Varies | ~45 min | Regular
The French-language podcast on crypto and alternative finance. Beyond Bitcoin, 21 Millions covers funding trends that affect startups: tokenization, DeFi, and new investment models. You'll find value here even if crypto isn't your thing. Episodes on asset tokenization and new payment rails are directly relevant to fintech and e-commerce founders. A good pick for founders exploring funding alternatives to traditional VC.
Les Investisseurs 4.0
Varies | ~40 min | Regular
Investing, passive income, and financial strategy. This podcast speaks to founders who want to understand the investment world, whether to raise money, manage cash, or build personal wealth. It's practical and less startup-focused than the others, which makes it a good complement. For founders asking "what about my own money?", Les Investisseurs 4.0 offers a framework that pure startup podcasts overlook.
Bonus: e-commerce and business models
Le Panier
Laurent Kretz | 366 episodes | ~45 min | Weekly
The 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 a condensed MBA in 45 minutes a week. The case studies are concrete, backed by numbers, and directly actionable.
How to choose and organize your listening
Build a 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 Marketing Square episode or half a Tech Café episode. The goal is to build a habit that sticks.
Three steps:
- Identify what you need right now. 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 at most. Beyond that, unplayed episodes pile up, along with the guilt.
- Block a recurring slot. Your commute, the gym, cooking dinner. Swap LinkedIn scrolling for a podcast.
After a month at this pace, you'll have absorbed the equivalent of several business books. After six months, you'll have a solid grounding in startup culture.
Podcast apps
Spotify and Apple Podcasts dominate the market and are enough for most listeners. Power users, though, prefer dedicated apps:
- Pocket Casts: cross-show playlists, playback speed adjustable in 0.1x steps, filters by episode length.
- Overcast: Smart Speed automatically trims silences without distorting voices. You get through episodes faster without losing the thread.
- Snipd: the secret weapon for founders who listen as a team. It uses AI to clip key passages that you can share with a single link. Handy for sending your cofounder an excerpt instead of saying "listen to that GDIY episode from 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 | Twice a month | Generalist |
| Serial Entrepreneurs | François Allet | 248 | 45 min | Weekly | Early-stage |
| Little Big Things | Andréa Bensaid | 73 | 120 min | Twice a month | Early-stage |
| 40 nuances de Next | O. Mathiot & S. Etienne | Varies | 45 min | Regular | Early-stage |
| Growth Makers | Gabriel Gourovitch | Varies | 40 min | Regular | Growth |
| Marketing Square | Caroline Mignaux | 471 | 15 min | Daily | Growth |
| Underscore_ | Micode | ~140 | 60 min | Weekly | Tech & AI |
| Tech Café | Team | 465 | 30 min | Weekly | Tech & AI |
| Les Carnets de l'IA | Team | 95 | 30 min | Weekly | Tech & AI |
| 21 Millions | Team | Varies | 45 min | Regular | Funding |
| Les Investisseurs 4.0 | Team | Varies | 40 min | Regular | Funding |
| Le Panier | Laurent Kretz | 366 | 45 min | Weekly | E-commerce/Business |
FAQ
How many podcasts should I listen to per week?
Two or three is plenty. Consistency is what matters. You're better off listening to one GDIY episode a week for a year than bingeing 20 episodes in January and nothing in February.
Audio or video podcasts?
The 2026 trend is video podcasts (YouTube, clips on social media). Silicon Carne and Sans Permission have both made a successful move to video. Audio still wins for multitasking, though: working out, commuting, doing chores. Start with audio, and switch to video when an episode deserves your full visual attention.
Which podcasts are available in English?
In English, the essential startup podcasts are How I Built This (NPR, interviews with iconic founders), The Twenty Minute VC (Harry Stebbings, short format, widely followed in VC circles), and Acquired (Ben Gilbert & David Rosenthal, in-depth breakdowns of major tech companies). For European founders, the EU-Startups Podcast covers the continent's ecosystem with a focus on investment and scale-ups.
