The entrepreneur is not an invention of Silicon Valley. The word is nearly three centuries old, but the figure, its financing and its method have been profoundly reinvented.
1.1Cantillon and Say: risk, then combination
The term entrepreneur was coined by Richard Cantillon (Essai sur la nature du commerce, 1755): someone who buys at a certain price to resell at an uncertain one, a risk-taker. Jean-Baptiste Say (1803) redefined the entrepreneur as the organiser of the factors of production, who moves resources towards their most productive uses.
1.2Schumpeter: creative destruction
Joseph Schumpeter made the entrepreneur-innovator the engine of capitalism (The Theory of Economic Development, 1911). In Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy (1942), he coined the phrase "creative destruction": innovation destroys established rents from within. Being an entrepreneur means breaking an equilibrium, not optimising it.
1.31957: the Silicon Valley template
At Stanford, Frederick Terman created an industrial park as early as 1951. In 1957, the "traitorous eight", including Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore, left their employer to found Fairchild Semiconductor, the semiconductor seedbed from which Intel (1968) would emerge. The culture of the spin-off was born.
1.41946-1972: the birth of venture capital
Modern venture capital is partly a French invention: Georges Doriot founded ARDC in 1946; its $70,000 invested in DEC was worth more than $200M after the 1966 IPO. In 1972, Sequoia and Kleiner Perkins set up on Sand Hill Road and institutionalised the profession.
1.52005-2013: the accelerator, the method, La French Tech
- 2005, Y Combinator: Paul Graham industrialised seed funding (batches, Demo Day, ~7% equity). Alumni: Airbnb, Stripe, Dropbox.
- 2011, Lean Startup: Eric Ries spread the MVP, the build-measure-learn loop and the pivot.
- 2013, La French Tech: launched by Fleur Pellerin (27 Nov.), a label for cities and a shared brand to structure the French ecosystem.
1755Cantillon
The entrepreneur defined as a risk-taker.
1942Schumpeter
"Creative destruction" as the engine.
1957Fairchild
The template of Silicon Valley.
1972Sequoia / KP
Venture capital becomes institutional.
2005Y Combinator
Seed funding becomes an industry.
2013La French Tech
France structures its ecosystem.
2025Mistral AI
€1.7bn raised: the first French decacorn.
Key takeaway
Entrepreneurship has always been about risk and innovation. What has changed since 1950 is the infrastructure around the founder: venture capital, accelerators, methods, which make launching faster, but competition tougher.
Sources
R. Cantillon, Essai sur la nature du commerce; J. Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy; W. Isaacson on Silicon Valley; La French Tech (lafrenchtech.gouv.fr).
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