Why Does US VC Strategy Fail in France? - Elie du Pré de Saint Maur, Tomcat

Average exit in the US: 200 to 250 million dollars. Average exit in France: 25 million euros. When the gap is that wide, importing the American VC playbook doesn't just underperform — it breaks.

Elie du Pré de Saint Maur, co-founder of Tomcat, explains why the traditional venture capital operating system — designed for billion-dollar outcomes and power-law returns — doesn't translate to European markets where liquidity events are an order of magnitude smaller. After twenty years in executive roles at Edenred, Cromology, and Doctolib, Elie co-founded Tomcat to build a fund model that rejects the "40% crash, three lines return the fund" approach and instead focuses on transmission and consistent portfolio performance.

💡 Average exits in France are 10x smaller than in the US
📉 Traditional VC math assumes 40% portfolio failure and 1-3 mega-winners
🔄 The US operating system works in the US — but creates structural failure in smaller exit markets
🎯 Tomcat's alternative: broader portfolio success without betting on unicorns

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📺 Watch the full interview here: https://youtu.be/4qWQVgrYNB8

About Elie du Pré de Saint Maur [Co-founder TOMCAT]:
Elie du Pré de Saint Maur is co-founder of TOMCAT, a French venture fund and accelerator for early-stage B2B startups. Before launching TOMCAT in 2020, he spent 20 years in marketing and strategy roles at Edenred, Cromology, and Doctolib, where he was CMO during the COVID telemedicine explosion in 2020.

About Aulium:
Aulium is a video show exploring Innovation and Private Capital, hosted by Thomas Viguier.

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