Maxime Paradis
Maxime Paradis — Entrepreneur, Angel Investor & Community Builder
Maxime Paradis is a serial entrepreneur and early-stage tech investor based in Paris, deeply engaged in building Europe’s startup and venture capital ecosystem. Recognized on the Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe list, Maxime has founded and backed companies worth billions of dollars and is committed to empowering the next generation of entrepreneurs and investors.
He is the founder of Paradise Club, a global syndicate of more than 1,400 founders and investors who co-invest in some of the most exciting early-stage startups and late-stage/pre-IPO technology companies worldwide. The community provides access to curated deal flow, unique secondary opportunities, and peer-to-peer knowledge sharing, making it one of the fastest-growing angel networks in Europe. Beyond angel investing, Maxime co-founded United Founders, a pan-European initiative bringing together entrepreneurs, investors, and policymakers to strengthen the continent’s tech ecosystem. He also serves as France Executive for Sigma Squared Society, a global community of exceptional young founders.
At the policy level, Maxime is an active advocate for European tech sovereignty. He co-founded the European Tech Sovereignty Summit, hosted annually at the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, convening founders, investors, and policymakers to discuss Europe’s competitiveness and strategic independence in innovation. He regularly contributes to debates on venture policy, from the EU’s innovation framework to new cross-border startup regimes, and has worked with institutions including France Digitale and the European Business Angels Network (EBAN).
Maxime began his entrepreneurial journey by founding and scaling startups before turning his focus to angel investing and community building. His investments span from deeptech and AI (including open-source leaders like Probabl) to transformational U.S. tech scaleups (such as Groq, Anduril, Databricks, and Epic Games). Through Paradise Club, he has enabled hundreds of private investors to access high-quality venture deals typically reserved for top-tier funds.
He is also active in education, teaching entrepreneurial finance and venture capital at leading French universities including HEC Paris, Université Paris-Saclay, and ESCE. His philosophy is simple: teaching to learn and learning to teach—helping founders and investors alike understand the mechanics of venture capital while building bridges across Europe’s fragmented ecosystem.
Maxime’s work sits at the intersection of entrepreneurship, capital, and policy. His mission is to foster a Europe where ambitious founders can scale globally competitive companies without leaving the continent. He strongly believes that Europe’s future competitiveness depends on empowering its founders and investors with better capital, faster scaling pathways, and smarter policy frameworks.
