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Sylvain Zimmer

Partner at Climate Club

Paris, Île-de-France

Overview 

Sylvain Zimmer is a highly accomplished hacker, entrepreneur, and angel investor based in Paris, France. He currently serves as the Head of the CTO Office and Staff Software Engineer at Contentsquare, while also making strategic investments in various startups, including successful ventures like Waldo and GOURMEY, across sectors like FinTech and E-commerce. With a PhD in computer science from a prestigious institution, he has built a strong reputation for his expertise in web development and software engineering, contributing significantly to the growth and success of the companies he has been involved with.

Work Experience 

  • Chief Technology Officer of La Suite territoriale (EIG)

    2025 - Current

    La Suite territoriale aims to provide an open source online workspace to all public service employees across France. It is supported by the agencies ANCT, DINUM and ANSSI. I was appointed CTO through the private-to-public "Entrepreneur d'Intérêt Général" program. More about this career change: https://sylvainzimmer.com/blog/2025/01/public-sector/

  • Angel Investor

    2012

    I have invested in more than 120 startups, funds and late-stage companies. See my portfolio here: https://sylvainzimmer.com/investments/

  • Head of the CTO Office

    2020 - 2025

    I led a dedicated team of Senior Staff Engineers working on transversal high-impact projects like architecture, internal processes for 450+ developers & acquisitions (most notably Hotjar and Heap).

  • Senior Staff Software Engineer

    2019 - 2020

    I was the first tech lead for the Merchandising product line, built around the acquisition of my company Pricing Assistant.

  • Investor & Early Advisor

    2019 - 2024

    Sold to Voodoo for 500M€. https://www.lesechos.fr/tech-medias/hightech/voodoo-rachete-le-reseau-social-bereal-2100723

  • Founder

    2012 - 2021

    [Acquired by Welcome to the Jungle in February 2019] dotConferences is a series of technology events in Paris that pioneered an unheard-of, TED-like level of quality. From 2012 to 2020, we organized 36 events (dotJS, dotCSS, dotScale, dotSecurity, dotGo, dotSwift) gathering 300 to 1400 developers. I was the main speaker curator and coach. http://dotconferences.com

  • Curator of dotConferences

    2019 - 2021

    After dotConferences was acquired by Welcome to the Jungle, I happily remained in charge of selecting, vetting and coaching speakers, until COVID put a halt to the conferences.

  • Investor & Advisor

    2012 - 2021

    Sketchfab is the YouTube of 3D! I was one of their first angel investors and advisor. They were acquired in 2021 by Epic Games. Full story: https://sylvainzimmer.com/blog/2021/07/sketchfab/

Sketchfab provides a platform to publish and find 3D models online

Raised $12,120,000.00 from Anorak Ventures and Brendan Iribe.

  • Founder & CTO

    2012 - 2019

    [Acquired by Contentsquare in June 2019] Pricing Assistant is a service that optimizes the pricing of online stores. We give them smart recommendations based on competitors and sales histories. http://www.pricingassistant.com

  • Founder

    2004 - 2019

    [Fully acquired by AudioValley in 2019] Jamendo is the largest Creative Commons music community in the world. It was my first company and after leaving my CTO role I continued to sit on the board until 2019.

  • CTO

    2004 - 2011

    I wrote all the original code of Jamendo for the first 2 years and then led a tech team that eventually grew to 10 people after we raised series A.

  • Google Developer Expert

    2012 - 2016

    Google Developers Expert is a yearly award recognizing top-contributing members of Google developer communities for their technical contribution and impact. https://developers.google.com/experts/

Google is a multinational corporation that specializes in Internet-related services and organizes the world’s information.

Raised $26,100,000.00 from Angel Investors LP, Kleiner Perkins, Signatures Capital, Sequoia Capital, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Shaquille O'Neal, Henry Kissinger, Google and Tiger Woods.

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