Antoine Poirson is a mechanical engineer turned venture investor at Antler who co-founded and operated RED.Health (formerly StanPlus), an emergency medical response company in India, before moving into venture capital. His background combines hands-on experience building a healthcare startup in an emerging market with Antler's company-builder model, where he works with founders from the pre-idea stage to form teams and validate problem-solution fit.

• Strategies for establishing deep trust during the fundraising process. Trust is framed as an evolving metric that grows when founders show vulnerability, maintain consistency, and provide regular updates. A specific suggestion provided is to assume trust starts at fifty percent and to increase it by teaching the venture capitalist something entirely new during the pitch while openly sharing natural doubts about building the unknown.
• Focus on the mental resilience and self-awareness required to be a successful founder. The startup journey is seen as a marathon where smarts and external support matter far more than luck. This was highlighted by expressing immense respect for founders who maintain drive and positivity despite facing severe roadblocks, alongside agreeing with early-stage teams who prioritize looking after their mental health during stressful sprints.
• Importance of meticulous market research and proving customer traction before building. Validating the exact size of a market and confirming that customers will actually pay for a service is crucial early on. One standout example celebrated a founding team that lacked a concrete business idea initially but dedicated several weeks purely to researching specific demographic sizes and understanding everyday problems before moving forward.
• Advocacy for the French tech ecosystem and its need for stronger backing. There is a strong belief in the unmatched engineering and entrepreneurial talent in France, but also a realization that global competition is unbalanced. Comparing the landscape to places like England, the core message is that local startups require much more aggressive financial support to create future jobs and protect digital independence.