📚 Repartee & Culture
Warith Harchaoui
Original idea by Laurent Pantanacce
“The Startup? What is this nonsense?” – La Vérité si je mens 2
💰 Funding Innovation and Culture
In our circles, some “have the startup” funded by venture capital (see OpenVC). We wish them every success!
While effective at raising large sums, that approach is only one way to support innovation and culture.
Back in the day, Professor Choron — François Cavanna himself swears — pawned more than his dignity to a kindly old patroness just to keep Hara-Kiri (and later Charlie Hebdo) in business.
Source: Cavanna, jusqu’à l’ultime seconde j’écrirai – Denis Robert, 2013.
Though this bold model may seem funny now, it shows the ingenuity (and resourcefulness) sometimes needed to keep an idea alive against censorship by churches, governments, or tragedy.
Our Third Way: Amazon Affiliate
Finally, we propose a third solution—simpler, perhaps more virtuous: affiliate links via “repartee” posts on X/Twitter.
- Principle: Amazon’s Partner Program lets us generate a tracked link for each book.
- Mechanism: If you buy within 24 hours of clicking, Amazon pays us a micro-commission (at no extra cost to you).
- Impact: These small commissions accumulate in our “culture fund,” dedicated to financing artistic and intellectual projects.
Repartee Meets LLM: Retweeting for Culture
To maximize reach, we devised a trick: turn each retweet into a cultural gesture and financial support.
- Share culture by recommending books: Each retweet includes our AI-generated repartee snippet and a link to the book.
- Fund culture via affiliate revenue: Every click from a retweet uses a tracked link, and each purchase feeds our culture fund.
The Client Is the Payer!
Our client is therefore Amazon: every book sold means a few cents for culture—no invoice, just an algorithm.
Examples to Illustrate
Can French-style repartee be simulated by AI? Verdict? Try it and let us know!
@InstaOverdose: “I can’t take it anymore: everything’s filtered, retouched, fake! Worth is in likes… 😤📱”
✨ Sometimes you need to close the app and reopen your heart:
“One sees clearly only with the heart. What is essential is invisible to the eye.”
📖 The Little Prince – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
🔗 <our_amazon_affiliate_link>
@ClimateWoes: “It’s 14 °C in late November and snow in April! The weather’s gone mad…” 🌪️❄️
✨ When the unexpected strikes, remember:
“Winter is coming.”
📖 A Game of Thrones – George R. R. Martin
🔗 <our_amazon_affiliate_link>
@OuvrierAnonyme: “The boss silences us about working conditions. We suffocate; who’ll speak?” 🏭😶🌫️
✨ When your throat tightens, borrow Zola’s words:
“True courage is to seek the truth and speak it.”
📖 Germinal – Émile Zola
🔗 <our_amazon_affiliate_link>
Each retweet generates an Amazon micro-commission, fully donated to our cultural projects.
Who Benefits? The Operetta!
- Revivals of forgotten operettas
- Scholarships for young lyric voices
- Royalty-free video recordings
Repartee & Culture
Project Sheet per Guy Kawasaki
⚠️ Problem / Opportunity
- Cultural creation and free thought lack funding
- Humor, satire, and critique don’t always fit the “SaaS + VC” startup model
💎 Value Proposition
- Use Amazon affiliate links to support culture and live performance
- Share sharp repartee—no bullshit pitches or funding rounds
🧪 Secret Sauce
- Joyful subversion of the e-commerce model
- Clean up X/Twitter feeds with LLM-inspired repartee
💰 Business Model
- Amazon affiliate (at no extra cost to readers)
- Funds go directly to a culture fund
📣 Marketing
- “Our client is Amazon” campaign—provocative humor and accounting truth
- Social media + demos in schools and literary cafés
🦅 Competition
- The Startup Nation, its incubators, and endless funding rounds
- Algorithmic indifference to critical thought and cultural heritage
- The choice between cynicism and tenderness
🪪 Team
- Warith Harchaoui – AI craftsman and opera enthusiast
- Laurent Pantanacce – Serial entrepreneur, provocateur, and YouTuber