Through perseverance and determination, Simon De Baene, co-founder and president of Workleap, transformed the service company launched with two school friends 20 years ago into a large product company, present in around a hundred countries.
Workleap (formerly GSoft) is on the rise: it has 20,000 customers around the world, 430 employees and its revenues exceeded 135 million last year. The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec injected $125 million into the company in June.
This is a first partnership for Workleap.
We built a technology company with 100 million in revenue without raising capital. Everything was going against us when we launched our start-up: we hadn’t done anything yet… but we allowed ourselves to believe in it.
Simon De Baene
From a business model based on service and consultation, Workleap has become a company that builds personalized software to improve the employee experience at work. “We are our own laboratory, we first test the solutions at home,” says the father of three young children. It makes you a little crazy! It’s like climbing a new K2 every time. »
In an environment where competition is fierce, he emphasizes, he describes himself as “very demanding”, but also “extremely caring”. His type of leadership oscillates between these two poles.
Anyone who left university after a few engineering courses hopes that Workleap will remain in the landscape for a long time.
“We created a great business! says the 38-year-old man. I want it to survive us and for its successes to resound throughout the world. »