Simon De Baene is the Co-Founder and CEO of Workleap.

Workleap is for HR teams that need to solve HR challenges. They help you make your people happier and more productive with the easiest employee experience technology to launch, manage and love.

Takeaways

- Why the name Gsoft was inspired by G-Unit.

- Starting Gsoft (now Workleap) at 20 years old right out of school

- Transitioning from a service company to a product company.

- Building products allows for more control over destiny.

- The decision to shut down the service side to focus on products.

- Raising the first external capital from CDPQ after 19+ years.

- Maintaining passion for close to 20 years.

- Working half his life on Workleap.

- Achieving $150M in revenue.

- Major rebrand to WorkLeap and how to do that well.

- The impacts of AI in the HR space.

- Building company culture.

- Why you can't be everything to everyone.

- The importance of embracing change and letting go of nostalgia.

- Building and staying in Montreal.

- His one regret in building Workleap, not surrounding himself with advisors and mentors earlier.

Chapters

00:00 The Genesis of Gsoft: A Young Entrepreneur's Journey

05:09 Transitioning from Service to Product: The Birth of Sharegate

13:22 Navigating Growth: The Dual Product Strategy

16:18 Capital Efficiency and the Decision to Raise Funds

22:21 Maintaining Passion: A Lifelong Commitment to Workleap

26:44 Rebranding: From Gsoft to Workleap

27:18 The Evolution of Branding and Identity

29:57 Navigating Workplace Changes and AI Integration

34:53 Building and Scaling Company Culture

40:00 Leadership Lessons and Personal Growth

43:52 Proudly Building in Montreal

49:01 Personal and Professional Aspirations

Keywords

Gsoft, Workleap, entrepreneurship, product development, service company, Sharegate, OfficeVibe, capital efficiency, rebranding, workplace tools, branding, workplace changes, AI, company culture, leadership, Montreal, entrepreneurship, personal growth, remote work, product development