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The Very Interesting Journey of Workleap
Watch on YouTube ↗Founder Journey ft. Simon De Baene
Watch on YouTube ↗First seen on the TechTO stage in 2025. Every talk is searchable — ask the archive about Simon ↗
In their words
Then we went for what I call the craft dinner approach. The concept is simple: you pay yourself just enough to eat craft dinner every night, and you keep everything — the rest of the money, put it in the bank account, and you wait until you have a good idea. And that's what happened to us.
I think the big mistake I did — I did not surround myself enough. I was too busy building my company. I didn't have any board, because I was with Seb and Gom: glass of wine, board meeting. It's different — I really enjoy my real board meeting I have now with people with deep knowledge who can really help me.
We were bootstrapped for like 17 years, being profitable from day one.
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Quick answers
What is Simon De Baene known for?
Founding GSoft in 2006 at 20 years old and bootstrapping it for 17 profitable years into Workleap, a Montreal HR and IT software company with about 450 employees and roughly $150M in revenue.
Why did GSoft become Workleap?
The company rebranded from GSoft to Workleap in June 2023, consolidating its employee-experience products under one name. The original GSoft name was inspired by the rap group G-Unit.
Did Workleap raise venture capital?
Not for its first 17 years — De Baene funded product development out of consulting profits. CDPQ made a C$125M investment in June 2023, the company's first external investment.