Popwork, the French startup, which helps managers deploy best management practices, recently completed a fundraising of 1.5 million euros. We spoke with Quentin Demeestère, co-founder and CEO of Popwork. He revealed to us the upcoming projects of his startup.
Everything you need to know about Popwork
Who are you ?
I am Quentin Demeestère, co-founder and CEO of Popwork. I studied at ESSEC and then worked for around ten years in mergers and acquisitions and investment in France and Brazil. I found it fascinating to support entrepreneurial projects, so exciting that I wanted to start my own!
In my last professional experience, I found myself managing 70 people in 5 different countries even though I had relatively little managerial experience at the time. This is where the idea for Popwork was born.
What does Popwork do?
Popwork is a SaaS team management solution. Our solution allows leaders and managers to deploy best management practices in their teams. Taking pulse, individual points, regular feedback, goal coordination: Popwork assists managers in all important moments and helps them better manage their teams week after week.
Our ambition is to transform management to make it a lever for performance and employee engagement. There is an urgent need to rethink management: 2 out of 3 managers have difficulty managing their teams and 1 out of 2 employees leave their company because of their manager… After two years, nearly 200 companies in France and abroad have adopted Popwork.
Popwork’s fundraising
Why did you raise 1.5 million euros?
This fundraising will allow us to invest in our product. We want to go even further in support and become a real intelligent assistant for managers and executives by continuously providing them with advice and recommendations to better manage their teams. With the explosion of teleworking and the phenomenon of large resignations, companies have realized that they must review and improve management practices to engage and retain their employees. This is a new market with significant potential in which we wanted to position ourselves as soon as possible.
Why did you choose to bring these investors into your capital?
Popwork has chosen to bring Evolem and business angels into its capital.
We decided to bring in Evolem for two reasons. Firstly, we share the same observation and the same vision: management today is very artisanal and poorly done, but this is not inevitable! Basically, it’s a job like any other and, with the right tools and the right method, anyone can become a good manager. It was important for us to partner with an actor that we are aligned with.
The second reason is that we have had excellent feedback from entrepreneurs who also have Evolem in their capital: they have all been extremely positive about their support and what it has brought them. We also brought in business angels specializing in Tech and HR who bring us their expertise on our product and management issues.
What will Popwork look like in 5 years?
In 5 years, Popwork will be the leading management solution in Europe. We want Popwork to become the reference for simply implementing positive management in any team or company in France and abroad (where we already generate 20% of our revenue). Management, when done well, is a fantastic lever for developing yourself and being engaged in your work. This is also what we strive to do internally at Popwork to attract talent and offer them the best possible work experience.
