THE PRESS IS TALKING ABOUT US
The application created by the Lyon-based entrepreneur, which allows users to “decode cultures”, will be offered to more than 12,000 young French people who wish to work abroad.
When an entrepreneur faces a difficulty in his daily professional life, the easiest thing often is to create his own solution to fix the problem. That’s more or less what Lyon native (born in Grenoble) Thibaut Issindou told himself when he arrived in China – the first foreign country where he worked.
“I landed in Shanghai at 23 years old and my first day was disastrous. Arriving at the airport, I gave a cheek-kiss to the HR director of the company I was going to work for. I didn’t know there was a physical distance to observe in Asia. When you work abroad, the cultural barrier – that is, the way of thinking – comes very quickly and can hinder exchanges,” he remembers.
After experiences in India, Mexico and a role as commercial director in the Lyon company Telelangue, Thibaut Issindou decided to help younger people avoid the awkwardness he felt on his first day in China by creating the start-up Gapsmoov in 2021 (10 employees) with his partner Virginie Deshayes, and developing the application “Le Décodeur des Cultures”. The digital tool allows you to compare your own personal habits with a foreign profile but also to learn in a few minutes how to carry out a specific professional task abroad — negotiating with a Japanese, succeeding in a meeting in the United States, etc. “It’s a tool I would have loved to have before my first foreign experience to avoid the misunderstandings that hold back business,” notes its creator Thibaut Issindou.
A step up in scale
Four years after its launch, Gapsmoov signed, on Tuesday 4 November, its first major coup: a partnership with the state agency Business France, which supports 12,000 young people aged 18 to 28 for a professional experience abroad.
“For two years I prospected them. I managed to convince them then there was a call for tenders that we won.”
“It’s a personal achievement,” declares Thibaut Issindou. “When we created the company, I knew Business France and I told myself we needed to work together. For two years I was engaging with them. I managed to convince them and then there was a call for tenders we won. Gapsmoov is moving up a level.”
Gapsmoov has therefore signed a one-year renewable (three times) partnership with Business France to support the 12,000 young people involved in the programme. A huge client for the start-up, which adds to the hundred clients who already trust the application. “We support about sixty companies, such as bioMérieux or SEB, and about forty schools. In Lyon, we work a lot with emlyon and École Centrale,” lists Thibaut Issindou, explaining that Gapsmoov was particularly keen to support Lyon-based actors and to become involved in the city’s networks and associations, such as Réseau Entreprendre Rhône or EdTech Lyon.
