a world for us, a self-financed company and not a startup

A World For Us, a start-up ?

Do you remember your last job search? Didn't you feel like you were reading the same company descriptions across all the listings? Does working at any start-up sound the same? Why does the start-up identity look the same? Despite what you might think at first glance, AWFUS is not really a start-up, and this article will give you several reasons why. 

AWFUS is a software editor rooted in the world of professional training, meaning that we equip training organizations with digital solutions. We are established in a sector in which digital technology is growing rapidly, which is why we could be described as a start-up. However, this is not the case. 

Dependence on fundraising 

Most start-ups survive and take off thanks to fundraising. A World For Us is self-financed and therefore does not depend on investment funds or shareholders. This is a great opportunity! 

In concrete terms, this means that the company's strategy is driven by our managers, and then a real collective is put in place. We have no pressure on short-term results, nor the risk of having a shareholder who contradicts the company's policy. A World For Us is a product of our founders, there is very little risk that in 4 years we will be sold to a foreign investment fund or that we will be listed on the stock exchange, which is the case for many start-ups.

Shall we play table soccer?

On paper A World For Us ticks all the boxes of the start-up nation: 

  • Average age under 45 years old 
  • On the lunch break, we play board games (personally, I love The Mind 😉 ) and not table soccer
  • Nerve guns are stored in every corner of our office
  • We have dream premises in the heart of a metropolis of course
  • We all look great on our Welcome to the Jungle profile (without much pretension).

In short, on paper we fill all the boxes of the ideal start-up for which you would want to invest. 

However, A World For Us is not really part of the Start-Up ecosystem anymore, already because we have been around for more than 4 years. The missions are implemented, we have a roadmap and a long term vision. In short, it's concrete.

My job is my life 

In 4 years, no one has gone into burnout. The myth of "I work for a start-up, so I don't count my hours" doesn't apply to us. You can't make people believe that you save lives on a daily basis by playing darts until three in the morning. And even worse, we have implemented a 4/5 system that allows you to work 4-day weeks during the summer season. Our employees have to experience three-day weekends at their grandmother's in the summer, what a hell! 

An outdated hierarchy

Our missions are very varied as Beryl, Benoit and Claire's articles can detail. Each member of the team has his or her own speciality and we work on many projects in parallel, sometimes as a team and sometimes solo. This gives us very rich and different weeks, even if we keep recurring missions. 

There is a vertical hierarchy within Digiforma, even if it is not experienced as such. The managers allow us to progress in our projects, by bringing a strategic vision. As for the horizontal hierarchy, it is well present with poles constituted by field of competences. 

A world for Us, a world apart

We all work on different projects and collaborate with other departments on a daily basis: the customer relations team and the technical team mix daily. The richness of AWFUS is surely fed by this multidisciplinary, cosmopolitan team and this shared vision of the company driven by an outstanding management team. 

What will we become? A scale up? Will we remain a young small company anchored in the world of professional training? The future will tell us. 

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