My name is Maxime. I am a software engineer.

For as long as I can remember, I have loved building things. I spent (and still spend) most of my day creating—music with my instruments, relationships, and all kinds of projects.

During my studies, programming was the most accessible way to create something useful. That's why I focused on competitive algorithmics and attended national and international tournaments. I loved it so much that I thought I wanted to be a researcher. I managed to join one of the best teams in the world (Joseph Sifakis, my former lab's leader, is the 2007 Turing Award laureate, the computer science equivalent of the Nobel prize). However, the rhythm was too slow, and quite frankly, the atmosphere did not fit my personality.

So, I joined a consulting firm and intentionally steered my career to have the most creative freedom. At first, by assuming leadership and architectural roles, then by becoming a freelancer in 2015. Not long after, a friend told me he was looking for the first engineers to help him scale a new company called Hopwork (now Malt).

When I joined, the total headcount was under ten. It was the perfect opportunity to better understand how to create a successful company from scratch. With my fellow Malters, we lived through an extraordinary scale-up. It was a dream for someone like me, and it got even better when I understood that writing code was, in fact, the simple part. Culture, Organization, Recruitment, Vision, Strategy, Core Values, Brand Identity, Tone of Voice, Leadership, and Trust. During my five and a half years at Malt, I am proud to say that I contributed to creating all of these things. I joined as an engineer and left as a product guy and entrepreneur.

When that feeling hit me, I had to leave.

And that's what I did at the very end of 2020! I left and promised myself to take a year, whether I succeeded in starting a company. It was one of my best decisions and changed my life much more than I expected. I have done so much since then and even created several companies!

So much happened since then! I did created a company, built a team and a product from scratch, raised 2.2M€, failed, returned to freelancing, and now I am joining of my former competitor as a CTO. What an adventure!

But if you've read until here, it's probably because you are looking to work with me. If so, please contact me via LinkedIn ❤