eFounders

<p><i>Patricia Bernasconi is the co-founder and CEO of Kairn, a project management tool that helps centralize and coordinate different apps and workstreams. Before creating the company, she worked in investment banking, a high pressure environment that taught her how to manage stress and delegate tasks.</i></p><h3><strong>Lessons in stress management</strong></h3><p>After graduating in financial engineering, I worked in investment banking where I was in charge of coordinating international mergers and acquisitions deals out of Venezuela, Mexico and Korea, among others. It was super international and really fun.&nbsp;</p><p>In mergers and acquisitions, we would be a two-person team running a $500 million deal involving tons of stakeholders and parties. This environment teaches you to not succumb to stress when things go wrong and look at the bigger picture. Are we still going the right way, or are we running into a wall? It taught me how to communicate and coordinate with people when it gets stressful.</p><h3><strong>From investment banking to tech founder</strong><br>&nbsp;</h3><p><br>After four years, I decided I wanted to create a tech startup. I was, and am, super interested in health, tech and productivity, but I had no idea where to start, so I went and did a coding bootcamp called Le Wagon. I think doing this is super key for anyone who doesn't have a technical background and wants to discuss with their tech team.</p><p>After that, I was in charge of a big startup incubator in Paris where I helped more than 100 enterprises go from idea to product market fit. I started noticing from my conversations with founders how a lot of business teams basically don't have many good project management tools. That’s how the idea for Kairn was born. Discussing with Thibaud from eFounders we decided to take on the challenge of re-inventing project management for users and not managers.</p><h3><strong>One project management tool to rule them all</strong></h3><p>What we're trying to do with Kairn is basically coordinate everything that is asked of you across your apps and help you progress as a team. Nowadays, your software tools will differ enormously. You have horizontal ones helping on precise use cases, and then you have very vertical tools, such as your CRM.</p><p>What that means is that you're doing project management across a lot of different places. Everyone's mentioning your name, and it's a huge mess. So it’s really hard to know: where do I focus my attention, where is the right data, and how do I keep everything up-to-date? Our tool helps you coordinate everything that is asked of you and of your team by bringing it all together in one place.&nbsp;</p><p>Integration is definitely a big pillar of our product. For each user persona, we find out which tools they use on a daily basis, and then integrate with them to simplify your workflows and help you be productive. And secondly, I don't at all believe in tools that are imposed by managers. You have to nail down the product, your user persona, and make sure they actually enjoy using the app every day, and that the branding fits them, only then will you have strong product adoption.&nbsp;</p><h3><strong>The life of a CEO</strong></h3><p>I’d say I spend 25% of my time on management tasks, ensuring that everyone knows the scope of their projects, that people feel empowered to make the proper decisions, and they have answers to their blockers.</p><p>Another 25% is spent on recruitment. You need to have a strong conviction that you have the right person in front of you, which actually means you have to meet a lot of people. Then 25% is spent working on the product strategy, making sure that our product is the best, and that our features create viral growth. Then the rest is spent on investor relations and guaranteeing that we have what we need to grow.&nbsp;</p>

“When things get stressful, it helps to zoom out and look at the bigger picture”

Julien Londeix