Alex Mermod, Co-Founder & CEO

After several years working in complex projects in the Software industry, I reached the conclusion that we, growing numbers of knowledge workers, badly needed more efficient tools to work together with our raw material: ideas. Given the lack of meaningful solutions to improve the efficiency of collaborative work in a natural way without having to change everybody's work habits completely, I invented MindUP and started Calinda Software to bring it to every company that has to get things done in their projects and keep a clear vision.

I had the original idea of visually mapping e-mail exchanges while working for Sun Microsystems in California, to solve the difficulties my fellow engineers were having by being overloaded with information from every part, with no mean to prioritize and make good use of it.

I hold a diploma from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, and I previously was the Engineering Director of Bee Ware, a manager at BMC Software and an Engineer at Sun Microsystems.

Seb Bassompierre, Co-Founder & CTO

I love to code, night and day, and the more technical challenges there are, the more I get excited. That's why I got frustrated that in all the projects I was involved in in my career we spent so much time trying to coordinate inefficiently with lots of e-mail exchanges and low productivity meetings, to end up making bad decisions while we had all the information at hand to make good ones buried in these exchanges. When Alex told me about his MindUP idea, I immediately saw the huge productivity gains it would bring to our teams if it already existed. So I started coding it at night in my living room!

I hold a Master Degree in Computer Science from the IUP at Avignon University, and I worked for many years of experience with the technologies used in MindUP (Java/J2EE, XML, etc.). I was one of the authors of the PATROL Visualis and BSM Discovery software products at BMC Software, where I was a technical leader for several years.

Ray Bouchet, Sales Manager

I joined Calinda Software in 2009 because you don't see everyday startups with such a clear vision of how they can contribute to a radical change in the way work is done and organized. The idea behind MindUP is fairly simple but it's a incredibly powerful solution to gather teams around projects in a natural way. Let's produce better, share and create together! It always used to be easily said, now it's easily done too with MindUP!

Since 1993, I've been working in the Software industry mainly in sales. It included both large software makers that taught me rigour (Platinum Technology, CA, Software AG) and american start-ups that made me excited (Tumbleweed Communications, Arcot Corp.) Calinda is the link between the two, a company like those who created great ideas.

Chris Guyard, Co-Founder & Business angel

I was impressed by Seb's and Alex's ideas, vision and energy, and I decided to accompany them in their adventure and bring them my business and management experience, as well as my contacts.

At the same time, I'm the CEO of Bee Ware, a start-up in computer security funded by Sofinnova Partners. As a Serial Enterpreneur, I also founded Axians and managed several companies in the Vinci group.