“Entrepreneurship has given me a lot of freedom,” Society

Udd Paral entered Entrepreneurship after a few years in the Regional Public Service where she was responsible for training and recruitment. “I was a complete beginner,” admits the person who co-founded Codingame in Montpellier in 2014 with Frédéric Desmoulins and Nicolas Antoniazzi.

The trio of colleagues met at Oxford during their joint studies. The idea for this start-up that specializes in hiring technology professionals came from Frédéric Desmoulins. “I took the initiative and did not regret it, emphasizes Odd Baral. Entrepreneurship has given me a lot of freedom.”

Business side with Aude Barral, Co-Founder of Codingame.

Montpellier, a small Silicon Valley

Codingame is a French technology startup. It has benefited from local support, in particular from the Languedoc-Roussillon Innovation Incubator of BIC (Business Innovation Centre). “This ongoing support pushes us to outdo ourselves. Their intervention was essential to our first fundraisers,” admitted Aude Barral who insisted on the role of BIC, this public incubator, which often excels in international rankings. “Montpellier attracts and has the ambition to become a small Silicon Valley.”

Specializing in programming tests to hire technology profiles, Codingame is a small and medium-sized business of 35 people. At the end of 2021, it announced its merger with the American company Coderpad of a similar size, specializing in job interviews. “Our products are complementary. The meeting came at a favorable moment in our commercial development,” defines the entrepreneur.

Aud Baral adds that the two companies have “a lot to learn from each other” and that they share similar values ​​and a common vision: “Equal opportunity and employability through skills”.

Finally, if she had only one piece of advice to give entrepreneurs, for Aude Barral, it would be summed up in three points: risk to start and pivots; listening to its customers and investors in order to grow; Persevere, because entrepreneurship is a long-distance race.