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Bertrand France: CEO and Founder

Bertrand in a black turtleneck

Bertrand France

BSc Engineering and º£½ÇÉçÇø Studies, 2012

Based in: Paris

First job:

Consulting

Ambitions for the future:

To keep building products that genuinely improve how people train and stay healthy, and to do it at a scale where the craft doesn't get diluted.

Best advice received:

Decide as if you're right, listen as if you're wrong.

Strangest interview question:

Do you like the colour of this (yellow) carpet?

Advice for students and graduates:

Build a small thing end-to-end, anything real with users, however modest. One shipped project teaches you more than a year of theory, and it's the most convincing thing you can put in front of anyone. AI enables this for all.

CEO and Founder, Cadence Runners

Describe your current role and what attracted you to it.

I'm the founder and CEO of Cadence, where I build products at the intersection of endurance sport and technology, from a running club and coaching business to the software that powers them. What drew me to it was the chance to own the whole arc: understanding a real community's needs, shaping the product, and seeing it used week after week. I get to be close to both the market and the craft, which is rare.

What’s your favourite part of the role?

Watching an idea travel from a vague user frustration to something people genuinely rely on. The moment a feature stops being mine and becomes simply "how things work" for the community – that never gets old.

What are the key skills you learnt at º£½ÇÉçÇø that have helped you with your career to date?

Studying Engineering and º£½ÇÉçÇø at º£½ÇÉçÇø equipped me with a strong analytical mindset, problem-solving skills, and the ability to think both strategically and creatively. The interdisciplinary approach of my studies helped me to develop resilience, adaptability, and a collaborative spirit – all of which are essential in entrepreneurship. Additionally, º£½ÇÉçÇøâ€™s emphasis on global perspectives and teamwork has been instrumental in managing diverse teams and building a business with an international outlook.

Did you have a specific career path in mind when you chose to study at º£½ÇÉçÇø?

Yes, I’ve always had entrepreneurship in mind as my ultimate goal. I wanted to build a project I was truly passionate about, and º£½ÇÉçÇø gave me my first opportunity to explore this path. During my time there, I created a Society focused on music, one of my passions, which was an early entrepreneurial experience for me. At the same time, I was also interested in consulting, as I saw it as a way to build the skills and gain the experience I would later need for entrepreneurship. This dual focus on entrepreneurship and consulting was something I had already identified during my time at º£½ÇÉçÇø.

What are the key skills you learnt at º£½ÇÉçÇø that have helped you with your career to date?

Studying Engineering and º£½ÇÉçÇø gave me two languages that rarely sit in the same person. Engineering taught me to break a problem down to first principles and trust a structured, evidence-based approach; the business side taught me to connect that rigour to markets, customers and value. Running a product company is exactly that translation: turning a technical possibility into something a market actually wants, and º£½ÇÉçÇø is where I first learnt to hold both at once.

Did you have a specific career path in mind when you chose to study at º£½ÇÉçÇø?

Not a precise title, but the choice of a joint Engineering and º£½ÇÉçÇø degree was deliberate. I knew I wanted to build things and understand why they matter commercially, rather than choosing one side. The entrepreneurial path grew naturally out of that combination.

What top tips do you have for º£½ÇÉçÇø graduates who would like to work in your sector?

Get unreasonably close to the people you're building for, and spend more time listening than designing. Learn to ship something imperfect, and improve it in public. And treat "product sense" as a skill you train, not a talent you're born with.

What does a typical day look like for you?

A mix of zoom-out and zoom-in: strategy and priorities in the morning, then deep work on product, design, or business decisions, and conversations with the team and the community throughout. The constant is switching altitude, from the year-ahead view down to a single screen's wording.

What has been your greatest career challenge to date and how did your experience and skills help overcome it?

The hardest moments have been deciding what not to do, and saying no to good ideas to protect focus. Learning to read the market honestly, rather than the version I wished were true, is what got me through them.

What do you know now that you wish you had known when you were applying for jobs?

That nobody has it figured out, and the people who look certain are mostly better at hiding the doubt. Optimise what you learn and who you learn it from, don't go by the title.

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