Jean Guo: "Digital fragility is universal".

Discover the story of Jean Guo, co-founder and CEO of the Konexio association.

UPDATE, July 2024 - Since this interview was conducted in July 2023, Konexio 's management has changed: Jean Guo, co-founder and CEO, is now Chairman of the Board. Jean-Christophe Vidal, former Deputy Managing Director, has taken over as Managing Director. A few weeks ago, Konexio also announced the creation of Konexio Africa to expand its activities in Uganda, Tanzania and Sudan.

Since 2016, Konexio has been offering digital training courses for people who are far from employment (refugees, young people from QPVs, people undergoing retraining, women, ...). The association's aim is to help them develop their skills in order to facilitate their integration into the world of work. As part of the 13M program, we met Jean Guo, co-founder and CEO.

Hello Jean. Can you introduce yourself?

My name is Jean Guo, and I'm the co-founder of Konexio, which trains people who are far from employment in digital skills, from the most basic to the most advanced, in order to facilitate their socio-professional inclusion.

I arrived in the United States with my family at the age of five. During my childhood, I was directly confronted with the difficulties encountered when arriving in a new country, whether in terms of language, cultural differences or professional integration. My personal story was a major inspiration in the creation of Konexio.

I studied at Stanford and then Harvard, and after university I worked as a consultant in San Francisco for tech companies. I moved to France in 2015 to do research at the Paris School of Economics.

In the course of my research, I carried out an evaluation of public health policies and social programs. When I went out into the field, I realized that there was a lack of solid connections between the front-line public services that support people towards employment and integration, and the people who need them to become self-sufficient.

What is the company's mission?

We live in an ever-changing, ever-faster world. Our mission is to ensure that those most affected by these changes are not the most vulnerable, and that we are all equal when it comes to the digital world.

To achieve this, we offer digital training courses, from the most basic to the most advanced skills. Our trainees are people who are far from employment, digital and under-represented in the tech world. For example, we offer training in web development (Devéloppeur.euse Web) and systems and networks (TSSR).

We work a lot on diversity issues in tech: we want to promote equal opportunities and ensure that you don't always see the same profile or the same type of person in these professions. All our training courses focus on soft skills and learning the social codes of the working world.

How does Konexio reach out to the most digitally illiterate? What's your strategy for getting them to identify you?

Today, there are three links in the chain that bring people to us.

Firstly, we work closely with local public bodies who refer their beneficiaries to Konexio - Missions Locales, Pôle Emploi etc. Secondly, we know that 40% of our students come from word-of-mouth. Finally, many people identify us through our presence on social networks.

Since our launch, we have completed over 6,000 training courses, launched more than 350 promotions and delivered some 300,000 hours of training.

13 million French people are digitally excluded. What role do you see the private sector playing in reducing this figure?

In my opinion, companies have a responsibility to work on and commit to digital inclusion issues, because the consequences have a direct impact on them, in their ability to recruit for example.

They must therefore finance training courses and engage in support programs to train their employees or future employees and thus ensure their employability.

Since the birth of Konexio in 2016, what are the biggest barriers to digital inclusion that you've identified?

The most common barrier is knowledge. Many people think they've mastered digital technology because they have certain skills, and therefore think that training isn't necessary. In practice, however, there are gaps.

I'm thinking, for example, of the younger generation, who are very comfortable on social networks, but who sometimes have difficulty using a computer. One of Konexio's roles is to make this type of audience aware of the importance of training, to multiply their digital skills and keep (or upgrade) their skills.

It's also a question of anticipation: we all need to get to grips with the problem. The Covid crisis has accentuated the digital divide, and companies need to train their staff to guarantee their employability.

Today, Konexio is present in France, Jordan, Kenya and Malawi, and intends to pursue its development on the African continent. Where does France stand in terms of digital inclusion?

Each country has its own specific characteristics, linked in particular to living conditions, economic situation and culture.

What is universal is the digital fragility that exists everywhere. In my opinion, the most important thing, whatever the country, is to be as creative as possible in finding solutions.

Internationally, for example, we guide our learners towards the freelancing market, which has really exploded in recent years with the flexibility of working patterns. For people with few opportunities around them, it's very interesting to turn to this model, which enables them to achieve financial autonomy.

What advice can you give to entrepreneurs who want to invent new models for bridging the digital divide?

The best advice I can give is "start before you're ready (editor's note: start before you're ready). When we set up a business, we often tend to censor ourselves and put the brakes on our development. We're never really ready, so I think you have to start as soon as the MVP is ready, and 90% of the product will come with iterations.