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Paul Vidal
Co-founder & CTO @Collective - Building the first freelancer professional network - Find the best freelancers for 0% - ex-Datadog
Paul Vidal is a French software engineer turned entrepreneur and CTO, currently spearheading the development of innovative solutions for independent workers at Collective.
With a prestigious recognition as a Forbes 30 under 30 Europe honoree, Paul takes pride in his passion for CrossFit and sports while embodying an eternal optimist outlook.
At Collective, known as the 'LinkedIn for freelancers,' Paul and his team are empowering freelancers to collaborate, connect, secure work opportunities, manage invoicing, and streamline communication with recruiters through unique tools crafted for seamless interaction.
Boasting significant achievements as of May 2024, Paul led Collective to secure an impressive $8 million mammoth seed funding round, attracting over 20,000 freelancers to the platform who actively engage in the ecosystem.
Among its pioneering features, Collective offers a commission-free platform for recruiter searches, setting a new standard in the freelancing industry.
In terms of technology, the Collective stack comprises cutting-edge tools including Typescript, React, GraphQL, NestJS, PostgreSQL, Helm, Kubernetes, and AWS, alongside utilities like Github, Forest Admin, Datadog, and Github Actions for CI.
Paul's academic background is marked by an Engineer's Degree in Mathematics and Computer Science with First Class Honours from Imperial College London, complemented by his exceptional performance in obtaining the French Baccalaureate with the highest mention, Très Bien, from Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle de Londres.
His professional journey includes diverse roles such as Angel Investor at various startups including Unify, The Mobile-First Company, Hexa, Roundtable, Bitstack, and Dotfile, underscoring his keen interest in fostering innovation.
Moreover, Paul's experience spans leadership positions such as CTO & Co-founder at Collective.work, Entrepreneur in Residence at Hexa within eFounders, Software Engineer II - R&D at Datadog, DevOps Lead at Réseau Entourage, and Site Reliability Engineer II at Datadog.
Paul has also engaged in research and development activities involving machine learning at Imperial College London and held software engineering positions at reputable companies like Skyscanner and BlaBlaCar, showcasing his versatility and expertise across multiple domains.
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