Didomi founder Romain Gauthier in conversation with Markus Elsasser about privacy and responsibility!
Romain Gauthier what inspired the original idea behind Didomi – was there a particular moment that sparked it?
Romain Gauthier: I’ve always felt that people’s privacy was neglected by technological developments for decades, coming as an afterthought at most. When GDPR discussions started, I realized that an EU regulation with sufficient teeth could lead to change by forcing companies to invest in privacy and change the way they deal with personal data to avoid fines.
The idea to focus on consent felt like the best approach for Didomi, as it’s the most natural and intuitive way for people to think about their privacy.
Romain Gauthier what were the toughest challenges you faced early on, and how did you overcome them?
Romain Gauthier: Like every startup, the toughest challenge was to be considered a credible partner for our first clients, especially in a context where our solutions would help them achieve compliance. We hacked this by focusing on the publisher and media vertical, which gave instant visibility as our solutions were deployed on the largest, best-known websites, and securing a CNIL (French DPA) official validation of Didomi compliance, which gave us enough credibility from the perspective of our initial clients.
Then, as with many companies, the classic challenge was attracting talent. We decided to adopt a remote-first culture (back in 2017!) that has helped us increase our access to diverse and international talent, as well as minimize our French roots. This has served us well in going global at an early stage.
One other tough challenge that we faced was less frequent: we were attacked by a US patent troll in the US that sued us for patent infringement, hoping that we would settle by paying them with a large check (they patented the notion of consent management). We had no choice but to fight back by pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into a complex legal procedure in the US, which we ultimately won at the federal level. This was a complete distraction and a waste of time and money that could have been spent growing the business.
Romain Gauthier are there any lessons or values from your childhood that still influence you as an entrepreneur today?
Romain Gauthier: As Mike Tyson once said, everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face. I’ve repeatedly learned to welcome the unexpected, accept it, and cope with it. I was raised to never give up, and this is definitely helping me as an entrepreneur.
How do you design privacy solutions that don’t annoy or put off users?
Romain Gauthier: We do a lot of research on the field of privacy UX and are the only company in the world publishing a consent benchmark that presents the trends that we measure by collecting millions of consents daily.
How does sustainability play a role at Didomi in practical terms, and how do you actively implement it?
Romain Gauthier: We have significantly strengthened our commitment to sustainability over the past two years, embedding it into both our products and the way we work. In practice, that means choosing more responsible cloud infrastructure, tracking our carbon footprint, and engaging everyone in meaningful initiatives.
It is a collective commitment: we believe technological innovation must go hand in hand with social and environmental responsibility. Our EcoVadis Silver rating and our first public ESG & Impact Report 2024 demonstrate that we are moving forward together because on this journey, we are all part of the same team.
Romain Gauthier how would you describe your style as a leader, and what principles matter most to you when managing your team?
Romain Gauthier: My role is to bring energy, help everyone stay focused on our mission, and empower people to solve complex problems collectively.
Next to that, I eat my own dog food, I stay accessible to anyone, and I try my best to make rational decisions that respect our core values.
How do you handle mistakes made by your employees, and how do you ensure your team stays motivated?
Romain Gauthier: You learn by making mistakes. At Didomi, people benefit from a lot of autonomy in their respective jobs, and as a result, they will make mistakes. The important thing is that people feel comfortable enough to acknowledge these mistakes so that they can learn from them..
On my end, it’s also essential as a leader to do the same and explain to the team when I/we have done something wrong to correct course. For the team to stay motivated, it’s crucial to constantly focus on what we can do rather than what we’ve done in the past.
What practical advice would you give to founders looking to launch a privacy-tech startup today?
Romain Gauthier: Stay focused on one specific problem that many companies have, rather than trying to chase too many rabbits.
When merging or acquiring companies, like you recently did with Sourcepoint, how do you ensure smooth integration and create a unified company culture?
Romain Gauthier: Culture is an essential point when selecting an acquisition target, and arguably the most important factor of success or failure. So, this element is critical in the M&A process.
We built Didomi as a company with a very diverse culture that is naturally welcoming to people from different backgrounds and countries. Any talent addition to the team is an opportunity to welcome someone different and value their uniqueness. That is our foundation for integrating other teams when acquiring other companies.
Romain Gauthier where do you see yourself and Didomi in five years – what’s your big-picture vision?
Romain Gauthier: I see Didomi as a global leader in the privacy space and as a critical partner for large enterprise brands all over the world. I see privacy as an essential skill and reflex for any data professional. l I see myself as having learned further as an entrepreneur by facing new challenges and reaching new heights.
In your opinion, what’s the next big thing in privacy tech-perhaps even connected to AI?
Romain Gauthier: The next big thing for privacy tech is the concept of agent-to-agent privacy transactions. How will your privacy be enforced and respected in a context where an agent is representing you and transacting with another agent representing a company or any organization? Everything remains to be invented there.
Could you share a specific example where Didomi’s privacy solutions have delivered measurable success for your clients?
Romain Gauthier: We regularly publish case studies on our blog, in partnership with our customers, highlighting the problems they face and how they managed to overcome privacy, compliance, data, and business challenges using our solutions. It’s hard to select one, but a few stand out:
Orange, one of France’s leading telecommunications providers, was an early adopter of our cross-device feature, achieving outstanding results (+10% consent rate). SNCF Connect & Tech, with whom we got the chance to work on a very unique server-to-server use case. More recently, the modular construction company Algeco teamed up with Dékuple to implement Didomi and Addingwell and enhance their data collection practice, leading to quantifiable business impact (opt-in rate increasing from 56% to 64%).
Our solutions are highly customizable, and we take pride in providing our customers with some of the best support available in the market to address their specific use cases.
Romain Gaulthier how do you make sure your company’s core values are genuinely reflected in everyday operations and strategic decisions?
Romain Gauthier: Empowering and trusting people is the solution to this problem. My role is actually to make sure everyone is using our core values as a compass in their everyday decisions.
Romain Gauthier as an entrepreneur and father, how do you manage to keep your work-life balance – do you have specific strategies?
Romain Gauthier: As an entrepreneur, it’s a complex problem as your company is always somewhere on your mind. It requires a lot of discipline. One strategy that I’m using is to ensure that I leave my smartphone outside when I’m with my family, to be fully present with them. At least I’m not constantly interrupted.
As a company, we make sure to set boundaries, such as not working in the evening or at weekends, to ensure that work has clear limits. I’m a firm believer that the best decisions and ideas come when you have enough time to recharge, disconnect, exercise, and sleep.
Romain Gauthier what keeps you motivated to keep pushing forward, and what part does economic and social sustainability play in that for you personally and professionally?
Romain Gauthier: My motivation comes from the idea that Didomi is working on a critical problem for the future of technology. Privacy is not given.
Personally, and professionally, having children naturally forces you to build for the future and avoid short-term strategies. That said, my experience is that it’s hard to change the rules of any game while playing, so there will always be compromises that you need to make with your ideal of economic and social sustainability: any business needs to generate a profit first to be sustainable.
