Francis Gasparotto, a long-serving partner at Maison Moderne (the publisher of Delano), is embarking on an entrepreneurial adventure with his first company Katcho. The company will offer business strategy services to SMEs. Maison Moderne is his first client.

When Francis Gasparotto joined Mike Koedinger in 2002, the publishing company was not yet called Maison Moderne and you could count the number of employees on three hands. Gasparotto joined the advertising management team and has now supported the development of Maison Moderne’s portfolio of products and customers for some twenty years. He became a partner in 2006. 

But in 2021 Gasparotto has became an entrepreneur by creating his own company: Katcho.

“Francis is a connoisseur of the business world and the B2B world in particular. He enjoys the confidence of the decision makers that he has been working with regularly for two decades,” says Maison Moderne founder Mike Koedinger. “It was the empathy he showed for those in the market that allowed him to develop value propositions that were always in tune with the times. This win-win approach has significantly contributed to the development of Maison Moderne, which has become a company with 130 employees with a turnover of €15 million,” Koedinger says.

I have grown over the last twenty years at Maison Moderne and learned a lot alongside Mike Koedinger

Francis Gasparotto, Founder and CEO, Katcho

“After ten years in the technology and recruitment sector, I have grown over the last twenty years at Maison Moderne and learned a lot alongside Mike Koedinger,” Gasparotto explains. “While contributing to the development of our media brands that target the main sectors of the Luxembourg economy. It is with great motivation and commitment that I will accompany Maison Moderne in the coming years. It is really stimulating.”

Through Katcho, Gasparotto will transmit his know-how and ambition to contribute to the development of SMEs in Luxembourg. “Katcho’s mission is to align the business and marketing strategy with that of the company,” he explains. “In concrete terms, Katcho’s objectives are to sustainably boost results while improving the organisation, commitment and training of sales teams, and then to measure the impact on profitability and the quality of customer relationships.”

Maison Moderne CEO Geraldine Knudson says: “I have had the great pleasure of working with Francis since my arrival more than a year ago. “His knowledge of markets, his insight into different sectors, his capacity to listen and learn and to provide support have contributed greatly to the success of Maison Moderne, and have been particularly appreciated in the last months when Maison Moderne was faced with many challenges, that it was able to meet. I hope that Francis will always remain close to us, we count on him as an indispensable source of knowledge and inspiration for our future journey.”

Upon creating Katcho, Gasparotto sold his shares in Maison Moderne to Mike Koedinger.

Source: https://delano.lu/article/contributing-to-the-developmen