The 5 Founders programme: what the holding approved, and how it frames it

Since 7 October 2026, Trustiatis and Workynet have been taking part, alongside IND UM Conseil et Technologies, in a support programme called 5 Founders: five newly formed companies, twelve weeks, free of charge and with no obligation to buy. Applications are open until 11 December 2026, for France, French-speaking Belgium, Luxembourg and French-speaking Switzerland. The selected companies will go through the programme from 11 January to 2 April 2027. The reference page is published on trustiatis.com.

A commitment of this kind — several hundred hours of work from two subsidiaries, with no associated revenue — is a matter for the holding company, not only for operational management. This article sets out what it ruled on.

Why the group said yes

Three reasons, in this order.

• The programme tests a thesis the group defends. We have long argued that an organization should not have to rebuild its information system at every stage of its growth, and that the order of decisions matters more than the choice of tools — that is the substance of our article on governance from day one. Five companies supported in the right order, from day one, is a check on that thesis that twelve months of communication cannot replace.
• It makes two entities work together on the same case. Trustiatis builds the information system, Workynet organizes operational capacity, IND defines the architecture upstream. Coordination between entities is one of the few things a holding company can genuinely improve; it is better exercised on a concrete case than in a memo of intent.
• The cost is known and bounded. The volume of work is capped service by service, and the programme ends on a written date. Unlimited generosity is not a governance decision, it is deferred budget drift.

The limits set

The approval came with four safeguards, and they were published before applications opened rather than afterwards:

• A written scope. A services catalogue lists what is included, what is optional and what is out of scope, with hour caps. Free support almost always degrades over what was not written down at the start.
• No guarantee of results. The programme lays a foundation; it promises neither funding, nor customers, nor commercial success. Saying so plainly is a condition of its credibility.
• No obligation to buy. A selected company owes the group nothing at the end of the twelve weeks. The boundary between support and commercial services is explicit, and it is one of the points the holding company watches.
• Published rules and a data-processing framework, because a programme that collects applications processes data about people and companies.

What the holding tracks, and what it does not

It does not track the detail of each engagement: the content of the interviews, the technical choices and the relationship with the selected companies belong to the entities. It tracks four things: respect for the hour caps, adherence to the announced calendar, the handling of unsuccessful applications — which deserve an answer, even a negative one — and the absence of any confusion between the programme and a sales approach.

A transparency we owe

It would be dishonest to present this programme as disinterested. It gives our subsidiaries real use cases, material to publish and visibility with an audience they otherwise reach poorly. The interest is mutual, and that is precisely why it must be framed: a free arrangement from which both sides gain something lasts better than a one-way gesture.

Newly formed companies wishing to apply will find the full programme, the services catalogue and the rules on the programme page.