The founder of Tardix, Thomas A. Guillet

I was born in a small town in the south of France, Carpentras. Despite an enormous curiosity, an interest in science and digital technology, my schooling was always mediocre. I was never interested in the classes being taught, always imagining how to remake the world. Diagnosed with dyslexia and dysorthography from first grade, I always endured the school methods, rather than benefited from them, which only pushed me to be solitary, to turn inward, and contributed to developing my imagination and reflective mind.

Obviously, put a different and solitary child in the school system, and you get an obvious result: bullying. Endured throughout my schooling, it only pushed me further away from the school system. In 2012, at 15 years old, while in tenth grade, I had my first burnout. The cumulative effect of school difficulties, loneliness, and bullying pushed me to the limit, leading me into a long depression.

After this painful period of my life, the very moment my mother accepted that I quit school, my first reflex was to want to work and create my first projects. Passionate about computing, I launched IEUC (Computing In One Click), a project hosting game servers. I mostly managed to rent a few servers to friends, but this project made me discover the drawbacks of the working world, especially the online work world in a sector where competition is fierce.

In 2016, I undertook to create a cybercafé in Carpentras. The goal was to recreate a pleasant and comfortable atmosphere allowing relaxation and video gaming. I did market research, surveyed many people in Carpentras, to come up with a budget plan. And my conclusion was the following: impossible to create this kind of project in Carpentras. The targeted clients, students and middle schoolers who would have liked to relax in this type of café, simply cannot afford such a service.

For me, a project that fails to succeed is not a failure but a source of experience. Devoting time to verify the feasibility of the project is not a waste of time and, on the contrary, saved me from launching into an unfeasible project. I am only postponing this idea until the day I can realize this project.

Now that the cybercafé project is set aside, I tried to make IEUC more professional, and it was at this time that I met Robin, my first partner. The meeting of two computer enthusiasts created chapp-e (Community of Associative Hosting for Enthusiasts). We founded an association with the goal of gathering computer enthusiasts to host their servers with us and to learn more. Chapp-e allowed me to reinforce my computing skills, particularly sysadmin skills.

With my second partner, Valentin, we attempted to found Allô Sysadmin. The concept was simple: allow associations to call on sysadmins, essential when you want servers that hold up well. Due to a disagreement on the operation, the project did not succeed.

If I learned one important thing from the previous projects that didn't succeed, it's that I needed to improve my social skills, to build a network. The Chapp-e association lasted a little over a year, during which I continued to gain experience as a sysadmin and interacted with many different people. This is the period when I developed my first network, found my first partners.

During this period, I also learned to develop socially through volunteering in an association that helped stray and abandoned cats by finding them new families. I discovered the harm often done to companion animals, which developed my humanitarian side and sensitized me to the ecological cause. My volunteering in this association lasted three years.

It was this volunteering that inspired me to do my civic service in a social center. For a year, I helped people of all kinds to get familiar with computing. I discovered a passion for helping others.

This associative period made me realize that even in this realm, said to be benevolent, many only serve their own interest and do not hesitate to take from funds intended for associations for themselves. I also discovered that too many volunteers only serve for their self-satisfaction.

On August 18, 2018, RegiGames Studio was created with my partner Antonin. I started as treasurer in the project which was a continuation of chapp-e. Initially, it was a video game creation studio, aimed to introduce video games to the widest audience. Three months after the creation of RegiGames Studio, I took the presidency. I was more proactive, and I mastered the administrative essential to the presidency of the association. After taking the presidency, I added my own ambitions: audiovisual creation.

I found myself with about a hundred volunteers internationally, divided into two teams, north and south. The north team was managed by Antonin, more oriented towards video games, while the south team, which I managed, was more audiovisual oriented. I discovered the world of photography and cosplay, and by extension the Asian culture and manga community.

It was at that time, in 2019, at the peak of association activity, that I had the chance to revive my cybercafé project. Widget Bar was ready to create with us a second association, which was supposed to work hand in hand with RegiGames to hold video game competitions. For a while, the activity worked, but the establishment declined in quality. The problems I had noticed when trying to launch the project three years earlier were confirmed: the bar's economy did not work.

Then we had RegiGames' biggest problem: some volunteers left with our game server and tried to erase it completely. I disagreed with Antonin about the team he had chosen, which lacked maturity. The disagreement led to an argument, he decided to dispense with my services, resulting in my removal.

One hour after my removal: "Hello? Thomas? How do you close an association?" Antonin, in the confusion of my departure, wanted to close the association. He couldn't understand how to manage the team, the partners, the system. I agreed to come back, but the damage was done, and RegiGames began to sink into oblivion. Many volunteers left, and with the arrival of COVID, the association ended up completely empty. Antonin, for his part, went on to continue his studies, and I did not want to start over alone.

A small anecdote: in 2019, during the troubled period of the association, I wanted to create a sole proprietorship to provide IT services, but I canceled its creation to try to maintain RegiGames, and with the administrative delay, the company was created but closed the same day.
A little memory of the company that lasted 1 day.

During the lockdown, I became interested in cryptocurrency. I tried to create an investment fund based on it that would allow me to finance my own projects. I asked for advice from the AMF (Financial Markets Authority) who cheerfully told me "Cryptocurrency is terrorist money, and I'm sending someone to do a tax audit on you right away!". I was very disappointed with the French administration.

Also during the lockdown, I started learning new languages. I am a lover of cold countries, and I signed up on an app that allowed me to chat with people internationally. That's how I built a network in Russia.

Thanks to my contacts in Russia, I wanted to create an investment fund to launch my projects. It was at that time that I decided to name the project Tardix, which is a reference to my favorite series. It was then that I began to imagine a modular group, which led to the group you know today.

On February 22, 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine, and Europe-Russia relations deteriorated. A few weeks later, all my projects were blocked because of the situation. In agreement with my Russian partners, I decided to leave the project to give them a chance to succeed without me.

After abandoning the projects in Russia, I found work as a sysadmin in a clinic, Synergia. It was there that I met Patrick Lozano, who is now one of my partners. Synergia was a source of valuable experiences, I discovered the state of medical services. The administration and computing of the clinic were in a disastrous state.

Directly after Synergia, I worked for WanAgain, a professional connection provider. WanAgain is a company in need of modernization, but I was never able to initiate that.

These two jobs were beneficial for the design of my projects. They showed me how much many sectors should benefit from improvement and modernization. They strengthened my desire to innovate, to create something new.

Fueled by all my previous experiences, I was moving closer and closer to the project that exists today; I already had in mind the modular system, the sectors of activity I wanted to target. It was in 2024 that I launched the creation of the company Tardix in France, with some partners to accompany me.

At that time, I already had in mind the plan for Tardix's first three years. Find a team with enthusiasts and specialists for each sector of activity during the first year, and then, launch into searching for investments.