· Guelnoji · Company · 2 min read
Why I left Google to start Sovrnti
Digital sovereignty isn't complex—it just requires effort and decision. After years at Google, I left to prove that businesses can have both innovation and control at scale.
I could have stayed another 5 years. Could have moved to NY for a career boost… Or stay in Bordeaux near my Sauternes vineyards 😎.
More seriously, after years helping large customers navigate sovereignty, launching sovereign controls, I was always frustrated when hearing 70-items action plans, observatories, complexity…
That’s my villain. The one claiming digital sovereignty is complex. It is not. It just requires effort, decision.
Having Elon get you to Mars is complex. Making quantum work at scale is complex. Finding a better wine than Château Haut-Bergeron is complex…
Digital sovereignty is not.
In my day to day, I always replace digital sovereignty with control. Much more practical, action-driven.
Now everything else being equal, having more control is always better. But more control always impacts something else.
The issue I see, especially in Europe, is what I like to call “sovereignty in a bubble”. Talking about control. Optimizing for control. And stopping there.
Having seen products run at scale, I came to the conclusion that for things to work long term, you need to solve for innovation AND control… at scale. Those 3 words matter. The order matters. This became my thesis.
I have spent the last 18 months reading, watching everything I could because I wanted to have a playbook. I’m a framework person. I’m pretty close to a v1. So I launched Sovrnti to get some hands dirtier.
More coming. A lot of work required. But with flexibility and freedom.