Interview with Arthur Delerue, CEO & Founder at KWatch.io

We’re introducing a new column in which we’ll be interviewing experts in the tech industry, and it’s opened by Arthur Delerue, CEO & Founder at KWatch.io. Arthur Delerue is a full-stack developer with a marketing background. He launched KWatch.io to help marketers and founders better leverage the power of social media.

Hello Arthur! We are happy to offer you an opportunity like an interview to tell a wider audience more about you and your experience. How did you start your career, and why did you choose this particular field?

I initially studied business and after a couple of years doing marketing consulting and product management I finally pivoted to a programming career. I spent several years as a full-stack developer, specialized in Python, Go, and Linux systems. Today, I find it very rewarding to have good knowledge on both the business side and technical side of things, and I finally decided that it was the right time to launch my own business.

Could you tell us a little bit more about your platform — Kwatch.io? How did you get the idea to create it? What is the algorithm of the platform?

The idea came when I was doing a bit of marketing freelancing, a couple of years ago, and I realized that social media were becoming more and more central in business development. I realized it was crucial to engage quickly on social media, but companies did not have the tools to efficiently and reliably listen to social media in real time. So I decided to create this social media monitoring tool called KWatch.io, that monitors Reddit, Hacker News, LinkedIn, X, and Quora, in real-time, sends you email and Slack notifications, and automatically performs sentiment analysis.

What technologies were involved in the development of the platform? What difficulties did you face? How did you overcome them?

The platform is coded in Go because this language is both very fast and good at handling many simultaneous requests on social media. Go allows us to absorb very large volumes of data, analyze the data efficiently, and alert our customers in real time. Additionally, our architecture is based on Docker microservices. We had to face many challenges in order to release a stable version of KWatch.io. Here are 2 examples:

• Handle large volumes of requests without missing data.
• Monitor social media at scale for all our customers without getting blocked by the platforms.

Are you currently working on other projects? Can you tell us about them?

Nope, I’m 100% dedicated to KWatch with my team.

What do you think the technology market will look like in the near future? What technologies and services will be in demand in the next 5 years?

In my opinion, the technology market in the near future is going to experience significant growth and transformation, with a focus on artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing, and cybersecurity. Enterprise spending on software and IT services, particularly AI, cloud computing, and cybersecurity technology, will skyrocket. This trend is supported by the rise of generative AI. In the next 5 years, AI will be the main technology in high demand and paradoxically people will actively look for more and more “non-AI content” that is genuinely written by real humans. That is why I think that social media platforms are going to grow dramatically.

You have a lot of experience. What advice do you have for aspiring professionals? What skills do they need to work in technology?

Generative AI is a huge change for everyone. My advice is that developers will still be in high demand, so I do encourage youngsters to invest time and energy in programming, especially in the DevOps side.

Let’s talk a little bit about you so that our readers can get to know you better. What do you do in your free time? Do you believe in work-life balance?

Absolutely. I have 2 young boys, so I am permanently obsessed with work-life balance. I believe in discipline and tenacity. It is perfectly possible to launch a successful startup while having a happy family life, even if it’s definitely challenging. The key is to work “smarter, not harder” and being very good at context switching (once you stop working and play with your kids, you have to free your mind and stop thinking about your startup, which takes some practice!). Apart from that, I am a French boxing instructor! 

Who is your favorite musician? 

Beethoven. I love the piano.

What was your most memorable travel experience? Where would you like to visit?

I think it is Singapore! I loved the street food so much. The city is clean and people are very kind! Now I would like to visit Eastern Europe because I think it’s an underrated area.

What famous leaders inspire you?

Elon Musk. If you haven’t yet I encourage you to read his biography, it’s very inspiring.

Thank you for your answers! That was very interesting!