Quantune

The challenge

When Louis Vaillant joined Quantune as Founder's Associate seven months ago, the company was already live on GAIA. Before GAIA, contracts had been managed through a combination of Word documents and DocuSign, with no central system connecting the pieces. When employee details changed, someone had to manually update each document. When an NDA needed sending, the team had to find the right version in a folder, copy in the relevant details, and hope nothing got missed. Finance and HR both touched the same contracts, but worked from different places.

The trigger for change was the opportunity to implement the German Employee Incentive Program under § 19a EStG, a benefit that required proper infrastructure to administer correctly. With the EIP on the horizon and contract complexity growing, a spreadsheet and a generic e-signature tool were no longer enough.

How GAIA helped

One source of truth across contracts and HR. The most immediate impact was consolidation. With GAIA's Personio integration, employee data flows directly into contracts, no manual copying, no version confusion, no risk of outdated details making it into a signed document. "Before, everything was done via a separate Word file, then copied from email," Louis explains. "Now we change it in one place and it cascades everywhere."

For a small, fast-moving team, that reliability changes how people work. "I have one platform where I can look, where the data I can trust is right there, and I have only this one single place to check. It's a huge increase in productivity, otherwise I'm constantly asking: is this the last version? Is this outdated?"

“I have one place where everything is synchronized, and I can trust the data that's in there.”— Louis Vaillant, Founder's Associate, Quantune

Templates with legal confidence. A recurring pain point for early-stage companies is contract consistency, documents sent frequently, often in slightly different versions, and rarely reviewed by a lawyer each time. GAIA's template library changed that dynamic for Quantune. "We have one single template we stick to. If we need minor adjustments we can make them, but otherwise it's just done, and we feel secure because it comes with legal guidance." The result is both faster turnaround and higher quality. "You don't need a lawyer explicitly to tell you it's valid. It's protected. It's done right."

“Before, contracts were flying around in different platforms. Now we have one single thing, and it's way better.”— Louis Vaillant, Founder's Associate, Quantune

The foundation for equity management. Quantune rolls out its § 19a EIP to employees after six months at the company. Having GAIA already in place as the contract and HR backbone means the equity layer has a reliable foundation to build on: employee data is accurate, documents are centralized, and the team doesn't need to scramble to get organized before each grant cycle. Working closely with the CEO on the EIP rollout, Louis sees the appeal clearly, from a risk-reward perspective, the § 19a structure offers employees meaningful protection and upside that goes beyond a traditional VSOP.

Results

The picture is clear: less time spent on manual document work, fewer errors from data being out of sync, and a team that can handle contracts independently without routing everything through a single person. "I now have all the context points in one place," Louis says. "Having all this paperwork in one space and not through different folders, that's the biggest value I get out of the tool."

The Personio integration in particular has removed a whole category of manual work. When an employee updates their details, that change propagates automatically, no one has to remember to update the contract.

Working with GAIA

Louis rates the support experience a 10 out of 10. When Quantune needed templates adapted to their specific requirements, turnaround was same-day. And when their account manager changed, the quality of service didn't skip a beat. "Even when we switched internally, it was just as fast and just as accurate. That's exactly what you want, continuity in the relationship even when people change."

“Even when we switched account managers, it was just as fast and just as accurate. That's exactly what you want.”— Louis Vaillant, Founder's Associate, Quantune

What Louis would tell a peer

After seven months of using GAIA as the operational backbone for contracts, HR, and equity at an early-stage startup, Louis's recommendation is straightforward:

“It's the kind of tool that enables you throughout your work, contracts, NDAs, equity, all in one single place. And the support means you're never stuck. For a startup that's constantly iterating, that matters a lot.”— Louis Vaillant, Founder's Associate, Quantune