Someone who walks beside you.

In Corsican, a cumpà is a companion, a godfather. Someone who walks beside you. It doesn't give orders, doesn't grade you, doesn't compare you to anyone. It looks in the same direction as you, and says what it would do today. It's pronounced “coom-pa”.

In 2022, I ran between two airport terminals to catch a flight. It took me nearly an hour to get my breath back. I got back into sport right after: running, then trail.

I'm a television director, mostly for ViaStella. My weeks never look the same: recordings in the morning or the evening, shoots lasting several days. A meeting that comes up, a sore ankle, and the planned session goes out the window.

I had a watch and apps. They gave me a rear-view mirror on the past, never the next day's session. So I trawled the internet to work out what to do. The right answer often came too late, and I got injured several times by coming back too fast.

I built Cumpà to get, every day, a session that takes my form and my day into account. Every feature comes from something I went through: the discomfort you declare before the session is chosen, the gradual return after a break, the session that adapts to the heat, the one that fits the time you have left.

Cumpà is a brand of ALVIA, a simplified joint-stock company registered in Ajaccio on 16 March 2026. Supported by ADEC and INIZIÀ, in the PASS’INIZIÀ programme from October 2026, then hosted at the M3E business nursery run with CAPA in Ajaccio from November 2026. Present at VivaTech 2026.