3 of the 4 cofounders of 42 have previously worked at Epita, a private French computer science school that I attended and graduated from in 2003. Specifically, Nicolas Sadirac was the key director-level person in charge of pretty much everything: designing the extensive computer labs and networks used by all students and staff for <i>everything</i> (NetBSD and SunOS workstations, OSF/1 servers, NNTP newsgroups, a custom internal instant messaging system "Netsoul", etc... aah memories), selecting which classes to teach, hiring professors, and as a true hacker himself I believe he was even writing/designing (at least initially) the various programming tests, including those used during the famous "piscine". As to Kwame, he was working closely directly under Nicolas. I remember him as being also very talented, jovial, and very loud :) Florian, I don't remember him personally. I am less sure what connection Xavier and Nicolas have, but they seem to have known each other for a long time. Xavier appears to have not attended our taught at Epita? I could be wrong.<p>Epita was very successful thanks to its insanely intense focus on fundamentals: algorithms, programming, OS/compiler/DB design, low level stuff (reimplementing the standard C library, a 3D engine, a UNIX shell, etc). I absolutely loved all of this. However its investors and other directors wanted to change the school to have more general/non-programming courses in order to be recognized by the CTI (commissions des titres d'ingénieur, basically to give Epita's diploma more credence in the eyes of mainstream employers). But Nicolas disagreed and believed keeping the focus on fundamentals was key.<p>So in 1999 he left and started his own school called Epitech. For a while Epita and Epitech shared buildings and even some professors.<p>Eventuality Epitech became as successful as Epita (even more in my opinion). It gained a great reputation and graduates are courted by many employers.<p>I have been following the progress of 42 over the last few years, and I am really excited for them. They have the right team to succeed, that's for sure.