About me
From ambitious ideas to practical impact.
Hi, I’m Baous Kone, founder of Swan Ops.
Before building Swan Ops in Western Australia, I worked across startups, growth, product and emerging technology in France.
Today I bring those two worlds together — to help Western Australian businesses grow with better digital tools.
The journey
How I got here.
My career has never followed a traditional path.
I’ve worked in technology companies where product, growth and strategy moved incredibly quickly. I’ve also worked on the ground across regional Western Australia, alongside people in drilling, mining, forestry and the trades.
Those two experiences taught me the same thing: a good idea means very little without good execution.
Today I use what I learned from both worlds to help Western Australian businesses build stronger digital foundations, attract more customers and run more smoothly.
Baous Kone
Founder, Swan Ops
International experience
France → Europe → Australia
Startups built & scaled
From idea to growth
Awards & media recognition
Netexplo · VivaTech · RFI · Les Echos
Western Australia focused
On the ground. In the community.
Experiences that shaped me
A path shaped by entrepreneurship, innovation and execution.
- 2019 — 20212019 — 2021
Chaintrust
Head of Growth
A French technology company using AI to automate accounting work. I joined during an important growth phase and became one of its early sales and growth people — acquisition, outbound, sales process, experimentation.
- ~20%
- month-on-month growth
- €2.5M
- raised during my time there
- 2021 — 20242021 — 2024
Aquaverse
Co-Founder & Chief Product Officer
The most ambitious project I’d worked on — connecting emerging digital ecosystems with real-world environmental work. I ran product strategy, go-to-market, partnerships, business development, sales, branding and the team.
- ~US$1.5M
- generated in the first months of trading
- 13
- person multidisciplinary team
International recognition ↓
- TodayToday
Swan Ops
Founder · Western Australia
Websites, SEO, Google, automation and AI — brought to businesses that do practical work for a living, in a form they can actually use.
- Western Australia
- Long-term digital partnerships
- Built for real business outcomes
Recognised & featured by
Ideas recognised. Mission amplified.
Netexplo Grand Prix 2022
Aquaverse received the Netexplo Grand Prix 2022, awarded through the Netexplo innovation ecosystem, which runs its forum in association with UNESCO.
Discover the story (opens in a new tab)Unscripting Tomorrow
Selected in the Netexplo N100 2022 and presented within the trends publication “Unscripting Tomorrow — The New Now II”.
See the publication (opens in a new tab)VivaTech 2022 winner
Winner of “Espace digital réinventé” — Reinvented Digital Space — at the Elections de la Tech during Viva Technology 2022 in Paris.
Read the coverage (opens in a new tab)Featured on RFI
Radio France Internationale ran a dedicated segment on Aquaverse following the Netexplo Grand Prix 2022.
Listen to the segment (opens in a new tab)The turn
Then came Western Australia.
I went from startup environments, product meetings and technology events to working a lot closer to the ground — across regional WA, in drilling, tree planting and around mining and trade work.
And I met a very different kind of business owner. Builders. Tradies. Contractors. Operators. Family businesses. People who were extremely good at what they did.
Years of experience running on word of mouth. Strong companies with outdated websites. Great operators who were hard to find on Google. Enquiries quietly going missing because nothing was set up to catch them.
Many great businesses weren’t represented online nearly as well as they deserved to be.
Why Swan Ops
Bringing startup thinking to local businesses.
I didn’t want to start another agency that sells websites. Swan Ops exists to be a digital partner for Western Australian businesses — which means the starting question is a different one.
Don’t start with
“What can we sell?”
Start with
“What is actually going to help this business?”
The answer changes. The principle doesn’t.
- Website
- Product Strategy
- Development
- SEO
- Advertising
- Growth & Business Development
- CRM
- Automation
- AI
- Analytics
- Blockchain
- New technologies
Understand the business first. Build what matters second.
How I work
Practical first.
Understand first
How customers find you. Why they choose you. Where enquiries go missing. What eats your week. And what already works — so we don’t break it.
Build what matters
No features nobody uses. No complexity for the sake of it. No digital theatre. Simple systems that solve a real problem.
Stay by your side
A website shouldn’t be forgotten the week after launch. Neither should the relationship. This is built around long-term partnerships.
Impact over everything
Technology gets judged on one thing: the result it creates for the business. If there isn’t one, it doesn’t belong in your setup.
My philosophy
Technology is nothing without purpose.
I’ve worked with AI, blockchain, digital products, automation, growth systems and a fair amount of emerging technology.
The longer I’ve worked with it, the more convinced I am that the technology itself isn’t the important part.
The outcome is.
The technology doesn’t matter.
What I’m building
A different kind of digital partner for Western Australia.
The goal isn’t to build the biggest agency. It’s to build one of the most trusted — a partner that understands its clients, picks up the phone, and doesn’t disappear after launch.
Technology will keep moving. AI will keep getting more capable. Small businesses are getting access to tools that used to need a whole team.
The businesses that benefit most won’t necessarily be those using the most technology. They’ll be the ones using the right technology, in the right places, for the right reasons.
Different worlds. Same mindset.
Understand the problem.
Build with purpose.
Execute properly.
Create real impact.
Baous Kone
Founder, Swan Ops
Properly built. Properly looked after.