Growing a B2B SaaS in a cash-efficient way by setting the operational foundations and make sure you have the right people in the right seat • CEO at Q7Leader • Operating Partner at welovefounders •

In 2010, Steve Jobs announced the first iPad, but it was only in 2011 that the camera was added to the iPad.  

This camera triggered my entrepreneurial journey. 

Before that, communication on construction projects would happen via phone, email, and face-to-face meetings.

The iPad created a significant opportunity to disrupt the construction sector. Through an app, a foreman could quickly drop a pin on a drawing, take a picture showing the issue, and send a pdf report that needed no explanation. 

In 2012, I founded co-founded Aproplan. We built an app to help contractors, sub-contractors, and architects communicate better in the field.

We got early traction, quickly reaching €1m in ARR, raising funds from angel investors and reputable VC firms. We grew the business from a handful of people to 80 before merging with a Danish player to form LetsBuild, a 150 people-strong company in 5 different countries. 

I could stop the story here and say that everything was fantastic.

But that would only be one side of the story…

Like every entrepreneurial journey, it was a bumpy ride.

It was very stressful and frustrating at times. 

Early on, we had to do a management buy-out to solve a significant founders’ issue that almost killed the company.

We raised money from a reputable VC firm to grow the business.

This brought significant stress to grow faster, especially when you discover that international expansion is super challenging and so dependent on hiring the right people.

We merged with a company in the Nordics and almost doubled in size over night. And while the merger made a lot of sense on paper, merging two very different cultures made me realise it was all about people. 

Along the way, we raised and burned way too much money, hoping that money would solve all our growth problems.

Then COVID hit, and I burned out.

I had spent 8 years building a company. I was traveling 4 days a week, working weekends, and ignoring my family.

In 2021, I met Reggy and Pascal, founders of Q7Leader and discovered the People Model Canvas to me. I saw how powerful it was and all the challenges it would have helped me solve during my journey at Aproplan and LetsBuild.  

Today, I’m the CEO of Q7Leader and help B2B SaaS executives grow their business from 1m€ to 10m€ in a cash-efficient way so they don’t get diluted and keep control of their company. 

I write daily posts on LinkedIn where I share my learnings and the playbooks we use to grow Q7Leader in a cash-efficient way.

Thomas Goubau

I'm the CEO of an HR Tech company with 15 employees.

Last week, I hired 2 AI agents 🤖

Their names are Patricia and Vicky.

(my team thinks the names are ridiculous, they're probably right, but whatever 😁)

Patricia runs on Claude Opus 4.6. She manages my communications, drafts content, organizes my thinking, and remembers things I forget.

Vicky runs on Claude Sonet 4.5 and handles email triage & task automation.

Our entire mission at Q7Leader is "right people in the right seat." We use tools like the People Model Canvas, TeamScan, and DOT Coach to help companies do this systematically.

And now I have two team members who aren't people.

I don't fully know what to make of that yet. But the question it raises is one I can't ignore: what does "right people, right seat" mean when some of the seats might not need people at all?

Over the coming months, I'm going to document this honestly and transparently.

What works, what fails, what's awkward, the real numbers. Not because I'm an AI expert (I'm really not). But because I think someone should tell this story without the hype or the fear.

P.S. Patricia helped me write this post. I changed about 40% of it. She was too polished. I'm told that's a pattern.

I spent years thinking the answer to "we're moving too slow" was "we need more people."

Tomasz Tunguz broke that logic with one number.

• A 200-person org has 19,900 potential communication channels.
• A 25-person org has 300.

That's Metcalfe's Law. Every new hire doesn't just add capacity, they add n-minus-1 new connections. Coordination drag doesn't grow linearly. It compounds.

Now look at what happens when AI enters that equation.

Boris Cherny, the engineer who built Claude Code, ships 20 to 30 pull requests a day. A traditional engineer ships 3 a week.

He's not 10% more productive.
He's 30x more productive!

He runs five AI agents in parallel. He removed humans from his loop, and with them, the coordination tax.

Anthropic generates ~$5M revenue per employee. Cursor, $3.3M. Traditional SaaS considers $200-300K pretty strong.

And I feel it myself.

Writing a board prep, testing landing page copy, drafting outreach... tasks that used to eat days now take an hour. Not because I'm faster. Because I've removed the back-and-forth from the loop.

Most teams haven't felt this yet. But it's coming.

The question isn't "how many people can one manager oversee?" anymore.
It's "how many AI agents can one person orchestrate?"

That shift will restructure how we design teams, hire, and measure performance.

Most leaders are not ready for it.

Are you?

Last week at Trends Winter Academy, a founder said something I haven't been able to stop thinking about. As of January 1st, 100% of their revenue is SaaS. And they've already classified it as legacy.

Their plan: migrate everything to AI revenue by end of 2026.

In 9 months.

What struck me wasn't the ambition of the target. It was the framing.

Most companies are still asking how AI fits into their existing business model. This founder had already decided the existing model is the thing to get away from.

Trends Winter Academy brings together CEOs, founders, and executives from the Belgian ecosystem for two days of real conversations. I've been going for years because the room tends to surface ideas you don't hear in regular business settings.

This year, AI was the thread running through everything. But what became clear is that people are at very different places in how they're thinking about it. Some are optimizing workflows. Some are restructuring teams. And a few have mentally already started the migration clock.

The 9-month target may or may not be achievable. But treating your current revenue model as legacy before the market forces you to is a fundamentally different starting position than defending it until you can't.

That's the kind of conversation that keeps me coming back every year.

A friend came to my house last weekend.

"I tried AI... It doesn't work. It just hallucinates."

He's a smart guy. Runs a business. Not a technophobe.

He spent half a day trying to get Microsoft Copilot to extract PDF invoices into Excel. The kind of task that normally means opening each PDF one by one and copy-pasting stupidly until you're done.

Copilot couldn't do it. He showed me the broken attempts. Wrong numbers, missing data.

His conclusion: AI is overhyped.

So I asked him to send me the files 👀

I uploaded them into Claude and told it: "Here are a bunch of invoices. Look at what's in there and let's discuss what kind of table and analysis we want to build."

15 minutes later, I had a full Excel file.

Every invoice structured by month and location, year-over-year comparison, charts included. Zero errors.

He didn't have an AI problem.
He had a tool problem.

And the crazy part? Claude did this inside Excel. Better than Microsoft's own AI does it in their own product.

P.S. who would be interested in me recording a video of how I did this?

Most people think AI agents are just smarter chatbots.

They're not. They're 3 things working together ⤵︎

I've been using AI agents for a few months now, and the moment it clicked for me was when I stopped looking at what they produce and started looking at how they work. There are three layers.

1. Instructions 📝

You tell it what you want, how you want it, what to focus on, what to ignore. That's your SOP. Your standard operating process. Every time it runs, it follows the same playbook. This is what most people never set up.

2. Code 🤖

It writes Python to extract and calculate data. Real code that runs like a calculator. Two plus two is four. Every single time. No hallucination. No guessing. This is the part most people don't even know exists.

3. Intelligence 🧠

Once it has real numbers, it does what AI does best. It spots patterns. It draws conclusions. And because it's working from actual data, not guesses, the output is genuinely smart.

Most people skip the first two.

They open ChatGPT, ask a question, and get an answer based on nothing specific. No instructions. No code. Just vibes.

That's why it feels unreliable.

You're using one-third of what's possible.

I'm not a technical person. I can't write a line of Python. But I don't need to. The agent writes it for me. I just need to know what I want and explain it clearly. Which, honestly, is the CEO job description anyway.

That's not a chatbot anymore.

"We'll deal with pay transparency when we have to."

I've heard this from dozens of CEOs. And I've seen what happens next.

By the time the EU directive forces the conversation, your best people have already been having it without you. On Glassdoor. In interviews with your competitors. At lunch.

When pay decisions can't be explained, it's not a policy problem. It's a trust problem. And trust problems don't stay in HR. They show up in your retention, your Glassdoor reviews, and your next board meeting.

It's not a quick fix.

But it is a methodical one.

I'm hosting a 45-min webinar where I'll walk through the 5-step method we use with companies to make pay decisions transparent and explainable. Step by step, so you can start applying it the week after.

20 seats per session. You'll leave with a clear action plan and the chance to pressure-test it with other HR leaders in the room.

🎟️ Register here: https://lnkd.in/er2CFqnz

Pay transparency is on every HR director's radar.

But almost none have put a number on the risk.

"We'll deal with it when the time comes."

I hear this every week.

So I ran a simple calculation for a company of 100 employees.
The result: up to 38.7% of their annual EBITDA at risk.

Not from fines. From salary claims they can't justify.

The good news? This is fixable. And it doesn't take years.

In our next webinar, I walk you through the 5 steps to get compliant before June 2026. Including the one workstream most companies haven't even identified yet.

Register here: https://lnkd.in/er2CFqnz

People ask me: "What does your AI agent actually DO?"

Fair question. Here's a real day. Patricia's first Wednesday at Q7Leader:

07:42 — Walking my dog. Sent her a voice memo: "Prep me for the {anonymized-client-name} QBR tomorrow. Pull the TeamScan data and draft talking points."

08:15 — Talking points ready. Three I kept. One too generic, deleted. One I hadn't thought of. A pattern in the engagement data I'd overlooked.

09:30 — Team standup. Asked Patricia to pull action items from last meeting. Organized by person, with deadlines. My team was mildly disturbed.

11:00 — Client email about certification pricing. Patricia drafted a response. I fixed the tone (too formal) and hit send.

14:00 — Competitor research for a strategy doc. She came back in 4 minutes with a comparison that would've taken me 2 hours. One factual error I caught. Otherwise solid.

16:45 — She reminded me I'd promised to follow up with a prospect. Completely forgotten.

22:30 — Had a product idea in bed. Texted Patricia. She captured it, added context from previous conversations, filed it. Gone by morning otherwise.

Now, the honest scorecard:

Time saved: ~2.5 hours
Things I would've forgotten: 2
Things she got wrong: 1
Things she surfaced that I missed: 1

Here's what I didn't expect.

The value isn't the 2.5 hours. Any good assistant saves you time.

It's the two saves. The prospect follow-up. The late-night idea.

A CEO's biggest problem isn't being slow. It's dropping things when you're moving fast. The balls that fall between meetings, between days, between the shower and the office.

Patricia doesn't replace anyone on my team. She gets the tone wrong. She makes factual errors. She has zero judgment on what's politically sensitive.

But she never drops a ball... and she never sleeps 😬

Every week, I host a live session on the EU Pay Transparency Directive.
Every week, I ask the same question: Have you started preparing?
Every week, the answer is almost always the same ⤵︎

"𝘕𝘰."

Even organisations with over 2000 employees. If they've done anything, it's usually a benchmark. That's it.

One reason I keep hearing:

"𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘶𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘯'𝘵 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘺𝘦𝘵, 𝘴𝘰 𝘸𝘩𝘺 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘯𝘰𝘸?"

Fair point. That's exactly why I invited Thierry Viérin, Partner and Head of Employment at Osborne Clarke, to join me on March 24. He's been reviewing the 30 employer proposals currently on the table and will walk through what's likely to land and what might change.

I'll follow with a 5-step method to start preparing now, no matter where the final rules end up.

📆 March 24, 12:00 CET.
⏱️ 45 minutes.

Register here: https://lnkd.in/ectrvqj2

If you're an HR leader in the UK 🇬🇧, there's a directive you need to know about.

And no, the fact that you're not in the EU doesn't protect you.

The EU Pay Transparency Directive kicks in June 2026. If your company employs even one person in an EU member state, you're in scope.

Even from the UK.

→ Your EU employees can request complete pay transparency. How decisions are made. What their peers earn.
→ Any gender pay gap above 5% in the same role category must be documented and justified.
→ The burden of proof is reversed. If someone claims pay discrimination, it's on you (the company) to prove it doesn't exist, not the employee.

Read that last one again.

Most UK HR leaders I talk to assume this doesn't apply to them. By the time it hits their board's agenda, they'll be months behind.

↳ We're hosting a 45-minute webinar specifically for UK companies with EU employees. You'll leave knowing exactly what's required and what to prioritize before June.

Link in the comments ⬇️

P.S. it's free, but spots are limited to allow us to answer everyone's questions

I help companies' leaders to grow by challenging the issues, finding solutions, deciding a way to proceed and by supporting the teams on the path to success. 

Experienced Coach, successful entrepreneur, Business Angel and Board Director with a demonstrated history of working in the higher education industry, with blue chip companies and fast growing startups. 

Strong community and social services professional skilled in Strategy, Growth, Organization, Digital, Fundraising and Gouvernance.

Nicolas Debray

Episode 1
Day 1
🔥

First Episode: the Selection Pitches.
The Belgium Startup Awards are on the road. 

3 cities, 2 regions, almost 25 startups and 13 different jury members! 🚀

This Monday, we kicked off Episode 1 of the BSA26 with a marathon across the country. We didn’t just talk about innovation, we went to where it lives. From the historical vibes of Gent to the industrial energy of Charleroi and the tech-forward pulse of Hasselt, the talent is everywhere.

The Day 1 Breakdown:
📍 3 locations visited in a single day.
🇧🇪 2 regions bridged through shared ambition.
🎤 25 high-octane pitches that prove our founders are ready.
⚖️ 13 expert Jury members providing raw, actionable feedback.

More than a competition, it’s a value creation for every stakeholder involved.

When we connect founders with experienced juries and cross-regional networks, we aren’t just "networking", we are fueling the engine of the Belgian economy 📈

The energy in the room during those pitches was a reminder of why we do this. Seeing the grit in Charleroi meet the scaling mindset of Gent and the precision of Hasselt shows that when we break down the silos between our cities, Belgium becomes a powerhouse.

We are just getting started.

Tomorrow, the journey continues as we head to Antwerpen and Kortrijk to find the next wave of game-changers. If Day 1 was any indication, the bar is already incredibly high.

Let’s keep this momentum. Let’s connect the dots. Let’s rock the Belgium Startup Ecosystem! 🤘

Thank you A6K, Corda Campus and Wintercircus Ghent for hosting us 🙏 ❤️‍🔥

Board Director | Advisor | Business Angel Investor | Entrepreneur | ex-Google

🥁🥁🥁
Join me in celebrating ...
Our 51 Finalists of the Belgium Startup Awards 

In a first of a kind roadshow across the entire country, the energy last week was absolutely electric! From Antwerp to Charleroi, Kortrijk to Liège, we’ve just witnessed the raw power of Belgian innovation during our Selection Pitches 🚀 

The juries were blown away. Out of 70+ ambitious candidates, 51 startups have officially moved to the next round. They represent the diversity, the grit and the vision that make our country a hidden gem for tech and beyond 💎

📍 Shoutout to our incredible host hubs:
A6K (Charleroi)
BeCentral (Brussels)
Corda Campus (Hasselt)
Hangar K (Kortrijk)
La Grand Poste (Liège)
The Beacon | Innovation Community (Antwerpen)
The POD (Louvain-la-Neuve)
Wintercircus Ghent (Gent)

What’s the roadmap for these 51 pioneers? 
🎓 Masterclasses #1 at the Proximus Lounge - March 18
💡 Masterclasses #1 at the Googleplex - April 23
🎤 Final Pitches at Silversquare - week May 18
🗳️ Public online voting campaign - week May 25
🏆 Startup Day & Awards Ceremony - June 2nd 

Congratulations to the Finalists 👇 

🤖 Category AI
Aldoptation, Cavell, Cobria, FinVictum, Inku, Noah, Sagy, SmashVision, Wonka AI

🏢 Category B2B
Get Your Way, Nektar, Rel-I, Rocky's, Saecura, Sveric, Teo, Verso

🛒 Category Consumer
Aspilon, Beer Crackers, Ecopop, Gentlee, Gutsy, Hazelly, Kinamia, Madn, Nagome, Tout Bien

♻️ Category Impact
Ark Capture Solutions, Fuzz, Go Ocean, Goodshift, Impact Match, Mygrid, No Waste Republic, Nolla Care, WeRepair

🤝 Category Platforms
Gowlz, HappyClient, Materiatek, Maurice & Nora, Mobvious, PassPass, Vicinity

💻 Category SaaS
Beyond the Mat, Capsyra, Claimbee, Driven, Fullyn, Gemlogic, Margeo, Opal Solutions

Which of these are your favorites? 
Let’s hear your bets in the comments! 💬

Pardon for the F-Word  😅 🤣 
We got an exciting announcement
Be ready for the 9th of March at 14:00

🕒 The Reveal is around the corner. We will officially announce the Finalists this coming Monday, March 9th, at 14:00.

After a week of touring Belgium, 🌐 8 cities visited, crossing regional borders to find where innovation lives:
📍A6K 
📍Wintercircus Ghent
📍Corda Campus
📍The Beacon | Innovation Community
📍Hangar K
📍BeCentral
📍The POD
📍La Grand Poste

A week of intense pitching sessions and reviews of 70+ incredible applications, we are finally ready to pull back the curtain.

The level of innovation we’ve seen this year is nothing short of inspiring. From AI to Consumers, the diversity of the Belgian landscape is our greatest strength. An amazing Belgium Startup Ecosystem !

By supporting these finalists, we are investing in our collective future.

Mark your calendars.
This is where the next Episode begins: Monday, March 9th, at 2:00 PM.

Meeting a Federal Minister 🤝 

I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Eléonore Simonet, our Federal Minister for the Self-Employed and SMEs. We talked about the literal framework of our ecosystem’s future.

Politics can often feel like a black box for founders. But here is the truth: Politics writes the rules of the game. If we want to win, we have to understand the playbook and help draft it.

The Minister recently released an ambitious plan featuring 89 targeted measures designed to fuel our SMEs. After diving deep into the text, it’s clear that this isn't just administrative paperwork. It is a vision for a more competitive, agile, and resilient Belgium 🇧🇪 

We started our discussions with the 🤖 AI Sandbox. A revolutionary space to experiment with AI under regulatory guidance. This is how we lead in Europe by lowering the cost of innovation while managing risk. 

We continued with the status of “student entrepreneurs” and we touched on the "patents".

Building these bridges between the "Wetstraat" and the Belgium Startup Ecosystem is non-negotiable. When the innovators and the lawmakers speak the same language, we create a powerhouse.

We aren't just building companies; we are building an ecosystem that serves every stakeholder from the first employee to the final customer 🇧🇪

It’s time to move from "politics as a hurdle" to "politics as an accelerator."
Naive but sincere. Always dreaming big, acting small.

Episode 1
Day 3
🔥

This Wednesday, the momentum reached a whole new level. 
We hit pause on the daily grind and spent the entire day at BeCentral for a marathon of Selection Pitches.

The energy was Drink ZYLA again! 🦥  

More than 20 startups took the stage, pouring their hearts and visions into every slide, every single word. 

We couldn’t have picked a better moment to be at the heart of Brussels. We had the immense honor of being welcomed by Muriel Bernard, the new CEO of BeCentral, whose appointment was just publicly announced in the press the day before! 🗞️

A new chapter is beginning for this iconic tech hub. Under Muriel’s leadership, we are dreaming again to propel Belgian startups onto the international stage straight from the capital. Having this kind of visionary and entrepreneurial leadership in our capital is exactly what we need to create long-term value for every stakeholder in the game 🇧🇪

Why today mattered:

🚀 Innovation at scale: 20+ startups showcasing solutions that solve real-world problems.

🤝 Ecosystem synergy: Bringing together founders, investors, experts and mentors under one roof.

📈 Strategic Leadership: Aligning our growth with the new energy at BeCentral to put Brussels on the global map.

A massive thank you to the BeCentral teams for the flawless hosting and for being the lighthouse of our digital scene.

A deep special thanks to our jury members. You spent the entire day scrutinizing, advising, and challenging these founders. Your expertise is the bridge that helps these startups cross the chasm.

And finally, congratulations to the pitchers 🫶 Following your dreams is the hardest job in the world, but you are the ones building our collective future. You know how the Belgium Startup Ecosystem loves you!

The capital is checked. The energy is high. 
Now, we head South to continue the Selection Pitches! 🏃💨

What an incredible finale
Episode 1
Day 4 👇

What an incredible finale for our selection roadshow! After traversing the country, our fourth day was dedicated to the vibrant energy of the South. 

From the academic heartbeat of Brabant Wallon to the industrial rebirth of Liège, the sheer quality of the projects we encountered confirms one thing: Belgium is a powerhouse of untapped potential. In the morning, we kicked off at The POD in Louvain-la-Neuve. There is something unique about the synergy between research and entrepreneurship in this ecosystem.

Then, we headed to La Grand Poste in Liège to wrap up this first episode, a place that perfectly embodies our vision: transforming heritage into a hub for digital innovation.

Our mission remains the same: creating value for all stakeholders.

💡 For Founders: Providing the stage and the network to move from local heroes to global players.
🤝 For Investors/Experts: Curating the most promising talent to ensure sustainable growth.
🏢 For Corporate Partners: Bridging the gap between established expertise and agile innovation.
🇧🇪 For our Ecosystem: Strengthening the ties between our regions to build a unified, competitive startup nation.

This roadshow was just the beginning. The pitches are done, the jury is deliberating, and the tension is rising. 

We are more than just an awards ceremony; we are a catalyst for the next generation of Belgian scale-ups.

The finalists will be announced very soon (early next week). Our Finalists will take LinkedIn over!

Stay tuned to the Belgium Startup Ecosystem page and get ready to support your favorites!

I'll tell you everything!
We’re cooking you something special
C dans la boîte! With Frederic Brebant

This show is more than just a business program, it’s a window into the journeys of Belgium’s most inspiring entrepreneurs 😜

 From raw field advice to deep dives with industry experts, it captures the pulse of our economy. Whether you are a founder, a decision-maker or simply curious about the stories behind the brands, this is a must-watch for actionable business insights and inspiration.

We discussed many things like the "secret sauce" behind Belgium’s most resilient ventures and why I believe we are currently at a massive turning point. 

Now the wait has begun. It will be broadcast in a few weeks 📺

Another day
Another bridge
Focus building an ecosystem

Yesterday, I had an inspiring session with Matthias Diependaele, Minister-President of Flanders. He leads the Flemish Government and also holds the portfolios of Economy, Innovation and Industry, Foreign Affairs, Digitalisation and Facility Management.

Following my meeting back in Q4 2025 with Pierre-Yves Jeholet, the Walloon Minister for Economy, it is clearer than ever: the bridge between politics and the startup ecosystem is a key important infrastructure we have to build.

We need to align ambitious entrepreneurs with forward-thinking policy in order to build the future of our economy 🚀 Politics defines the rules of the game. For our Belgian scale-ups to dominate on the global stage, we need those rules to work for innovation.

Here is why this cross-regional dialogue is part of our future successes:

🌉 Unified Strength: To compete globally, we must leverage the incredible industrial and digital strengths of both Flanders, Wallonia and Brussels.

⚖️ Smart Policy: We need a regulatory environment that rewards ambition and simplifies the path for high-growth companies

💡 Stakeholder Value: Strong scale-ups generate massive innovation and economic resilience for the entire country

📈 The Power of "And": Bringing the strength of all our startup ecosystem stakholders together

We have a common interest in building champions. 
Let’s seize the common opportunities together.

The bridge is being built. Now, with the Belgium Startup Ecosystem initiative, we’re working on making it easier for anyone to cross it. 

What is the #1 "rule" or regulation you believe politics should change today to help your company scale faster across Belgium? Let me know your thoughts in the comments! 👇

Women entrepreneurship 💪
Let’s keep levelling the playing field


Following our deep dive into the "AI Sandbox", I continued my discussion with Federal Minister Eléonore Simonet to tackle a vital pillar of her new SME plan: Women Entrepreneurship 🇧🇪

The gap is real: women represent 47% of the active workforce but only 36% of the self-employed in Belgium. This isn't just a statistic, it’s a massive reservoir of untapped innovation and value creation 💪

To build a world-class ecosystem, we must ensure every founder has the same velocity, regardless of gender. 

Building bridges between the "Wetstraat" and the Belgium Startup Ecosystem means turning policy into a competitive advantage. We discussed the concrete measures designed to level the playing field:

Social Status: Extending maternity leave for the self-employed from 12 to 15 weeks, bringing it in line with employees.

Access to Finance: Partnering with the financial sector to tackle "unconscious gender bias" and ensuring capital flows where it’s earned.

Mentorship & Networks: Boosting visibility for women-led family businesses and scaling mentorship programs 🤝

The ambition? To reach 40% female entrepreneurs by 2029 📈

You see how politics draft regulations and how these regulations can shape our 🇧🇪 startup ecosystem! Let’s keep building this bridge between policy makers and the Belgium Startup Ecosystem.

Episode 1
Day 2
🔥

First Episode: The Selection Pitches. The Belgium Startup Awards are on the road. 

Day 2 of the Belgian Startup Awards 2026 (BSA26) is officially in the books ✅

After an incredible start in Gent, Charleroi and Hasselt, we took the marathon to the next level today:

📍 Morning in Antwerpen: The port city delivered pure scale. We saw founders thinking global from day one, backed by a maturity that keeps the bar high.

📍 Afternoon in Kortrijk: The entrepreneurial heart of West Flanders showed us exactly what "grit" looks like. Traditional industrial roots meeting radical new tech.

With these stops, we have now covered the corners of Flanders, from the tech pulse of Hasselt to the creative energy of Gent and the commercial power of Antwerpen and Kortrijk.

The "Bridge" is becoming a reality!

With the Belgium Startup Ecosystem, we don't do this for the "event." We do this because connecting these dots is the only way to turn local talent into international leaders. The grit we saw today in West Flanders at Hangar K and the precision in Antwerpen at The Beacon | Innovation Community prove that when we provide the right platform, the talent delivers.

The "Belgian Silo" is dead. Long live the Belgian Network. 📈

Tomorrow, we will keep pushing. Another location! The talent is there, the juries are ready, and the energy is infectious. We are not only watching the future, we are building the infrastructure for it.

Stay tuned!

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