If you follow me on Twitter or any other social media account, I’m one of the founders and board members of Startups.be. It is an initiative I’ve been involved in for over a year, but only recently have we created the non profit organization. (Yes, I know it is hard to follow up on all the things I do, but you can always check my LinkedIn to have an idea.)
The purpose of Startups.be is twofold:
- To help tech starters in Belgium to find help according to their needs, stage of growth and geographic location. It will be the one stop shop to find help and be redirected toward the right organizations.
- To bring together all the entities that are working to help tech entrepreneurs in the country. There’s already 40 and we are working on bringing more people in.
The role of Startups.be is that of a facilitator, not a substitute.
We are currently working on the website, but you can already signup with your startup to be included in the online directory of Belgian startups and to access more services as they are implemented.
My colleague and driving force behind Startups.be, Karen Boers, was recently interviewed in Trends Tendances to present the project:
The board of directors is composed of entrepreneurs from the three regions: Peter Hinssen, Alain Heureux, Antoine Perdaens, Jurgen Ingels, Sylvie Irzi, and myself. Karen Boers is the Managing Director.
What I’ve liked from the begining is the willingness to work together, to overcome the regional compartmentalization of the country.
Some of the first actions where the Startups.be day, with a lot of organizations giving workshops and value to the starters, and the stand at LeWeb. Both were awesome 🙂