Laurent-David Hostyn

Introducing ... The first Ecosystem Partner of the Belgium Startup Awards! 👇 Syndicate One They're championing ambitious Belgian founders with early-stage investments, invaluable mentorship, and a vibrant community. Together, we share the same: 🟢 Vision of think big, act small 🟢 Willingness to empower the next generation of tech companies to thrive 🟢 Commitment to make our 🇧🇪 startup ecosystem shines like never before Super proud to have them onboard. Let's scale it up! 👏 #startups #scaleups #buildingbridges

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One page interview in La Libre Eco this weekend! Sharing the tremendous success of the #1 Belgium Impact Startup Awards. I had the pleasure to discuss with Nicolas Ghislain the reasons why I’m organizing these unique Awards 🏆 . 1️⃣ Building bridges Bringing #startups and large corporations through the Juries. We have jury members working for many very prestigious large corporations such as AXA, BNP, D’Ieteren, Orange, ING, Spadel, XLG, Securex, UCB, AGInsurance, Eurostar, Lyreco, Volvo CE, …  2️⃣ Creating value for all stakeholders. Prizes for winners have been thoroughly selected to help the winning startups to make a difference in their business. At the same time, the sponsors and partners can demonstrate the relevance and impact of their product and service offering for the startups. Win-win! 3️⃣ Federating our 🇧🇪startup ecosystem This is an initiative from the startup ecosystem for the startup ecosystem. It compensates for the flagrant lack of public and political support. Regional public drive is good but who’s federating? There’s a clear missing support from the federal public entities to create synergies between the regions and as such foster the national ecosystem. 👉 Stay tuned. 📅 Tomorrow we are unveiling the Nominees. 👈 Let's scale up! 👏 #startups #scaleups #buildingbridges 💪 JCDecaux Belgium & Luxembourg, Silversquare, Google Cloud, La Libre, TheMerode

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"We have passed the Turing Test" ✅ , an opener of the The State of AI in Banking & Insurance event yesterday. It was co-hosted by FinTech Belgium and Sailpeak: and planned together with the launch of the Barometer of AI usage in Financial Services.   The report provided a perspective on the transformative power of AI in the Belgian financial landscape. With a deep dive into AI adoption across 17 key financial institutions. Providing us insights into the progress Belgian institutions are making in areas like fraud detection, customer segmentation, and risk modeling.    Big thanks to Jonathan Neubourg for his presentation & introducing the term "Eisenbahnscheinbewegung" 🚄 ! This "railway illusion motion" illustrates the human resistance to change in change management and the fast pace of AI where you either catch it or miss it, similar to a train. It's not just about tools, but fostering a supportive environment to embrace the new, as Jonathan put it. Also interesting picture here below if you notice of the fusion of the Belfius & Apple image, putting forward the fact that banks are becoming more & more similar to technology companies.   What do you think, are we at a stage where AI and humans are indistinguishable in certain circumstances? #fintech,#stateofai,#data,#banking,#insurance

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I invite all Belgian tech companies to participate in this survey

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📢 To investors (seed stage +), corporate innovators/execs: 10 promising, early stage, belgian'tech for good' startups will be pitching on "Spark!" 31/10 Wintercircus Ghent by Hubs4Growth. Discover selected teams (such as ResultX 🎉 📈 ) who just raised 1.2M this week) who are at the forefront of sector transitions... : ☀ Energy Management: focusing on the future of flexible energy consumption, optimizing energy flows, and improving building heating / cooling. 🌍 Road to carbon zero & ESG: enhancing supply chain emissions tracking, ESG reporting, and bio-economy aimed at decarbonizing industries. 🚗 Transport: optimizing fleet & asset management for efficiency and sustainability. 🌊 Resource Management: Advanced tools for pipeline monitoring, leakage detection, and localized detailed asset management. 🧪 Product Development: Software that optimizes product life-cycles. PM us if you want receive an invitation. DJ, drinks and food under the Ghent Wintercircus dome also included! 😎 Schrijf hier in: https://lnkd.in/e7sqEfWq

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Making expensive foreign technology available and relevant for local advertisers. 🚀 We help advertisers improve marketing intelligence and performance by giving them access to local data networks for targeting and generating insights. Our vision is to democratize data clean room technology to help the Benelux and, later on, the European market move forward. Read our story below! :) Thanks to Patrick Steinfort and Griet Byl from Media Marketing for the article! It was a pleasure. #datacleanroom #data #marketing

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Today, we are thrilled to announce that Felix Capital led the $42.75 million #SeriesB funding round for TechWolf. Based in Belgium, TechWolf is at the forefront of innovation in #AI and #HRtech, a space that we have been following for some time as a team. We started Felix in 2015 as a thematic investment firm, following trends impacting consumer lives, whether at home or at work. We explored the evolution of the “modern workplace” ever since, leading us to enterprise #SaaS investments from our early days, including TravelPerk and Mirakl. It has been exciting to see the tremendous impact of #AI across the vertical markets we focus on. As we delved deeper on the impact of AI on HR in particular, we found TechWolf - an AI-powered skills platform to help enterprises establish an automatic, instant, and always up-to-date view of skills and skill gaps across their teams. As a venture firm for the Creative Class, we felt aligned with this mission: enabling individuals and organisations to unlock their skills, competencies and passions in the workplace, and subsequently their lives, in a transformative way. Even better, this company has been born in our own home in #Europe, joining the ranks of other #AI pioneers. We are joined in this round by a great set of co-investors including 20VC, Workday Ventures, ServiceNow Ventures, SAP, Notion Capital, and existing investors Acadian Ventures, Fortino Capital, and Stride.VC. Many congratulations to TechWolf founders Andreas De Neve 🐺, Jeroen Van Hautte 🐺, Mikaël Wornoo🐺 and welcome to the Felix family! 🙌 https://lnkd.in/g4uFgbgm

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🚨 Attention Belgian Businesses 🚨 Big news! Starting January 1, 2026, electronic invoicing becomes mandatory in Belgium. 📅 Here’s what you need to know: 📜 The law was published on February 4, 2024, and mandates that all businesses issue invoices in the European Peppol format. This secure protocol ensures real-time exchange of invoices across Europe. 💡 Good news: Software costs related to this e-invoicing requirement are 120% tax-deductible! This includes subscription fees and consulting costs for implementing electronic invoicing. Note: amortization costs are excluded. 🆓 **Odoo users, rejoice!** Odoo is already 100% Peppol compatible and it’s free to send invoices via Odoo. 👨‍💼👩‍💼 Who benefits? Both independent contractors and SMEs. The deduction applies to expenses incurred between January 1, 2024, and December 31, 2027. 💻 Make sure your accounting software is ready. 🔗 For more details on how this affects your business, read the full article : https://lnkd.in/eka35eQc. Stay compliant and benefit from the fiscal advantages! 🔄 Repost this to spread the word! P.S. Have any questions about electronic invoicing? Comment below! 👇

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HOW WE CLOSED DEALS WITH 3 BIG BELGIAN COMPANIES IN WEEKS. 🔥 (Names will be disclosed next week in our monthly update mail, send me your email adres if you want to be in that list) Tips to the founders out there thinking things aren't working. It can take some time to build trust, relations and business. (I've been there) 1. Sales cycles can be long in B2B SaaS. (with us, it's between 2-6 months) So really start selling before the product is finished. 2. All our sales came via small referrals or had seen us around with people they trust. You have to build that trust ASAP. 3. *Godfather voice* We made an offer they can't refuse. (Jolt effect) If there isn't an offer.. What can they agree to? 4. Our pricing isn't perfect, but just start selling and improve it along the way. 5. Be genuinely interested in your champion within the company and in helping him/her. 6. Be open and transparent. If you want to get a honest reaction, say something honest. "Look I am going to be totally transparent, *insert our intention* and then ask for their intentions. Being honest builds trust. Linking this experience to my vacation to Iceland, The trips are long and cold in Iceland, but they get you to the nicest places in the world. 🇮🇸 Keep on moving and enjoy the struggle. Book tips: Fast forward B2B sales (process) & Jolt effect Podcast tip for sales conversation: April Dunford content #sales #founder #startup

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How to Get Your Team on Board with a New Growth Strategy 🚀? When rolling out a new growth strategy, you must address your team’s core concerns and goals directly. Start by showing data-driven success stories: companies that integrate Value-Based Selling (VBS) with ethical leadership see impressive results in their win rates and shorter sales cycles. 📈 Share examples of businesses that gained a competitive edge by prioritizing trust and value alignment. Your team can enhance client relationships and deliver a more significant impact by focusing on trust-building. Finally, create an open dialogue. Inviting feedback and addressing their concerns not only builds buy-in but also makes them feel like active partners in driving the change. Are you aligning your strategy with what matters to your team? #BusinessGrowth #ValueBasedSelling #Leadership #EthicalBusiness #SalesStrategy #TrustDriven #TeamAlignment #GrowthMindset #DataDriven

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What do you think Should we organize the Belgium Impact Startup Awards? 🥇🥈🥉  You know I’m into bridging the gap between #startups / #scaleups and large corporations! 🤝 Following the first successful Edition of the Speed Scaling, we received a specific yet very inspiring feedback from the Corporates: “we want to meet more startups!”. Together with BE.IMPACT and TheMerode, we thought about it.  1️⃣ How to make more startups pitch in front of large corporations?  2️⃣ How to make sure that they are relevant to these large corporations current sustainability challenges? We quickly stumbled upon the idea of Awards. 🏆 Making more potential matches is our goal in order to have a more positive impact on our ecosystem. What’s your take on that matter? How should we do it? Just comment👇 📝 Let's scale it up! 👏 #startups #scaleups #buildingbridges

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Building Bridges Between Startups and Corporates. One of my key goals with the Belgium Impact Startup Awards is to connect startups with large corporations. By bringing these two worlds together, we can accelerate startup growth and create mutually beneficial partnerships. Join me in supporting this initiative 🙏 and helping startups thrive 🚀. Let's scale up! 👏 #startups #scaleups #buildingbridges

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Are you a Tech startup based in Belgium or an AgeTech startup from across Europe? 🌍 This is your final chance to join our 12-week Birdhouse program! 🚨 Registrations close next Monday, 23rd September - so don’t miss out on the opportunity to be part of a network that helps founders grow, scale, and succeed. Our program includes three physical deep dive weeks focused on: ✅ Validating your product-market fit to ensure you’re on the right track ✅ Preparing for the next round, so you can confidently secure funding ✅ Perfecting your pitch through storytelling that resonates with investors But that’s not all - at Birdhouse, you’ll gain access to the largest and most diverse network of advisors, mentors, entrepreneurs, startup founders, and alumni. Every founder gets their own advisory board to guide them through challenges, and the program concludes with our exclusive demo day, where you’ll pitch in front of over 100 seasoned potential investors ready to take your startup to the next level with follow-on investments, while also being backed from the start by our own early-stage investment fund Birdhouse Ventures. If you still have questions or need more information, reach out to us. We’re here to provide tailored answers to help you decide if Birdhouse is the right fit for you. Don’t miss your chance to become the next success story or even the next unicorn! 🦄 Register here: https://lnkd.in/etuKQKsw #startup #agetech #tech #accelerator

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Investors, if you’re ready to navigate these waters, dups can help you ! 🫱🏼‍🫲🏽🚀 Here are the main advantages and challenges for investors considering to invest in Belgium-based startups ! 🇧🇪 Ready to unlock the potential of Belgian startups? Book a meeting with us ! 📆 📌 https://lnkd.in/eBkQKY6f #BelgianStartups #InvestingInStartups #Innovation #InvestmentChallenges #Entrepreneurship #StartupEcosystem

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Venture capital investments in FinTech have skyrocketed lately, with several Belgian startups securing significant funding rounds. 💪 The rise of digital adoption combined with the ambitious top talent in Belgium, have boosted this growth. That's why this year, we're putting the spotlight on FinTech at SuperNova, with our brand new FinTech area. Looking for a little preview of the latest developments in FinTech? Read this Sifted article and find out which ideas and pitches 7 investors want to hear more of!

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🎙️ Catch up with our CEO, Alexandre Berriche in Marcin Lewandowski'sEU-Startups podcast. Alexandre looks back at the lessons he's learned from over 100 angel investments, the idea behind Fleet and the challenges of IT equipment management. 🔁 If you haven't listened yet, you'll find the podcast link in the comments!

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🌟 𝗕𝗲𝗹𝗴𝗶𝘂𝗺’𝘀 Unicorns: Driving Growth and Innovation Together! 🦄🇧🇪 "𝘜𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘰𝘳𝘯𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘦𝘹𝘪𝘴𝘵, 𝘔𝘢𝘹" This was a statement from a collegue, and he was actually right. Today, I’m proud as I reflect on the incredible growth of Belgium’s startup ecosystem. Our country is now home to five unicorns: Odoo, Collibra, Deliverect, team.blue, and now Lighthouse! 🎉 Lighthouse recently secured a €370 million Series C investment to accelerate the growth of its commercial intelligence platform. This milestone not only showcases their hard work but also highlights the importance of building the right 𝘁𝗲𝗰𝗵 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗲. 💻 At Novutech, we’ve had the privilege to contribute to this ecosystem by doing what we do best: empowering companies with the right tech stack—with NetSuite at its core. Over the past five years, we’ve supported Deliverect and Lighthouse with implementation and optimization services around NetSuite. What does this mean to me? It’s a clear signal that by focusing on NetSuite, we are contributing to the growth of companies that create value for Belgium and beyond. This mission inspires me every day as CEO of Novutech. 💡 To my team, our clients, and the inspiring entrepreneurs we work with: thank you for making this journey meaningful. Let’s keep building the future together! 🌍✨ #BelgiumUnicorns #NetSuite #TechForGrowth #Novutech #Innovation #ProudMoment #Entrepreneurship

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Hubspot offers over 200 features (at least) ! 🤯 On top of that, only 30-50% of these are actually used. Hubspot is a good tool, we use it at Founder + Lightning, but it’s a tool that businesses in nearly every vertical use but mainly because there’s nothing better for their specific context. I did a post on this recently about the Klarna changes and it reminded me of the opportunity for: ↳ New startups to build industry/vertical specific tools (huge opp in CRM space)  ↳ Businesses to build their own tools in-house harnessing AI (which they can then sell also to other similar businesses) There are tons of bloated tools out there that could easily be replaced soon. What tools would you like made for your industry/context? #featurebloat #businessopportunity #businesstools

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They are leading by example. They know startups. So they can help scale yours. They are a Belgian 🇧🇪 collective across all borders. We are thrilled to announce our first Ecosystem Partner for the Belgium Startup Awards: Syndicate One! They think big. They act strong. They are openly ambitious and super talented. They are fostering our 🇧🇪 startup ecosystem by making early-stage investments in the most ambitious Belgian entrepreneurs, wherever they are building the next generation of technology businesses. As an engaged community collective, they empower 🇧🇪 Belgian innovators with seed capital to start, hands-on operational advice, tools, mentorship and events to grow, and access to a broad network of founders, operators, investors and industry experts to scale. We couldn't be more aligned ❤️ Let's scale it up! 👏 #startups #scaleups #buildingbridges

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