Launching your start-up in Belgium: Eldorado or ordeal?
“While launching a start-up fifteen years ago could have been thought of as reckless, we have to admit that the entrepreneurial spirit is growing thanks to the many opportunities offered by the digital revolution and an increasingly uncertain job market,” says Cédric van Kan, entrepreneur and co-founder of Social.Lab Brussels. “Entrepreneurship has become trendy in Belgium,” notes Bruno Wattenbergh, Operational Director of Impulse Brussels (formerly the Brussels Agency for Enterprise), with satisfaction.
“A mental shift has occurred. More and more young people dream of starting their own business thanks to the structures and money available on the market,” confirms Jean-Marc Poncelet, CEO of the BetterStreet platform.
“Young people have changed. They want to create a great, high-growth company, by agreeing to share the capital and decision-making power,” observes Bruno Wattenbergh. They are now more numerous to take action, because the barriers to entry have faded, while schools are more often integrating entrepreneurship courses. As a result, “projects are better prepared using modern methodologies such as the Business Model Canvas,” notes the head of Impulse.
“To improve the situation compared to a market like the United States, “we should work more on the positive image of the entrepreneur by relaying successes and taking an interest in the journeys of the entrepreneurs themselves,” believes Claire Munck, CEO of Be Angels & Women Business Angels Club.
The year 2016 is already shaping up to be a great year for the digital start-up market in Belgium. “Most of those launching use a marketplace, resort to data analysis and have a business model based on the Internet of Things,” analyses Omar Mohout, Software Engineering & ICT at Sirris.
