Belgium’s Startup Accelerator Ecosystem: The Conundrum

Belgium’s startup ecosystem, spanning Brussels, Antwerp, Ghent, Leuven, Liège, and Charleroi, is rich in opportunity but also illustrates the accelerator conundrum: founders have access to mentorship, corporate networks, and resources, yet are constrained by equity requirements, physical presence, selective entry, and pressure to scale rapidly. Even in hubs with strong IT and IT-enabled services support,

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Belgium’s Startup Accelerator Ecosystem: An Overview

Belgium’s startup accelerator ecosystem is geographically diverse and highly sector-driven, with hubs in Brussels, Antwerp, Ghent, Leuven, Liège, and Charleroi. For IT and IT-enabled services startups — the core focus of 1Mby1M — Belgium presents both opportunity and challenge. These hubs provide accelerators, corporate partnerships, and specialized networks, but they also illustrate the persistent accelerator

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Building a Global Enterprise Software Company from Belgium: Felix Van de Maele, CEO of Collibra (Part 6)

Sramana Mitra: When you raised the seed round, you already had some revenues and customers? Felix Van de Maele: No. We raised the round in August 2008. We just incorporated the company. We had no customers and just had a letter of intent. Sramana Mitra: Who were the people who funded you in this round?

Building a Global Enterprise Software Company from Belgium: Felix Van de Maele, CEO of Collibra (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: Your positioning is to help with data consistency. Felix Van de Maele: Yes, data consistency, data understanding, and data compliance. Sramana Mitra: Who is your direct competitor? Felix Van de Maele: The biggest competitor is really doing nothing. It’s not a replacement sale. What we replace is Excel, SharePoint, and Word. It’s a

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Building a Global Enterprise Software Company from Belgium: Felix Van de Maele, CEO of Collibra (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: What could you do that IBM couldn’t do? Felix Van de Maele: That goes back to the original story. The authenticity there is in focusing on business people. We always focus on business people. The product is very easy to use, collaborative, and social. We adopted some concepts from Wiki. The user interface

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Building a Global Enterprise Software Company from Belgium: Felix Van de Maele, CEO of Collibra (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: Why did your current VP of Sales join your company? What was it in your company or in what you told him that convinced him to join your company? Felix Van de Maele: I think that’s a really good question. We were very early. We had no revenues. We had no customers. He thought strategically

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Building a Global Enterprise Software Company from Belgium: Felix Van de Maele, CEO of Collibra (Part 2)

,Sramana Mitra: How did you go about starting it? Felix Van de Maele: I did my Master’s thesis in data integration, which is a well-known problem. I wrote a one-pager saying what I wanted to do. We wanted to raise a seed round and build the product. We were going to do $50 million in

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Building a Global Enterprise Software Company from Belgium: Felix Van de Maele, CEO of Collibra (Part 1)

If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page.  Many entrepreneurs are starting companies elsewhere and then coming to the US to scale. Collibra has scaled to $20 million. Learn how. Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your personal journey. Where are you from? Where were you born, raised, and in what

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