Belgium can be a good place to start and grow a business for several reasons: (1) it provides many resources and support for startups including government subsidies, innovation centers, and business angels; (2) it is easier to stand out with unique business ideas compared to larger countries; and (3) Belgium has a talented workforce with many highly educated entrepreneurs and world-class universities that collaborate with industry.

1. Reasons to grow your
business in Belgium

2. My credentials
I am not a Belgian (I am American)
But I have built 10 companies in 6 countries (UK,
Belgium, USA, Poland, Morocco, Czech Republic)
Director of the Founder Institute Brussels, 5 years
teaching ( KU Leuven and Solvay)

3. The 30 second message…
Belgium is a lot better place to start/grow a
business than you would think…
There are people, resources and support, but if you
are successful you will probably need to go outside
Belgium to get “real” funding

4. It is easier to be unique in
Belgium..

5. Interest in becoming an entrepreneur
…
4%
50%

6. http://geert-hofstede.com/belgium.html
Risk takers are rare…

7. Belgium is an easy place to
start - up

8. Start-up support
• Administrative : 3-4 days
• A wealth of gov’t subsidies
– Wallonia
– Flanders
– Brussels
– Europe
• Business angels (as good as any country)
• VC (sort of)
• More orgs to help start-up than start-ups
8

9. 9

12. The first money is
(relatively) easy

13. What you can expect
From government sources:
• Feasibility studies: up to 75%
• Innovation center support: 50%
• Internationalization: 40-60%
Angel investors:
About the same as the rest of the world
(but somewhat easier due to early matching
investments)

14. World class talent …

15. • 16 high-level universities. Among them, seven are listed
top 100 World Universities.
• The highest proportion of highly-educated entrepreneurs
of any EC country
(http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/sme/files/survey/static2008/belgium_static_en.pdf )
• Overall high capacity to innovate (10th) according to the
Global Competitiveness Report 2013 - 2014.
• University-industry collaboration is ranked 6th worldwide

16. A great test market

17. • 3 markets / 3 places to test
• Risk adverse
“ if you can sell it in Belgium you can sell it
anywhere”
• Center of the action
17

18. 18
80% of Europe’s purchasing power lies within a radius of 500
miles (± 800 km) from Brussels

19. More international organisations are located in Brussels than Washington D.C., along with
about 120 international government organisations, 181 embassies, over 5,000 diplomats
and 1,000 lobby groups.

20. A launch pad for
internationalization

21. • Belgium is the most globalized country in the world.
• Exports amount to more than 80% of national GDP
• Belgium is the 10th largest exporting country in the world.
• Belgium ranks 5th in the their European Attractiveness
Survey for new investment projects
Source: Ernst and Young

22. It is (relatively) cheap
at the beginning and the
end …

23. Rents are a lot lower

24. A developer in Brussels is
1/4th the cost of a
developer in San Francisco

25. Capital Gains Tax USA
Held less than 2 years:
28%
More than 2 years: 20%

26. Capital Gains Belgium
0% (with a little planning)

28. Watch outs …
• Finding people ready to take the risk
• Scaling: Belgium isn’t really a market
• Multi-lingual/ multi-administration complexity
• An eco-system (make sure you’re challenged)
• Round 2 funding
28

29. Moving forwards
Some of you may have noticed, only 7 reasons
were listed in this presentation…
Now we have an eighth…

30. Brussels will be the place
for the world premiere of
scaleupweekend
June 12-14

31. Scaling up and building new businesses is hard.
The Startup Weekends have proven how much
people can get done in 54 hours.
Using a similar formula, we will focus on how to
expand on existing ideas, how to communicate
better, how to sell more effectively, and how to
set up systems for scaling a business.

32. Our Promise
“Bring in a good idea and
you’ll leave with a better
business!”
Learn more
www.scaleupweekend.co
m
World Premiere Event. Brussels June 12-15

33. Who To Contact
Shehryar Piracha
Scaleup Weekend
Co-Director
+32 483 015291
shehryar@scaleupweekend.com
www.linkedin.com/in/piracha
Bryan Cassady
Scaleup Weekend
Co-Director
+32 475 860757
bryan@scaleupweekend.com
www.linkedin.com/in/bryancassady