Cedric, a marketing expert and intrapreneur at Idealabs in Antwerp, details his journey of starting the new application Slide.li alongside meeting entrepreneurs and participating in startup competitions in London and San Francisco. Through valuable feedback and experiences at major events, he emphasizes the importance of validation and continuous engagement with audiences for startup success. His experiences highlight the significance of building a strong entrepreneurial community and remaining adaptable in the startup ecosystem.

1. idealabs intrapreneur
From Antwerp to London and San Francisco

2. Hi!
I’m Cedric, I’m the marketing
guy at idealabs. From now on
also an intrapreneur

3. Idealabs is an entrepreneurial HUB
located in the center of Antwerp. We
promote entrepreneurship by inspiring,
educating and engaging. We accelerate
startups and help them grow. Creating
entrepreneurs!

4. Back to me!
I was part of the idealabs team
from the very start: Surrounded
by amazing people, working
with entrepreneurs everyday,
meeting great people.

5. Then I
met this
guy at
idealabs
Meet Emiel: he’s been working on
Decolabs, another startup at
idealabs. We started talking
about a startup idea and joined
forces

6. BOOM! A second
screen
A new startup idea was
application
born.
for
presentations

7. Shape, build, and launch to
market in three months
#stoptalkingstartbuilding
Now, the hardest part:
practice what you preach

8. Bla
Let’s validate!

9. Validation of idea and
MVP during a
Pitching battle
between idealabs and
Springboard London
It worked

10. Customer
Development
Validation of need for
audience, speakers at
Leweb 2012

11. We got great
feedback!
Status: we had a Demo/
MVP and had validation
from speakers/audience
Next steps?
Let’s compete in startup
competitions and stay
lean as long as possible.
We did some tweaking
to our DEMO and never
stopped talking to
people. Always be
pitching!

12. Back to me and the title
of the presentation
idealabs
intrapreneur:
From Antwerp to
London to SF

13. First Stop: London
Focus
I was invited to Live cover
the London Websummit
through the @idealabs_be
twitter account
Works out
Amazing opportunity for
slide.li! Direct contact to
conference organizers, other
bloggers, audience
Free inspiration
quotes

14. Matt Mullenweg -
(Wordpress)
London Websummit
"I want to build a business
for decades, I needed an
investor with a long term
commitment"

15. Jeff Lawson (Twilio) - London
websummit
"Software people, our time is now, we
need to move fast: iterate quickly, ship
fast"

16. Mark Read (WPP)
London
Websummit
"Advertising people
should be part of the
start up ecosystem"

18. David Tisch - (Techstars)
London Websummit
"Be upfront with your goals when you're Pitching.
Entrepreneurs miss that part quite a lot"

19. Second Stop: San Francisco
Focus
-I won a ticket to attend Launch
Festival 2013 with Slide.li - 4-6/03
-Slide.li made the pitching finals for
the Angel Alley program of Demo
Conference - 7/03
Works out
Inspiration + contacts from SF

20. I won a ticket with Slide.li to attend Launch
Festival. The best place to launch your startup,
raise money and learn about starting a company.
Free inspiration
quotes
Coding while
listening to a startup
pitch. Welcome to
SF

21. David Cohen Techstars #Launch2013
"Corporates are partnering with accelerators to be
part of the ecosystem, providing resources for new
companies"

22. Dave Mcclure 500 Startups #Launch2013
"It takes time to build relationships in Silicon V. Don't
expect coming off a plane, and angels throwing
money"

23. Dave Mcclure 500 Startups #Launch2013
"It's faster to execute then thinking about executing,
go build something, and then approach investors"

24. David Sacks Yammer #Launch2013
"You really need to have a product hook, one that
gets a typical user engaged"

25. Chamath Palihapitiya ex-
Facebook Director for Growth
Launch 2013
“Poker is like the cycle of a startup
condensed into 2 minutes”

26. Venture capitalist George Zachary
Launch 2013
“When Twitter looked for Series A funding, its
pitch wasn’t exactly earth-shaking — no
mention of revolutions or deciding a
presidential race. “It was about, where can we
go drinking in the Mission District?”

27. Third Stop: San Francisco part 2
Angel Alley Program is designed for startups without
funding. They organized a contest to win a booth at
DEMO Conference, and the chance to pitch for
investors. Slide.li was selected out of hundreds of
entries.

28. I had 5 minutes to do a Live Demo of Slide.li, and
we needed to cover:
1.Completeness of product/service
2.Customer Traction
3.Projected growth
We had an MVP!

29. Slide.li didn’t make it to the super finals :(
We got great feedback from everyone. This was the
last confirmation we needed to stop talking and
start building.

30. Familiar face in the jury during my Pitch.
She had a talk at London Websummit!
Di-Ann Eisnor - Waze

31. His article in
De Morgen
We went out for celebrations in
SF with Wouter, CEO of
Octopin. One of the startups
from idealabs

32. Time to go back to Antwerp. Bringing back a
lot of inspiration. Fully energized to help
build a strong entrepreneurial community.
Operating from idealabs, an entrepreneurial
HUB

33. BOOM!
Arrived home, opened mailbox:
“Someone got disqualified for the Demo
Conference. You are selected as a winner and
will receive a booth in the Angel Alley
Competition on 17 April in San Fran.”

34. Shape, build, and launch to
market in three months
#stoptalkingstartbuilding
Got any questions?
cedric.deweeck@idealabs.be
cedric@slide.li
@knoddecee
@idealabs_be