Thought Leader

Your strengths

★ Confidence

You believe in yourself! You know you have what it takes to succeed and you have little fear. That’s a huge strength because as an entrepreneur you can’t let your own insecurities hold you down. And if things take a wrong turn, you’ll pick yourself up and face the day with new energy and positivity.

★ Market & Technology Knowledge

You love the intellectual stimulation of an entrepreneurial career. For you, entrepreneurship is an intense learning experience. You want to be an absolute expert on everything that is happening in your domain, especially the industry dynamics and technology evolutions. That’s how Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and Elon Musk got where they got!

To build on your strengths

★ Motivation

It’s a huge strength if you’re doing something that you find deeply and personally meaningful, because that gives you the intrinsic motivation you need to give it your utmost and also to keep going when things get tough. But it’s not always easy to link an entrepreneurial career to a cause you care about. 

At Hack Belgium, that’s exactly what you’ll be doing.You’ll discover opportunities for innovation that are grounded in major societal challenges. Such as about how we can keep our planet’s ecology intact through circular business models and new energy solutions. And about how we can achieve the full potential of humanity through future proof education, better healthcare and an end to discrimination and injustice.  

You’ll learn from the people who are working at the front-end of these challenges and together will brainstorm ideas for promising new solutions. Your next venture will help make our world a little better!

★ Professional Network

You cannot succeed as an entrepreneur alone. If you think you can, then you’re confusing entrepreneurship with The Lone Ranger and Rambo. You need to build a talented team; you need to develop strong customer relationships; you need a network of experts you can rely on for pointed advice and mentoring; and you need connections to the people and organisations who can help you with tangible support and funding.

Hack Belgium brings together this country’s entire entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystem. Not for a cocktail party, but for 3 solid days of creative work. You’ll make new friends with your teammates, you’ll connect with hundreds of leading experts and scientists by attending workshops and hanging out in the Experience Zone, you’ll find mentors for your project, you’ll  meet potential customers, and you’ll discover the best possible funding and acceleration opportunities available in the country.

★ Entrepreneurial Skills

Entrepreneurship is not some magical inborn talent. It’s a skill that you can learn. It’s about knowing how to evaluate business ideas, about how to posit and test your assumptions, about prototyping and user testing. It’s about growth, about marketing and sales. And it’s about finding the resources and funding to keep your business afloat.

Hack Belgium is basically a super intense crash course in all these skills. You’ll attend hands-on workshops on business modelling, user centered design and much else. And with the help of mentors you’ll be applying your new skills immediately in your project.