Setting up a spin-off company is adventurous and often challenging. Through the organisation of a series of Spin-off Cafés, Ghent University TechTransfer and DO! bring together researchers with spin-off ambitions and entrepreneurs. Alumni spin-off founders will, based on their own experiences, inspire upcoming spin-off teams with lessons learned, do’s and don’ts:
- Samuel Van de Velde (Founder and CTO of Pozyx)
After obtaining a BSc degree at VUB and an MSc degree in electrical engineering at Ghent University, Samuel started a PhD at Ghent University on the topic of collaborative indoor localization in 2010. In 2015, he founded the spin-off company Pozyx that specialises in accurate indoor positioning using ultra-wideband. Pozyx is headquartered in Belgium and has offices in Greenville, South Carolina, USA. Pozyx has over 4,000 customers in more than 80 countries and continues to expand rapidly.
- Wim Audenaert (co-founder and CEO of AM-Team)
Wim holds PhD and MSc degrees in environmental engineering from Ghent University. AM-Team is a deep-tech business, founded in 2017, that develops and applies mathematical models to solve pressing issues in the global water industry. The former academic co-founders of AM-Team needed years to transform themselves from researchers into business people, a metamorphosis that is crucial for the existence of any spin-off company. After several years of exploration and pivoting, to find the ‘product-market fit’, AM-Team now feels it is ‘onto something’ and plans to capture the international potential it has.
We conclude the inspirational night with a cosy networkdrink.
Timetable:
- 19:00: doors open
- 19:30 – 21:00: intro & keynotes
- 21:00 – 23:00: networkdrink