The startup in focus for this episode is Altheria and I spoke with two of its co-founders, Dimitra, the CEO and Can-David or CD, the Chief Design Officer.Altheria provides immersive virtual reality safety trainings for blue collar workers and its product is actually saving lives and limbs, keeping employees safe all over the world. They gave me a deep dive into their product and its evolution, from fun stories of people walking into each other in the early days to the real impact its having on the ground reducing accidents and increasing learning speed. We talked about what it means to be too early in a market and we ended with a candid discussion on the challenges of being a female leader in a male dominant sector.Link to the viral reddit thread mentioned

Episode SummaryIn this episode I spoke with Marte Greefs, CEO and Co-Founder of Go Ocean, a sister company of Go-Forest, of which Marta was the first employee. Each company is a small team of 2 or 3 people, with restoration partners all over the the world and big ambitions for the future. Go Ocean is on a mission to restore and improves the ocean’s health and biodiversity. They do this by offering  transparent and tangible restoration projects for companies to invest in, ranging from coral or mangrove restoration in the Global South to shellfish reefs and seagrass in our more northern waters. This helps companies compensate their CO₂-emissions, meet their sustainability goals, marketing and comms or even HR goals.I was deeply touched by the founding story behind Go Forest: a tragic event that led to a strong push for positive impact.Marte talked about the challenges of sales and fundraising as an impact business, some of the restoration projects they support, and them broader topics like when to move to an office what to delegate as a founder. She chose Go Forest over a role at the EU Commission (!) and she talked about what helped her make that decision.Founder help recommended by MarteGig and GrowNoaBelgium Startup Ecosystem (and Awards)Chapters00:00 Introduction to Go Ocean and Marte's Journey05:44 Navigating Career Choices: Startups vs. European Commission09:45 The Early Days at Go Forest14:03 Business Model of Go Ocean and Go Forest18:31 How to do Sales and Marketing as an Impact Business22:34 A Different Take on the Carbon Credits Market26:51 From Tragedy to Positive Impact: The Story Behind Go Forest31:21 Current Projects and Future Directions of Go Ocean32:54 Restoration Efforts and Challenges35:24 Building Partnerships for Marine Restoration36:05 Engaging Employees in Ocean Conservation39:13 The Journey to Finding an Office43:01 Aligning Values with Investors46:02 Support Systems for Startups

In this week’s episode I spoke with Quinten Vandermullen, cofounder and CPO of Mbrella, which is an HR platform that allows Belgian companies to manage everything related to mobility for their employees, for example their mobility budgets and commuting allowances. It’s a more mature startup compared to the ones we’ve discovered in previous episodes, arguably at this stage a scale up. Based in Brussels and founded in 2020, they’re currently a team of nearly 40 people. they’ve had two fundraising rounds, the most recent one in 2023 when they raised 6 million and acquired Mobbox.What stood out to me from this conversation is the intentional and unconventional company culture Mbrella is building, based on a fundamental belief in the power of an async and written first communication style. We talked about the inspiration for that, how it works on a practical level and the impact it’s having.As the conversation evolved, I realised that their success has also come from defying conventional advice. Instead of building global from day 1, they built hyper-local from day one, and it’s paid off. In 5 years, Mbrella has had 100% customer retention, no customers have churned. This is almost unheard of in SaaS.We see on Linkedin these 10M ARR in just a few months stories. Mbrella is an example of success achieved on a different path. A belief in the market opportunity, even when growth was slow, and a commitment that paid off down the line because after 5 years, the results are visible.Keep listening to see how they got there.ResourcesMbrella's company handbook Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier HanssonChapters00:00 Introduction to Quentin and his first Startup Moovle05:47 The Birth of Mbrella: Addressing Mobility Needs09:57 Market Positioning: Competing in a Niche13:11  Winning The ING Tender and Building for Enterprises16:42 Building an Async Writing First Company Culture 26:15 Launching from a Studio32:43 Creating a Parent-Friendly Culture39:50 Deep Work and Slow Responses46:00 PLG Doesn't Work for Everyone

In this week’s episode, I spoke with Christina Hadinoto, founder of Contour Lab, a fashion tech startup based in Antwerp. Their product is a digital shopping assistant that uses AI to help you find clothes that match your body type and preferences, just like a human shopping assistant would do in a real store.I first met Christina when we both participated in an incubator organised by Impact Shakers in collaboration with BeCentral, Elle Magazine, and Google. This was in January 2023; she was just at the beginning of her journey and was still working on closing her first paid customer.Then I saw her pitch at SuperNova in March 2025, and I was amazed by the results she had achieved since I’d last seen her. Some major names appeared on the customer slide, she had strong data about the impact of her product, and she’d just closed a funding round. They’re now a team of five. When I saw that, I knew I had to get her on the show to share the story of how she got to where she is now.Keep listening to find out how she found a technical cofounder despite not having a network to draw from, how she managed the shift from the corporate world to entrepreneurship, what it was like to enter a market as an early visionary before the world was ready for her solution, the impact she aims to have within the fashion industry globally, and her passionate call for more female entrepreneurs and investors.ResourcesCo-Founder matching from IMEC iStartLovable, the app building tool mentionedChapters00:00 Introduction to Christina and Contour Lab06:25 The Impact of Contour Lab on Fashion and Mental Health12:54 Finding Co-Founders and Building the Team19:33 Overcoming Fundraising Challenges24:57 Scaling and Market Opportunities29:38 The Role of Support Programs in Entrepreneurship32:45 Lessons Learned and Mindset Shifts36:29 Future Ambitions and Advice for Founders

SummaryIn this episode, I spoke with Margot Wuillaume, co-founder and CEO of eBloom, an HR tech startup. The core product is employee engagement software but they've expanded their offering to provide a broader suite of digital HR tools. I’ve tried several different tools in this space as a Head of People I can honestly say that I don’t think there’s another tool on the market that’s more customer centric than eBloom. We talk about many things in this episode, the two stand-out topics for me were eBloom’s contrarian approach to building a product in a crowded market and their journey fundraising in the early stages. Margot shares how they managed to close their first round in just 2 weeks.We talk about many other things including hiring, finding customers, the help they received as a Brussels-based startup from local organisations. Chapters02:07 Introduction to Margot and eBloom04:10 EBloom’s origin story05:32 Building a product in a crowded market space09:30 Launching during covid and finding their first customers 12:03 eBloom’s first hire13:50 The power of meeting in person 15:53 Building a company culture that optimises for employee happiness18:75 How a Master’s in Entrepreneurship became eBloom’s launchpad 20:06 The origins of Margot’s entrepreneurial itch22:18 Writing a book about management 24:29 eBloom’s fundraising journey 28:35 eBloom’s key metrics that matter31:32 The Belgian entrepreneurial support networkLink to Margot's bookYou can buy a copy hereBrussels organisations mentioned in the episodeStartLabRéseau EntreprendreHubBrussels