AWS Startups Blog

Startups on Air: Bounding Around Belgium

Mackenzie Kosut of Startups on Air tours the NordicsEven though Brussels is the de facto capital of the European Union, the city of waffles, beer, and Papa Smurf hasn’t traditionally been known for its startup scene. However, with the growth of companies like data management startup Collibra, which raised $50 million in 2017, Brussels—along with Ghent and Antwerp—is definitely putting Belgium on the map for European entrepreneurs. AWS Global Startup Evangelist Mackenzie Kosut recently crisscrossed the country talking to its entrepreneurs and hearing their stories.

Collibra is helping people find, understand & trust their data.

Dieter Wachters, Vice President of Development at data governance company Collibra, talks about how his business helps people find, understand, and trust their data. He also explains how General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is boosting his business and how he plans to expand his 90 person product team to 120 in the coming months.

Tom Schouteden, CTO at CRM company Teamleader, explains how they build solutions for small businesses around invoicing, time management, and more.

 

While working in data science at Eli Lilly, Ontoforce founder Hans Constandt discovered that one of his children had a disability. Frustrated that he couldn’t find the right data set to help his child find the right schools, he created what eventually became Ontoforce while on sabbatical from the pharmaceutical company and later struck out on his own.

startups on air nordicsSoftware engineer Alexandre Mathieu talks about AppTweak, a powerful ASO tool that helps increase one’s app rankings and downloads. At the moment, AppTweak tracks metrics across 16 languages and has data for over a million word combinations.

Startups on Air BelgiumDavid Damen, VP of Engineering at Sentiance, explains how the data science company turns sensor data into rich insights on human behavior and real-time context.

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Michelle Kung

Michelle Kung

Michelle Kung currently works in startup content at AWS and was previously the head of content at Index Ventures. Prior to joining the corporate world, Michelle was a reporter and editor at The Wall Street Journal, the founding Business Editor at the Huffington Post, a correspondent for The Boston Globe, a columnist for Publisher’s Weekly and a writer at Entertainment Weekly.