A different approach is necessary

In a little while, 20 entrepreneurs, managers, bankers and representatives from the civil society arrive at the first share#square at Participium. Guest speaker is Frank Demets (first from the left), who will give a vision on the future of business. He will do this looking back on his past as editor-in-chief for the newspaper ‘De Tijd’ and as a strategic communications consultant at Febelfin.

Some minutes ago, Lagast and Demets went through the presentation together. It looks good: Frank makes a stand for a different approach. In essence it comes down to this: entrepreneurs need better focus and better support, more funding is needed for that particular intermediary group between local traders and small businesses that can still find support with family and friends on the one hand, and the medium-sized companies for whom sufficient capital is available on the other hand. After Frank’s lecture, Jan Lagast will discuss this subject into more detail by indicating that Participium will turn a great idea into a company by giving it the right company vision and attracting the right people and financing.

Investment Committee monitors creation process

Since the beginning of this month Participium has set up an Investor Committee to properly monitor the creation of new companies. One of the company’s most important parameters for success is the success ratio for new ideas getting beyond the drawing board and becoming reality. However, the monitoring and limitation of the efforts that are made for an idea that does not achieve its manifestation is also an important point of attention for Participium. The Investor Committee of Participium keeps an eye on these matters and ensures that the innovation pipeline functions properly.

The Investor Committee of Participium follows a stage gate process that is comparable to R&D processes in companies that regularly come up with new products on the market. Our new products are our very companies. Participium intends to create 30 of these companies and to make them successful. Participium would like each and every one of these companies to have a pan-European perspective. That also means that we will travel Europe in search of information and contacts to be able to test our ideas at a very early stage against the different realities in the different corners of Europe.