The Club
We strive to become the Entrepreneurial playground for students, a key actor in the Belgium's startup landscape and an impactful change maker at the European level.Our story
Back in 2013, a group of friends from the Solvay Business School of Economics and Management, the Louvain School of Management, the University of Namur and ICHEC Brussels Management School decided to go beyond their university courses and created a national entrepreneurship initiative for students and by students. The aim of this project was to promote entrepreneurship in Belgium especially among students.
From Passion
To Impact
In January 2015, after more than one year of strategic thinking and redesigning, UStart had been created. More than a simple national brand, this organization of student entrepreneurship clubs had been developed on a new value proposition tailored for the student of the 21st century. Today, UStart cover all major universities in Brussels, in Wallonia and in Flanders, and had geographic perspective to expand its activities in Europe. Our mission is to strive to become the Belgium’s community of student-entrepreneurs, a key actor in the national startup landscape and an impactful change maker at the European level 5 years down the road.
Clubs
Universities Involved
Events organized per year
New members per year
Our Godfathers
Mr Willy Borsus
Minister of Small Business Owners, the Self-Employed, SMEs, Agriculture and Social Integration responsible for the policy regarding railway system and the regulation of railway and air traffic.
Mr Vincent Reuter
Managing director of the Union wallonne des Entreprises since 2002. He is also columnist for many economical topics and Professor at the Louvain School of Management.
Mr Philippe Lambrecht
This Professor from the Université Catholique de Louvain, currently, General Secretary and Board member of the Fédération des Entreprises de Belgique (FEB-VBO), the Union Wallonne des Entreprises, the Belgian Chamber of Commerce and the Business & Society Belgium.
Mr Shehryar Piracha
This Serial Entrepreneur specialized in launching new ventures from scratch, scaling startups and finding growth opportunities. He has launched 4 ventures from scratch in 3 different EU markets and helped various startups to enter new markets, find investors and broker strategic deals.
The founders
Brussels
UStart Alma
Agnès de Briey, Arnaud Etienne, Ségolène Kollegger, Héloïse Nève, Araly Rosa Pirrera, Ari Serbetciyan and Mathieu van Sprolant.
UStart ICHEC
Louis-Philippe Broze, Mélanie de Montjoye, Rodolphe de Pret, Constantin Porcher and Jean van den Bosch.
UStart Saint-Louis
Elsa Fernandez and Victoria van Grotenhuis.
UStart ULB
Wallonia
UStart Charleroi
Julien Fable, Sam Vandervaeren and Youness El Khodari.
UStart Liège
Davide Arcapidane, Cléo Bottin, François Detroux, Jérôme Dubois, Julien Giglio, Margaux Lust, Simon Masquelier and Laura Yaranossian.
UStart Louvain-la-Neuve
Pier-Gustavo Aghemio, Valentine Delrue, Julie Dewandre, Brice Kelecom, Laura Quiévreux, Brieuc Regout and Laury Van Remoortel.
UStart Namur
Adrien Blondel, Edouard de Schaetzen, Harold d’Aubreby and Nicolas Vande Putte.
Flanders
UStart Hasselt
Cédric Gilissen, Floris Lisabeth and Fons Miermans.
UStart Leuven
Cedric Gilissen, Michiel Sudnik and Wim Schmitz.
Nicolas Philemotte
Co-Founder of UStart Belgium
Jessica Hakizimana
Co-Founder of UStart Belgium and 1st National President
Louis-Philippe Broze
Co-Founder of UStart Belgium
