Op maandag 4 december om 19u organiseert AIG de 5^de editie in de ‘Worldwide Engineers from Ghent University’ reeks van lezingen. Hierin geven we het woord aan een FEA alumnus werkzaam in het buitenland die naast het ingenieursaspect ook aandacht heeft voor de socio-economische en maatschappelijke aspecten die gepaard gaan met werken in het buitenland.

In deze editie laten we ir. Jan Lagast aan het woord, oprichter van ImpactBuilders die, na zijn studies als elektrotechnisch ingenieur, een carrière heeft opgebouwd in business development, industriële marketing, technologie en ondernemerschap.

In zijn lezing getiteld ‘Starting a new business in less than an hour…’  zal hij ons meer vertellen over ondernemerschap en startups in het meest digitale land ter wereld, Estland, waar het opstarten van een nieuwe onderneming minder dan een uur tijd en slechts 250 euro vergt.

Hieronder kan u de volledige (Engelstalige) versie terug vinden van de biografie van de spreker alsook van de inhoud van zijn lezing.

Fifth edition Worldwide Engineers from Ghent University

AIG presents the 5^th edition in the ‘Worldwide Engineers from Ghent University’ series of lectures on Monday December 4 at 7pm. In these lectures, we give the stage to FEA alumni working abroad to not only focus on the engineering aspects, but also cover the societal and economic topics related to working abroad.

For the  5^th edition we present ir. Jan Lagast, founder of ImpactBuilders who graduated as an electrical engineer and launched a career in business development, industrial marketing, technology, and entrepreneurship.

In his lecture ‘Starting a new business in less than an hour…’, he will tell us more about entrepreneurship and digital startups and show us how one can start a new business in less than an hour and only 250 euro in one of the most digital countries in the world, Estonia.

You can read the full bio of the speaker as well as the abstract of his lecture below.

English abstract “Starting a new business in less than an hour …”

… and other interesting tales about doing business without frontiers out of Estonia

Estonia is the most digital country in the world. It’s a little bit bigger than Belgium and has only 1,3 million citizens. Almost half of them live in the capital Tallinn. Small can be very beautiful, because Estonia has the highest number of startups per capita, the highest number of unicorns per capita … and – for what it’s worth – the highest number of photo models per capita.

One of the reasons for their huge business success is the government’s focus on helping entrepreneurs become successful. It takes less than an hour and €250 to start a new company. And the first years, you almost don’t pay any taxes, so your business can first grow, before the state wants to reap part of the fruits. No surprise a lot of Estonian have a business and provide services as a solo-preneur.

On top of that, Estonia has invented a digital concept for foreigners, called e-Residency. There are more than 100.000 e-Residents, and together they created more than 27.500 companies in Estonia. All these companies can be entirely run from wherever in the world. Fully digital.

Jan Lagast is going to tell us more about entrepreneurship, about digital startups, and about the beauty of Estonia.

Full English Bio Jan Lagast

Jan’s career is characterised by business development, industrial marketing, technology, and entrepreneurship. After his engineering studies at the university of Ghent, he founded the leading industrial marketing agency Forte, who helped many tech companies in the Benelux to become a buyer nirvana for its clients. More recently he founded ImpactBuilders.

ImpactBuilders is designing and building new companies for corporate venturing departments, university tech transfer departments, and from its own Impactfunds. It is also reviving the portfolio companies of institutional investors. The company operates from three locations: Tallinn (Estonia), Zug (Switzerland), and Brussels (Belgium).

As a Flemish entrepreneur in Estonia, he receives many of the Flemish business and government delegations in Tallinn as a keynote of the Flemish Invest & Trade Agency (FIT). More recently he became an external board member of the Flemish data utility company Athumi.