Post by Luca Derumier

Before, I envied the Paris startup ecosystem. I think that's over. When I started building Codika.io, Brussels felt like a weird place to do it. Every time I'd go to Paris, I'd see the density. Founders everywhere, AI companies raising serious rounds, Station F buzzing. Brussels had great people, but it felt scattered. No gravity. Something shifted recently. I noticed it clearly at WAT.BXL's First Brick event a few weeks ago. I was having coffee with Gauthier Rodaro, who's building Enobase (HX26), a straight-up Odoo challenger that just joined the Hexa AI for Work sprint. And Sacha Nacar, who's quietly building a talent intelligence product for Private Equity portfolios. Three founders, three very different products, all AI-native, all building from Brussels. Two years ago, that conversation doesn't happen here. Not because the talent wasn't there, but because there was no place pulling people together. WAT is becoming that place. Not in a "let's build a tech hub" PR way, but in a real way where ambitious people actually show up and push each other. I don't think Brussels needs to be Paris. It doesn't need to be bigger or louder. It just needs enough founders in the same room, often enough, building things that matter. That's starting to happen. 🇧🇪