The Author

Laurent Kinet is a serial tech entrepreneur based in Belgium. He’s currently the co-founder and CEO of Novable, an open innovation technology company. Laurent firmly believes that the future of our economies depends on a better collaboration between large companies and startups. The task of handling global challenges for corporations and the pressure to innovate are so huge that turning to smaller, more innovative companies (a.k.a. startups) has now become a mandatory exercise.

As an entrepreneur, Laurent (co-)founded a handful of B2B companies in the fields of technology, e-business, data and artificial intelligence. Sailing in international environments, his work is at the crossroads of innovation, technology, entrepreneurship, venture design and corporate finance. He’s a Venture Builder – he likes turning bold ideas into businesses, by contributing with ideation, strategy, operational management or money. His track record is made of venture projects or investments in technology-driven startups, in which he brought either equity, or time – or both. His endeavours led him through web design (2000), social media (2007), social software (2008), digital business (2010), digital publishing (2012), Data Science/AI (2013), Blockchain/crypto (2017), HRTech (2018), Audiovisual (2018), corporate venturing/open innovation (2019), and decentralised finance (DeFi, 2021). Laurent now specialises in corporate venturing activities, helping large companies identify, validate and engage with the most relevant startups worldwide.

As a consultant, Laurent has been progressively building a practice in entrepreneurship, venture building, strategy, innovation, management, corporate finance and M&A, put at work through his private fund Klow Partners, active in venture capital investment and startup incubation & coaching. He also provides coaching to startups and scale-ups on their funding activities.

As an author and speaker, some universities/high schools and companies hire Laurent for lectures, workshops and conferences.

Ah, and as a person, he’s a wild traveller, an active volunteer in NGOs, and a published author (novels, humour, essays) – dedicating all his time to writing is his ultimate goal.