THE BETA CITY
THE CITY AS A BUSINESS MATCHMAKER AND
TESTING GROUND
INNOVATIONS CASE NARRATIVE:
ANTWERP, BELGIUM
BART DE WEVER AND EVERT BULCKE
Antwerp, Belgium was the winner of the 2015 Startup Nations Award for Local
Policy Leadership. Through our work, we have come to the conclusion that
nurturing an entrepreneurial mindset in a city has a very healthy effect on
economy and society.
With industrialization and the subsequent rise of the service economy, the 20th
century witnessed the introduction of a new center of gravity—the corporation.
Inventions were no longer strictly the domain of science and academia.
Corporations became hubs and drivers of innovation and have been
instrumental in virtually all technological breakthroughs since the 1950s.1
These advancements led to ever more generations of consumer products and
electronics.
The rise of the corporation over this period
also had a tremendous social impact. Con
corporate dominance came corporate life:
the way we defined work, the way we
defined time off, the educational choices we
hecho, the roles we attributed to youngsters
and to the elderly, the way we balanced life,
trabajar, familia, and leisure. In short, almost
every aspect of life was fundamentally
influenced by the way people functioned
within the corporate structure.
This gravitational pull has culminated today
in the global dominance of a small number
of very large technology companies, como
Alphabet (Google), Apple, Microsoft, y
Facebook. With a combined stock value
four times that of the four largest firms just
20 years ago, these companies are the most
valuable in the world.2 Whether it concerns
new products, new ventures, new kinds of
jobs or job titles, we tend to observe and fol-
low their every move.
NOT ONLY INDUSTRIES GET
DISRUPTED
Sin embargo, this 20th-century corporate logic
ends there, and it ends abruptly. The young
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The Beta City
21st century has already seen wave after
wave of change: cloud storage, mobile, el
Internet of Things. The very technologies
that sprang from corporate Silicon Valley
have given birth to a new business culture
that is establishing entirely new standards
in what we call the age of disruption.
Information technology, or IT, has evolved
from being just one of many industries to
become a paramount factor in innovation.
Digital technology in the age of disruption
has fundamentally altered advertising,
media, retail, travel, y, more recently,
banking, insurance, health care, logistics,
human resources, consulting, education,
and government services.3
If we zoom in to consider this disruption
from a macroeconomic perspective, we find
one common denominator across the new
business landscape: while the underlying
technologies hail from large academic or
corporate innovation centers, ruptura
thrives in individual cells and among select
groups of people. This is largely because
small companies find it easier to exploit the
possibilities of swift technological change.4
The digital revolution has dramatically low-
ered the cost of technology and product
desarrollo, which in turn empowers
small companies to develop new products
and new platforms, and to alter the domi-
nant business model. De hecho, a whole new
entrepreneurial generation is looking to do
business with one goal in mind: to create
value in the new digital world where a few
Goliaths fear a multitude of Davids known
as startups.
Startups, spinoffs, spinouts, scaleups—
although these terms have been around for
siglos, they’re now in the spotlight across the
globe. Perhaps due to the lack of heavy hier-
archical structures and corporate agendas,
the founders and employees of these new
firms sport a highly creative mindset and an
ability to think outside the box. While they
implement scalable new business models
based on state-of-the-art technologies, el
tools of their trade are simple: a couple of
laptops and basic IT skills.
These small emerging companies—let’s call
them startups—behave differently on many
niveles. They tend to have a slight structure,
often starting out as projects, and avoid
classic organizational hierarchies.5 Team
chemistry is a critical asset and is often
regarded as more important than the choice
of what product to develop. These compa-
nies’ endeavors have less to do with pursu-
ing a passion than with the opportunities
available in a particular sector, and are
increasingly the result of a deliberate busi-
ness-building process within a university or
private incubator. Founders and team
members are totally committed to their
companies, making themselves available at
all times. They often retreat to bars during
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Bart De Wever is the Mayor of Antwerp, the largest city in Flanders, Bélgica. He has been
General Chairman of the New Flemish Alliance since 2004 and has served as a representative
in several of the country’s parliaments. De Wever studied history and has worked as an assistant
at the University of Leuven.
Evert Bulcke currently serves as Chief Strategy Officer at Rombit, a smart city and smart industries
technology company based in Antwerp. He is the former Project Manager of Antwerp Startup
City.
© 2016 Bart De Wever and Evert Bulcke
innovaciones / volumen 11, number 1/2
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Bart De Wever and Evert Bulcke
work time, where they contemplate compa-
ny and other related issues. This is not a
case of laissez-faire; it is simply a different
way of doing business, sparked by the
younger generation’s disregard for formal
structures.6
In media mentions of startups, the cliché of
the 20-something male developer often
appears to be true, but the startup hype has
inspired other businesses and demographic
groups to adopt this new culture. Large
companies are now opening their own incu-
bators, sponsoring startups, and supporting
innovation camps and “hackathons.”
Sometimes they even house small groups of
staff members in the immediate vicinity of
creative hubs in the hope that the startup
way of life might rub off on their own
employees.
Sin embargo, it’s no longer just industries that
are being disrupted but the whole economic
ecosystem. We are witnesses to a paradigm
shift in which the formal corporate society
is making way for a complex informal net-
work society that consists of these small
cells. This paradigm includes the belief that
anyone of any age can do business, regard-
less of his or her academic background,
thanks largely to the immediate availability
of affordable digital technology.
ANTWERP: THE CITY AS A
BUSINESS FRAMEWORK
From a government perspective, the natural
question is what the ideal environment is
for this emerging business culture to thrive.
Enter the city.
From our experience in Antwerp, Bélgica,
we are convinced that cities are the ideal
breeding ground for cultivating startups
and inducing a startup mentality in differ-
ent groups of people. Cities essentially func-
tion as dense networks of cells, and by offer-
ing these cells the right “ingredients” a city
can create a thriving environment for entre-
preneurship. De hecho, we are convinced that
local governments can turn a city into a
startup haven, and Antwerp is proof of this
idea. We will offer examples of how
Antwerp—known for its diamond trade,
port activities, and one of the world’s largest
petrochemical clusters—has cultivated its
startup culture and entrepreneurial net-
obras.
Con
leading cities such as London,
Ámsterdam, and Paris within a 200-mile
radius, Antwerp was not exactly the go-to
place for innovative business development
or smart city activities until recently. De hecho,
startups and innovation were hard to find in
our city, and other Belgian cities such as
Brussels and Ghent were well ahead in pro-
viding a hospitable startup atmosphere and
claiming a place in the second tier of inno-
vative cities in Europe.
servicio
The scales started to shift in 2013, due to the
media buzz about the successful introduc-
tion of two privately owned incubators in
Antwerp’s city center. The new city council
that came to power at the same time
renewed local interest in economic develop-
mento, and it formed a small team within the
público
called
Antwerp Startup City. This group was
charged with stimulating and nurturing
entrepreneurial activity within the city. El
approach was simple yet unique: (1) facilidades-
tate whatever initiatives may spring from
the private sector in the Benelux region; (2)
promote their activities to the broader busi-
ness community; y (3) fill in the gaps
wherever necessary.
administración
This is an entirely different approach to the
usual workflow of local governments, cual
tend to meticulously plan and map out
future activities without much flexibility.
Además, most local governments set out
to own the projects, often ignoring more
effective and cost-efficient initiatives.
Considerable time and effort were invested
to help Antwerp Startup City become a
knowledgeable and supportive partner to
local entrepreneurs and, more importantly,
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The Beta City
to its becoming a business matchmaking
platform. When a lot of different initiatives
arise and many small companies seek to do
negocio, they want an unbiased, credible
partner. The city’s startup team happily
filled that role, carefully anticipating and
monitoring any competition issues startups
might face in the market. The expertise and
objectivity of the city’s team was immedi-
ately recognized within the entrepreneurial
landscape, and its endorsement of a project
became a valuable asset. The city adminis-
tration unknowingly had become a match-
maker and kingmaker amidst a complex
informal network of small cells fueled by
dense urban activity. The city government
essentially functioned as the main hub that
connected the small and big dots.
THE STARTUP PYRAMID:
STIMULATING
ENTREPRENEURSHIP,
INCUBATION, AND GROWTH
Históricamente, incubators in Europe are gov-
ernment owned, and their aim is to capital-
ize on academic intellectual property. Ellos
are usually built in anonymous business
parks on the outskirts of a city, reachable
only via highways.
Antwerp’s privately owned incubators have
a different focus. They are designed to form
startup teams and produce working proto-
types in a short period of time. The large
companies that sponsor these programs are
actively involved by making investments
and offering business expertise. This creates
a win-win scenario: startups have access to
resources and potential first customers,
while corporations gain access to entrepre-
neurial talent and a wide array of new dis-
ruptive products.
Antwerp’s incubators are located near the
city’s fashion district, university campuses,
and cultural and nightlife facilities, y por lo tanto
are able to tap into the creative scene in the
city center. Many incubator employees in
the Antwerp ecosystem also live close by,
which reinforces the vibrant atmosphere
and makes the need to reach the incubators
by car largely irrelevant. Ann Mettler, para-
mer executive director of the Lisbon
Council, noted that “all the cool companies
in Silicon Valley are moving up from the
valley into the center of San Francisco.
There is a similar evolution in Europe.”7
Antwerp is a striking example of this move-
mento.
Although incubators usually compete for
both talent and venture capital, the city of
Antwerp emphasizes that some form of
cooperation is necessary between incuba-
tores. We have come to understand that the
success of incubators in Antwerp depends
on two primary factors: (1) Is there a great
enough influx of entrepreneurs, startup
staff, and quality business ideas? (2) Do we
adequately nurture and scale our top start-
up successes?
We also encourage consistent involvement
from the academic community and contin-
ued government support to ensure our
startups’ future success. En 2014, the city
formalized the main principles and frame-
work for the development of Antwerp
Startup City in a memorandum of under-
de pie. It included three principles that
form a pyramid to demonstrate how
Antwerp Startup City cultivates the ecosys-
tema:
1. Stimulating entrepreneurship. The bot-
tom of the pyramid forms the foundation
where incubators, gobierno, and univer-
sities cooperate to promote Antwerp as a
creative startup haven—a goal that was not
recognized until recently.
2. Incubation. The center of the pyramid
represents the playing field of privately
owned incubators and the role they play.
Everyone is free to develop their own activ-
ities and attract whatever startup and per-
sonnel they like.
3. Growth. At the top of the pyramid, incu-
bators, gobierno, and universities coop-
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Bart De Wever and Evert Bulcke
erate in housing, promoting, and attracting
venture capital to help scale and grow
Antwerp’s startup successes.
el
y
launch
The broader the base of this pyramid, el
higher the top, and the city laid a founda-
tion for stimulating the ecosystem by
investing in student entrepreneurship pro-
gramos. It began by increasing the number of
student entrepreneurs through awareness
campaigns
de
TakeOffAntwerp, a pre-incubator that
enabled students at all universities and col-
leges to explore their entrepreneurial
dreams. With only 1 percent of students
currently starting a business during or just
after their academic career, we still have a
long way to go. Leading cities such as
Amsterdam currently have three times the
number of entrepreneurs flowing into their
ecosystems as Antwerp does. Investing in
students was important to building interest
in entrepreneurship and planting seeds to
grow the startup culture.
Sin embargo, Antwerp does not want to rein-
force the cliché of the young entrepreneur,
and students are just one demographic the
city serves. If cities want to thrive in the
future they must unlock the innovation
potential of all their citizens, not just the
young ones. To do this Antwerp focuses on
diversifying the base and engaging other
poblaciones. Every aspiring entrepreneur
now can turn to the city for advice on all
kinds of issues, from regulatory problems to
one-on-one business counseling. The city
serves as a portal to its dozens of private and
governmental partners in business incuba-
tion and business coaching, the result being
that our incubator ecosystem sports a high
number of seasoned professionals, many of
whom have pivoted to the startup ecosys-
tem after long corporate careers. Matching
these people with younger tech enthusiasts
often makes for a successful startup mix.
Early data suggest that these startups gener-
ate the most revenue in their early stages
and are most successful in terms of attract-
ing venture capital investments.
So what do we do next with our startup suc-
cesses? At the top of the pyramid we
encounter a different set of challenges. El
city center location, Por ejemplo, presents
one disadvantage: office rent is high and the
real estate market is not yet accustomed to
the specific demands of startups and grow-
ing companies. As a result, many of these
companies scatter to the outskirts of the city
or to locations abroad.
En respuesta, the city has focused on redevel-
opment, turning old administrative build-
ings into affordable office space to anchor
growth-stage companies. These buildings
are available to startups that are graduating
from incubators or coming to Antwerp in a
later stage of their development. Contracts
are flexible, with a three-year maximum.
One example, the two-building site of
StartupVillage, offers 3,000 square meters of
growth space within walking distance of the
evolving incubator ecosystem in the city
center. A committee of city officials and
serial entrepreneurs screens and selects the
tech companies by considering their sector
profile and potential scalability.
Growth-stage companies
in Western
Europe often lack the global ambition dis-
played by their U.S. and Asian counterparts.
Por lo tanto, the city emphasizes projects that
involve internationalization, as internation-
al business contacts provide a firsthand
market benchmark and individual compa-
nies grow much more confident in terms of
early sales, también. We encourage growth-stage
companies to take their business abroad as
soon as possible in order to gain a better
understanding of the global marketplace
and to lay the foundation for future sales.
We coach startups on sales events being
held worldwide, organize trade missions led
by the mayor, and partner with other start-
up organizations, such as Startups.be and
Flanders Investment and Trade. This out-
ward thinking is matched by local promo-
tional activities. Por ejemplo, the city mon-
itors the activity of the world’s top venture
capitalists and is an eager host of tech-
investor tours and other investment semi-
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The Beta City
nars, where venture capitalists are matched
with Antwerp’s finest young tech compa-
nies. These activities are small-scale, highly
business-oriented meetings that focus on
closing investment-deals.
Within a mere three years, Antwerp has
become a magnet for business incubation.
Seven new incubation initiatives have
opened in the city, a couple more are under-
way, and more than 200 startups have
already sprung from these incubators. Nuestro
tallest office building—which houses 60
startups on 18 floors—is a testament to this
renaissance. Last year, 22 digital startups in
Belgium raised a million euros or more, arriba
from just six in 2014. Eight of them are
based in Antwerp.
THE BETA CITY
In this essay we have described how
Antwerp evolved into a haven for startups
and corporate incubators. We now offer
some advice for cities that are contemplat-
ing growing a startup ecosystem. Two fac-
tors were key to Antwerp’s international
success: the vision of Antwerp as a digital
enabling platform, and the city’s size. Estos
two components helped us create what we
call a beta city—a city that stimulates and
facilitates the development of highly inno-
vative products and projects.8
The term beta refers to the digital world,
where unfinished products are tested by a
large number of potential users. The results
give developers valuable data to help them
refine the products and services they aim to
generate. The new generation of digital
products are interconnected, and every type
of software and hardware has the potential
to communicate with another. This phe-
nomenon is known as the Internet of
Things. Where hardware testing is involved,
a physical infrastructure is needed. The beta
city offers both infrastructure and a large
number of users, which makes it possible to
experiment with both business and city
development led by the local government.
Antwerp is proud that it supports the start
of new businesses by offering advice,
expertise, and brick-and-mortar structures,
but it has a great deal more to offer in terms
of digital technology. Inspired by the con-
cept of the beta city, Antwerp’s digital con-
tent, web, and open sensor network are an
ideal breeding ground for digital businesses,
which of course need platforms to grow on.
This kind of “virtual incubation”—using
open digital infrastructures—is an essential
part of the Antwerp Startup City program.
Sin embargo, the number-one thing a govern-
ment can do to help startups develop is to
buy their products. Antwerp’s Buy From
Startups program provides developers and
startups with a massive platform, a city
operating system through which the city
invites companies to develop new products
on top of the existing digital infrastructure.
The Antwerp operating system offers open
datos, open interfaces and software kits, y
is open to any startup that sees an opportu-
nity. Our approach is accessible to every
potential user in the city—citizens, estudiantes,
negocios, and visitors.
Since local governments have to comply
with EU regulations and others that involve
tendering, the city devised a compliant legal
framework in which employees help start-
ups administer their tendering.9 More
importantly, we offer large city IT projects
that are divided into different parts, cual
allows multiple small companies to work in
a more agile manner. The Buy From
Startups program is equally beneficial for
the city, as IT projects get delivered sooner
and the city staff learns from the creative
approaches used by startups. Since the pro-
gram’s launch in June 2015, more than one
million euros have been spent on 23 proj-
ects through Buy From Startups; this num-
ber is expected to climb steeply in 2016.
Much as entrepreneurship programs pro-
vide new startups for our incubators, el
city tries to promote the digital platform to
other demographics. Apps from Antwerp,
por ejemplo, offers a series of events at
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Bart De Wever and Evert Bulcke
student developers,
which city problems such as mobility, ener-
gy storage, or social inclusion are pitched to
the public, urging them to come up with
soluciones. This is also a matchmaking plat-
form where
para
instancia, meet knowledgeable pensioners,
and where solutions are funded and built by
the city. This approach enables the entire
community to participate in creating the
city of the future while bridging multiple
digital divides along the way. This remains a
work in progress in Antwerp, but the initial
experiences show it is working.
Antwerp certainly cannot outpace London,
Berlina, and Paris as a tech capital, as it has
only a half-million inhabitants, but the
city’s small size can be an advantage in
terms of the beta city concept. Antwerp has
that particular beta city quality: it is big
enough to generate relevant data and small
enough to quickly equip with state-of-the-
art infrastructure. Combined with its diver-
sity—the population includes at least 175
nationalities—creative atmosphere, y
industrial port, Antwerp is a perfect loca-
tion for digital experimentation.
Our goal in the beta city is to create added
value using the new and existing city infra-
estructura. Within this framework, we con-
tinue to experiment and push the frontiers
of what cities can do to promote an entre-
preneurial culture. A new government-
funded project called the City of Things,
which offers a living lab for everything and
everyone to do with the Internet of Things,
is all about creating added value. This joint
venture between the city of Antwerp,
Flemish innovation institutes IMEC and
iMinds, and a few leading telecommunica-
tions and tech companies converts the
whole city into a massive testing ground for
new smart city products.
The City of Things offers a citywide net-
work of sensors and beacons, and a test
panel with over 50.000 people willing to
participate in the development of new
mobile products. Startups that want to test a
product or a piece of technology can freely
do so in Antwerp. It goes without saying
that this dramatically lowers costs and
improves the speed at which companies can
“go-to-market.” The City of Things, cual
is set to launch in the summer of 2016, will
be Europe’s largest urban living lab.
THRIVING CITIES CONNECT
AND ENABLE SMALL CELLS
In the era of disruption, wave after wave of
globalization and digitalization have put a
strain on the Western European economy
and society. Small emerging business cells
are exploring opportunities in the wake of
these rapid changes and creating value
using the cost-efficient tools offered by dig-
ital technology. But due to their small size,
they lack the business networks and credi-
bility that eventually create sales and
growth. Thriving cities can create opportu-
nities for these emerging business cells. Nosotros
believe that facilitating these cells, ambos
startups and other projects, is the key to the
future success of today’s cities in terms of
business development, smart city develop-
mento, and citizen engagement.
In Antwerp we have tried and succeeded at
this using a bottom-up approach, what we
refer to as the startup pyramid. Así de sencillo
idea and framework have activated the
entrepreneurial potential of a large number
de personas, and by stimulating entrepreneur-
ship among people of all ages and demo-
graphics we create a sufficient flow of proj-
ects into our incubator ecosystem. Estos
privately owned programs have excelled in
building the right teams for the right prod-
ucts and have brought in corporate expert-
ise when needed. The result is a win-win
scenario: startups have access to resources
and potential first customers, while corpo-
rations gain access to a wide array of new
disruptive products and entrepreneurial tal-
ent.
As successful as they might be, to build their
businesses the top startups that graduate
from these programs need to produce rev-
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The Beta City
that are inherent to software and hardware
desarrollo.
9. Tendering is the process of choosing the best
or cheapest company to supply goods or do
a job by asking several companies to make
offers.
Ver
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictio-
nary/english/tendering.
10. The city of Antwerp was awarded the 2015
Startup Nations Award for Local Policy
Leadership.
enue and platforms early on. This is where a
facilitating government sets the tone10:
TakeOffAntwerp, StartupVillage, the Buy
de
From Startups program, Aplicaciones
Antwerp, and City of Things are all exam-
ples of what we offer in Antwerp, the beta
city.
1. Clarke, S. h., norte. R. Lamoreaux, and S. W..
Usselman, eds. The Challenge of Remaining
Innovative. stanford, California: Stanford Business
Books, 2009.
2. clark, J., and A.Satariano, “Google Parent
Overtakes Apple as World’s Most Valuable
Compañía,” February 2, 2016. Available at
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2
016-02-02/google-parent-to-overtake-
apple-as-world-s-most-valuable-company.
3. Schwab, k. The Fourth
Industrial
Revolution. Geneva, Suiza: Mundo
Economic Forum, 2016.
4. ángel, j. S. Global Clusters of Innovation,
Entrepreneurial Engines of Economic
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MAMÁ: Edward Elgar, 2014.
5. Feld, B. Startup Communities: Building an
Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Your City.
Hoboken, Nueva Jersey: wiley, 2012.
6. Dorsey, j. R. Y-Size your Business: How Gen
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2010.
. The Lisbon Council
for Economic
Competitiveness and Social Renewal is a
Brussels-based think tank and policy net-
trabajar. Established in 2003 as a nonprofit,
nonpartisan association, the group is dedi-
cated to making a positive contribution
through cutting-edge research and by
engaging political leaders and the public at
large in a constructive exchange about the
economic and social challenges of the 21st
siglo.
8. In Antwerp’s view the beta city is one of con-
siderable scale that harbors and actively
stimulates experimentation, innovation,
and the testing of new products in the fields
of smart city and smart business. The term
beta refers to the extensive testing phases
innovaciones / volumen 11, number 1/2
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