Hey, my name is
Laurent
Kinet
A serial tech entrepreneur for 15+ years putting his long experience and skillset at work through consulting assignments and interim management missions.
Building startups since
Startups founded
Exits
Missions to Madagascar
“Describe yourself in ten keywords”, someone once asked me. Tough exercise. Let’s try. 1. Serial entrepreneur. 2. Private seed investor. 3. Innovation expert. 4. Highly connected to the industry. 5. Long-time corporate supplier. 6. Executive MBA. 7. Keynote speaker. 8. International. 9. Humanitarian engagement. 10. Published author (Corporate Venturing Framework – 100 Ways Startups Can Transform Your Organisation).
Creating new businesses out of thin air is probably the most difficult task on earth – but also the most rewarding. It encompasses the widest array of required hard skills as well as a fair share of psychology and mental strength that is not taught in schools. Having done that a couple of times, I have what it takes to advise others on how to do it right.
Entrepreneurship
Over the course of my career, I’ve (co-)founded 10 companies and sold 4 of them. Most of the times, I’ve been leading the ventures as CEO, Chairman of the Board or executive advisor, and, while at the origin of the idea, I was involved in its execution, from inception to exit or integration.
My focus areas are technology, innovation and digital systems in the B2B sector. I’ve run businesses in several countries in Europe, UK and the United States, with customers all over the world.
I’m most confortable with the earlier stages of company building: ideation, strategy, market research, customer validation, team building, funding, corporate finance and governance set up.
With my partner Olivier, I also set up a private pre-seed investment fund and we’ve invested together in a couple of startups since 2018.
My latest project
Novable is an AI-powered innovation and startup scouting technology helping innovation professionals identify, validate and engage with the most relevant startups worldwide.
Corporate venturing on autopilot
Using AI and NLP
Innovation and startup scouting
For Innovation Professionals
Millions of startups tracked worldwide
In a 360° context
EXPERTISE
Companies, funds and startups hire me for the following subject matters:
01.
Venture Design
Manage ideation, workshops, brainstorming sessions, new business models, venture decks, strategic roadmaps, scenarios, user interviews, personas building, stress tests, validation processes...
02.
Venture Building
Transform ideation insights and concepts into new ventures, business plans, financial modelling, prototypes, MVPs, partnership strategies, team building...
03.
Startup Coaching
Identify measurable goals and hypotheses, turn them into actions, help creating building blocks, provide sparing partnership and guidance on business, go-to-market, business models...
04.
Innovation & Startup scouting
Novable uses AI and NLP technologies to scout for the best innovations and startups worldwide; while building this company, I developed an expertise in the matter.
05.
Strategy & Market Research
Run market research projects, market landscaping, competitive analysis, opportunities mapping, strategic outlooks and potential business paths.
06.
Corporate Venturing & Startup Programs
Manage or support Corporate Venturing projects, units or departments, run startup programs (design, set-up, launch, management, reporting).
07.
Due Diligence
Ensure strategic, business, commercial, financial and technical due diligence activities, in-depth interviews, third-party validation, comparative and matrix reporting - and post-deal follow-up touchpoints.
08.
Any topic related to Startups & Innovation
Can address any innovation- or startup-related challenge by leveraging on my long experience in the matter.
WRITING
I enjoy writing, any kind. Business articles, essays, fiction, poetry – even standup comedy. Below are a couple of shots.
- Corporate Venturing Framework – 100 Ways Startups Can Transform Your Organisation
- Corporate-Startup Partnership: The Geostrategic Challenge of Europe
- What added value does AI bring to innovation and startup scouting?
- SMEs need to step up to the corporate innovation challenge (in FT’s Sifted)
- Startup Scouting is the least innovative activity ever (time to fix that)
- The untold truth about corporate innovation
- Contextual Intelligence Turns Information Into Insights
- What is Context Mining?
- The world has a fundamental problem with corporate governance
- Corporate Governance: the Mary Poppins syndrome (and the Belgian case)
- My personal writing blog (Falko Denoël)
- My novel ‘The Herman Show’ on Amazon
GIVING BACK
I dedicate a certain amount of time to that, as I believe it is important for my personal life balance.
Amalgache is a Belgian NGO organising yearly humanitarian missions in Madagascar to heal teeth of children from the High Fields region. I’m involved since 2013 in this organisation as Board Member, and I’m leading bi-yearly missions with teams of 15-20 people.
I’m a proud member of the Rotary, whose missions and values are aligned with mine, especially in the fight against polio and the development cooperation in southern countries.
As a fellow inhabitant of a small village in Hesbaye (holding the name of a poet), I founded a small NFP, Cercle de Verlaine, to mobilise neighbours and members of the local community in charitable actions and collect funds to support field organisations targeted to children care.
Friendship is a large organisation founded by Runa Khan and fighting increasing global threats such as environmental crisis, extreme poverty, inequality and injustice. I had the chance to criss-cross Bangladesh in the context of dental missions.
