Why I'm building here

A university town that empties and fills with the semesters, rain that can't make up its mind, and the best quiet cafés in Belgium to think in.

It's also where I decided to set up Airflora, and that part wasn't sentiment.

Talent first. For a city this size the density of international people is almost unreasonable — KU Leuven pulls researchers in from everywhere, and enough of them stay that you can hire for something narrow and actually find the person. The university is the engine behind that, not just a name on a ranking.

Then the ecosystem that grew up around it, which genuinely wants you to try: Start it @KBC on the accelerator side, imec when the work needs more than a laptop, and KU Leuven KICK — with KICK House on Naamsestraat — for the student and spin-off energy coming out of the university. None of it guarantees anything. It removes the friction that makes starting something somewhere else lonely.

The rest is just the city — small enough to cross on foot, half an hour from a major airport, quiet enough to think in. Home base, and now something more settled than that.