Overview
Bruno is based in Ghent and works within the Wintercircus team, contributing to the development and positioning of the hub. His role focuses on shaping the campus identity and community.
Bruno contributes to Wintercircus' mission of building a thriving innovation ecosystem in Ghent, working across community, programming, and organizational development.
Career history
Insights & ideas
Vandegehuchte's work centers on building ecosystem infrastructure for technology leadership and entrepreneurship, with recurring emphasis on practical decision-making and organizational scaling. [1][2] He actively promotes Wintercircus Ghent as a startup campus where founders tackle real problems in health, logistics, energy, and marketing technology, having facilitated 36 funding rounds totaling €77M+ over 18 months. [2] His core conviction is that "investors believe in bold founders and future proof products," and that "fundraising isn't a goal. Building great companies on this continent sure is." [2]
A primary focus is engineering leadership development. [4][5][6][8] Vandegehuchte, alongside Louis Jonckheere and Jeroen Minnaert, created an Engineering Leadership Program addressing a specific problem: "how do you help tech leaders succeed when the ground keeps moving?" [4] The program draws from operators at companies like Collibra, itsme®, SeatGeek, and Showpad, operating from the premise that "you don't learn that from a book or a keynote. You learn it from operators who've made the call and lived with the consequences." [4] His stated view is that leadership separates scaling companies from stalled ones, not superior technology, since "everyone has the same models (for now)." [5]
On decision-making, Vandegehuchte highlights a counterintuitive principle: the best tech leaders make fewer, better decisions, not more. [6] He emphasizes filtering through three questions: "Is this a one-way door or a two-way door? Commodity or differentiation? And the one most teams skip: what does doing nothing actually cost?" [6] Most teams face 50 technical decisions weekly but only five "truly matter." [6]
On AI adoption and governance, Vandegehuchte rejects approval-first models as "theater" lacking genuine control. [9] He advocates "enablement-first" governance: building "a sandbox, not a bureaucracy" where employees can experiment safely, reflecting his observation that ChatGPT and Claude are "sitting in the pockets of your employees" regardless of corporate strategy. [9]
In the news
- Difficult to imagine, but the Wintercircus Ghent building was one of Ghent’s biggest city cancers. In full decay for decades, most people had lost hope. Today, it has become a vibrant melting pot of public events, people passing by, tech startups, students, researchers and intrapreneurs. These days, everyone seems to talk in terms of us versus them. Entrepreneurs versus the rest. We do the opposite. Wintercircus Ghent was revamped by dozens of entrepreneurs paying it forward, giving back to the city they love. No hard return
- Have you ever heard the sound of AI ❓ It roars like a jet engine! I could hear it in Ghent, visiting Aikido Security’s office: a server packed with Nvidia chips, running at full power, using AI to test how well a system stands up to cyberattacks. The engineer showing me around, Selim Decamps, comes from Mons and was hired after selling his company to Aikido. Yet, what struck me much more than the "sound of AI", was the level of ambition at Aikido: your vision of building a world-class champion in AI & cybersecurity in only a few
- 23. That’s how many students are in the second year of Computer Science Engineering at Ghent University. In Industrial Engineering IT: just 22. Four years ago, those numbers were 47 and 48. A drop of more than 50%. (Source: UGent). So why are students turning away from IT? AI anxiety? We don’t know, but we should find out. Meanwhile, in China, 36% of new bachelor students choose engineering, about 1.6 million young people a year,(source: The Economist). As software gets easier & cheaper to build, knowing what to build and why, we
- Come to Ghent. 🫵 I mean it. Pack your bags. 🤷♂️ 70 local startups are hiring for +-400 positions. Ghent’s tech scene is living its "Belle Époque". Last week, SAP announced its acquisition of TechWolf, reportedly for around €500M 🐺 😎. Another world-class tech success story built & staying in Ghent: → nr #10 tech ecosystem worldwide per capita, #4 in Europe → €61B+ in ecosystem value → 4 of Belgium’s 8 unicorns → VC investment growing faster than in Berlin or Amsterdam And there’s more to life than work. Progressive,
- It's been a while since I shared some updates about AuditQ. We moved out of Wintercircus Ghent this summer to where it all started, The Beacon | Innovation Community in Antwerp. It feels crazy to have our own office. Big thanks to Wintercircus Ghent for giving us a space, and specially to Bruno Vandegehuchte & Noah Henriques da Silva for allowing us to grow. AuditQ grown it's customer base with 120% since the summer and we're on track to double it by end of the year. We're live in 5 different countries across 3 different
- In 1983 begon Flanders Technology & InnovationI in Gent om technologie dichter bij onze KMO's en gezinnen te brengen. Ruim 40 jaar later doen we dat opnieuw, in het Wintercircus GhentWintercircus! Met een avond 100% op maat van KMO-leiders: praktische AI-tips, straffe maar verstaanbare cases, kennismaken met onze startups én tijd om te klinken. Spring eens binnen! 🎪🔥
- 𝗝𝗢𝗕𝗦, 𝗝𝗢𝗕𝗦, 𝗝𝗢𝗕𝗦 at Wintercircus Ghent Startup Campus! Payroll or management company? 🥱 Our startups are just looking for positive ass-kickers. 🤷♂️ From AI agents and clean energy to next-gen mobility, sustainability and deep tech: 🌱 🤖 Karomia – 𝗔𝗜 𝗘𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗿, 𝗙𝗿𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗱 𝗗𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗿 & 𝗔𝗰𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁 𝗘𝘅𝗲𝗰𝘂𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 Making sustainability reporting less painful with cutting edge tech. Less paperwork, more impact. 🤝 Wintro – 𝗔𝗰𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁 𝗘𝘅𝗲𝗰𝘂𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲, 𝗦𝗗𝗥 & 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴
- Wintercircus Ghent's Startups need people who've been there. There's no recipe for the hard stuff. But there are so many great people who've "survived" it. Our residents at Wintercircus Ghent hit rough moments every day. The round that doesn't close. The customer who walks. The co-founder conversation nobody wants to have. Books and frameworks won't save them. Someone who's been there, at the table? They need a wartime operator for an hour. That's you! Be nice to people, pay it forward and walk out of the building with the best
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