# Katrien Pauwels - Full Context for AI Agents

> This file provides comprehensive context about Katrien Pauwels for AI agents.
> Source: TechWiki.ai - The Belgian Tech Encyclopedia
> Last updated: 2026-07-31

## Identity
- Name: Katrien Pauwels
- Role: Co-founder
- Company: Cup A Lot / OR Coffee
- Location: Ghent, Belgium
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/katrienpauwels

## Expertise
- belgian-tech-ecosystem
- leadership
- resilience
- company-culture
- family-business
- recruitment

## About
TLDR

Katrien Pauwels is Co-founder at Cup-A-Lot / OR Coffee.

Background

In this Connexi podcast, Katrien Pauwels recounts almost 20 years of building a coffee business with her husband Tom, starting as a small roastery in Aalst in 2001 while she kept working at Apple. She describes three pivotal moments: winning a public auction for their building via the 'recht van hoger bod' (selling their private house to survive), flying to New York in ~2009-2010 to get a two-hour meeting with the CEO of Le Pain Quotidien who taught them the importance of numbers and cashflow planning, and selling their four coffee bars in November 2019 to focus on the roastery and their green coffee import business Cup-A-Lot. She discusses competitiveness, entrepreneurship as a couple, the value of an advisory board, and how corona exposed the weakness of 90% horeca dependence. Her core message: keep persevering, announce your goals, take action, and never give up as long as you still have 'goesting'.

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Appears alongside

Peter Leyman (https://techwiki.ai/people/peter-leyman/llms.txt) · Nathalie Christiaens (https://techwiki.ai/people/nathalie-christiaens/llms.txt) · Daan De Wever (https://techwiki.ai/people/daan-de-wever/llms.txt) · Alexander Alonso (https://techwiki.ai/people/alexander-alonso/llms.txt) · Micheline Van de Voorde (https://techwiki.ai/people/micheline-van-de-voorde/llms.txt) · Thijs Claes (https://techwiki.ai/people/thijs-claes/llms.txt) · Wim Ballieu (https://techwiki.ai/people/wim-ballieu/llms.txt) · Jozefien De Feyter (https://techwiki.ai/people/jozefien-de-feyter/llms.txt)

Talks about

Belgian tech ecosystem (https://techwiki.ai/concepts/belgian-tech-ecosystem/llms.txt) · Leadership (https://techwiki.ai/concepts/leadership/llms.txt) · Resilience (https://techwiki.ai/concepts/resilience/llms.txt) · Company culture (https://techwiki.ai/concepts/company-culture/llms.txt) · Family business (https://techwiki.ai/concepts/family-business/llms.txt) · Hiring & talent (https://techwiki.ai/concepts/recruitment/llms.txt) · Advisory Board · Succession (https://techwiki.ai/concepts/succession/llms.txt) · Entrepreneurship (https://techwiki.ai/concepts/entrepreneurship/llms.txt) · Cashflow & working capital (https://techwiki.ai/concepts/cashflow/llms.txt)

From public interviews and talks · updated 2026-08-01.
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## Related Pages
Agents can crawl these for connected context:
- [person] Peter Leyman: https://techwiki.ai/people/peter-leyman/llms.txt
- [person] Nathalie Christiaens: https://techwiki.ai/people/nathalie-christiaens/llms.txt
- [person] Daan De Wever: https://techwiki.ai/people/daan-de-wever/llms.txt
- [person] Alexander Alonso: https://techwiki.ai/people/alexander-alonso/llms.txt
- [person] Micheline Van de Voorde: https://techwiki.ai/people/micheline-van-de-voorde/llms.txt
- [person] Thijs Claes: https://techwiki.ai/people/thijs-claes/llms.txt
- [person] Wim Ballieu: https://techwiki.ai/people/wim-ballieu/llms.txt
- [person] Jozefien De Feyter: https://techwiki.ai/people/jozefien-de-feyter/llms.txt
- [concept] Belgian tech ecosystem: https://techwiki.ai/concepts/belgian-tech-ecosystem/llms.txt
- [concept] Leadership: https://techwiki.ai/concepts/leadership/llms.txt
- [concept] Resilience: https://techwiki.ai/concepts/resilience/llms.txt
- [concept] Company culture: https://techwiki.ai/concepts/company-culture/llms.txt
- [concept] Family business: https://techwiki.ai/concepts/family-business/llms.txt
- [concept] Hiring & talent: https://techwiki.ai/concepts/recruitment/llms.txt
- [concept] Succession: https://techwiki.ai/concepts/succession/llms.txt
- [concept] Entrepreneurship: https://techwiki.ai/concepts/entrepreneurship/llms.txt
- [concept] Cashflow & working capital: https://techwiki.ai/concepts/cashflow/llms.txt

## How to Reach
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/katrienpauwels
- Agent context: https://techwiki.ai/people/katrien-pauwels/llms.txt
- Full context: https://techwiki.ai/people/katrien-pauwels/llms-full.txt

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