Overview
Leo Exter is a creative entrepreneur best known for powering Hack Belgium, a civic hackathon initiative. He is described as "among the most accomplished practitioners in the hackathon format anywhere in Europe," having helped establish hackathons as a meaningful tool for civic and technological innovation in Belgium. He has organised approximately 20 hackathon events with over 500 participants each, spanning sectors including healthcare (Hack Healthcare), defence (Innovation for Defence), epilepsy, and the blue transition. Several hackathons he organised directly produced technology startups that continue to operate.
Career history
- Previous rolesEuropean Innovation Council, westartup, Startup Weekend Brussels, Advance.Healthcare
- Chief EnergizerCurrentHack Belgium Labs
- Organised ~20 hackathons including Hack Healthcare, Hack Epilepsy, Hack Blue Transition
In the news
- Our next Dual Nexus Meetup (DNM008: investment & defence readiness) on 29 September is full. If you were planning to register - sorry. There's still the waiting list, though👇 There are always a few cancellations in the last week before the event, and any spots that free up will go to the waiting list (link in the comments). On why we don't just add seats even though the auditorium at Silversquare (thank you for your support, guys!) is big enough: the value of the meetup comes from having entrepreneurs, investors, defence staff
- If your core technology relies on unvetted offshore suppliers, your dual-use strategy is dead on arrival. When commercial tech meets defence, there are many reasons why it fails. The less-expected one is provenance: where the hardware was manufactured, who maintains the code, where the data is stored, etc. And - just to make things extra spicy - provenance cuts both ways. 🔺It creates the opportunity. Belgian Defence commissioned Noordzee Drones to build a training drone with no foreign components: the THEQ-1. A clean supply
- Nothing says "credibility" quite like being quoted by your own company (thanks Henri-Jérôme 😉). On Wednesday I wrote about why we walked away from running open-ended hackathons, and what we're doing differently these days. Over the next six posts, Hack Belgium Labs lays out how we'd actually build a hackathon aroudn the challenges the former Audi site in Forest is likely to run into, from getting the right people in the room to making sure something still exists the Tuesday after the hackathon. So if you're interested in how we
- Slapping a camouflage sticker on an enterprise software product does not make you a dual-use company. Founders struggling in civilian markets sometimes rebrand generic B2B tools as defence tech to chase new funding (I can perfectly understand that, that's where the big money is heading). But when these teams get in front of military buyers, the conversation dies in five minutes. Defence buyers rarely pay for do-everything software. They pay for a specific fix to a concrete operational problem. That is why we invited Steven
- I’m speaking at FTI Brussels! As part of the Business track Human & Health, I’ll be joining the session "Low Tech, High Touch: Person-Centered Care in Practice", curated by Sofie Bekaert. I'm looking forward to to catching up with Nathalie Lambrechts (We Are/VITO) and meeting Inge Tency (Odisee), Véronique Peters, Annick Dermine (Huis voor Gezondheid), and Alexandra Coppieters (Gibbis). All-star cast on stage the same day - Erik Janssen, Koen Kas, Segolene Martin, Gilles Jourquin, Vincent Keunen, and even more familiar
- The moment to shape the future of the Audi site in Forest is right now. It ends the day the first anchor tenants sign. So I'd like to get a few people together before that day. Not a consultation round, mind you, a working room, with the people who realistically might occupy the site, and those who can help it thrive. Which raises a fair question: why Hack Belgium Labs? The answer starts with something that didn't work. 3 editions, a hundred projects each time, and a handful of survivors For three years, Hack Belgium packed Tour &
- The standard pre-seed advice is: take the fastest money. In defence and Dual Use economy, the fastest money can end your defence business before it even starts. Defence procurement and institutional investors look at who sits on your board and who owns your shares. If there is any risk of foreign economic interference or IP leakage, the door closes immediately. And that’s only the official part - defence world is small, and having the wrong person can be damaging even if they (technically) pass the security check.
- 55 hectares in Brussels. That is bigger than the entire Vatican City. When Laurent Hublet announced yesterday that Heylen Warehouses is taking over the former Audi site in Forest to bring back 3,000+ jobs, my first reaction was relief. My second reaction was: I’ve driven through a lot of business parks across Belgium, and they all look the same. A few warehouses, a couple of mysterious manufacturing companies, some office buildings, and an abandoned-looking sandwich shop. If we want this 55-hectare site to become a thriving,
Related profiles
This page shows public professional information only, each fact cited. Is this you? send a correction, or ask for removal within 24 hours, no questions asked.