"IBoot camp is money well spent"

There are many drawbacks to the American system of doing business, iText creator Bruno Lowagie says in the Datanews/Knack.be interview, but one respects you for what you can. "In Belgium instead, people respect you for who you know." Therefore he had to be successful in the U.S., before he got ashore in his own country. "Without a change in our legislative framework, we will achieve nothing."

However Lowagie also sees benefits to the Belgian situation. He believes that an initiative such as  iBoot camp is an interesting form of subsidy. "That money is very well spent," he says. That his company iText Software can work three months for free in the Plug & Play Tech Center in Silicon Valley gives also a boost. "You are amongst dozens of interesting start-ups, and the resulting contacts are priceless."

He calls for more cooperation between Belgian cities that are profiling themselves as technology hubs. "Let us try to learn to cooperate! The Belgian tech initiatives are too fragmented. "

Read the full interview in Datanews/Knack.be.