Entrepreneur Filip Smet founded his first Internet company, Interhost Solutions, at the age of 23. This grew into Lemon Holding, which quickly grew into a company with 150 employees and an annual turnover of 30 million euros.
Today, he is founder and CEO of AMOTEK Technologies, a software incubator for start-ups.
Filip is a mentor at Birdhouse and at Vlerick - and today also Entrepreneur in Residence at the Vlerick Entrepreneurship Academy.
"As an entrepreneur, you go through a lot of peaks in the beginning. That growth is very nice. You also do everything at that point: from cleaning toilets to selling projects. That's what makes it cool: you're responsible for your own education."
As a graduate, Filip Smet worked briefly at IBM, but that was not enough to satisfy his hunger. He most wanted to start his own business, but couldn't really count on support from those around him." A lot of people said, 'Wow, what are you going to do now?' Those kinds of reactions triggered me to go even further."
In the end, it was his father-in-law who gave him the ultimate push: "What have you got to lose?" Smet started Interhost Solutions, a hosting company, without too much investment cost. "The beauty of hosting? It's a very recurring business model. From the moment you have a customer, they usually stay with you for five to 10 years. As long as the service is good and the price is right, you have a very valuable customer base. People don't like to switch hosting providers."
Unfortunately, the hosting market was consolidating. On the one hand, there are big players like Combell, who are buying up a lot of portfolios. On the other hand, you have the big guys, such as Amazon Web Services. That's why Interhost Solutions quickly evolved into Lemon, an all-round software development company. Only then did the first big projects come in. "Actually, from day one it was my intention to develop our own products. That creates continuous innovation in your company."
Unfortunately, the hosting market was consolidating. On the one hand, there are big players like Combell, who are buying up a lot of portfolios. On the other hand, you have the big guys, such as Amazon Web Services. That's why Interhost Solutions quickly evolved into Lemon, an all-round software development company. Only then did the first big projects come in. "Actually, from day one it was my intention to develop our own products. That creates continuous innovation in your company."
Moreover, it caused his company to become a very different organization."I saw that some people couldn't follow it anymore. I had certain people growing into positions they really couldn't handle. Just because you're a great technician doesn't mean you're a great CTO."
That was an important phase where he had to make decisions and be very picky about the people he gathered around him in order to continue to grow as a company.
"Somehow you don't want to let go of that because it feels like it's your baby. That's the hardest thing I've done so far. But once you become indispensable, you've really created value as an entrepreneur."
According to Smet, it is extremely important to look for complementary profiles. "Definitely don't hire people you think look like yourself. If you're the smartest person in the room, you're in the wrong room. You have to constantly surround yourself with people who are smarter and better than yourself!"
The next step was to build a group of businesses under one roof. Where complementary services were offered, where other entrepreneurs co-created and new ideas were built. Road21 was born and grew rapidly. Moving from Lemon to Road21 gave Smet a lot of freedom. "We decided not to continue the name and mix everything up with a good friend of mine. Road21 gave me a chance to focus more on entrepreneurship and less on the operational side. I absolutely loved it, but I also missed the zero-sum thrill of start-up environments. I decided to start Amotek Technologies and focus on that."
With Amotek Technologies, Filip wants to draw on his experience to build a new brand. One that focuses on the human side of business. To experience the thrill of start-ups and support new ideas.
Finally, Filip Smet offers some wise words to fellow entrepreneurs: "Don't hesitate too much, just do it and then evaluate. That has brought me very nice things. Maybe less beautiful things here and there, but you learn from that too."
"It's especially important to be positive. I also believe in self-fulfilling prophecy: you have to dare to dream in order to make it come true. If you are positive and just try, what is the worst thing you can blame yourself for? You learn the most from experiences, but you have to dare to face those experiences. You have to dare to take that first step."
