Going on an In-Company Project is always an adventure. For us it was no different. I, Nicolas Willemyns (in the middle), together with my teammates Britt Reniers (on the left) and Eline De Meyer (on the right) didn’t take this learning opportunity for granted. Since it’s the cherry on your Vlerick year (or pie if you wish) it is of utmost importance to choose wisely. With this super team consisting of a variety of different backgrounds, ranging from bio-engineering to applied economics, we were fully equipped to take on this specific challenge.

LAST DECEMBER

During your Vlerick year you become extremely skilled in networking. A skill that we used extensively throughout the year and which has definitely paid of during one particular event… the Vlerick Winter Reunion. Last December Minister Alexander De Croo, Prof. Stijn Viane, Mr. Frederik Delaplace and Mr. Jo Caudron discussed subjects such as the digital economy during this reunion.

We got immediately inspired by the vision of Jo Caudron (CEO of Duval Union Consulting). After his keynote and debate, the reception started. Our time to shine we – thought! Between some glasses of champagne we approached Mr. Caudron and after 10 minutes discussing anything related to digital we asked him the inevitable question: ‘do you currently have any project that we could tackle during our consultancy project?’ There we went, hanging between an awkward ‘NO’ and a redeeming ‘YES’. Luckily for us the answer was yes!

TODAY

What we are working on today at Duval Union Consulting is really exciting for us as marketers. We are developing a go-to-market plan in order to successfully launch a SaaS platform. This platform should allow companies to make smarter business decisions. Of course a lot about our project is still confidential, but for what I can say now is, please visit the website we made for our project via the following link: www.trendbase.io.

Furthermore, in order to come up with the most effective launching strategy we’ve been given the assignment to find the right balance between new marketing trends, such as growth hacking, and traditional academic methods. This is not an evident thing to do. It requires constant reflection on our daily activities, intermediate presentations and continuous learning. The latter brings us to another adventure. Duval Union Consulting bought us tickets to participate in a renowned event called Hack Belgium.

This event allowed us to immerse ourselves into extremely educative concepts and methods. We followed workshops on lean digital product development, business canvas modelling and learned how to draw like an artist. The fun didn’t stop there. We also raced with drones and fought side by side during VR games. In short, a head start for our consultancy project.

What should you take away from this post?

1. Be bold enough to take the lead
2. Be open and try to see opportunities in everything
3. Be aware, success between academics & business lies in the middle

Interested in getting to know even more about growth hacking, our in-company project, launching a SaaS platform or simply wanting to more about us? Then we suggest you to subscribe to our vlogs!

Nicolas, Britt and Eline