From first hire to co-founder
In 2016, Conversation Starter was a young Antwerp startup with a big idea: connecting good people at scale makes society wildly more successful. Founder Rutger Bevers needed someone to turn that idea into actual handshakes. He hired Dries Hendrickx. Four years later, in 2020, Dries bought shares in the company and became co-founder. Today, for most clients, he is the face of Conversation Starter: the person who gives the demo, sets up the event and picks up the phone when an organiser needs help. His LinkedIn title says it best: Chief Handshaking Officer. For his ten-year milestone, Dries dug up some numbers. 38,588 emails sent. More than 5,000 demo and support calls with clients. And over 275,000 one-on-one meetings facilitated at events. Not bad for a decade of connecting people.
Ping pong, speeches and karaoke
Conversation Starter rents their office at Brain Embassy, so the party was only a few steps from their desks. The team invited clients, partners and friends into our event space for an evening that started, fittingly, with networking. Then the table tennis table came out. The kitchen in the event space made serving snacks easy, the beers were cold, and the speeches were short. The built-in music installation turned out to be a very good investment once the karaoke started. A pretty perfect way to mark ten years, if you ask us.
Who are Conversation Starter?
Conversation Starter builds event matchmaking software: a networking app that makes sure attendees actually meet the people they came for. Participants create a profile with icebreakers such as requests and offers, an AI-powered recommendation engine suggests who they should meet, and a smart meeting planner schedules 1:1 meetings at numbered meeting points. No app download needed: participants get a text with a link and they're in. You can see how the event matchmaking works on their website. The platform is used by incubators and accelerators such as imec.istart and Techstars, by conferences like Work Smarter, by business communities and tech hubs such as Voka, Agoria, BelCham and Wintercircus, by corporates including EY and Infrabel, by universities such as KU Leuven and by governments including the City of Antwerp. In ten years it has planned more than 275,000 meetings in over 60 countries, with an average engagement rate of 95.2 percent, and was shortlisted for the Event Technology Awards. We like to call it the best event matchmaking software built in Belgium, and the numbers back that up. Looking for an event networking app or B2B matchmaking platform for your conference, job fair, investor day or community event? Book a product walkthrough with Dries. He has done a few. And if you have a milestone of your own to celebrate: our event space is right here. Congratulations Dries, and here's to the next ten years.
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