50.85° N, 4.35° E · Brussels · Online since 1980
tech trendsetterüber geekvisionaryauthor
I've been online since screens drew vectors, not pixels. Four decades later I'm still chasing the same thing — turning the newest technology into something people genuinely love.
// Working principle
Creativity matters more than survival.
I never expected to invent things no one had thought of — plenty of people are brighter than me. The edge is elsewhere: take the latest technology, aim it with a clear strategy, and use it creatively to make something genuinely valuable.
// The journey
First login at 13, on a machine that drew vectors instead of pixels. My first hack followed soon after.
Bought with my school-trip lunch money. Coded games in the attic until my father pulled the fuses.
Named it the same night it was offered to me. Built it from a garage in Brussels.
Became a media figure — hosting my radio & TV show on geek and internet culture for nearly a decade, on Radio 21 then RTBF.
The User Agency — strategy, technology and creativity, in the service of people.
One of the rare digital agencies to go public, on Alternext Brussels.
Sold after 20 years: 1,100 people across 20 countries. Then: Chief Visionary Officer.
AI art frames — paintings that generate themselves and never repeat.
// The book · 2021
Each chapter is a piece of Applied Science Fiction: a short fiction set in 2051, then the real science, innovation and trends that could make it happen — ordered from the highly probable to the gloriously impossible.
// Built
My new agentic-AI agency — reviving the name of the very first company I founded.
Visit exmachina.net ↗
International digital group, 25 offices, 4 continents.
Private, encrypted collaboration suite before the cloud was a word.
Visit mailfence.com ↗
Generative AI art frames for the home.
Visit zoetropes.art ↗
Produced CyberCafé, my radio & TV show on geek culture (Radio 21, then RTBF).
Mobile SMS payments. Filed e-payment patents.
A new generation of European design label: smart, eco-friendly, affordable objects by designers like Mathieu Lehanneur, Sylvain Willenz and Alain Berteau. Made in Europe.
Online dating platform, $600k raised from business angels.
// Active investor
These days I'm a hands-on business angel — backing founders directly and throughVerve Ventures and BeAngel. Deep tech, quantum, biotech, climate, fintech: if it's early and a little crazy, I'm listening.
