“The difference with my previous companies? Personal passion.”
Birgit Everaert invites founders of startups and scale-ups for a comfy chat in the Startup Sofa. In this edition, founder Lothar De Keyne explains how he started a new company, Bevoy, after winning the Hack the Crisis Hackathon in March 2020.
Doing business during a pandemic
After pivoting their original idea, Bevoy accelerated quickly with the help of the right partners. Setting up a health tech startup in the midst of a global pandemic is extra challenging, yet the best timing to find traction in the market. Lothar explains how Bevoy succeeded to differentiate its value proposition compared to other players, keeping in mind the pitfall of wanting to be “too unique”.
Partner up!
Lothar also stresses the importance of partnering up to scale your business, even if you’re still in an early stage. “Many founders often hesitate to share their MVP with others to avoid they might copy the idea. I believe it’s important to already connect with strategic partners in an early stage, so you don’t have to start from scratch building a network when you’re ready to collaborate.”

Table of content:
- Winner of Hack the Crisis Hackathon (0:50)
- Previous companies & learnings (3:33)
- How to compete in healthtech anno 2021? (6:02)
- What after COVID? (12:58)
- The importance of partnering up (18:50)
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Read: 4 European funding opportunities to watch out for in 2021