Newsletter June

According to a myth, the word "bug" originates from when computers were coded using punch cards. The legendary computer scientist Grace Hopper noticed an unusual behavior. When she decided to investigate, she found a dead moth that had interfered with one of the punch cards. However, this story is not about the origin of the word bug, as it was already used more than 60 years earlier. Anyway, it's the end of the month, and that can only mean one thing: a new newsletter!

Stuff we’ve liked

• The most controversial topic nowadays: electric steps. Not convinced they're safe enough? Michael Reeves came up with a solution: the scooter car. In his video, he builds a kind of car using 4 electric (rented) scooters. Worth checking out during your next bathroom break or whenever.

• Be cautious when booking with booking.com. Over the past year and a half, incidents of fraud have increased between 500% and 900%. AI tools have made it easier to forge documents, generate images, and mimic realistic emails. So a villa with a pool for only €100 a week? Better double-check.
• OpenAI and Apple are likely to collaborate! Starting with iOS 18, Siri will be able to answer your questions using ChatGPT. Does this mean all your data will go to OpenAI? No! There will be an extra layer between Siri and ChatGPT that performs computations on the device, and has anonymization built in.
• Not news from June, but just stuff we’ve liked. We're talking about making live music by programming. It’s possible with Sonic Pi, a live coding program that DJs can use to produce music and beats by coding, often in dance genres. It's definitely not easy, but very cool. You can find an example here.

• There has been a lot of buzz around Nvidia this month. The company is know for it’s GPU (graphic processing unit) production, often used in AI-training. They briefly became the most valued company in the IT world, held a shareholder meeting, experienced a stock drop, and saw many engineers retire. And that might not even cover half of the news. We couldn't fit a complete overview, but a good Google search can work wonders.

Talk entrepreneurial to me

In this section, we're delving deeper into the world of entrepreneurship every month. We'll discuss the insights we've gained, debunking entrepreneurial myths, sharing success stories, and opening up about the mistakes we've made and the valuable lessons we've learned from them. This time: the importance of external support - you can't do everything yourself.

Something we've learned this month: growth also means (daring to) seek external help. You can't do everything yourself, or at least not always as efficiently. In the beginning, you often try to handle everything on your own. But as your organization becomes more professional, everything needs to professionalize with it. Even if you're somewhat familiar with a task, you're never the best at everything. External help, even if it's just advice, can be incredibly valuable. It ensures you don't stay in your bubble and teaches you things you didn't know you were missing.

That's what we'll be focusing on in the coming period: attracting external knowledge to enhance our internal knowledge. Need an example? We are currently looking for a partner to brainstorm with about strategic marketing. Creating a marketing plan isn't easy, so why not find someone to help fine-tune our marketing strategy? Do you know someone who can help us with this? Let us know!

Interesting read: Ghent as the hotspot for innovative tech companies

Success stories like Henchman and Showpad confirm what we've known for a while: Ghent is the hotspot for innovative tech companies. And it has been for a while. It started with the success of Netlog, back in the days when you had to dodge dinosaurs on your way home.

Ghent’s growing reputation as a tech hub isn’t just pure luck. They are known for having an excellent ecosystem, which we can only agree with. Besides, there are many high-level technical educations in Ghent. Plus, it’s a combination of capital and speed. Companies launch fast and improve as they go, perfect for today's fast-moving tech world where AI speeds everything up.

Despite challenges like tax policy changes, Ghent keeps growing, thanks to local success and international interest. It's a lesson for us all: innovate quickly, support each other, and keep the investments flowing.

Tech gossip of the month

Will there be an EU law allowing police and government to read all our messages?

The proposal was there, but it has currently been postponed (read: not completely discarded). The European Parliament considered a regulation that would create a sort of backdoor to the encryption of messages. This would enable police and government agencies to read all our messages. For clarity, now this is often not possible because applications like WhatsApp and Signal encrypt our messages by default.

The proposal was introduced in the context of anti-child abuse efforts. A cause everyone supports and is therefore hard to dispute. It aims to make the world a safer place. But could it also make it less safe? It's always crucial to remain critical. What if the political climate changes but these rules remain? Could we be heading towards a surveillance state? And what if the use of this regulation expands over time?

What stands out is that police and government want an exception for themselves. Can we then assume they know where the danger lies if they seek to exclude themselves? Naturally, there is no right or wrong answer.

What happened at we are this month?

What happened at we are this month in numbers?

• It was a 193 km drive to our accommodation for the team weekend in Gulpen. We worked, hiked, played laser tag, and enjoyed an ‘aperoleke’ in the sun!
• 3 new projects have been confirmed this month!
• After 10 weeks, we had to say goodbye to our amazing interns, Jochen and Fatih. It was a pleasure to have them on the team! (P.S. Still looking for an internship? Send us a message!)