Lead With Excellence

From the United Nations to MIT, Martin Saive and Cartoonbase have helped many organizations worldwide tell their stories through illustration. Now, he’s here to tell his own story on this episode of Lead With Excellence. Thomas and Martin break down how Cartoonbase understands business problems and represents them in a visual medium. They also discuss how to find the right balance of clarity and emotion in your messaging – as well as what Cartoonbase has learned from Pixar. Whether you’re a creative professional or someone who doodles during meetings, you’re going to want to hear this one.

If good sales training is the key to B2B success, why is it so often expensive and inaccessible? This question led Gerald Zankl to found KickScale, and he joins Thomas Goubau on this episode of “Lead with Excellence” to discuss his entrepreneurship journey. Gerald shares his experiences at Y Combinator, which forced him to find creative solutions to marketing problems. He also tells Thomas about a time when he had to set aside his ego for the good of a company – and how that shaped his current mission to help first-time leaders and first-time sellers take their game to the next level.

On this episode of Lead with Excellence, Showpad Co-Founder and Executive Chairman Pieterjan “PJ” Bouten demystifies the art of surrounding yourself with a good colleague – from finding like-minded co-founders in the early days to make your first sales hires as an expanding team.

When should a respected founder know that it’s time to step aside? No, this isn’t King Lear. It’s the world of SaaS, and you’re listening to Lead With Excellence.

In this episode, Thomas tackles the classic Founder’s Dilemma with Sales Gladiators Founder & CEO Stephan Maes. They discuss how a founder’s role can and should change through the three critical stages of company growth. If some of the best founders are those who recognize the limits of their expertise, how

Salespeople are often gifted storytellers – but what separates the best stories from hollow pitches? 

To find out, Thomas interviews Mike Adams, author of Seven Stories Every Salesperson Must Tell.

On this episode of Lead with Excellence, Mike tells Thomas how his background running sales teams in the tech and energy sectors led him to storytelling.

After studying how stories build trust with clients, he now unpacks the ingredients and recipes that craft the strongest sales narratives. 

Along the way, Mike shares with Thomas his list of must-read books for salespeople after you finish reading Seven Stories, of course!

When Thomas De Clerck co-founded Cumul.io in 2016, he hoped their cloud platform would help non-technical workers manage data effectively. But when a competitor began offering a similar product for free, his team pivoted their business – and found great success!

On this episode of Lead with Excellence, Thomas Goubau talks to Thomas De Clerck about his experience transitioning Cumul.io into the customer analytics space, the importance of recognizing when an initial idea isn’t the right fit, and his insights into making the most of seed funding.

What separates a unicorn from a flameout? Thomas sits down with imec.istart Program Director Sven De Cleyn to find out.

Together, they discuss what Sven learned from his PhD research into successful startups, how those findings shape his current work at an accelerator, and what it takes to be a thriving startup in Belgium today. Stick around to hear what he looks for when offering pre-seed funding to tech companies.

This episode features Jos Donvil, the former CEO of companies such as Base, VOO, Bpost, or RSC Anderlecht. In this third episode, we talk about the CEO journey of Jos, his background, failures and wins.

You'll hear how Jos handled the difference between managing private and semi-public companies. And you'll learn about his vision around companies restructuring.

Jos is a highly experienced CEO and I am very happy that he accepted my invitation to be a guest on the show. Enjoy!

This episode features Sébastien Deletaille, the CEO of Rosa, a non-profit health app. In this second episode, we talk about the entrepreneurial journey of Sébastien, his background, failures and wins. You'll learn how he pivoted one of his companies from selling services to products. Sébastien also talks about the difference between a founder and a CEO.

This episode features Cédric Pierrard, the CEO of Efficy, a major European player in the CRM market. This episode is a great listen because he talks about his journey as a founder and his M&A playbook to grow internationally and dominate the European market.