Since its independence, in 1991, the Kazakh economy has developed fast. During the meeting, the diplomat remembered how, 8 years ago, it was difficult to look to the Belgian and European model and to try to implement it in Kazakhstan. 8 years later things have changed. A new generation is leading the country, and it is ready to implement worldwide experiences and to be more open to new foreign investors.

In his opening speech, Kosherbayev mentioned the effort that the Kazakh government is making to attract potential investors. The National Company “Kazakh Invest”, which provides a “one-stop-shop” for investors, supplying them with assistance and information. The deputy minister also remrked that the Astana International Financial Centre is now operational. A financial hub guided by principles, norms, and precedents of England and Wales`s law and standards of the leading international financial centers. Also the weaknesses of the center Asia country have been pointed out, such as the leak of state guarantees or the long waiting time that is necessary to register new products.

Belgian companies in Kazakhstan

Twelve  representatives of the Belgian businesses were invited to share their expectations of a possible collaboration with Kazakhstan. Many of them already have Kazakh partners, and agreements were made with the deputy minister to ease their projects.

The fields where Belgian companies are more present in Kazakhstan are agriculture, new technologies, healthcare and energy. The Belgian Kazakhstan’s partners are the two export and foreign investment agencies, AWEX of Wallonia and FIT from Flanders. Every two years, these agencies introduce Belgian enterprises to Kazakhstan and organise business missions to the country.

In the last 28 years, the Belgian investments in the Kazakhstan economy amounted to €7.1 billion. 2018 has been a crucial year. In fact, compared to 2017 Kazakhstan’s foreign trade turnover with Belgium increased by 58% and amounted to €414million. However, according to Kosherbayev the Belgian-Kazakh relation is not at its full potential yet.

At the moment, 74 companies with Belgian capital have invested in Kazakhstan, between them Carmeuse, the mining company based in Louvain-la-Neuve, and Orfit industries, which deals with thermoplastic innovation, both present at the roundtable.

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In the beginning it comes from prospective customers, then from venture capitalists, then from private equity people, then investment bankers, and so on. You really have to learn how to deal with it.

Entrepreneurship is about big non-consensual or unexpected ideas and opportunities. If not, big companies or tons of other entrepreneurs would have had a go at it already. It is the lack of agreement around a specific opportunity that gives space for creation and, potentially, the opportunity to build something big and unique. Very smart and experienced people will say no to huge opportunities (by the way, it has happened to all the unicorns and successful startups of today).

From this perspective, rejection is a good thing. Everyone saying yes to you and your ideas, besides being meaningless, would not necessarily be good. You must learn to distil the “no” you are hearing. History shows that great, groundbreaking, ideas seem laughable at first sight.

What is the kind of “no” you should be wishing for?

Pay attention to the quality of the “no” you get. This is what really distinguishes bad ideas from potentially great ideas. Look for, at least, a tiny bit of friction, either between people (if pitching to a group) or as a person explains the reasoning behind a “no”.

It is also important to truly understand what is leading people to saying “no”. Sometimes, it comes from externalities which are completely unrelated to your idea or project. For example, when pitching to venture capitalists you might encounter profiles that are simply not willing to acquire the context necessary to understand what you’re working on, or maybe it is something they consider extremely boring and, as such, just don’t want to get involved in.

Focus on understanding the “no” and learning when there are learning opportunities or brushing it off, when it is simply an externality. In the latter, simply brush it off and move on.

What happens after an entrepreneur pitches to VCs?

Recently, I heard an interview of a partner of a big multinational venture capital firm. He shared a bit about the backstage of pitching to venture capitalists; what happens immediately after an entrepreneur leaves the room. I consider it to be great food for thought for entrepreneurs getting used to hearing “no”.

“If I’m presenting an idea to my partners and they all go, “That’s great! We should do that.” I’m like, “Careful. Here’s a bunch of hyper-smart people and no one’s saying, ‘Oh, watch out for this, or watch out for that.’” It’s too easy. The idea is so obviously good, I can already hear the stampede of competitors trampling over our hopeful little startup.”
(Adapted from Reid Hoffman’s podcast series ‘Masters of Scale’)

It goes to show that even venture capitalists (people whose professional purpose is to identify successful startups) are looking for a polarised reaction among their peers. What they want is some people fully aligned with the startup. And others questioning if any of it makes sense.

In a nutshell, if you are feeling the friction in the “no’s” you’re getting, you are most likely on to something.

Dealing with rejection

Despite everything I just said, rejection is extremely hard to deal with. And even when we understand the rationale behind it, it still generates emotional stress.

Some entrepreneurs develop a thick skin, others face it as just part of the routine. I believe that the best approach, at least for me, is to change mindset. Look at the “no” as a gift. A gift of feedback that you can build upon. Don’t take it personally. And remember, if you are doing things right, you know more about your customers and your business than any investor out there.

Listen, learn from the “no”, but also learn how to hold on to what you know and stand your ground if needed. You will, most likely, be respected for it.

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Be Angels is one of the two networks in Belgium which provides business support and smart early stage financing to start-ups. In order to familiarize Brussels Express’s readers with the concept of a business angel as well as the work of Business Angels Belgium, I have conducted an exclusive interview with Claire Munck, the CEO and administrator of Be Angels.

Could you please tell our BE readers about Be Angels? What is the impact of your association and business angeling on women in Belgium?

Be Angels is one of the two networks in Belgium which provides business support and smart early stage financing to start-ups. In order to familiarize Brussels Express’s readers with the concept of a business angel as well as the work of Business Angels Belgium, I have conducted an exclusive interview with Claire Munck, the CEO and administrator of Be Angels.

Over the years, we have supported close to 300 companies in several investment rounds and our members have invested about 45 million Euros in those companies with a leverage effect of 2 to 4; which means that for every Euro invested by a business angel, the company will be able to attract 2 to 4 Euros of co-financing from banks or co-investment funds and the like. This has been the impact, and about 70% of the companies we have invested are still alive and functioning. Today, about 20% of our member base (which is 300 members strong) are women investors.

In 2012, we created the Women Business Angel Club to help women become business angels and this enabled us to evolve from having very few women business angels to about 20% of our members being women through different mechanisms. What we had to change in order to increase the number of women investors in our groups is as follows:

• We had to change the time of the meetings, as they were too early in the afternoon and did not enable women who have a full time job and are also generally in charge of the family to come back home and get organized to head back out.
• We have diversified the source of deal-flow for our members, so the source of projects in order to have some new sectors in the pool of projects such as social entrepreneurship projects or impact investment projects.
• We have also diversified out selection committee, so we started integrating women in the selection committee.
• We also introduced training programs which were directed towards attracting women investors who prefer to go through courses and learn how to become a BA and then practice after that, rather than learning by doing.
• And finally, we also created investor groups which enabled investors including women to invest smaller amounts in a collective pot of money to invest in a group so as to try and see whether they liked being business angels with a more reasonable amount invested.

What proved to be the most effective tool in increasing the participation of women in angel investing?

The key is communication. Communicating about the angel group is just as important about communicating about role models, profiles of women angels to whom other investors can relate to.

Training is the second most important element, followed by investment solutions that are more tailored towards women investors.

Could you introduce us to the WA4E project? What is your role in it? According to you, what does the project foster in terms of female investment?

The WA4E is a consortium of several countries – such as UK, Italy, Spain, France, Portugal and Belgium- working on the same challenge which is: How do we increase the number of women investors in our angel groups and how do we make that sustainable?

We face the same difficulty and challenge, which is that we all find that there is not a sufficient number of women investors around. The idea was to share the situation of women angel investing in every country and share among ourselves some of the solutions that we have found in our eco-system to help women invest and then work on common tools that we have found appropriate; whether it is to bring women entrepreneurs to apply to business angel groups, so as to raise capital, but to also help women join angel groups and professionalize their approach to investment.

Who is a business angel?

A business angel is someone who has a career as a manager or a career as an entrepreneur. They have to have a background and most importantly an interest in the entrepreneurial sector. Someone who will be able to dedicate about 5-10% of their wealth to invest in capital in start-ups, this means that there is high-risks involvement and this is money that they can afford to lose. They need to have some time available to help entrepreneurs, even though the time can vary, it is important that as a business angel you join an angel group because you have the willingness to invest but also to provide support through committing your time and your network of contacts.

If you fit the profile we have just discussed and if you are passionate about entrepreneurship Be Angels organizes several events in Brussels for those who are interested. You are invited to get involved through their website: http://www.beangels.eu/contact/

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