By Lucas J.
Head of Application Screening, I… Incubator – Brussels
Let me tell you something about working at an incubator in Brussels.
People think my job is cool. “Oh, you meet startups all day! You see the future!” Yeah. I also see a lot of bullshit. Beautiful pitch decks. Perfectly formatted business plans. And behind all that polish? A 24-year-old who watched three GaryVee clips and decided he’s the next Steve Jobs. His only problem? He’s never spoken to a single customer.
But lately, it got worse.
Brussels is a golden ticket. Everyone knows it. Get into an incubator, get a nod from hub.brussels, and boom—Professional Card. Residency. Access to Europe. For some applicants, the startup is just the vehicle. The real destination? A Belgian ID card and a flat in Ixelles.
And I’m supposed to catch that.
Then my bosses dropped a bomb: “Lucas, your renewal depends on the success rate of the startups you approve. Fail too many, and we find someone else.”
No pressure.
The Old Way of Startup Screening Was Broken
We used to do pitch decks + a 30-minute interview. That’s it. That’s all. Thirty minutes to decide if someone has the guts, the brains, and the resilience to build a company in a foreign country.
Spoiler: it’s not enough.
I’ve approved teams that looked amazing on Zoom and then disappeared the moment they landed in Brussels. No customers. No network. No clue. Just a residency permit and a part-time job at a coffee shop.
I needed a filter. Something that saw through the performance.
Then someone mentioned Supsindex. FPA + GEB tests. I rolled my eyes—another test?—but I was desperate. So I grabbed 11 teams that had just applied. Fresh meat. I told them: “Take these assessments. Send me the reports. No exceptions.”
The First Surprise in Our Startup Screening
Three teams never came back.
Not a single test completed. Not an email. Just… radio silence.
These were the same people who, two weeks earlier, had bombarded my inbox with “URGENT: Please review our revolutionary platform!!” The moment I asked for real depth—not a pitch deck, but an actual measurement of their knowledge and behavior—they evaporated.
Goodbye. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.
That was my first win. Three less headaches without me lifting a finger.
The Numbers Don’t Lie in Startup Screening
The other eight teams sent their reports. Here’s what I saw:
- Quartile 1 (Top 25%): 2 startups
- Quartile 2: 1 startup
- Quartile 3: 4 startups
- Quartile 4 (Bottom 25%): 1 startup
I had a plan.
The Quartile 4 team – bless their hearts. I sent them a polite email: “You’re not ready for Brussels yet. Grow. Learn. Reapply next season. We’ll be watching.” No hard feelings. Just honesty.
The Quartile 1 & 2 teams – accepted. No hesitation. Their reports showed solid knowledge, clean decision-making patterns, and realistic expectations. These were founders who understood that a visa is a tool, not a prize.
The Quartile 3 teams – this was the gray zone. Good enough to be dangerous, weak enough to fail. I spent real time with them. Extra calls. Deeper questions. Three of them convinced me. One didn’t.
What I Actually Saved with Better Startup Screening
In total? I blocked five teams from entering Belgium.
Five teams that, under the old system, might have slipped through. Five founders who would have taken up space, burned resources, and—worst of all—made my success rate look like garbage when they inevitably shut down six months later.
Now, I’ll be honest: Supsindex doesn’t have the EEA (Ecosystem Environmental Assessment) for Belgium yet. That’s the test that measures how well a founder actually understands a specific market. The local regulations. The customer quirks. The unwritten rules. I would have killed for that.
But even without it? The FPA and GEB gave me more than I ever got from a pitch deck.
What I Learned About Startup Screening
You can’t fake 75 questions about behavior under stress. You can’t ChatGPT your way through a deep dive on decision-making patterns. The tests don’t care how pretty your logo is.
And for the teams that did have the goods? They respected the process. They sent their reports with confidence. They weren’t scared of being measured.
If you run an incubator or an accelerator, stop trusting your gut. Your gut is tired. Your gut once approved a guy who thought “burn rate” meant how fast his laptop overheated.
Use the data. Use the tests. You’ll lose some applicants—the ones who were never serious anyway. And the ones who remain? They might just build something real.
Supsindex Note: Lucas J. is the Head of Application Screening at I… Incubator in Brussels. He now requires Supsindex assessments for all serious applicants in his startup screening process. He is still waiting for the Belgium EEA. Patiently. Sort of.
