As you noticed, I’m Joeri Van Cauteren. For the past 10 years, I have enjoyed an inspiring and exciting career. It brought me many different opportunities, as well as challenges. I was able to collaborate with a lot of intelligent and interesting people.
I am a creative entrepreneur. It’s somewhat of a vague term, I know. However, it accurately describes what I do: I am an entrepreneur offering creative services. Some would consider me a consultant or a freelancer. Technically correct, it puts too much emphasis on the delivery of services before moving on to the next project. That’s not what I want. I build connections and impact with the people, entrepreneurs and companies I work.
What does a creative entrepreneur do? I employ my expertise and experience (in creativity, products, strategy, problem solving and facilitation) to help my clients build, strategise and grow. I do this either for myself or for others. The output can be a strategy, new products, services, organisations, coaching teams, supporting careers, growing businesses, visuals, storylines, solved problems or challenges, and identified opportunities,…
In the past decade, I worked at and with many types of businesses: medium-sized companies, fast-growing startups, Fortune 5000 multinationals, solopreneurs and basically anything in between, either as an employee or an entrepreneur. I’ve had many different roles: facilitator, manager, individual contributor, subject matter expert, consultant, director, product designer, senior product manager, venture builder and venture architect, entrepreneur-in-residence, advisor for board members and senior leadership, a coach and mentor. Currently, I am also working together with Bundl, a top-tier venture development studio, as a Senior Venture Architect.
I consider myself lucky with my career path. That was only possible by all the inspiring people who trusted me to guide and support them, learned new things, shared their knowledge or took the time to mentor me. I ended up at a point where I started to do the same. However, I wouldn’t live up to the expectation of these people if I wasn’t ambitious about it. That’s how I ended up launching my own website to share the knowledge and expertise I’ve built over all these years. This is just the start. There is a lot more to come.
Being a creative entrepreneur is only one part of my life. I have the honour of being a parent to 3 wonderful daughters, which includes a twin. That has been the venture that most challenged me and still does. But it has been the most inspiring venture of my life. However, I don’t do this by myself. A lot has been possible thanks to my lovely and loving wife. She supported me throughout the ups and downs. And yes, believe me, there are many downs as well. So are there in anyone’s life.
I combine my family life with solid ambition in cycling. I’ve picked this up during COVID, as many probably have. I didn’t like where my physical health was going, and many sports didn’t really challenge me. Cycling was love at first sight, and it quickly turned into something where I could challenge myself. Ride further, ride harder, higher, and try different disciplines. In the end, I started to pick up challenges such as the Paris-Roubaix Challenge. And I am planning many more: the Tour of Flanders, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Amstel Gold Race, Gran Fondos,…
