How do you grow from a start-up into an international data & AI consultancy with more than 200 people, without becoming slow, complex or internally fragmented? In the final episode of this co:lab season, Cresco Partner Glenn L’hoëst sits down with Nico Huybrechts, founder and CEO of Datashift.
Ten years ago, Datashift started at the kitchen table with a clear ambition: combine strong business understanding with technological depth. Today, the company has grown into a multidisciplinary data & AI consultancy operating across Belgium and the Netherlands, working with both large enterprises and ambitious scale-ups.
In this episode, we dive into the strategic choices behind that growth and discuss, among other things:
Throughout the conversation, Nico shares candid reflections on stepping into international expansion, building governance structures, making difficult calls early, and why intuition matters just as much as analysis.
This episode offers practical insights for founders, scale-up leaders and investors navigating growth in an AI-driven environment. It is a grounded conversation about scaling responsibly, preserving speed while adding structure, using governance as leverage and maintaining strategic focus when opportunities multiply.
