Bart Schaerlaekens - Participant 2016
Applying for the Prince Albert Fund was one of the best decisions I ever made in my life.
Role
Bart Schaerlaekens was involved in every step of the business for the implementation in the U.S. market of Cubigo, a mobile platform with convenient access to qualified services for aging people.
Responsibilities
Work for Cubigo ranged from very strategic to very operational. Bart designed a project plan, organized trainings, planned internal resources, managed scope and timings and set up a feedback loop. He helped define the product and its effectiveness in the environment of the senior living community of the city of San Francisco, where he lived.
As entrepreneur-in-residence, he focused on every aspect of the management and operations for
a senior group of people. He also broadened his skill set in product management and the challenges associated with the introduction of innovation in a conservative industry and how to deal with them.
How he benefited
For his Prince Albert Fund project, Bart deliberately chose to work with a start-up. “After six years of corporate experience, I wanted to feel the innovation, rapid decision-making and swiftness of a small company. I was soon amazed by how easy it was to move from idea to execution.”
This experience definitely changed his approach to business in the future. Being based in the heart of Silicon Valley also made him fully realize how crucial it is to drive change in an industry.
The company – Cubigo
Founded in 2011, Cubigo has developed a cloud-based platform that empowers people
to live an independent and healthy life by supporting and stimulating self-care. The platform connects senior citizens, caregivers, family and businesses with a user-friendly, modular User Interface, offering a wide set of functionalities: making doctor’s appointments, setting up video calls with family members, tracking and sharing medical data, ordering meals on wheels, and so on. The company has offices in Belgium, Spain and the United States.
“Bart took on the crucial role of user testing and co-creating our product upgrade with the senior citizens and staff in his community. Because of his detailed work and attention to commitments, we were able to rapidly deploy the new product.”