Synapse &Scale

Flanders

Commercialization, taughtwhere the science is built.

Two ways to work with us locally before any paid engagement: free quarterly sessions hosted at Flemish incubators, and a short commercialization course built for founders in climate and biotech.

QuarterlyFree

Quarterly incubator sessions

An open working session for founders in the building. We take real positioning from the room, pull it apart, and rebuild it in front of you. Then we walk through what a first commercial motion looks like when your product is regulated, technical or long-cycle.

Once per quarter, rotating between incubators, accelerators and science parks across Flanders.

Pro-bono incubator sessions are still running: two more slots open in Q4 2026. Client engagements are fully booked through 2026. Intro calls are open now for January 2027. Two founder seats: one biotech, one climate-tech.

  • Live positioning teardown with founders in the room
  • GTM basics for regulated and deep-science products
  • What to measure in a long, technical sales cycle
  • Open Q&A. Bring the messy version

Run an incubator, accelerator or science park in Flanders? We'll come to you.

Want to run it under your own brand, on your own date? A private version of the session is €1.5k, with the agenda tailored to the founders in your portfolio.

Host a session
Bootcamp · 2027€750 early-bird

Commercialization Bootcamp

Three sessions. Five startups each. Two half-days plus a private coaching hour, and you leave with your product-market fit, positioning and brand decided, not theorized.

January and February are sold out. Limited spots remain for March and April. Confirm registration now and the early-bird rate is locked in.

  • 12 & 13 January 2027 · 13:30–17:30 CET, sold out
  • 9 & 10 February 2027 · 13:30–17:30 CET, sold out
  • 9 & 10 March 2027 · 13:30–17:30 CET
  • 13 & 14 April 2027 · 13:30–17:30 CEST
  • 11 & 12 May 2027 · 13:30–17:30 CEST

Product-market fit · Positioning · Building a brand, one price per startup, both seats included.

See dates and register

Where to start

A ladder, not a leap.

Most founders here start free and move up only when the work earns it. Every step is useful on its own.

  1. 01Free

    Start free

    Come to a quarterly session at an incubator near you. No pitch. Real work on the room's positioning.

  2. 02€950 per founder

    Learn the motion

    The commercialization course: small cohort, your own company as the case study, a 90-day plan you keep.

  3. 03€2.5k / month

    Get direction

    Advisory retainer: senior direction, a monthly plan and weekly working sessions while your team executes.

  4. 04€4.5k–€6.5k / month

    Hand over the load

    Embedded or lead retainer: we own the tracks alongside you: launches, campaigns, pipeline, hiring.

The first-marketing-hire moment

You've raised. The science works. Marketing is still on your desk.

We went looking for Flanders climate and biotech companies that had raised recently and had nobody owning marketing. The pattern was consistent: the first marketing hire almost always lands after a company passes roughly twenty people and closes a Series A. Before that line, commercial work sits with a founder who is also running the science.

The instinct at that point is to hire a marketing manager. That hire takes three to four months to find, another three to ramp, and still needs someone above them deciding what matters.

Read the research note
  • Senior direction from week one, not week thirty
  • Execution running alongside it, so the launch doesn't wait
  • A working system in place before you hire: positioning, playbooks, measurement
  • When you do hire, they walk into something that already works

And if a full-time hire is genuinely the better answer for where you are, we'll say so on the first call. It happens.

20+
Recently funded Flanders climate and biotech companies reviewed
~20 people
The size at which most finally make their first marketing hire, usually alongside a Series A
Almost none
Of the companies still under that line have anyone owning the commercial narrative

Our own review of publicly listed Flanders climate-tech and biotech scale-ups, September 2026. Company-level data stays private.

Questions founders ask

The short answers, up front.

The five questions we hear on almost every first call, answered the way we answer them in the room.

Who is Synapse & Scale?
Synapse & Scale is a marketing consultancy for biotech and climate-tech companies, co-led from Antwerp and San Francisco. It gives founders senior marketing leadership and hands-on execution without the cost of a full-time senior hire.
Who do you work with?
Founders and CEOs of small biotech, HealthTech and climate-tech companies, seed to Series B, who are shipping product and landing first customers. Most are between roughly 10 and 40 people and don't have a senior marketer yet.
Do you work with companies in Flanders?
Yes. The studio runs a dedicated Flanders programme from Antwerp: free quarterly sessions at Flemish incubators, a short commercialization course for founders, and a small-cohort bootcamp. Paid engagements are open to companies across Belgium, the EU and the US.
What does it cost to start?
The first steps are free (quarterly incubator sessions) or low-cost (the commercialization course at €950 per founder, or the bootcamp at an early-bird rate). Ongoing senior support starts at €2,500 a month on the advisory retainer.
How do we begin?
Book a 30-minute intro call through the contact page. You leave the call with a clear read on your positioning and one or two concrete next moves, whether or not we end up working together.

Ecosystem

We already speak the local map.

We know the rooms your funding and your first customers come out of: regional innovation agencies, sector clusters, accelerators, EU programmes. You don't spend a call explaining them.

  • VLAIO
  • Flanders.bio
  • Catalisti
  • Flux50
  • imec.istart
  • Birdhouse
  • Start it @KBC
  • Voka
  • BlueHealth Innovation Center
  • Horizon Europe · EIC · Innovation Fund

Engagements can be scoped to fit grant work packages, including the dissemination and communication deliverables Horizon Europe, EIC and Innovation Fund projects require. Clean Belgian invoicing, reporting-friendly scopes.

Voor Vlaamse oprichters

Vanuit Antwerpen, thuis in het Vlaamse innovatielandschap.

We zitten hier in de buurt: we kennen de incubatoren, de agentschappen en de financieringskanalen, en we komen graag eens langs voor een koffie. Je teksten en campagnes schrijven we in vlot Engels, dat is wat je internationale klanten en investeerders lezen.

  • Basis in Antwerpen, actief in heel Vlaanderen
  • Vertrouwd met de lokale incubatoren en het innovatienetwerk
  • Engelse teksten van moedertaalniveau voor markt, pers en investeerders
  • Nederlandse vertaling kan op aanvraag, als apart traject, niet inbegrepen in het standaardpakket
  • Belgische facturatie, ook binnen VLAIO- en EU-projecten

Who it's for

Local founders, global ambition.

Flanders-based biotech, HealthTech and climate-tech founders, seed to Series B, and the small commercial teams around them.

The programme runs out of Antwerp, with the same bench that works with founders in San Francisco, so what you get in a room in Flanders is what a US-facing launch actually asks for.

This page is our local programme. Based in the US or elsewhere? See the engagements. The studio works with founders on both sides of the Atlantic.

Next step

Come to a session. Or bring us a cohort.

Intro sessions are free and open. For the course, a 30-minute call sets format, cohort size and timing.

Get in touch