Seppe Van Daele
"Helping children grow, with every exercise they do"
The Van Daele family has always taken a keen interest in education. Seppe Van Daele’s mother is a care coordinator, and his sister is a teacher, so many a kitchen-table conversation inevitably focused on how to ensure that every child is truly included. “This can be a real challenge in large, diverse groups of kids”, he says. What started as a frustration gradually morphed into an idea. And ultimately into a mission.
Launching a business from the kitchen table
While in his last year of business informatics at UHasselt, Seppe discovered the power of machine learning. “I suddenly realised the possibilities: an exercise platform that can be adapted to each child. Not just to their performance, but also to their motivation, or how they feel that day. I just couldn’t stop thinking about it. I decided that that was what I wanted to build.”
The first step in Seppe’s journey was winning a Gen Z Award from Jong Voka (the Junior Chamber of Commerce). With the support of StudentStartUP, he pitched his idea to a professional jury. “That was definitely a step outside of my comfort zone”, says the UHasselt alumnus with a laugh. “At the same time, it felt right.” While he did not win the competition, it did boost his confidence. But things really took off when his father, with several years of IT experience, came on board. Startit@KBC supported them with additional coaching and a workplace at the Corda Campus.
Not a straight line
What followed was more of an obstacle course rather than a straight line to success. After one year, they were ready to throw in the towel. “While Wijsr (the name of our platform at the time) provided a solution to a very specific problem, it was very difficult to market it as such”, Seppe explains. “An unexpected freelance assignment and innovative start-up support from VLAIO (Flanders Innovation and Entrepreneurship) gave us a breather, and an opportunity to rethink and redefine our offering.”
With Automatus, they changed tack: away from the home market with a solution that was geared to schools. “We started out with about 20 schools in the 2023 school year. We had the potential, but our solution wasn’t profitable. We needed visibility.” To achieve this, they organised a world record attempt on 14 March 2024: more than 22,000 students completed 8,595,589 exercises in just one hour. “It was amazing”, says Seppe with a smile. And that’s how we got the traction we needed.”
Growing impact
Today, around 400 schools, 100 of which are in the Netherlands, use the platform. Every day, pupils make >1.5 million arithmetic exercises. “Things have really taken off. We are growing. But more importantly, we are really making a difference. Not just for one student, but for entire class groups. This is why we do it.”
Short bio
STUDIES
-
2016-2019: Bachelor in Business Engineering, UHasselt
-
2019-22021: Master of Business Engineering, UHasselt
WORK EXPERIENCE
-
2021-present: co-founder, Automatus (automatus.be)
10 questions for Seppe
After secondary school, I went on to study business engineering because...
“the programme had a wide scope, allowing me to keep my options open. I was actually considering studying architecture for a while because I always liked to build things, but it was the open class day in business engineering that sealed the deal.”
What made studying in Diepenbeek so special...
“being in the heart of student life. We lived on Peperstraat in Diepenbeek, where there is a lot of student housing. This allowed me to fully enjoy student life, as well as having the luxury of living at home.”
My favourite spot on campus was...
“the dartboard in Fitlink. I spent a lot of my free time there.”
The teacher who inspired me the most was...
“To be honest, I was inspired by all the lecturers of the business informatics programme. They were approachable, engaged, and they also gave us the confidence to grow.”
As a student, I was...
“always very busy. On Saturdays and Sundays, I worked at IKEA. I was also a student representative for the faculty meetings. Being busy always gave me an energy boost.”
If there’s one thing I learned at UHasselt, it’s..
“that often all you need to do is study the slide decks to pass the exam. (laughs) To be honest, I rarely revised my courses and textbooks in detail.”
How would you describe your job in no more than 5 sentences?
“No two days are the same. My to-do list covers everything from design and application building to website optimisation and support. Every day, I am challenged to take our product, our marketing and communication to the next level. Everything revolves around one goal: increasing the number of exercises pupils do every day. In the morning, I have no idea what my day will look like. Obviously, I make plans, but all it takes is one support ticket to change everything. There’s definitely a lot of variety in my job.”
What do you find most enjoyable / challenging about your job?
“When you feel that what you do really has an impact. When teachers tell you that their class has never done so well, or when schools say that only our method produces effective progress. That’s why we do what we do.”
In my opinion, the key to success lies in...
“luck to some extent. You often see hard-working start-ups with a good product that fail nonetheless. We also considered quitting at one point. But we got back on track thanks to an unexpected freelance assignment. The path to success is rarely a straight line. Sometimes it’s more of an obstacle course.”
If you were able/want to do something or give back to your alma mater, what would it be?
“I already try to give back where possible. We recently collaborated with UHasselt on research based on our Automatus data. And I also already gave a session for Economics Day and a guest lecture in which I shared our journey.”
