We sat down with Sebastien, co-founder and CTO of Ring Twice, Belgium's leading neighborhood services platform, to discuss the company's 12-year journey, their human-first values, and how their recent three-month collaboration with SustAIn.brussels helped shape the future of AI integration within their platform. With a background in Software Engineering and Entrepreneurship from UCL, Sebastien has successfully bridged the gap between technology and business, building a company that has grown from concept to over 20 full-time employees while maintaining its core principle of putting people first.
Q: Can you tell us about Ring Twice and your role in the company?
S.S: I am the co-founder and CTO of Ring Twice, working alongside two other co-founders who focus on the business side of the company. The idea was simple: help individuals in a neighborhood find each other for small services, things like gardening, tutoring, repairs etc. Today, we’re the number one platform of this kind in Belgium, and we are now expanding into France. Our vision is to go international across Europe. We currently have over 1 million users across Belgium and France using the platform to find and offer services.
Q: What inspired you to start this venture?
S.S: The original idea came during my university studies. I was working on a thesis where we had to create a fictional company. I came across TaskRabbit in the US and was really impressed. We adapted this concept for the European market, taking into account factors like work permits and Belgium-specific regulations. The feedback was excellent, and that's how Ring Twice was born. I've been working on it for 12 years now, and the company has grown to over 20 full-time employees.
Q: What are the core values that guide Ring Twice?
S.S: The Human element is central to everything we do. We put a lot of effort into ensuring that trust is built between people. Of course, we have the technology, but our goal is to create the best human experience possible. We have an operations team that personally onboard people on the platform, making sure they understand how it works, the rules, and how to communicate well. We also use data-driven tools such as ratings, communication responsiveness, and services evaluations to identify top performers.
Q: What were your challenges and how did the collaboration with SustAIn.brussels come about?
S.S: We participated in a training track focused on AI in engineering. It was a great opportunity to explore what AI could bring to our business. One big challenge for us was around matching algorithms. Users often look for a single service, but don’t realize the platform offers much more. We wanted to build a recommendation system to cross-sell services and improve the discovery process.
“The fact that sustain offered a first proof of concept for free was a game changer”
Q: What was the process like working on a Discovery by Proof of Concept with SustAIn.brussels, and how did you find the collaboration overall?
S.S: It was very structured and went really well. We started with a business workshop where we explained Ring Twice's purpose in depth, filling out detailed documentation about our business vision, metrics, data, and challenges. Then came a deep-dive workshop to explore concrete examples and edge cases.
Initially, we had our data engineer help format our data so it could work with the AI model, and later included our senior developer to complete the team. SustAIn.brussels developed a Proof of Concept (POC) with clear instructions on how to run it on our developer's machines.
The SustAIn.brussels team was exceptionally well-aligned, whether it was business, data, or technical people, everyone understood our needs. Everything promised was delivered: source code, documentation, and insights. It was truly a collaborative experience, and their technical expertise with clear explanations of how different AI models work was invaluable. It gave us a strong foundation to build on.
Q: What was your biggest learning or takeaway from this AI collaboration experience?
S.S: A lot! The first workshop helped us understand what AI could really do. With a deep expertise, SustAIn.brussels could immediately propose relevant AI solutions to our problems. We also realized that AI isn’t plug and play. It requires real investment of time and resources to bring it to production. It’s not as simple as handing it off to your backend developer, it needs the right expertise and planning. We also learned that we don’t have all the necessary resources in-house so we will need to work with an external agency. And, conveniently, we also now know how to talk and how to choose our partners.
Q: Would you recommend a Discovery by proof of Concept to other start-ups?
S.S: Absolutely! It was a fantastic learning experience and incredibly helpful for a company at our stage.
“If you want to experience the same rapid transformation from concept to prototype, and turn your sustainable business vision into reality, contact sustAIn.brussels and start your journey today!”
From a university thesis project to Belgium's leading neighborhood services platform, Ring Twice's journey reflects the power of combining vision with the right partnerships. Their collaboration with SustAIn.brussels proves that with structured guidance and expert support, even complex AI integration can become an accessible pathway for startups ready to take their impact to the next level—one neighborhood at a time.
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