openthebox

𝗠𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗱𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺𝘀 𝗱𝗼𝗻'𝘁 𝗹𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝗱𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘀 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴. 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗹𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝘁 𝘁𝗼𝗼 𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲. ⌛ Three months in. After a partner has spent time on it. After an NDA has been signed. After a relationship that is hard to walk back from. This morning, Jonas Moortgat ran a session on what it looks like when qualification actually runs at the front of the process. Not in diligence. Not after the commitment. Before any of that. 🔍 The signals were there from day one. This webinar can show you actually where to look. Watch the recap. Link in the comments ⬇️

⏰ 𝗟𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗥𝗲𝗴𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿! Every deal team eventually checks the same things. The only question is when. Join Jonas Moortgat this Thursday for a short webinar on the five front-end checks that surface what you need to know in week one, not month four. Financial trajectory. Ownership structure. Real decision-makers. Structural risk. None of it new. All of it findable from day one. Stop finding out too late. 📅 Thursday 28th May 10:00 AM CET Link in the comments ⬇️

𝗥𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘀 𝗮 𝗱𝗶𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗴𝗮𝗺𝗲. 𝗜𝘁 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱𝘀 𝗱𝗶𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮. LRM doesn't operate like a typical investment firm. No international fund chasing returns across borders. Just deep roots in Limburg, backing the startups, scaling companies, and family businesses shaping the region's economic future. That kind of focus demands sharper data. Faster answers. Better-prepared conversations with the founders and owners across the table. So they switched to openthebox. Jeroen Symens and Friso Alenus, shared what changed: how group-structure analysis went from a full day to minutes, why their team adopted it without friction, and what better data means for the conversations that matter most. Read the full story in the comments ⬇️

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲 𝗩𝗹𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗸 𝗠&𝗔 𝗠𝗼𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗼𝗿 𝗶𝘀 𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗯𝗼𝘅 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝘂𝗽𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗺𝘂𝗹𝘁𝗶𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘀. Here's what shifted: • Tech climbs to 9.7x (up from 9.1x) • Buyers are more disciplined: 49% now close at prices lower than initial offers. • PE buyouts sustain 7.3x while strategic deals hold at 6.2x. • 56% of experts predict increased deal activity in 2026, with 30% expecting growth exceeding 10%. The consistent message: 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝘀 𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁. The firms winning on deal economics are not the ones executing better at the back end. They are the ones being more selective at the front. In openthebox, better selection starts with better data. Benchmark against these 2026 multiples and identify the targets where value creation is most likely 🚀 Great work by Mathieu Luypaert and the rest of the researchers at Vlerick Business School!

𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝘄𝗼 𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗰𝗲 𝗱𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘀. One asks whether an opportunity could work. The other asks whether the evidence supports pursuing it. From the outside, they look almost identical. The difference in outcome is not. The conviction-driven mindset is not recklessness. It just means enthusiasm fills the gaps where evidence should be. The model starts. The NDA gets signed. The relationship builds momentum. By the time anyone formally asks whether the deal deserves to be pursued, the answer has already been assumed. The firms that perform most consistently on deal economics are not the ones that execute better at the back end. They are the ones that are more selective at the front. The question worth sitting with is not whether your firm has the right criteria. It is whether, in your last Monday pipeline meeting, a deal advanced because the evidence supported it, or because no one was willing to be the person who said stop… We get into what that shift actually requires in our new blog. Read it here: https://lnkd.in/e_ZCWTPu

⌛𝗠𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗱𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺𝘀 𝗱𝗼𝗻'𝘁 𝗹𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝗱𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘀 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴. They lose them because they found it too late. Three months in. After the partner time. After the NDA. After the relationship that is hard to walk back from. On 𝗠𝗮𝘆 𝟮𝟴𝘁𝗵, Jonas Moortgat is walking through the five front-end checks that surface the signals every team checks eventually, just in week one instead of month four. Financial trajectory. Ownership structure. Real decision-makers. Structural risk. None of it new. All of it findable from day one. 🔍 Spot a bad fit in minutes, not months. Starts May 28th. Register below ⬇️

🗞️ 𝗥𝗲𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗯𝗼𝘅 𝗻𝗲𝘄𝘀 𝘀𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 Maybe you've been using it. Maybe you've scrolled past it. Either way, it just got a lot more useful. The news section got redesign and now pulls from 10 sources, giving you broader coverage of the companies that matter to you. And for two of those sources, L'Echo and De Tijd, you can now read articles directly in the app. No subscription needed. Each article surfaces the key topics driving why it's relevant to a specific company, so you spend less time filtering and more time acting on what you find. Clearer signals. More sources. All in one place. 📅 Want to see it in action? Jonas Moortgat will be walking through the news section live in our upcoming webinar, ‘How to Qualify Deals Earlier’. Worth joining if you want to get more out of the platform. Link in sign up in the comments ⬇️

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗮𝘆 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱𝘀 𝗶𝘁𝘀 𝗻𝗲𝘅𝘁 𝗱𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝗶𝘀 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴. For most of the industry's history, the model was the same: an entrepreneur builds something, looks for capital, and a fund decides whether to back them. That order is being inverted. On Tuesday, Professor Sophie Manigart joined Steve Deplacie for an hour on PE Market Trends 2026. One of many moments from that conversation has stayed with us ⤵ The question is no longer who has the best deals on their desk. It is who has the best lens on the market itself. Watch the full webinar on demand, in English, 60 minutes: https://bit.ly/427HdbB

𝗧𝘂𝗿𝗻𝘀 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝗵𝗮𝘀 𝘀𝗲𝗰𝗿𝗲𝘁 𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀 👀 Last week, we got together for two days of QBR, and not a slide-deck marathon in sight. Escape rooms (all teams made it out). Hackathons (a few origin stories were born). Long dinners. Longer conversations about where openthebox goes next. The real superpower showed up in the discussion. Every person in the room contributed to the roadmap, shaped the OKRs, and pressure-tested the KPIs we're committed to. That's the difference between goals handed down and goals owned. 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗲 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗻, 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗲 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝗱𝗲𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗶𝘁. Onwards! There's a continent to make more investable 🦸♀️ 🦸♂️ 🎨 The OTB League created by of our master of ceremonies Filip Wauters

𝗧𝗼𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗿𝗼𝘄. ⏰ We go live with Professor Sophie Manigart (Vlerick Business School) & Steve Deplacie for an honest conversation on where European private equity actually stands in 2026. We'll also be unpacking the findings from our 𝗕𝗲𝗹𝗴𝗶𝗮𝗻 𝗙𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗹𝘆 𝗢𝗳𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝗠𝗼𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗼𝗿 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲, and asking Sophie what they mean for how PE professionals should be thinking about the market. 60 minutes. Free. In English. Live Q&A included. Last chance to register. Link in the comments. 👇