Stories

Sebastien Deletaille, JA Alumnus

CEO & Founder of Real Impact Analysis Young Enterprise Belgium (High School, 2001-2002)

“The JA experience is a concentrate of entrepreneurial candy: once you start, you can’t stop.”

Sébastien is the co-founder and CEO at Real Impact Analytics. He drives the company’s vision, strategy and growth as it transforms telecom data into action.Sébastien’s leadership is taking a great team of 80+ exceptional achievers to 30+ countries implementing our analytics products.

Sébastien launched Real Impact Analytics with Loïc Jacobs van Merlen to meet the need for “Big Data” analytics globally. With Real Impact Analytics, Sébastien has been developing analytics and business intelligence solutions as well as products for telecom operators since 2009. Sébastien and his co-founder Loïc, both attended the same High School and University.

Sébastien has made 60+ implementations happen across Africa, Latin America and the Middle East. Prior to launching Real Impact Analytics, Sébastien worked for McKinsey & Company. He still is a board member to McKinsey Alumni for Belgium and Luxembourg. He holds a Msc in Business Engineering from Solvay Business School (ULB) from which he graduated Summa cum Laude. He also supports entrepreneurship and education organizations.

Sébastien, now 30, says his JA Company Programme experience was a “turning point” and convinced him that he wanted to run his own business one day.

“The JA experience is a concentrate of entrepreneurial candy: once you start, you can’t stop. Whether during my young enterprise or during the entrepreneurial club, I got the opportunity to test myself in a risk-free environment. I learnt how much easier it is to sell when you have a great product, how talent will attract talent and how you only actually become a leader if you manage to inspire your team. Without any doubt, JA was the most defining programme I have had the chance to participate in. Whenever I meet a teenager who wonders what to do in his life, I tell him he should be part of a young enterprise. It might not provide all the answers but it opens your mind to lots of new options.

JA had a huge influence on the course of my life. It confirmed my desire to follow business studies at university and it drove me to quit my first job to start 3 start-ups. In a word, JA gave me the entrepreneurship bug. I don’t think I will ever go back to being an employee, my real motivation comes from creating new ventures and capturing new opportunities. I discovered this through the JA programs. JA also influenced the life of several of my JA friends. Some created their own companies and some were recruited in my current venture. JA alumni have a very strong ability to deal with uncertainty and that is very important for success in entrepreneurship.”