Accounting is a serious business. Fortunately, Tim Vandecasteele is here to liven things up with his fintech startup, die van de boekhouding. “Make no mistake: we’re the most tech-driven accounting firm out there.”

“Guess who I was chatting with last night?” Tim Vandecasteele is still buzzing from the Wintercircus Collective event in the Arena the night before. We meet up with him at Bar Bougie to talk about his startup, die van de boekhouding - Dutch for ‘Jenny from Accounts.’ The answer to his mostly rhetorical question? “A farmer building giant biomass plants! Okay, I know Collective is all about bringing together a diverse bunch of entrepreneurs and creatives. Still, it’s amazing to see that actually happen. I don’t want to spend my life stuck in a tech bubble, disconnected from the real world. I found my conversation with that farmer genuinely stimulating.”

Judging by the name of Tim’s company, it’s safe to assume the farmer enjoyed the conversation just as much. After all, not every tech startup exhibits a sense of humor in its name. “And we’re a tech startup in accounting, no less,” Tim laughs. “Not exactly an industry known for its fun factor. But that was the point. Our name sets us apart from the rest of the accounting world. It’s also ironic - to have this totally commonplace name while we’re the most tech-driven accounting firm out there.”

Tim Vandecasteele: Of course, the name might suggest a lack of international ambition, but Tim is quick to dismiss that idea. “With a startup, I’m a big believer in focus,” he says. “Right now, our focus is Belgium - specifically Belgian management companies. Besides, every language has its own version of ‘die van de boekhouding’ or ‘Jenny from Accounts.’ So that’s not something I worry about. At all.”

Moreover, given that Tim co-founded Silverfin - a successful cloud platform for accountants that he sold just a year and a half ago - accusing him of lacking ambition would be a stretch. His passion for accounting is equally hard to question, although he readily admits that after Silverfin, he initially considered tackling a different sector. “But I kept getting pulled back to accounting,” Tim says. “And when I started talking with my co-founder, Domien Claeys, we realized something. With Silverfin, we transformed the backend of accounting firms. But those firms still ended up offering the same service. Whereas with today’s technology - specifically, everything AI-related - we see an opportunity to improve that service and make it far more efficient.”

Still, the co-founder of die van de boekhouding points out that traditional accounting firms aren’t really to blame. “They have an established way of working—you can’t expect them to just overhaul everything, even with all the software we could develop for them,” he explains. “But as a new player, we can do things completely differently. So, instead of offering software as a service (SaaS) to other accounting firms, we flipped the model: we’ve launched a corporate accounting service that runs entirely on our own software. It’s service as software.”

Or as Wintercircus CEO Louis Jonckheere would say: “die van de boekhouding is not an accountancy firm using AI. It’s an AI company with accountants. Big difference. They are rebuilding the service business model with AI at the core.“

Domien and Tim are well aware that, in doing so, they’re effectively sidelining traditional accountants. “And I get that some are upset with us because of it,” Tim admits. “But they need to understand—we’re not the ones setting this in motion. The impact of AI, that wave of automation, is inevitable. If we don’t take this opportunity, someone else will. It’s really that simple.”

Even so, by working exclusively with management companies, die van de boekhouding isn’t launching a full-blown revolution - yet. “Right now, we’re only onboarding newly formed companies,” Tim stresses. That might sound niche, “but there are already over 80,000 management companies in Belgium, and that number keeps growing.”

Their specific approach, he explains, is all about intentional focus. “The narrower your focus, the faster you can become the best at something - in Belgium or even in the world.” But it’s also about co-creating. ”We grow alongside our clients. They’re starting fresh; we’re starting fresh. It allows us to fine-tune our processes through constant dialogue and prove how efficient they are. And once we’ve done that, that’s when we can really hit the accelerator.”

It’s clear this isn’t Tim’s first rodeo - not just from his savvy strategy but also from his quiet confidence. “That’s not to say this is a walk in the park,” he says. “I’m definitely having fun, no doubt about that. But we’re targeting a completely different audience than before. On top of that, everything to do with AI is evolving so quickly that if you want to avoid launching something that’s already outdated, you have to constantly think about future scenarios that go far beyond what’s already possible.”

That’s why Tim isn’t just being sought out for advice at the Wintercircus Startup Campus; he’s also putting his feelers out himself. “The cross-pollination really works,” he says. There is, however, one more thing he feels strongly about on Campus, even as a seasoned entrepreneur. “Startups here are challenged to think about impact and diversity. Because while both are crucial, they’re often the first to slip your mind when you’re deep in product development. That’s why I really value being reminded of them constantly - even if we all know there’s no magic formula to get it right. It’s, well, genuinely stimulating.”