Securing Your Business: Developing an intellectual property strategy for growth

In today‘s fast-paced world, start-ups, scale-ups, and SMEs often find
themselves navigating turbulent waters. These “speedboat” businesses,
characterised by agility, innovation and limited resources, face unique
challenges in securing their business models with adequate IP  strategies.
An Cosaert’s new book is a groundbreaking guide that equips those
small companies with cost-effective tools to turn innovative ideas into
scalable businesses, ready to thrive in a competitive landscape.

· A forward-thinking approach to IP instead of a traditional, defensive
one;
· Practical, cost-effective tools tailored to start-ups, scale-ups, and SMEs;
· A shift in mindset—from merely defending to strategically securing
intellectual assets—that positions businesses for sustainable growth
from the start.

As an essential resource for entrepreneurs looking to transform ideas
intothriving, future-proof enterprises, the book demystifies IP management, making sophisticated strategies accessible and affordable for everyone. Ultimately, it provides vital advice for speedboat businesses to navigate the challenges of growth and maintain competitiveness in their markets.

Throughout her career, An Cosaert has worked at the intersection of innovation, entrepreneurship, and intellectual property. Fascinated by technology and the way new ideas can transform industries, she first set out to pursue a degree in industrial engineering electromechanics. Thus equipped with a strong analytical mindset and a broad technical foundation, she started her professional journey at KU Leuven, where she conducted research on textile composites.
Switching the academic world for R&D at various international corporates, she gained hands-on experience in material applications and learned how technology translates into real-world industrial solutions. This environment allowed her to refine her ability to translate complex technical concepts into clear and accessible knowledge.
In 2007, she took a pivotal step in her career by becoming an innovation consultant and expert, first at the West Flanders Innovation Centre and later on at Antwerp Management School. Here, she discovered her passion for guiding start-ups, scale-ups and SMEs through their innovation processes. She gained deep insights into the strategic importance of IP and developed methods to make IP more accessible and actionable for entrepreneurs (in the making), thus bridging the gap between innovative ideas and scalable business models.
Since 2018, she is teaching Intellectual Property Strategy at Antwerp Management School (Master programme Sustainable Innovation & Entrepreneurship).
In 2019, she started her own consultancy agency Inquirendi (Latin for “on a discovery”) bringing together innovation, entrepreneurship, and IP. Since then, she has been helping companies futureproof their innovation and IP strategies and support them in building scalable, sustainable, technology-driven businesses.
Recently, she expanded her ventures with Scalendi (Latin for “scaling”), an agency that focuses on developing IP strategies that support the scaling or growth of companies, through business model
alignment and IP due diligence preparation. 
It is not only her mission, but also her passion to make intellectual property both achievable and strategically valuable for businesses navigating an ever-evolving world.