The creation of the Want You Club in 2013
The power of the team does not only originate from the sports side, with victories in the most prestigious one day races or Grand Tour stages. The team also has a solid structure with passionate sponsors and an extended team of staff, adding more experienced members year after year such as sports director Valerio Piva or Aike Visbeek in 2020.
“I’m also thinking of the arrival of Benuit Cuisinier, coming from the basketball world. We could also rely on a decent group of loyal sponsors. When Accent decided to withdraw, we were in panic. It was September 2013 and we had to submit our application tot he UCI in October. The deadline was tight. This could have meant the end of our team. My only option was to meet Benoit Soenen to search for a solution to continue the team without Accent. He discussed it with his business partner Christophe Wanty. Two days later he said: ‘ok, we take it over’. There was a meeting between Wanty and Gobert, two historical sponsors of the team. They found the project interesting and joined forces to get our team out of trouble. Without their intervention everything could have gone under. And then began a new era. With Ronald Gobert, Benoit Soenen, Christophe Wanty, David Sauvage and myself we built something solid. The five of us launched Want You cycling, coupled to the Want You Club, a business club launched in 2013.”
In 2013 the strategists of the team invented a new concept, the launch of a business club, with the goal of bringing partners together. The idea was to give partners the opportunity to meet each other, get to know each other better and to develop business relationships.
The club reunites five to ten times per year, mainly in context of cycling events. On these days the entrepreneurs get the opportunity to present their activities and to share thoughts with other members.
Business cards are exchanged, future alliances are formed. The ten companies forming the Want You Club in 2013 are, one by one, still part of the business club which now grew to almost hundred participating companies. The team innovated by setting up this network, florishing in the cycling world, in which big, medium and smaller companies are welcome.
The Want You Club grew to an indispensible and efficient tool for the structure in terms of sponsoring. Next to the financial aspect, this innovation contributes to the development of a feeling of solidarity within a common project.
Camaraderie, creativity, innovation – a leitmotiv!
