Inheritors 0/3 - Recollections

Dedicated to the people inheriting this country, continent and world.

Filip Nowak · 2 min read

Hello! I am Filip. I am 25 years old. I am originally Polish. I came to Belgium 6 years ago to study and have stayed since. I like fries, Antwerp has a nice river and a cool applied university, and I love Europe - the history, the heritage and the concept of the European Union.

First - to introduce North Star - at this point, we're the biggest AI & Robotics community in Belgium, probably in the Benelux. We want to build out the ecosystem in AI & Robotics - to lower the barrier to entry, to work on meaningful engineering projects, to host cool events that inspire and to tell a story that you can build something from Europe.

We hosted our first hackathon in March 2025 and since then have involved 2000+ builders and have (co-)organized over 30 events. We host a very cool robotics lab in our hangar with support from Port of Antwerp-Bruges.

North Star is different in the way that we don't really focus on big events with expensive catering. I will avoid the feeling of "posh" at all costs. One more thing: I am not a VC, nor am I affiliated with any - which you'll often find behind similar initiatives. North Star is here purely for the love of the game - seeing people build, then come back and tell us what they were able to achieve with our help.

Why? You might've heard of the Homebrew Computer Club, where 2 random Steves met and Apple was born. My goal is to make such clubs pop up in as many places as possible. For such a club, you only need passionate people - which you will find everywhere. They simply might not have a shared space to meet.

After 10 months of working on North Star full-time, I finally was able to take some proper time off. In this time I decided to write down a bunch of thoughts on all kinds of topics related to my professional life and the kind of person I'd like to become. I would like to talk about North Star's journey - what building a community/non-profit/startup has looked like from my perspective so far, and at what point I would be able to say: "I've done everything I could".

I titled it "Inheritors". In 20 years, today's executives, VCs, board members and politicians will fade away - and everything they run will land in your hands, ready or not. This is dedicated to you.

And just as much to the people retiring in those 20 years: the world you leave is the one your children, and everyone carrying your legacy, will have to work with.

I hope you enjoy it!