Recap RISE NL

From the 31st of May until the 2nd of June the very first edition of RISE NL came to life! Twelve students from eleven different student organisations all over the Netherlands (Academic Business Club Tilburg, TU/e Innovation Space, UtrechtInc Students, DSIF, Kickoff Eindhoven, Dutch Students for Entrepreneurship, Lugus Leiden, ECE, Founder Club Maastricht, Yes!Delft Students, Maastricht Entrepreneurs and StartHub Wageningen) organised a three days event in Delft while only seeing each other for the first time on the 31st of May. A short summary of what happened:

DAY 1 - THE GRAND KEYNOTE

The kickoff of RISE NL was a great success, thanks to our wonderful speakers and great hosts, Bruno, Denisa and our very own Hugo from the student board. Julian Jagtenberg (founder of Somnox) started the night with an introductory talk about student entrepreneurship and his company, whereafter Steven Nelemans (founder of Amber) inspired us with his journey and how he succeeded as a young entrepreneur. After the break, Denisa talked with the discussion panel about the hippie, hacker, hustler paradigm with entrepreneurs Nina Hoff, Priyanka Harish and our very own Frej Gustafsson (co-founder of Reshore).

DAY 2 - THE LION’S CAGE

This evening six startups pitched their ideas for four lions, Pleuni Hooijman, David Cerda Salzmann, Suradj Hilal and Martijn van den Hul. In the Ideation Round Reef Support and Farmvent and Ephora Solutions from StartHub’s community presented themselves. In the Market-Entry Round Respire, Apeiron Smart Systems and Myst Works pitched their startup. After the startups pitched their ideas the lions asked some questions and gave some feedback. The lions will come back to the startups if they think there is an investment opportunity. Also, thanks to Maartje Bakker for being a great host!

DAY 3 - THE BATTLE

Day three was the night of the battle! Eight startups representing eight cities across the Netherlands, Rotterdam, Leiden, Eindhoven, Delft, Utrecht, Maastricht, Wageningen and Enschede, battled against each other to be the best. After they pitched their startups, our insightful and experienced jury that consisted out of Sander Peltenburg, Jonathan Teoh and Robin van Scheijndel agreed on selecting Clairify and Moja for the finale. The audience choice was Laminara, a startup that is now participating in the Ideation program of StartHub. 

In the finale Clairify, Moja and Laminara had to explain in 30 seconds why they deserved to win 500 euros, on the spot. Afterwards, the jury decided that Moja was the best startup! The audience award went to Laminara again. Congrats to both teams!

We are very proud to be part of this first RISE NL team, where Hugo of our student board was in charge of the first day and Wietske in charge of the marketing of RISE specifically, but are mostly proud of the way all these student entrepreneurship organisations managed to collaborate for the first time with such a successful event as result. This event was the first of many more to come in the future, make sure to follow the socials (LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram: riseeventnl) for the latest updates. See you next year!

Want to watch The Grand Keynote and The Lion’s Cage? Check them out via the following links:

• The Grand Keynote: https://youtu.be/_7hbICly6ko 

• The Lion’s Cage: https://youtu.be/e0eJcmNuALE 

Recap Diversity Week

From the 8th until the 12th of March, StartHub’s very first Diversity Week took place! This week we focused on starting the conversation about diversity and inclusivity in entrepreneurship.

The fact is, the world of entrepreneurship is dominated by white men. Unfortunately, not everyone gets equal opportunities to make it in the startup scene. For example, there are more Dutch CEOs called Peter in the Netherlands than female CEOs and all the statistics show that funding is not distributed equally. By organising this week, we want stimulate to take action, start the conversation and show StartHub is there for everyone!

Monday, 8th of March

We kicked off the week on Monday, International Women’s Day, with an event about female entrepreneurship. Wendy de Jong, CEO of OostNL and Pim de Bokx, business incubator manager had a conversation together with our host Dieuwertje de Wagenaar who works at Circular Fashion Lab and Wageningen University and Research. They had an interesting conversation about the severity of the problem, why this is a problem and possible solutions to get more female entrepreneurs. Want to watch the event again? You can find the recording here!

Wednesday, 10th of March

On Wednesday, we had an interesting workshop with our community, on cultural differences and how to deal with those in the best way while working together. It was interesting to see how different cultures influence different behaviours!

Thursday, 11th of march

On Thursday, ASIF Ventures organised the event ‘‘Wo(Men) Alliship - how men can further gender equity’’. Different guests where interviewed, including Prins Constantijn van Oranje-Nassau.

Friday, 12th of March

To wrap up the week, we had a live Q&A session ‘‘Starting up in the Netherlands’’ via our Instagram. We interviewed three founders of our community that all have something in common: they moved from a foreign country to the Netherlands and started their own company! Nikolaos from Greece, Juliana from Mexico and Aria from Iran talked to us about what it is like to start up in the Netherlands. We asked if they experienced difficulties or benefits by speaking another language or having another cultural background. Interested in the conversations? You can find the video on our Instagram account (@starthubwageningen)!

To conclude, it was a great week with interesting guests and conversations. Ofcourse, diversity and inclusion is a topic that should be discussed regularly, not one week once a year. So, this is not where the conversation ends! Can’t get enough of this topic? On our social media we posted some book and movie recommendations.

Want to know more about what we do about inclusivity and diversity? Get in touch with us!

United Wardrobe Interview

Interview with United Wardrobe co-founder Thijs Verheul

By StartHub Wageningen

‘Vinted buys second-hand clothing platform United Wardrobe’ - this was one of the headlines in the national newspapers in the Netherlands. United Wardrobe, founded by two Wageningen University bachelor students, grew in six years from an idea, few people believed in, to a large impactful company with more than 4 million customers in the Netherlands, Belgium and France. The StartHub student board went to United wardrobe, an alumni startup of StartHub, for an interview with Thijs Verheul. Why did he sell the company, what made him be or become an entrepreneur and how did he combine it with his studies? These are just some of the questions that came across. We started with a small tour through their office. Well, office? If a place with a ping pong table, a bar and a vibe you expect to see at an innovative, impactful and young company is considered an “office” then, yes.

You started United Wardrobe during your bachelor studies in Wageningen, could you tell us a bit about your background?  
"I was 18 years old when I finished high school, I started studying law here in Utrecht. Why I went studying law? Well, actually I had no idea, people who study law make quite some money and a friend of mine was going to study it. I quit after one day during my fist lecture and after some tears of my mom, 4 months of working in the window cleaning company of my father and half a year of being a ski teacher I started studying again; Business and Consumer Studies in Wageningen. I started in Wageningen because again some friends were going to study there. This time I decided to join a student association. I went on the introduction camp of the student association, thinking it was a ‘nice get to know each other camp’, which was not the case. I decided to quit at day two.”

““Entrepreneurship is like professional sports” ”

— Thijs Verheul

What is in your eyes the reason for the success of United Wardrobe? 
“I think that the success of United Wardrobe is first of all due to some luck, but also because of the fact that three elements came together in our team, a hippie, a hustler and a hacker. In my opinion, it is necessary for a successful startup to have those three elements. The hippie is the person with the long term vision, in our case this was Sjuul, one of the founders of United Wardrobe as well. Whether you are a second-hand clothing platform, a seed breeder or you want to have a tractor that sprays grain very far. You need someone that really visualises and believes in the idea you have. The hippie then needs someone to arrange everything, because they often find it difficult to translate their idea and vision into actual work, the hustler. Within United Wardrobe I was the hustler, I really enjoy arranging things quickly and really live in the present. Why? Well today you need to make orders, today we need to make deals, today you can go viral. But what happens in three weeks? No idea. Therefore I am also sure that if I had formed a team with someone just like me, we would have a miserably failed bankrupt company in three weeks. Eventually you also need a hacker, the one who really builds the product, platform or service. Moreover, I believe that entrepreneurship is nature and not nurture. You can’t learn someone to become an entrepreneur, but you can accompany someone or send them into the right direction.”

Cool, thanks for sharing your vision on how a successful startup team looks like! You said that you believe that entrepreneurship is nature and not nurture, what do you then think of StartHub, where we give entrepreneurship education and support student entrepreneurs? 
“It is nice and good that entrepreneurship is offered in Wageningen, but you should not expect someone without affinity for entrepreneurship to become a real one. However, Wageningen is a real beta/scientific university so therefore I think entrepreneurship or studies like Business and Consumer Studies have a high added value. I especially support the fact that you give young entrepreneurs an advantageous loan and lead them into the right direction, but with a good entrepreneurial team you should be able to arrange everything yourself.“

Thanks for these insights! Let’s go back to your journey. You mentioned you started studying Business and Consumer Studies in Wageningen and we are wondering how you proceeded. 
“During my studies I met Sjuul Berden, the “Hippie” of United Wardrobe. He had the idea of beginning a second-hand clothing platform based on experience of his three sisters. One lived in Berlin, one in New York and with Christmas they all came together. When they came together, they always exchanged second-hand clothes, which they bought at marketplaces or vintage shops. There was no central and safe place to exchange second-hand clothing yet and Sjuul wanted to start such a place. He asked me to build this together and at first I was sceptical. You already have Facebook groups or marketplaces and it is kind of a weird idea. Four months long, he kept asking me until I finally said yes. Even though it took me four months to say yes to the idea, I went for it for 100 percent. We created a logo and our name, looked for a designer and someone for the IT and after 14 evenings in the library of the university the design of our platform was finished. At the beginning, Wageningen was very supportive for example by offering a student loan, a small loan with very beneficial circumstances.“

That seems quite busy, setting up your own company and at the same time doing your studies, how did you combine these two aspects? 
“Haha, well it was not easy, I really wanted to finish my bachelor and I wanted to grow United wardrobe to the max. Finding a balance came with some struggles but eventually I did finish my bachelor.”

“‘’As an entrepreneur you are a bit of a cowboy in the wild west’’”

— Thijs Verheul

And if you look back now, would you start again during your studies with your own startup? 
“It is very easy to be wise in hindsight, because it all worked out. We grew very fast in the Netherlands, spread to other countries and now sold the company to Vinted which made me financially independent. I am very aware of the fact that I also had a lot of luck with my team and the market developments. I went home early during parties, hardly drank, ate healthy and worked very much and hard. In my opinion, a startup that really wants to achieve the top is like professional sports. You see a lot of young startups that think it is nice to have a startup, which is true, but there is also a backside. At the front it looks cool, an office in Utrecht with a Ping-Pong table and a bar, but in the back you also have things like (financial) risks, burn-outs and so on. As an entrepreneur you are a bit of a cowboy in the wild west, especially in our sector. It should all just work out”

I can hear that you really wanted to grow and reach the maximum with United Wardrobe, but had to sacrifice quite a bit to achieve this. What was your main motivation then? 
“Look, I could lie and say it was all about making a sustainable impact. Yes, I found it really, really cool that we created a booming second-hand clothing market and thereby reduced fast fashion. This definitely played a part in my motivation. However, I also think becoming financially independent and reaching a goal were part of my main motivation.”

“Moreover, it is important to set big goals. One of the goals was running 10,000 orders in 24 hours. Last May, we achieved this goal and we immortalised it on our bodies with a tattoo. If my next company becomes a unicorn, another tattoo will be added to this one”

You were talking about sustainable impact, how do you view and manage your impact? How do you keep an eye on this and work towards it, and how would you inspire others to do so?
“We didn’t really look after the amount of profit we made, we did look to the amount of clothes that were transferred via our platform. This was because of two reasons. First of all, as a startup you don’t really need to make profit and the more clothes we trade, the more impact we create. That’s also why we for example placed cheaper clothes above more expensive ones.”

And now that you sold United Wardrobe to Vinted, what are your future plans? 
“A lot of things… Right now I am still living in my student home together with my brother, so I am going to buy a house. I will also keep on working on the transfer of United Wardrobe to Vinted. Furthermore, I will get some rest by carp fishing; a hobby of mine I really enjoy. Thereafter I would like to set up a new company, so if everything goes right you will all have a new app on your phone in a few years.”

You probably are not going to tell what kind of app right?
“Haha, I actually told it to too many people already, so let’s keep it a secret.”

Well, thanks a lot for the interview! Do you maybe have a final message you would like to give to our students?
“What I want to give as a final message? The most important thing is that you find out who you are and what you want. Do you want to start doing business at the highest level? Do you want to bring in investment round after investment round? Maybe you want to sell your business for a lot of money or stay in your company very long or whatever. Then you need to have a very good team and also be very lucky. It is actually not always fun. You need to work hard, miss parties, and sometimes even family events. That's not fun, but it’s necessary if you want to have a chance to reach the top. That is easy for me to say, because it all worked out. People often say that success is a choice - but of course it isn't! Just find out who you are and what you want. If you don't know, just try out a lot of thing and you will find out automatically.”

Stress at StartHub

Stress is a normal part of life for everyone. Some stress is good and can help you become more productive and aware in high pressure situations. The natural, physical response to it will trigger your fight-or-flight mechanism, which will help you handle emergencies in an effective way. However, when stress is constant over time, it can be detrimental to your health. The fact that the number of students facing mental health issues related to chronic stress is still growing, shows we should devote more attention to how students can cope with- or decrease their stress levels. Hence, this week the Surf your Stress program provides insight in the influence of stress on your body and mind and offers practical tips on how to deal with it.

As the student startup incubator and educator of Wageningen University & Research, we work on a daily basis with students who spend a lot of time and effort on growing their entrepreneurial skills and ideas. From the work of Peter Vork, who did his MSc thesis on stress among student entrepreneurs, we know that entrepreneurial students are prone to experiencing moderate to high levels of stress during their career for numerous reasons. For some of them, combining the academic and entrepreneurial demands simply gives them too much workload. For others, dealing with uncertainty (and risk taking), managing high external expectations and coping with stakeholder demands results in chronic stress. Also, significant attention should be paid to stress originating from the challenges that are faced when working in a team.  

That is why, already one month ago, we devoted our first Inspiration session to this particular topic. Together Peter Vork, Wilmar Pasveer, Lian Angelino, Mendelt Tillema and Lisa Ploum, we discussed multiple statements about stress. Here we shortly went over some of the principles of effectuation, which can help entrepreneurs to maintain control by taking small steps in one direction instead of working towards long-term goals with unpredictable outcomes. The five principles of the effectuation theory can be found on https://www.effectuation.org/. The recording of Inspiration 1: ‘’Let’s talk about stress’’ can be accessed here.

To this day, we already strongly advise our students to make use of the coaches that we have, to talk about one’s mental wellbeing. Yet to better understand, deal with and prevent stress among entrepreneurial students, we are working together with Peter on ways to improve our incubator. According to his research, organizing events, workshops or courses on stress management will raise awareness and create a better understanding of the needs of our students. In the future, establishing a peer group of entrepreneurial members who get together periodically to share relevant stress-related experiences and coping resources might turn out to be a great way to prevent and deal with stress in an early stage. This can be done in the form of a group session led by a coach, who ensures a safe environment where you can blow off steam.  

We are always looking for your opinion on how to improve our Hub. Are you willing to share it? Just send us an email at Starthub.wageningen@wur.nl.