Author: rick jans

As you all know the dynamism, flexibility and innovative power of startups are the perfect answer to society’s biggest challenges. We, at Mercator Launch, have encountered our own challenges now that we’re fully back in office after last winter’s lockdowns. Returning to the office after two years of working at home just hasn’t been a smooth transition to some of our colleagues. Our network is full of ambitious startups with tons of innovative ideas, so… who else than them to help us solve our problems? This is where our newest strategic collaboration with startups Delreco, Micro-cosmos and AeroCount comes in, who are now helping us to IMPROVE working life at the office in their own unique ways.

What’s the first thing your office needs? Furniture of course! Without a desk to work at or a chair to sit on, getting things done can be difficult. When we came back to the office we quickly realised that we didn’t have enough office chairs for everyone, because curiously some seem to have disappeared? Luckily Delreco was able to provide a solution for us, as their circular furniture has given us extra places to sit. This has brought a unique style so it seems to have been a good move for us, check out the results below.

Even with the perfect furniture setup, adjusting to life at the office can still be hard. It was almost too easy to get used to working at home, being able to truly focus on your work as there was nobody to distract you. Getting back to the office also means getting used to social interaction again. This aspect of office life was particularly hard for us, which is why we have asked Micro-Cosmos to build custom micro-work-environments for us. These domes create a feeling of privacy and comfort for our colleagues to simulate working at home. See what that looks like below.

Having furniture and privacy covered, we still had the feeling something odd was going on. Like there was a weird energy in the building. When we discussed this with startup AeroCount, they quickly thought of an idea. Apparently they have been working on a top secret upgrade for their innovative particle detectors: The aura detector! This way we can finally see what or who is creating this weird energy. Who could be the culprit? I guess we’ll find out soon, as we’ve just added a detector to our office for their pilot.

DISCLAIMER:

If you haven’t realised it by now, this article was posted on April 1^st. It is intended to be a humorous article and should not be taken too seriously. However, even though startups Delreco, Micro-Cosmos and AeroCount haven’t given our office a make-over, all three have shown particular development in their own respective entrepreneurial areas. Delreco provides an actual circular furniture service for international students, Micro-Cosmos brings micro-environments to hospital beds that help patients recover and AeroCount detects particles to make air pollution visible. Thanks to all of them for agreeing to feature in this article, with special thanks to Micro-Cosmos and AeroCount for lending us their products. We recommend you to check out their websites.

Do you actually have a great idea which can be piloted at our offices, please contact us via and we’ll have a coffee!

In our newest series “Exchanging Perspectives” we invite two or more parties to talk to them about a topic. In this first episode we interviewed entrepreneur Jarrod Gott and his mentor Marcus Coolen about their relationship as mentee and mentor. Find out what it looks like and how having a mentor helps Jarrod to start his own company Osiris Sleep Analytics.

Neuroscientist Jarrod Gott and Information Technology expert Marcus Coolen are in different fields, still Marcus guides Jarrod on his journey as an ambitious entrepreneur. Their relationship started when Jarrod participated in the Venture Track of the Mercator Launch IMRPOVE programme. Marcus, as an experienced entrepreneur, was asked to help Jarrod. As Marcus put it: “I was asked to take a look with Jarrod to see how his process of starting a company could be improved. His ideas are quite complex and very big, this means that they have a lot of details which in turn requires a lot of attention”.

Working out which of those details to prioritise and focus on is one of the things that helped Jarrod. Jarrod: “Marcus was really good at keeping me exactly on track, and reminding me of what needs to be done. There were so many things I was working on. It is easy to get distracted, thinking you need to put out a fire”. The ambitious entrepreneur had been negotiating with many organisations, so he needed to be able to show the key things he wanted to do. Marcus: “If you want to get support from other companies or people, it becomes important to present your ideas, strategic goals and priorities as clear as possible”.

All of Marcus’ support is on a voluntary basis, trying to give bits of information he has gathered through his years of experience: “Being an entrepreneur is not rocket science, but experience helps to speed up processes and Jarrod picks up on guidance extremely well.” Jarrod agrees that guidance can help to let things go smoother and picked up some extra skills. Jarrod: “Slowly over time through a process of correction you figure out how to do things, such as presenting your priorities, without someone looking over your shoulder”.

According to Marcusits Jarrod’s ambition and drive that propels him forward, as he says occasionally giving advice is an easy part to play while Jarrod does all the hard work. Marcus: “To give you an example, Jarrod faced some challenges with funding. So I mentioned some scenarios how to implement his business model. After this he did all the research by himself during which he managed to find his final business model”. The bits of information Marcus gives act as reference points. Jarrod holds this against the opinions of other people he’s talking to, after which he makes his own call. Jarrod: “For example, Marcus told me about a way to keep my burn rate low. When I went to my accountants, some didn’t initially even know what I was talking about, but then they quickly accepted how clever it was, and agreed. This is the kind of stuff that I would have never figured out, if I was just reading documents on the internet”.

When asked Jarrod said he would definitely advice other entrepreneurs to seek out a mentor, as starting a business may be very complex and having a mentor has helped him in many ways. Adding to this, Marcus was quick to mention that you can only achieve success with the aid and support of others: “Figuring out an idea from a psychological or scientific point of view is one thing, turning it into an application and a profitable business model is another. Which is why Mercator Launch is doing very good things for these young people, trying to open doors for them.”

Getting connected to a mentor is an integral part of the Venture Track of the Mercator Launch IMPROVE programme. Want to learn more about the Venture Track? Get more information on its content here.

Taking risks is an essential part of being an entrepreneur and is, usually only in hindsight, the most interesting part that helps you grow on both an individual and company level. But even though risk-taking is the most interesting, it is also the most challenging. The Mercator Launch IMPROVE programme is designed to help you, an innovative entrepreneur, mitigate foreseeable risks and reduce uncertainty. According to one of last year’s participants it’s ‘A great programme to start with’. This is for good reason, as the programme encourages entrepreneurs to consider different types of risks and prepare themselves accordingly. To illustrate this, let’s take a quick look at two startups that reduced risks by participating in the IMPROVE programme.

First up, startup Yogademics, that started off by teaching yoga to academics in order to reduce stress and improve state of mind. While participating in the IMPROVE programme Yogademics found that it was hard to penetrate the general yoga market. Instead of this, they started looking for their opportunity, their niche. As a PhD himself, the founder of Yogademics identified a need amongst PhDs to reduce stress and improve their Health. That’s when they started exploring the niche market focussed on PhDs. The IMPROVE programme helped them perform solid analysis of the yoga-market, after which they were able to easily define their market segment. Understanding the market and knowing their market segment helped them to focus on the right customers, which in turn mitigated risks.

It’s not just the risk of the market that needs to be taken into account. Let’s take a look at another example. While participating in the IMPROVE programme, AeroCount designed their complete technology and R&D roadmap for the next 5 years. This helped them oversee the possibilities for their technology and take the right measures to mitigate risk, improve technical feasibility and create impact. They waited to launch their particle detector at a time when new legislation was put in place regarding fine particles and air quality. Waiting to launch their product at a time of opportunity, mitigated AeroCount’s risk. This goes to show that preparation is extremely important to combat technological risks.

To conclude, entrepreneurship means taking risks, but the right preparation helps you a lot. As becomes clear from the cases of startups Yogademics and AeroCount, risks can exist in different ways such as economical, organisational and technological risks. But even though they are quite scary, all of them can be mitigated and reduced. Precisely that preparation and the feeling that you ‘did everything possible’ is the part where the Mercator Launch IMPROVE programme comes into play and supports you every step of the journey.

Read more about the Mercator Launch IMPROVE programme here!

We are almost at the end of 2021. Time to look back at a fruitful year and share successes. Mercator Launch’s success is all about its entrepreneurs and startups. Today we pay special attention to 11 of those startups, reliving the highlights of their year. That being said, this doesn’t mean other entrepreneurs wouldn’t have deserved a place in the spotlights. As all of the startups we have supported have made progress in their own various ways. Without further ado, join us on a journey through the year 2021 and learn how 11 startups prepared to impact the world.

Kicking off with startup Leornova, founders Lisette te Hennepe and Evelien Renders started 2021 in an entrepreneurial way by registering their company at the Chamber of Commerce. Their workshops for higher education institutions on digitalisation, internationalisation and sustainability have seen immediate success. Leornova has managed to find a market with untapped potential as their workshops are in high demand.

Talking about demand, startup Data Origins aimed to supply restaurants with accurate demand forecasts. Last February Data Origins was in the running for the Voice of the Future award and made it to the top 10. They grew very quickly and created a huge buzz amongst their target audience. Unfortunately, COVID-19 threw a spanner in the works and the entrepreneurs decided to discontinue the company. Nevertheless, we are very proud of the learning curve that they experienced.

Making a name for yourself is about hard work, something the founders of Monoceros Analytics didn’t shy away from. In the beginning of 2021 the science-based startup won the runner-up price of the Innovation Competition and even got selected for the reputable NWO Venture Challenge in September. The team is well on its way to impact the process of drug development.

Development is also key for startup Machine Precision, as founder Thomas Bronzwaer is working on a software service that allows engineers at system-integrator companies to work faster, while making fewer mistakes. Thomas Bronzwaer won the Innovation Competition by pitching his startup and convincing the jury that his idea has a bright future. Currently performing two pilot projects during the Venture track, he is proving the jury right.

Another company that took great steps this year is AeroCount, developer of a particle detector (in the picture below) that helps create a healthy living environment at home. In May this got some well-deserved media attention as founder Beate Stevens was interviewed in an article in the Financieel Dagblad. The sustainable startup kicked off their growth as they launched their particle detector this year and have already sold 50 products.

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Popularity can be hard to gain, but Hermes Asset Management is definitely an exception to this rule. The startup provides algorithm-based predictions of the stock market to regular everyday-people. So we aren’t surprised that they managed to win the popular vote for most promising Student Company in June. After this, the Hermes Asset Management team is working to progress by certifying themselves and laying the necessary foundations to operate in the financial market.

Shifting our gears to September we arrive at startup Drive Maxy. The multi-sided platform for driving instructors and students took big steps developing its platform and business case this year. This all cumulated into Drive Maxy making it to the finals of the Most Innovative Student of the Netherlands Competition. Quite an achievement!

The team of former Student Company Delreco has proven to be great at pitching its idea. The startup started off the year by winning the Voice of the Future award and got nominated for the Most Innovative Student of the Netherlands. Recently the startup made it to the finals of the Rijk van Nijmegen Ondernemerspitch, getting exposure for their circular service to deliver, repair and pick up furniture for students.

Another startup that made it to the Rijk van Nijmegen Ondernemerspitch finals, Sofee is working hard to improve the order process in bars and clubs. The founders are currently busy validating their business model and intend to start a pilot at an event location soon. As seen below, Sofee makes sure to have all necessary knowledge at hand.

Startup Micro-Cosmos, has recently started two pilots to test their product. Having developed a dome for hospital beds that allows patients to control their own environment, Micro-Cosmos is currently working together with both the Radboud UMC and the Canisius Wilhelmina Ziekenhuis to get valuable feedback from both patients and nurses.

The last startup we focus on today is QR-FIT, winner of the recently awarded Stimuleringsprijs. Their goal is to stimulate activity by creating fitness tracks with scannable QR-codes. The startup is gaining lots of traction as it already offers 22 tracks and is slowly taking over the national market attracting more and more customers.

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Looking back on 2021 we have to conclude that it has been a great year for our entrepreneurs. We are very proud of all entrepreneurs that have chosen to follow their passion and have put in blood, sweat and tears. Needless to say, we have supported many more entrepreneurs who haven’t been mentioned in this article. However this doesn’t mean that they haven’t advanced significantly or that their ideas aren’t worth a place in this article. As a matter of fact, we urge you to check them out to via our entrepreneur page on the Mercator Launch website, we are sure they will inspire you. We have enjoyed this year tremendously and we aim to continue to work with many ambitious entrepreneurs in 2022.

Merry Christmas and a happy New Year to all of you,

The Mercator Launch team

In this series we catch up with former IMPROVERS to see how they’re doing. For this episode we interviewed Karel Leusink, the founder of International Students Work. International Students Work is a recruitment agency that helps local companies grow faster by connecting them with international students. We asked Karel about his idea, his challenges and his ambitions. Read the story of startup International Students Work below!

Karel has a simple explanation for how he came up with the idea of International Students Work. He has been an ‘international student’ himself in Osaka in 2017 and in Rome in 2019: “When I studied abroad in Japan it was really hard for me and other foreigners to find a job. One of the main issues was that I didn’t speak the local language. Off-campus not many people spoke English, so even finding a job in a restaurant was tough. You feel very limited in your options”. When he came back to the Netherlands he saw that international students here faced the same difficulties, something he didn’t expect as most people in the Netherlands are able to speak English quite well. But as it turns out, in most workplaces around Nijmegen and Arnhem, it’s still a necessity to speak Dutch. “This is a shame, as international students can potentially be a real asset to both large and small businesses. They have the guts and motivation to travel to the other side of the world to reach their goals. I am 100% convinced that companies are looking for employees with such a mindset.”

Karel decided he wanted to tackle the issue and provide international students with a fair chance of succeeding on the local labour market. He founded International Students Work together with Jeroen Verboom, whom he knew from his student association. “Starting a foundation was an option but we decided not to go that route. We wanted to make an impact on the long term and provide continuity with International Students Work, which fits better with the organisation structure of a business. Adding to this, we wanted to challenge ourselves and see if we were able to start a business successfully”.

Jeroen and Karel started talking to potential employers for students directly. “We just walked in and started asking about the possibilities. We had no experience with negotiating job placements and we decided to just try it”. During this time, to gain more knowledge about starting a business, they joined the Mercator Launch IMPROVE programme. “Mercator Launch helped us see where our idea could go, they gave us the feeling that our idea could be big. They accelerated our learning process by offering knowledge during the tracks. I remember a guest speaker that talked about funding that made me see that there were a lot more opportunities for growth capital than I realised”.

One of the biggest challenges Karel faced came when co-founder Jeroen Verboom left International Students Work. “We were a good team and Jeroen has specific skills and knowledge I don’t have. He always had great insights and we had a lot of fun in the process of building the startup. It is different when you’re on your own, but this is not all negative. Now I can make decisions faster and I’m the only one to blame if the startup doesn’t succeed. Seeing these advantages and taking this new situation on as challenge was important, as getting demoralised would not have helped International Students Work progress.”

The students that Karel helps to find a job are also his biggest inspirations. Getting their feedback means a lot to him: “To hear a student say that getting a job has really made a difference in his or her life is amazing. Getting a job for these students means having less stress, as it gets easier for them to get by, which in turn helps them to focus on their studies”. This drives him in his ambitions to help students and employers in Arnhem, Nijmegen and Wageningen to find each other. “There is a lot of potential to grow in this region. Of course I have higher ambitions for the future, but helping this region is the logical first step”.

During the interview Karel advocates challenging yourself and trying out new ideas. He tries to adapt continuously when he gets feedback or when he sees areas of improvement. It is therefore not a surprise that when asked about a tip for future entrepreneurs he says this: “Just start! Trying things helps you find out what works and what doesn’t. Go get help at Mercator Launch, everyone there wants to help you. Starting something is always nerve-wracking, but you’re not alone. Many people are willing to help you out, you just need to ask. This can really get you on the right track”.

By Dick Bos, business accelerator and driving force behind StartUp Nijmegen

‘Put your money where your mouth is’ was the working title for this blog. Why? Because when talking about entrepreneurship and risk-taking, I’m a firm believer of putting yourself out there first. If you’re committing your own time, energy and money to a project, others will dare to take a gamble on you too.

Let’s elaborate

Some might call me cautious, others say I’m conservative. I think of myself as an entrepreneur who dares to take risks, as long as I can bear the consequences myself. I do not gamble with other people’s money.

At StartUp Nijmegen, I have seen my fair share of young and enthusiastic entrepreneurs who come in with big ideas. They want to open up big storefronts right away, or automate their entire business and start off with a team of experts. And they are looking for investors to get their plans off the ground. I however, would suggest starting by using your own skills and qualities. It’s all about working very hard to create something. Once you are buckling down yourself, investors will come naturally.

Convince yourself first

I believe that when you put everything you have on the line – energy, time and money – because you believe in what you are doing, this will be seen. Once you yourself are convinced of your plan, others will start backing you.

Let me paint you a picture: I once ran an advertising agency. Employees came together to create a campaign for our clients. They would pitch ideas and I would ask: “Would you do this for your own business, too?” If they denied this or it took too long for them to answer, we’d know this wasn’t the right path. “How can you sell something to the client, that you yourself don’t believe in?”

What’s more, I strongly believe in doing research. Think critically, assess your product-market fit, validate your options, and make a decision. Make choices every day, but make calculated ones. Some might turn out to be bad. Some might be expensive mistakes. But you will limit the risks by only making choices that have consequences you can bear yourself.

Cash flow is key

Once you have established your product, your company is thriving and new opportunities, chances and risks present itself daily, it is time for another type of risk-taking. For me, successful entrepreneurship is all about taking these calculated risks. I want to be able to pay for my own mistakes.

In this, cash flow should be key. If I’m about to take a decision, that is what I look at. Can I take the hit if things go bad? If I can, great – let’s jump in. If not, I won’t do it. Always make sure your company has enough cash flow to cover dry spells. Make sure salaries can be covered for a while if orders might stay out. Grow with a positive cash flow and you will grow healthily.

Do you see your cash flow drying up? Then you’ll have plenty of time to turn the tide. Maybe lay off some employees, increase profits by increasing productivity or move to cheaper offices. Once you have surrendered yourself to sharks, investors or a bank, you lose a lot of say in your business. And wasn’t doing what you wanted, why you got into it in the first place?

Want to talk more about risk assessment?

Feel free to reach out to me or to my colleagues at StartUp Nijmegen. Always happy to help!

Dick Bos, Accelerator at StartUp Nijmegen
E-mail: 

In our series “Catching up with …”, we catch up with former IMPROVERS to see how they are doing and what they are working on!

Innovation Competition alumni Kinga Matula and Francesca Rivello will be founding, with prof. dr Wilhelm Huck, Monoceros Analytics, a spin-off that will support pharma companies in the early identification of successful drug molecules by offering high-resolution unbiased molecular insights into their mode of action of the drug molecules. This knowledge will have a major impact on the drug development process as it will enable rapid decision-making during drug design cycles to determine successful drug candidates for further studies on patients and drug combinations studies. We are curious to find out what the founders of Monoceros Analytics are working on.

How did you come up with this innovative idea?
“As scientists, we always wanted to make a positive impact on the world and help patients. In our research, we are trying to understand how individual cells respond to drug molecules. By fully describing the mode of action of drug candidates, we can rank the efficacy of the compounds before further studies on animals and patients. Our main motivation was market need, because we noticed a high interest of pharma companies in our technology. Our first proof-of concept,we performed in collaboration with Aduro Biotech (Oss, The Netherlands) by using our technology (QuRIE-seq) to investigate the mode of action of commercially available drug used for cancer treatment.

What made you decide to turn this idea into a business?
“One of the companies that was interested in our idea was Janssen Pharmaceutica. They invited us to visit their pharma campus in Belgium and present our research. They really liked our idea, and saw the huge potential of the technology. Our team started a collaboration to improve further QuRIE-seq to see cell response patterns. We also started to participate in entrepreneurial events to pitch our ideas to see if more companies would be interested. Positive feedback primed us to think of it as a promising business opportunity”

What challenges did you face over the last year?
“We needed to improve our entrepreneurial skills, so we decided to apply for the Mercator Launch IMPROVE programme. During the programme, we needed to focus less on technology, and more on the business side and understanding clients’ needs. The real challenge was to keep the description of our technology simple! We worked on the validation of our idea from a market perspective as well as on its technical optimisation. Dr. Hans van Eenennaam helped us a lot to understand the pharma environment and we are lucky to have prof. Huck as a (very experienced) team member, because getting the right people around you is crucial! The investor events were especially useful, as presenting our ideas here also helped us to prepare for challenges we took on in the future!”

Did your idea change based on feedback?
“Our idea didn’t change but the execution did. We need to speed up the process as pharma companies need results in a very short time. We have to make sure that technology is well validated and the quality of data is excellent. The largest bottleneck is also finding sufficient funding. On one hand, we want to perform expensive experiments to create evidence about the potential of the technology, while at the other hand clients and investors want to see evidence (more proofs) before using our service or investing in the company.”

What is your ultimate goal with your company?
“Our goal is to help pharma companies in designing better and more efficient treatment for patients. The successful use of the knowledge gained from our service will open up new opportunities for studying (new and more effective) drug combinations, finding new disease patterns, and the repurposing of ‘old’ drugs that will reduce the overall cost and time of the drug development process. The long-term goal will be to specialize in different fields (e.g. cancer, immunology), and develop in-house research programs around machine learning algorithms to define cell-type-specific or patient-specific responses to drugs.”

What inspires you to do better every day?
“I think that having a higher purpose is a good motivation booster. To us is it by helping patients by contributing to the design of better treatments. We know how lucky we are to go to work every day working on a mission and a solution that we all feel so passionately about. What inspires us is this deep belief that every day the world can be better — and that we can raise the bar for ourselves to grow and learn more.”

Do you have one last tip for entrepreneurs (to be) who want to turn their passion into their job?
“Persevere! Keep yourself out of your comfort zone. The feeling of overcoming fears and pushing yourself in a new direction is rewarding! Dare to dream and have guts because the only limit to what you can achieve is your imagination. Dare to fail! It’s not about what mistake you make. It’s about how quickly you can learn and correct the mistake.”

Please contact us if you want to hear more about our idea and technology! We are open to collaboration!

Contact details:
Kinga Matuła

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kinga-matula/
https://www.hucklab.com/

Tanneke Meijers is a psychologist and co-founder of Het Nederlands Instituut voor Persoonlijke Ontwikkeling (NIPO). She combines her startup with her work at the Behavior Change Group where she is head of the educational programmes and coach/trainer of the Behavior Change Talents.

7:00 AM

Usually I like to start up slowly and have the feeling that I’m ahead of the day. You seldomly see me rushing in the morning. More likely you’ll find me starting my day in a comfy lounge chair with a cup of coffee and the new manual for positive psychology. I love to read and I never feel like I read about psychology enough. Usually I’m reading 4 books at the same time, making notes about what I can use in my educational programmes and coaching. Either that, or I’m annoyingly following my partner around the house sharing ‘fun-facts’ about what I’m reading.

8:30 AM

My mornings are ideal for writing new blogposts about the psychology and philosophy of personal development. Today I’m diving into the principle of ‘Flow’: the pleasant feeling that occurs when nothing seems to exist but the task at hand. I am writing an article about what the 8 conditions of flow are and what you can do to experience more flow in your work. Would you like to check out articles about the philosophy and psychology of personal development? You can read more on our website and LinkedIn page.

9:45 AM

I’m heading to the Mercator Launch office on my bike to work there. We are organising a Post academic course with Het Nederlands Instituut voor Persoonlijke Ontwikkeling in which we teach the philosophy and psychology of personal development. Our goal is to give people an overview of the key theories and methods in personal development as well as opportunities for application. Today me and Mattheis van Leeuwen have two intake interviews with professionals who’ve subscribed to this educational program. We’ll have a talk about their work, what they hope to learn, and we’ll discuss the educational programme in detail to decide if there’s a good fit.

1:30 PM

After a quick lunch and a walk in Brakkenstein’s botanical gardens I grab my bike and head to the Behavior Change Group’s Office. Upcoming Friday I will host a training session for the Behavioral Change Talents, as a part of the trainee programme. This week’s training session will focus on the ideation of your ‘ideal work week’, both on a personal and professional level. Today I’m finetuning the presentation and heading to the printshop and the city centre for the last prints and gadgets that I need. Science-based educational programmes sure are my thing, but if I can also fit a confetti canon in my training sessions I will definitely do so.

5:30 PM

After dropping everything off at our training location in the city centre, my workday is done. Today, it’s one of the last sunny summer days so I decide to walk back home and enjoy the last piece of summer while it lasts!

Karmen is a researcher, educator and practitioner in the field of fashion and is the founder of As of Nu. This are her top 3 tips for sustainable fashion.

1. There is no ‘new’ in fashion. A piece of clothing is considered fashionable when it fits in with the most recently presented trends. Remember that this is just a marketing trick, older clothes can definitely fit the newest trends too. A great way to find out what you think is important within a new trend, is going through the wardrobe of your family or friends. This way you’ll see that we as consumers already have a lot of the fashion that is presented as new by the fashion industry, hanging in our closets. Also, you might even be able to swap some clothes!

2. Can’t find fashionable clothes in your friends’ wardrobes? Try the thrift shop. Here you’ll usually find quality clothes for low prices. Extra tip: thrift shops in smaller towns are usually cheaper than the ones in cities.

3. Rediscover your own clothes. The average person owns about 100 wardrobe items. There’s a good chance there are some hidden gems that fit the newest fashion trends. To help you find your hidden gems As of Nu has developed a home research kit. This includes a manual that shows you exactly how to do your research and gives you tools to store your data. You can easily repurpose your clothes which is good news for both the environment and your wallet.

By Jan Jonker (Radboud University) and Niels Faber (University of Groningen)

‘It can and should not have escaped you that we currently live in a time of fundamental change, or transition. Whether you look at the recent IPCC Report, the European Green Deal or the Dutch Transition Agendas, the message is the same everywhere: we need real change and we need it now. But that’s easier said than done. After all, we have an existing (linear) economy that is based on principles that are fundamentally under discussion. But how we should be doing things differently is not self-evident. Because we still want the same things: water from the tap, bread on the table and electricity. Now we just want them in a sustainable way.

We live in a Western society in which everything we do is (partly) organized by others. Something we generally take for granted. It means we can do ‘our own thing’ because much of what we need is made, taken care of or done by organisations. It is in and through organisations that we must achieve sustainability. Sustainability means as much as ‘more or at least the same with less impact and above all in a different way’. To achieve sustainability, we need to use other raw materials for our products, generate green energy, produce less waste and – last but not least – contribute to biodiversity and social inclusiveness. Realising that means doing business differently, with a focus on adding value to society. That requires a new generation of companies and entrepreneurs. After all, most of today’s companies still have a ‘business case’ with monetized values at their core.

For sustainability in business to really work it is imperative that things need to change. Business should be based on other values such as sustainability, circularity and inclusiveness. This is easy to say, but how do you do that? How do you start a company based on these principles? It calls for a different generation of business models. After all, a business model is the heart of a company. With a business model you embody the values your organization realises, for your customers but also for society. Creating such a business model is an art in itself.

To help entrepreneurs create a sustainable business model, we have created multiple different templates. Very recently, we launched our new book entitled ‘Organizing for Sustainability’ (Palgrave/Springer). This book offers a step-by-step approach in three phases and 10 steps to create your own business model. The publication is Open Access, which means that anyone can download the eBook for free: lnkd.in/d8GKDdk. There is no better way to start working on your own sustainable or circular business model than this. Have fun!’

Want to find out more about sustainable business (models)? Feel free to contact us!

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In our series “Catching up with …”, we catch up with former IMPROVERS to see how they are doing and what they are working on!

“Always happy to discuss ideas”
How a passion for sustainability developed into an ambitious start-up

Changing the world and having your idea make a difference, is a dream to many students and researchers. Bas Tuenter, graduate of the master’s degree molecular life sciences, is currently well on his way. He is the founder of Sustainables, the start-up that aims to get rid of all single use items in research in an effort towards a more sustainable future. But how did Bas come up with his ideas? And how did those ideas turn into a real-world start-up? This is his story.

During his time as a student, Bas got into sustainability and became involved in the international youth climate movement, via YOUNGO, the youth constituency of the UNFCCC. Wanting to be decrease his impact on the environment, he tried to make differences to his day to day life. In the supermarket he looked at the packaging of products, to make sure it could be recycled. Becoming more aware of his own ecological footprint, the abundance of single-use items during his research internship astounded him. Items like pipet tips and reactor tubes (typically used in a biomedical research environment) were discarded and incinerated after only being used once. Researchers agreed with him that this was a problem, but they had other priorities. Realizing that nobody was going to solve this problem, he decided he would do it. He was going to take out the time necessary and make a difference.

How was he going to do this? He contemplated building a machine that researchers could use to clean items before he quickly realized he had no idea how to build such a machine. There was also another thing on his mind, he wanted to take work out of the hands of researchers instead of adding to it. He wanted to find a solution that allowed researchers to focus on their craft. As he put it: ‘You do you, and we’ll make sure you can continue your research in a sustainable manner’.

During his master’s degree and internship, he was trained to perform research himself. His degree hadn’t taught him anything about business or about starting one. In his words: ‘I had zero experience thinking like a business, how do you start one, what’s important when running one’. Not knowing what steps to take, he turned to Mercator Launch. He met with business coach Rob Groenendaal which eventually led him to join the IMPROVE programme. A programme designed to guide future entrepreneurs to start their own business. In this programme, Bas worked on specifying his ideas and figuring out his value proposition. By testing his ideas and talking about the results with other participants of the IMPROVE programme and researchers, he was able to validate his ideas and create Sustainables.

Joining the Venture Track programme also meant meeting other future entrepreneurs that are trying to create their own  startups. ‘An empowering group of people’ is how Bas described them. Connecting and talking about ideas helped speed up his process immensely. It helped push his ideas in the right direction and also gave him access to a larger network. The people around him encouraged him to make decisions and try. He made many mistakes but this helped him learn. He was able to find out what could be improved by asking for feedback on his ideas from everyone he met. He listened attentively to the feedback, especially when people were critical. Figuring out why people were critical and finding solutions to this helped to get people on board.

When asked what tip he would give aspiring entrepreneurs Bas said this: ‘Don’t postpone, make a mistake now and learn’. He points out to embrace feedback and keep feeling encouraged. This, he says, will skyrocket your performance. He believes in this so much in fact, that he asks anyone that has a question, comment or criticism to reach out to him. The ambitious entrepreneur is always happy to discuss ideas, especially with people that disagree with him.

Sustainables is looking to expand the team. If you’re interested in creating a sustainable laboratory, reach out to