Advice to aspiring entrepreneurs
Experiences from Founder Institute mentors who took the leap from employee to entrepreneur
In our previous blog entrepreneurs Gerrit Brouwer and Sebastiaan Hooft shared some sneak peak insights to the meetup at TSH Collab, made possible by the Founder Institute. During this meetup, hosted by Daan Weddepohl (founder & CEO of Peerby) and attended by aspiring entrepreneurs, they not only talked about their personal leap, but also about the aftermath — what experiences you can encounter and the characteristics you will need in your own entrepreneurial journey.
So how did Gerrit become an entrepreneur? Right after high school, he started as a marine. At a very young age was he was already leading a platoon. Then came a career in investing: first in investor relations at Shell, then he worked as an investment banker at Rabobank. There he got to know the Dutch darling of GPS, TomTom. Seeing the excitement around that company ignited his entrepreneurial spark.
As Brouwer said it: “Combined with the love of creating things and coming up with solutions, I wanted to start my own company.” He then started Appical, HR software for on-boarding new employees. After that, he went on to start two brand new businesses.
Gerrit’s advice to the audience of aspiring entrepreneurs:
- Building a business can be stressful. So balance out attention to family & friends and board & clients. Focus on who should be getting attention at the right time.
2. Don’t hire that rockstar corporate CEO or fancy board member when you are just starting. In the starting phase of your company you need more flexible people.
In a previous post, Gerrit promised to talk about the thin line between success and failure. And he surely did. Gerrit told about the time with Appical, which was defined by great ups but also great downs. In that period he was “living on his credit card”, but he also knew an investment was coming soon. There was also the need for marketing & sales at that moment, but no money yet. “At such a moment you need to trust your gut feeling. My feeling said we should go for it. So we spent our personal savings on marketing & sales. We had nothing left. Then, the investment came. So you need to give it all when you want to succeed. My question to you: are you willing to give it all?”
Sebastiaan Hooft’s entrepreneurial journey came about very differently: his colleague at a corporate died of a heart attack. As it was someone he looked up to, Sebastiaan felt he could have been that guy. “Soon after that experience, I quit my job. Then I started an IT business with another former coworker.” After a couple of years the company was sold.
Here’s what he learned along the way:
- Learn to say ’no’. You can get more people, you can get more money, but you can’t get more time. Time’s valuable.
2. Having a startup isn’t about money and/or freedom. It’s about creating something that changes the world.
In the announcement for this event, Sebastiaan promised to talk about the need for mentors. During the evening he stated that you need good people around you, right from the start. “If you’re a dreamer and want to become a starter, then you need to start searching for people who will get you to the next level. Not friends, family and fools. They come for free but they might cost you. Find people that will keep you sane financially, emotionally and physically.”
Mentors of Founder Institute
Gerrit Brouwer, Sebastiaan Hooft and Daan Weddepohl are all mentors in the Founder Institute startup program. Daan Weddepohl, also a Founder Institute alumn with Peerby, vouched for the Silicon Valley program that is opening in Amsterdam again on October 1st this year. “Founder Institute has brought me a lot. They were really pushing me in a very structured process, towards setting up a successful business. I wish to have Amsterdam founders to have that same experience.”
If you are thinking of becoming an entrepreneur yourself, you too can apply for the next Founder Institute program in Amsterdam. Apply here!
