Family Atmosphere, International Team: Everbridge’s Tilburg Office on Going Global
How does a team of crisis communication experts in the Netherlands take their business worldwide? For the Tilburg-based company Respond, the answer was to join with Everbridge. Nearly a year after the acquisition, we asked John van Laerhoven (Netherlands Director), Pieter Vermeer (Netherlands Sales Director), Nona Stabel (Marketing Specialist), and Wesley van der Kop (Software Developer) to reflect on their first impressions of the Everbridge platform, explain how they’re navigating the transition from tiny, tight-knit office to international team, and share what they’re most excited about in the months and years ahead.
What’s your role at Everbridge, and why did you join the team?
John: I’m the director of our Tilburg office, and I’ve been part of this team since the beginning — I was Respond’s second employee 21 years ago. Crisis management wasn’t really on the radar of companies here in the Netherlands when we started, so we had a lot of opportunities, but it was also a lot of work to help people understand the software and how it was useful. I think in a way, the same is true for us now, because Respond’s customers were primarily government organizations. Now that we’re moving into the corporate sector as part of Everbridge, it’s an open sky.
Pieter: I’m our sales director, so I spend a lot of my time working to win the trust of our customers and thinking about how to position ourselves in the market. I joined Respond in 2006 as a junior sales rep and moved into a new role every couple of years. The opportunity to keep taking on new challenges is part of why I’ve stayed, but I also love that we had — and still have, with Everbridge — a product that actually helps people.
“Everbridge was the perfect match, not only in terms of product and growth opportunity, but also mission.” — John
Nona: I’m the marketing specialist, and I was the first employee to join the Tilburg team after we became part of Everbridge. I liked the product and the mission to keep people safe and businesses running. But I also loved the people in our office. There are only 16 of us, and it’s like working with a big group of friends. Everyone is so helpful, and it’s an informal culture, but we’re still serious about our work. I also collaborate a lot with the Nordic and U.K. offices; we’re kind of like one big European marketing team. I’m early in my career — I graduated a couple of years ago — so it’s great having all that support.
Wesley: I joined Respond two years ago, when I was still in school. I did a combination of frontend and design work at first, and now I’m focused entirely on software. Being a developer in crisis management is always challenging because things have to work all the time, and they have to work really well, but I love it.
Why did joining Everbridge make sense for Respond?
Pieter: I think we had a very good product at Respond, but we didn’t have the financial resources to make it the best product in the world. We focused on customer relationships as differentiators instead, and we had a lot of success — every emergency call center in the Netherlands was using our software. But we wanted to be excellent in every aspect of our business, not just customer service, and we also knew we could grow more, and faster, under different ownership. Then Everbridge came along, and they already had the best product in the world!
John: The first time Pieter and I saw the platform, it was like everything we’d been dreaming of on a whiteboard was right there in front of us. And Everbridge was the perfect match, not only in terms of product and growth opportunity, but also mission. Everyone here in Tilburg is very aware of what we’re doing and who we’re doing it for. We all want to help people. This was a perfect fit.
“The first time Pieter and I saw the platform, it was like everything we’d been dreaming of on a whiteboard was right there in front of us. “— John
What projects are you working on right now?
Nona: My main goal right now is brand awareness. People in the Netherlands are familiar with Respond — but Everbridge is still unknown. Over the next year, we’ll be building our pipeline of potential customers and producing events, webinars, and newsletters to help people understand that we’re here and ready to grow with them.
John: Our government customers know us, but the marketing plan Nona’s working on will introduce us to the corporate world, as well. That’s the big focus in this first couple of years. One thing we did right after the acquisition was update our office decor. You can’t find a Respond logo anywhere anymore, because we wanted to communicate to our customers and potential customers that we’re part of the larger Everbridge team.
Pieter: On the technical side, the main project right now is figuring out how our Respond features can work within the Everbridge platform. Overall, the new platform is more robust, but we do have a few features Everbridge doesn’t.
“If another developer and I have an idea to make the product better, we’ll point it out to our manager, and usually, they’ll tell us to go for it.” — Wesley
Wesley: Right; we’re doing gap analysis to integrate the two systems with each other, as well as with the software from a Norwegian company called Unified Messaging Systems that Everbridge also acquired last year. That team from Oslo is actually here today, so we can learn about each other’s products and work together to get them closer to the Everbridge suites.
Tell us more about the culture in the Tilburg office.
John: As Nona mentioned, it’s pretty informal, and really does feel like a family. Because we’re so small, we know each other in a way that you obviously can’t know 500-plus employees at Everbridge, but I think we still share the same values. One thing we noticed in our initial conversations with Everbridge was even though it’s a big, public company, people definitely want a culture where everyone can be open, while still being professional. That’s easy to do in an environment like this one, where we’re eating lunch together every day.
The other thing I’d say about our culture is, while we have hierarchy, we tend not to use it. We try to give people a lot of responsibility regardless of their tenure, and in meetings, we encourage everyone to speak up when they see an issue. We all need to be clear about what we’re saying and why, of course, but we don’t want anyone to hesitate to speak up just because they’re younger or less experienced.
Wesley: Yeah, one of the things I really like is that we’re always to the point and honest with each other. If another developer and I have an idea to make the product better, we’ll point it out to our manager, and usually, they’ll tell us to go for it. Even now, as part of a larger company, I definitely feel that freedom here.
Pieter: It’s the best of both worlds — we have the smaller family of Tilburg, and the bigger family of Everbridge. And I think that relationship will get even stronger with time. It was an adjustment for us at first, because we used to make decisions just by looking at each other across the room. Now, getting consensus might mean a flight to the U.K. or the U.S. But we do feel connected to the larger company. Morten Seliussen from United Messaging Systems was named the product manager for EMEA, which I think is a strong statement about how much input the newer teams will have on development. And the company has been so supportive in general. Whether they’re in the U.K. or the U.S. or Sweden or Norway — when we need something or just have a question, everyone is there for us.
What are you excited about right now?
John: The most exciting thing for me as that we can finally grow. As a management team, we have the resources now to bring our vision to life. We’ve already hired Nona and two people in Sales. That was the biggest benefit of Everbridge for us — a more advanced product, but also a company that wants to invest in our ideas and our team.
“There are only 16 of us, and it’s like working with a big group of friends. Everyone is so helpful, and it’s an informal culture, but we’re still serious about our work.” — Nona
Nona: I’m looking forward to our team growing and to growing myself as a marketer. There’s so much I can learn from everyone here, and from the people in our other offices. Everbridge has a lot of great tools to help create brand awareness, and they’re all helping me get up to speed. I meet every week with the marketing teams in the U.K. and the Nordics, as well, so I always feel like I have someone to go to when I have questions.
Wesley: The opportunities to learn are exciting for me, too. I feel like I’ve already gained a lot from working on a team. Collaborating with other developers helps me think more about the big picture. And as I work on new parts of the Everbridge suite, I get to learn new software and new languages, too.
Pieter: As John said, the growth is exciting. When you can hire more people, it opens up a lot of possibilities. And I think our excitement extends to potential customers, too — showing them why we’re so enthusiastic about this system. There are so few restrictions with Everbridge, and I think people will be surprised to see the vision behind it and learn what it can help them do. It’s going to open a lot of doors.
