Mindt journal #1: Hello again

At the end of 2016 we felt it was time for a change. A strong desire for more social impact set us in a “new” direction. As the pieces of the puzzle are slowly coming together it is time to start sharing our story about how we develop our startup studio model, which dilemmas we face and what we learned from them. The goals of these “journals” are to document our journey, provide transparency and open a dialog about what we do and why we do it.

This is our first journal entry.

Hello again.. we are Mindt

we create scalable social impact by building sustainable ventures for companies with a mission.

We are a business that builds business.

Better business, better world

We live in a rapidly changing and uncertain world. It’s clearer than ever that our current economic model is leaving to many people behind and is threatening our planetary boundaries. We urgently need new innovative solutions for the complex social challenges in the fields of climate and environment, employment, health care and economic development, education and social cohesion. Solutions that are going to make a real difference and have results on a large scale.

None of this is achievable without business, on the other hand business cannot thrive or survive long-term without solving social challenges. After all, there is no business case in enduring poverty and climate change.

With Mindt we create new business models, with the primary objective of delivering scalable social impact.
No philanthropy, charity or naive idealism, we are here to do business. With hardcore data, facts and measurable instruments.

“The business case for sustainable development is strong already: it opens up new opportunities and big efficiency gains; it drives innovation; and it enhances reputations. With a reputation for sustainability, companies attract and retain employees, consumers, B2B customers and investors, and they secure their licence to operate. That’s why sustainable companies around the globe are thriving and delivering attractive returns to shareholders.“

-report of the Business & Sustainable Development Commission-

Better Business: Startup-as-a-service

While there are a lot of new opportunities for sustainable development we see large companies struggle to create new relevant products and services to keep ahead of competitors and capture and retain top talent. On the other hand flexible and fast startup teams are eating the world. Startups can, and often do follow the “move fast and break things” mantra. Young talented people with fresh mindsets and new skill-sets are leaving behind their 9-to-5 jobs to work on risky but high-potential ideas. Ideas that matter and create better business for a better world.

The solution for large companies is not to become like a startup. These big machines, focused on efficient execution of processes and satisfying shareholder expectations are typically not good in adapting to new conditions and changing themselves. Also newly attracted talent or required startup teams lose their mojo in these massive structures.

“Startups can follow the “move fast and break things” mantra.”

So, large companies must find a way to work with these entrepreneurs and their garage companies.

Hello… We are Mindt

Mindt is a startup studio and creates an environment that brings together the best of two worlds. A diversity of a new generation fresh, skilled entrepreneurs with a “get shit done” mentality — and the brute force and resources of mature companies. Together we create new products, services and businesses and grow them as new independent and sustainable ventures that scale their social impact.

What’s in it for: entrepreneurs

With today’s technology and access to knowledge, it’s pretty easy to start a startup; yet it is more and more difficult to stand out from all the others and grow. The lack of a specialised network and knowhow, financial resources and track record often leave them struggling to bring their, often great ideas, to life. Even though there is a change you start a successful company from your garage, the biggest recent successes have been boosted by support systems like incubators and accelerators.

We give entrepreneurs the space they need to experiment and learn, but we help them connect with other teams to quickly improve ideas and rapidly move through all of the time-consuming minor details that can trip them up as they iterate toward building a profitable and sustainable business.

In doing so together, we create a next generation of business for a better world, and give ourselves the joy of seeing our ideas take form.

What’s in it for: mature companies

Big corporations are typically not good in adapting to changing business landscapes and playing with a new set of rules. They are rather big machines with rigid structures continuously searching for efficiency gains. And this comes with rules and regulations that make it hard to innovate.

In the meantime small and clever teams are radically changing the business landscape taking market share and finding new ways of engagement and delivering their impact.

Businesses have the potential to drive a better, more sustainable economy for all, but only if there is a continuous dialogue between the innovators and society. Business is a bridge for that conversation. It can apply the capital and skills needed to scale new ideas, taking them from the garage or lab to where they have local and global impact. -report of the Business & Sustainable Development Commission-

We work with mature companies that recognise the urgency to act and are eager to explore new forms of external innovation; creating new ventures to achieve better business and a better world.

How we start doing it

When we started telling people nearby about our plans of building a startup studio we got a lot of critical questions and skeptical responses. But most of all we got positive feedback. There are different structures out there that are or resemble the startup studio model -early stage investors, coaches, accelerators, incubators- but seldom are they real company builders.

Then, what is a startup studio?

“A startup studio is a structure whose aim is to repeatedly build products into companies.“

Thanks to its infrastructure and resources, startup studios increase a startup’s chance of success and optimise its creation and growth. — Thibaud Elziere, eFounders medium.com -

We, at Mindt, are 100% focused on developing a model that develops new business ideas into independent, sustainable companies that have a scalable, social impact.

Startup-as-a-service (StAAS) is all about solving the challenges mature companies face while trying to innovate and become more social. The mature company sets the direction in which they want to have their startup. They give market access, industry expertise and funding. The Mindt entrepreneurs provide everything else, and we build up as many startups needed as long as they aim to create scalable social impact.

Our activities involve:

• Build a community of likeminded entrepreneurs ready to take on the world
• Focus on getting and reviewing ideas and challenges, and building multiple products simultaneously
• Curating and building talented teams around specific products or ideas, and engineering success
• Providing shared resources such as Legal, Marketing, Sales and Bookkeeping
• Utilizing our network for expertise and advancement of product growth and strategy
• Development of full time in-house team assisting with design, development, sales & growth
• Measuring social impact of our products, projects and ventures
• Invest in a continuous dialogue between the innovators and society

Our moonshot: A better world

We started Mindt to answer two questions: how do we bring true value to peoples lives and the lives of those around them? And how do we use companies to achieve it? If we want to create real value for people and not only for businesses and their stakeholders, we need to figure out the new business rules and create the culture to do good.

So, in 2025 we want to have built at least 50 companies all of which have social impact. In addition, there will be a community of passionate, creative and innovative entrepreneurs who give guidance to entrepreneurship by using social impact as a main business driver and thereby grow organizations in all areas to create a better world.

To be fully honest, it is a bit scary sometimes but we’re super excited and we must say that we’re very confident about what is coming.

Join us on our adventure and learn more about Mindt on our website or even better, drop by, give us a call or send us an email at info@wearemindt.nl