 Dames en heren, een bijzonder goede middag hiervan uit het huis voor ondernemerschap en innovatie station 88 Tilburg. Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon and welcome to this session. Cat inspired at the Global Entrepreneurship Week. We are here in Tilburg at station 88, the house for entrepreneurship and innovation. I'm not only here by myself, I'm here with Issa. Good to join us Issa, most welcome. And I believe that you are the one that's going to interact with everybody who is watching the live stream, right? So they can ask questions, we can do polls and we can make sure that all questions they have on entrepreneurship, that they can ask them to the people that are going to present and that I'm going to interview. My name is Jeremaz, I've been an entrepreneur now for 10 years. I studied here at Tilburg University and I'm also one of the founders of presenters wall. You might know it, nice company here in the center of Tilburg. And today we have a great, great, great inspiring program for you guys. We have somebody of United Wardrobe. We have someone of My Oh My. We have somebody of the sustainable development goals of the Netherlands and of No Cosmetics. And I'm wondering for you guys at home, but also for Issa of course, what are you mostly looking forward to? So we can start the poll, I think. Let's start the poll and Issa, maybe you can reflect upon it. What session are you mostly looking forward to? I'm the most curious about Thais, United Wardrobe. It's the first speaker, right? So that's the thing you're mostly looking forward to. And why are you mostly looking forward to Thais? I'm very curious about his story, about how everything... Do you already know something of what he did? No, I only know United Wardrobe by name. Are you a user of United Wardrobe? Can you explain to me what it is? Maybe we're taking a little bit. It's an app where you can sell your fashion. So you can... Yeah, it's like clothes you can put on and then you can sell it. Is this an outfit you scored on United Wardrobe? No, no, no, no. It's not an outfit. But let's see, because I think the people at home can scan right now, can vote right now. Can I see the results? Do we have some results coming in? Is that something I can see over here? Going once, going twice. Because I'm wondering what you guys are doing at home. Yes, very good. There are the results. Wow, I just walk here. Yes, let's have a look. Oh, most of them are looking forward to United Wardrobe. And I think one of the most inspiring stories is that he just sold it to Vintit, right? I also heard that. I'm really looking forward to his story. So make sure if you have any questions, put them in the chat. And then Isa will get all questions here. But let's go to Thais. How are you there? Yes, I am. I'm just putting on my video and audio. Can you guys hear me? Yeah, I can hear you. Very good. Can you also see me, because I can't see myself? Not yet. We see a black hole. Oh, wow. The big black hole what we're looking at. Yes, there he is. And then we can actually check that it is Thais, because this is the guy I saw in the pictures as well. So let me start by saying thanks for joining us at the Global Entrepreneurship Week. There are like 300 students watching your life right now. And well, I just have some questions for you prepared. And I'm really curious about your story. And I would love to start at the beginning, because you found it while you were studying, right? Ja, I was 21 years old. I was studying business and consumption studies at Wageningen University. And that's where Shul Berden came to me. A guy from Limburg with three sisters. And he said, Thais, I have three sisters. They have so much clothes. They're going to Mark Plaats. They're going to Facebook. They get scammed on Facebook. Well, you have to make something for them. Ja. And that's where I started. I was doing my bachelor's. And yeah, I was just studying and then just started. How was it to combine starting a company with your studies? Hell. Why? Reflect on it. Why was it hell? Ja, if I look back at it, I obviously just could quit because I didn't know that I could sell it of course and make a legit business out of it. But my study, it was not that intense. It was a business and consumption studies, a lot of psychology, but also a lot of mathematics. En I did a minor at the UVA, a minor at development. Ja. But on the one time, like United Water was always there 24-7. I wanted to make it big. So I had to work on it every single night and day. And then I also had exams. So I just was skipping college and reading through old exams and then trying to get just a 5.5 for everything. And yeah, eventually I did it in four years. So really glad that I finished it. En if I want to do it, I can also do a master right now. But yeah, combining studies with entrepreneurship is super difficult because you have to make a decision continuously if I'm going to invest in my study or in my company. Ja. Isa, you're a student still, right? Are there now programs where you can combine entrepreneurship with studying? Not that I know. Not that you know of. So it's still something that we have to work on, right? Ja. For me, it was the same. Well, I was studying. I founded my company. And it was really hard to combine those two things. I believe that. Maybe what I would like to ask you Thijs, did it change during your study? So you're going through your master's or you're going through your bachelor's. And then, you know, the company is moving up, right? You are scaling up, it became bigger and bigger. Did you find more time to invest in the company at the end of when it started scaling up? Well, I was in my second year of my study when I started the company. And we got our office, I think, a half year before I graduated from my bachelor's. So when I finally got my bachelor degrees, I still can remember the day I was so freaking happy. And we could finally work full time with all my focus on the company. And from that point on, we really could scale. We could really invest all our time in it. Me, Sjul, and Thijs Slijkhuis. Thijs Slijkhuis just finished his master's degree. Sjul also finished his bachelor's a year earlier than me. Sjul was already putting in all his time. And when I also could finally put all my time in it, we really started doing our first investment rounds and scaling the business. And then you graduated and your co-founders graduated as well. You reflect upon the first couple of years that you could actually put in 60 hours a week into the company. Ja, it really felt natural because when I was studying, I always had these exams that I had to prep a couple of weeks in advance. And then I just had minimum time to work on United Wardrobe. And when I finally had all the time and freedom, it was complete joy because then finally we could put in everything. And that's the most important. If you start a company, you have a lot of time. What was the biggest challenge in this beginning phase? What was the thing that was hardest for you guys? First of all, making the first investment angel round. We got in Wageningen University, you have a fund called Start Her Wageningen. They gave us 7000 euro in micro credits without getting any shares or anything. So it was micro credit. And then the first investment round, I was like 22. I didn't know nothing about a BV structure. In the Netherlands, you need to have a BV in order to get finance. You can get finance if you have a VDOF. It's completely fucked up if you sell it. And yeah, doing this whole deal with our first investors, making, we had another co-founder of which we were in difficult times with. So he had to switch with another co-founder and doing this whole process with lawyers and next to that keeping the business running. Dat was, I think, the biggest hurdle to take. And eventually, when we were growing to like 40 employees, it was also a big hurdle that we were not like this small start but eventually a scale up with a lot of rules and people working for you. You already told you got some help from lawyers, et cetera. But other people who were more like business coaches for you available as well in 2022, right? It's kind of hard to start a company from nothing. You know nothing. Who helped you in this phase? It was all Shul and me. We did everything ourselves. Yeah. Shul is really the thinker and I'm the doer. So Shul doesn't like to make all the quick calls and hustle everything. And I was always the person doing everything for Shul. We had PA of Shul. Personalist of Shul. No, I'm not really. I think I did all the marketing and made more than the PA. Of course, I had the same shares as he had. It's the same as our CTO at Thijs Lijkhuis. And we were always just doing everything ourselves and make it ourselves. Of course, now we have our lawyers and Ernst en Jung doing our bookkeeping. It's not my company anymore. I just sold everything. When you grow, you can finally pay all these lawyers and people that do stuff for you. But it's super important that you do everything yourself in the beginning to learn how things are working. So you mentioned it yourself. You just sold the company to Vintit, right? That's the new... Is it like went up into Vintit trade mark is gone? Is it still a unique product and trade mark? But it's owned by Vintit now. All our Dutch users, in total we had 4,5 million users. We were selling for around 45 million euros on clothing, general marginal values, so GMV yearly. That's all going into Vintit because marketplaces work on scale and how bigger the scale, how bigger the liquidity of your marketplace. So how more people are selling, how more people want to sell and want to buy stuff. We're going totally up in Vintit so I'm now a Vintit employee and yeah, what can I say about it? What was your question? I was wondering, how did this process go? Now you're telling me I'm now a Vintit employee. How does that feel? Because now you are part of Vintit entrepreneur in United Water. Ja, I'm going to quit in a couple of months then my contract is ending and I'm going to create a new business. But it feels natural to just fix everything for them because they just bought the whole company. Of course we have to do everything gradually and the users have to go to Vintit everything has to go smooth. Customer support is still running, marketing is still running. And how this whole process went, dat was just I can talk about it for six hours but our investors always say like if you have one buyer there's no buyer so if you want to sell your company professionally when you scale so of course you can sell your company when everything is not going well you have to sell your company we sold our company when we were in a hockey stick curve and then we had a partner called Drakestar it's a professional company who helped us securing investment rounds and selling the business and we run a professional process so we got like four or five biddings on the company and eventually Vintit was the most natural player to integrate with but that was a super stressful 18 month periods from the beginning to closing But that's an interesting thing because you just said the first time that we needed investors was new to us we had all lawyers people helping us to do so and now you actually sold your company to Vintit it changes your perspective as well of course but what I'm wondering as well is you just said starting a new company is it out in the open yet or is it still top secret project it's still a top secret project but I can tell something about how everything this idea that was already planted the seat from way back and at this point I'm looking for a technical co-founder I think I almost found him this technical co-founder is going to be the CTO of the company I'm going to be the CEO we are going to do our first funding round in I think March and then we're going to start all over but we are going to present it when we launch I can't tell nothing about it is it a social platform compete with Facebook it's going to compete with WhatsApp it's going to compete with Google some services but in the last 7 years I learned a lot about how marketplaces and social apps are working and I'm going to put all this information into a new starter good and now you're not a student anymore so you can start right away with the right amount of time and effort into it and all this experience of cause of the last couple of years very good let's have a look at Isa is there something that you would like to ask to Thijs? no I think everything is clear but there are no questions out of the chat there are no questions out of the chat but I do have a side note I want to go back to your last question to me we actually do have a regulation for students successful startups at Fonset to University sorry about that that's okay I have some more questions if I look at you you are a guy I'm a guy as well we are guys I am never at home wondering about my wardrobe and thinking where can I sell my clothes or buy new clothes I do not how did you guys come up with this idea of united wardrobe it's always like only at this point 5% were men millions of people were using it but Shuul he came to me it's a super long story if I'm too quick please but I was sitting I just had a party Thursday evening in Wageningen I was super hangover I was sitting there with Shuul drinking coffee it was summer and he told me the story he had 2 sisters having too much clothes I basically said to me you have mark plaats, facebook groups we are never going to kill this business I'm not going to do this you have to find somebody else he kept on persisting he said I'm going to talk to some people eventually a friend of mine Tim van Oerle he was having a room he was my roommate he said you just have to find a designer and then you have to develop it and you go live and then you have a website you have an IT company that's what I did, I found a designer he started designing we found somebody our technical co-founder we started developing we launched and we just went on doing and doing and finding out where we can do cheap marketing a lot of people on the platform I was just stalking people on mark plaats 24x7 sending everybody messages hey have you already checked the internet word we can also share it closer people went completely crazy for my messages in the end it started rolling we were selling like 10-12 products a day and then I can go about that story it was just Shuul had 3 sisters they had too much clothes they get scams on the internet there was no central place in the Netherlands where they can easily sell it we just created that niche exactly so actually it's Shuul's sisters that started united wardrobe in the end yeah eventually we're nothing without them and I think Shuul is going to take them on a trip to Africa to make them very very happy you have beloned them I'm kind of from the English word to give them something back for all their ideas in the company but I think what you touch here is a very interesting thing so your company started out of a frustration or at least frustration of the sisters of Shuul in this case they wanted to sell their clothes couldn't do it on a good online platform and you had the guts to start the platform yeah and it's also something that's a super big cliche that you always hear when people starting businesses that they say you have to solve a problem you have to solve a problem that's not always the case Ben Horowitz who got the biggest data warehousing company in the world yeah is Facebook solving a problem yeah also not really but in the end the sisters of Shuul had a problem and we fixed it with a platform but on a way different level than they normally would just buy clothes we just created something that was completely new in the Netherlands we've got a few questions in here yeah but wait I'm still talking to it wow I'll take it easy let's go to some questions Dominika is asking how do you start where do you begin to start your own company where do you begin to start your own company just do it go on fix a name go to the Chamber of Commerce go online do as much as possible with a minimal viable product that's an interesting thing we just want to sell Shuul I think the internet connection got a bit broke there but I thought you said start with a minimal viable product so invest as least as possible and get working and see what happens and then you do an iteration on the first product right yeah you just have to start right on don't think about shit too much because when you start thinking that you are lacking time yeah in Dutch we always say mens leid het meest door het leiden wat hij vreest so like you always fear for your future but the future is always here so you have to make the best out of it just do it but it's super difficult if you've never done it before I was like I had sleepless nights on the first investment round and the first money that I put in even the loan that we got from the Wageningen University was super stressful I can imagine I hope the question is answered are there any other questions how do you handle uncertainty how do you handle uncertainties that's a good question this is like a life changing question yeah you can't you can't handle uncertainty there can always happen shit everyday and if you stay positive and just laugh a lot yeah that was when we always had crisis always right now I also have my own crisis when finalizing the deal and have to put up a new company and yeah it's always from crisis to crisis and it's always going like this it's like a roller coaster and you have to just do it and when you're doing it with a team that everybody is motivated in you find a lot of strength in each other when I was down I went to school or went to other people and then eventually we had shitload of things happening that were super negative but eventually we could always turn it into positive things and just yeah gedeel de smart is half smart as we say in Dutch a lot of people are suffering but you're all together then you suffer together it's always less painful and suffering alone thuis is coming up with all his takeltjes so I hope everybody is biting them down right now I like it do we have more questions how did you approach the marketing before tv commercials okay so what was your marketing strategy before you had any tv commercials well we never had any tv commercials that's like fint that is doing the tv commercials united word was always doing facebook and instagram marketing I still can remember the data we find out buy clicks on facebook it was like 6 years ago somebody told me yeah you can buy clicks on facebook I was like what the fuck clicks on facebook so I went to facebook.com we started running those ads and for like 3 or 2 cents we had people to the platform we had like a sick as money machine just out of nothing because we started creating these ads with fint sneakers in your mind find sneakers in your own size people click on the sneakers directly go to size that they were looking for and yeah that was like why we could get the first investment round and only gave a little bit away of our company and secured our first angel deal giving away like 20% of the shares because we already had the money machine we could just say to investors hey look this is what we're doing we're doing facebook marketing it's super effective look at our data we're already running a company we don't have external investors and that's why we could secure our first deal and the deals in the future were always better and better because we had this whole facebook machine working and we did influencer marketing and PR ok so but when I look at that then it means that your data measuring needs to be really good right because you need to check if I pay for click free cents then I need to make 10 cents or 15 cents per click on average on my website so you have customer lifetime value how much is something worth for a year for 5 years or whatever and you have customer acquisition costs and the customer lifetime value always needs to be higher than the customer acquisition cost even when you are scaling so if you give away on 10.000 euros on our platform or on facebook marketing what will happen if you do 20.000 euros it's always becoming more expensive if your customer lifetime value grows what we have on our platform then investors will invest in you but then you have a money machine you actually have each euro that you put in will make you more revenue that's the goal so you're a little bit nodding like I'm not totally right you were like oh money machine is of course way too easy to say because you have people working for you you have a lot of external risks that you have to take legal costs all that things but you can all put them in the customer acquisition costs of course is what you call it I'm sorry that I said it was a money machine I didn't mean it by that it's a lot of hard work of course it was just a machine but what is your biggest learn during the build up of united's wardrobe ok good sorry I was reading the chat you were reading the chat yourself that's the reading sorry do you answer any questions here what is your biggest learn during the build up of united's wardrobe biggest learning trusting shul I was always distrusting shul in the end it all came to place a couple of weeks ago when we closed when we sold the company trust in people and also just even when times are completely fucked up and I also had a personal burnout we always went bankrupt a couple of times and always in these moments I went to shul and we just started drinking together we started doing things together and just talk with your partners and find people that are not similar to you but are like totally different like shul is really a thinker I am really a doer and thais likehuis is also really a developer guy it's totally different than we are so you have to find people that are complimentary than your own personality and start doing it with them you cannot start a company from your own that's going to create millions of euros in a group of people that are complimentary for you so always just look for people that can help you and not similar no so you need well they have skills that match you and that make you better right find a team that makes you better thais if we talk about the biggest learnings I also of course want to know what the biggest fuck up was in these years yeah starting with instead of a bv that was totally fucked up why can you explain to everybody why that was a fuck up ok so when you want to give away a part of your company you have to have a as we call it in Dutch a working bv like the company and you have your own bv that holds a part of this bv structure but when you are a vof you are all responsible yourself for all the debts and stuff just get funding around nobody told us that when we were at the chamber of commerce because they thought oh it's just a cute startup with second hand clubs they will never get big and yeah in the end you have to get your shit together at first legally that you give away all that stuff you have to really do it in a great order because if you want to get external investment everybody is going to do a due diligence and they are going to find out always and another fuck up is we just like funding 2 and a half million euros and go to France where our biggest competitor was was already super big in France we never had a market like Belgium or the Netherlands where they were so big and we just spent our money in France and eventually never turned up as profitable as the Netherlands or Belgium for us just because there was such a big competitor in that market we just kept on kept on kept on pushing and if we would spend all the money in for example Germany or another country then maybe we were seven times bigger than we now were when we got sold it's interesting right in psychology we call this the sunk cost effect it means that you keep investing in things that won't work out but you want to keep investing because you are already investing so much so it's an interesting thing I recognize a lot of that other questions let's do like 3 more was always your attention to sell the company from the start we were skeptical about selling it to vintage when we started the company we were only busy with scaling and growing the company we never had the thing in our head we could eventually sell it that was never really the case it was only years later we had professional investors we talked about these things and I think it's also if you start you have to only focus on growth and scaling because if you're going to think oh I'm going to sell it I'm going to be rich or anything your mind is going to waste ok so it was not the intention to sell but it happened I think it happened where do you see yourself in 10 years oh wow this is like the standard question that we do every time in 10 years he's the new Mark Zuckerberg he already explained us tell us in 10 years time in 10 years time hopefully having my second successful company running and just being an entrepreneur and do stuff I like also maybe have kids or something I know is that the definition is that the definition for you as well of entrepreneurship of course of course you just have to wake up and do things you like and not go to any place where you meet people you don't like you just be always in an environment with people that are cool to you and you're cool with and I think that's the most important thing if you everyday work with people you really love as I did at Shanghai wardrobe then working is just chilling and doing stuff it's good to hear right we have to find that as well we have to find that not always, not always most of the time a great final question Itha what is the knowledge you gained from your study ok interesting that's really difficult I think I had a lot of consumer psychology so when we were developing United War it gave really good feedback on how certain features work but in the end it was just like doing a lot of stuff doing a lot of direct and cold sales and that's I think really a skill that is not really teachable so in the end I also went to the Amsterdam university to do a minor in programming so I started knowing how a server works and works certain developing language are but I really thought like ok I'm going to do this minor and after that I'm going to be a sick developer was never the case so I think that's the answer yes so it's a little bit with the glasses of your studies consumer psychology is how you look at the world right and then you had some skillset from developing I have a final question of myself to you guys are entrepreneurs born or made to me? yes to you guys I think you have this thing called nature or nurture en I think a lot of being an entrepreneur is of course nature but you have to find the right people you have to grow up in the right environment so it's a mix of course a person like me I just like to talk a lot and present and I can do this everything without any planning where sure is just like completely the different type of person and if you find people that are similar just if you see developers developers are also super close they don't like to go to major events they just want to develop on their computers and make cool stuff they have to work together with commercial people nowadays to really make big companies so it's a mix you cannot really learn how to be an entrepreneur I think you can of course learn how to be a lawyer and then start a law firm and then you are also an entrepreneur so it's always a mix it's nature and nurture he said do you have a personal question to Thijs one thing that you still want to know of him that's a nice question I don't know do you no I just asked my final question so I was just hoping that you had a great final question but that doesn't matter I want to talk to you a little bit on what we heard Thijs thanks for your time we wish you all the best of luck with your new company looking forward to what it will become it's a mix between WhatsApp, Facebook everything I'm definitely gonna send you a LinkedIn invite to talk about that a bit more thanks for your time Thijs I hope to see you soon take care yeah ciao guys normally we do like yeah applause Thijs let's reflect a bit on what we heard your student as well well I think it's very important that when you have an idea you just have to do it just do it a little bit in the Nike mode do you have like entrepreneurial thoughts yourself do you want to become an entrepreneur no I don't think I don't want to go that way but I find it very inspirational to just hear all the stories and maybe one day you will get the right idea and then I will become an entrepreneur that's the interesting thing Thijs was actually inspired by the free sisters of one of his co-founders I find it very inspirational that he was still a student when that happened that he actually had the guts to do that during his studies on the other hand during your studies you don't need that much money so you have time and you have space to start becoming an entrepreneur so it's also a good moment I find it a very inspirational story so I'm glad he was the one I was looking the most forward to ja, this was the one that you were looking the most forward to so now you're done oh ok, no no but I'm also really looking forward to our next guest and she is the founder of MyOmi and she became an entrepreneur in 2007 already so it's Maria Baas and MyOmi is a company that has designer bags it's 100% sick do you know the brand? no, unfortunately because I'm a student oh ok, but you couldn't find one on United Wardrobe then no you should check maybe so I'm really looking forward and Maria is actually giving a presentation herself so she wants to tell us a little bit on her company, on what she founded and I already have some questions prepared afterwards and to you guys watching at home type your questions in during the presentation of Maria of course look if she's there, Maria are you there? My oh my oh my let's have a look are you there, they are checking yes I can see you but I cannot hear you we have to unmute Maria and I see some beautiful designer bags in the background already yes, there she is there you are you founded the company in 2007 and understood that you want to share some slides with us and to tell a bit about your entrepreneurial story every student is really looking forward to your story as well so please take it away and afterwards I have some questions ready for you ladies and gentlemen so much yes please, Maria no it's still black but I can tell you already well Irene is starting the slides that this is not my first entrepreneurship because actually I had one big company and in 2007 I started but this is actually already the third company within good for all which is my holding so in 2013 my oh my came to life so I am what you say a serial entrepreneur like what times is also going to be can you go to the next? yes we have your slides ready so now somebody I can wait to tell you something about my oh my let me see I have to get something away well why did I start this well I first had another company since this is about the global entrepreneurship week and within a very short period of time actually we also hit the 5 million line and we had this greatest office in Amsterdam and we had 35 people employed and 250 freelancers were working for us but actually it was all about the game of doing business it was really my game and it was a lot of fun but at the end I got a little bit bored because it was like the game and counting your money and then I thought hmm there must be a little bit more to life and I thought I am quite good at being an entrepreneur so why not make a company which also serves another purpose we had so many inequalities in the world for people and also the fashion is not a very nice world so let's do something about that and that was actually the starting point of my oh my because I met a guy or actually he was a pensioner and I met him and he said I am going as a volunteer to India and I am going to sit on my knees next to the people of a fair trade company because they have a very good wish to do something for the people to create fair trade work but their models are just awful so I said well I know a lot about designs and models and maybe we can do something together because I thought this is a very good story but I did not really know anything about design at that moment so I asked the design academy because Dutch design is obviously a special offer famous in the world and that's when I met Ramon, Ramon Milko he is a very good designer and he designed my paper bag and that is actually you can see it also hanging here but it's a very famous bag and I just started and then I thought let's order 75 pieces and it became actually it came into the newspaper magazine en we had 900 sold the first day it was was published so it was a little bit of an instant success but if you are looking at the why of our company we think that people can, we choose to choose for one of the SDG goals I think you are going to elaborate on that further but the number one here is no poverty and when there is no poverty in the world you don't have all these problems which we have now with a lot of immigrants everywhere people who are not happy in their own places and their own homes and have to find their happiness and lock our economic challenge elsewhere or they like in South America in the Amazon area they have to cut trees to survive and I think if you work on that or they have slavery terrible things but if you can do a little thing to bring this back with beautiful products while doing business because of course we all do business as usual then I think we are doing a very good job so now you can go to next so this is why we choose to decrease poverty even if it's so little I think it's very important to work on that and you go to the next and how do we do that we do that with empowered connections and collaborations because this is the way to work together on a fairer world so we don't work only for my own pockets I think it is good when you work together in a team to work for all the pockets and to reduce inequalities so it is our mission to break the cycle of poverty by creating a chain of empowerment go on we also think we are all change makers because we believe in the goodness of people and we believe in the power connection we believe in you, me, in us as humanity we are all convinced that we are all the change makers and we can make a choice every day like my or my I always say it is my choice what I do, where I spend my money and what I choose so we invite everyone to do the same and not only for our bags of course but it is always good when you don't harm the planet but do something where we all get happy at the end because we think together we can create this chain of empowerment go on because I think you want to know hear about entrepreneurship and Irene can go to the next slide yes like cooperating in India in the workplace this is Maya on the picture and one of my heroes is mother Teresa because she gives unlimited and she says I can do things you cannot, you can do things I cannot and together we can achieve the greatest things like what Krijf says but then in the mother Teresa language you can go on but we had a lot of production in India already and of course we needed more because we were growing so rapidly and people could not make all the bags in India and it took a long time for me to find a right partner to continue the business with and via the embassies and via people of Amphionela we found a partner in Bangladesh and that was a woman en she was really really ambitious her name is Taslima and I don't know if you can recall that there was the Rana Plaza accident that were in Bangladesh all the buildings collapsed where thousands of workers worked for our clothes like for you know the clothes that will be eventually on united wardrobe in the best case from H&M Primark en those kind of cool cats at the time and all the buildings collapsed over a thousand people died and this woman she said I want to do something to change the bad reputation of my country because she was a journalist at the time and then she coordinated the rescue teams of at this disaster place and she really promised to herself to do something about this and to really create a safe and nice environment for workers whilst making beautiful products but I was there at the end of 2017 with my colleagues and we went to Bangladesh and then we saw this we saw people on the streets demonstrating we saw the leather production was in a terrible state and we also had a nice story I thought if this is going to catch fire it will be the next round of class again so we had to do something about that now you can go on to the next slide because I went to RPO that is the Dutch government we could have some money to hire specialists to train the people that worked there because Taslima, you can see her on the picture here she is a very inspired woman but she only had some poor people sitting there like sewing something but they could not necessarily make really the bags that we need the ones that you can buy at the bank or so we had to do a lot of trainings and in 2018 we went altogether 14 times to Bangladesh with the whole team doing the trainings but also the management train Taslima to become a good manager how can we help her with the funding how can we buy the right leather how can we avoid all the problems that are in these developing countries to make a good product so that was quite a job and then you can go to the next and there is a little film where you can see the factory, how it is now and we are all, the whole team is extremely proud of it first it was nothing really and now it is a really nice working place and believe me I have seen other places there so we can always go hand in hand the only thing is that sometimes my heart are we are an eco chic fashion company and we make handbags with Fairtrade producer group and eco friendly materials Bangladesh has quite a bad reputation in the fashion industry so this is the reason for us to make a difference I always wanted to do things a bit differently I wanted to do something which will make the fashion industry accountable, transparent better, ethical and sustainable very important to meet the right people in business and that's what happened between us it's really nice I love it, I was so fortunate to meet RVO they said how can we make this work together RVO made it possible to pre finance part of the production so then we could place a larger order with Taslina thanks to the training and the collaboration between Lederina and Mai Mai we have better expertise in the global market and the international finance was key for scale and this really bridge again for us because we were able to scale up and also to make the appropriate quality that we need Mai Mai is now a very well known brand we have about 200 places where Mai Mai is sold the one thing we will never compromise Mai is the ethical way of producing we love creating fair trade jobs now Taslina employs 45 people so we can really go go go and I love it ja, that was really great we had been flying all night at 9 o'clock in the morning they started filming so even at my age that's quite difficult you can better start directly after your studies I must say prima, she is a really a power woman she says it's not simply a bag it's a movement and she is really proving that at the moment so you can go to the next you can see a little bit in the factory now there's 45 people already working there so those are really 45 people who lived on the street and had nothing and we are very happy that they are now empowered to make these beautiful products gone so there are already about 200.000 bags in the market at the moment and we are now actually getting also some of them back so we can give them a new life or cut them up and make a beautiful new designer articles from them going for circularities we have created 45 jobs and we have 160 or 200 points of sale en we are on our way to become 100% circular and we want to bring fair trade fashion to the leading stores in the world, that's our big goal internationally and of course when you do something like this you cannot just do it what I think you also have to have it accredited like we are fair trade guaranteed we have audits every year in the factory we have even audits in our office in Nader our letter is also audited in the letter group and there is also something about our funding because you also need a lot of money and fortunately we also want the gazelle awards which are like the fastest growing companies can win these awards and we are very proud to be among them so I want to say together we can continue our chain of empowerment and I would like to invite everyone to join this chain cool let's join the chain of empowerment it's a really inspiring story and I have some questions myself but I have a look at Isar are there many questions coming in as well there are a lot of questions can I do the first one because I was reading an interview and I think it's really interesting that on one hand you're fighting the poverty chain of course in Bangladesh I really love that story but you're also working on the materials that you're using I just want to check if I read correctly that you are making a designer bag out of mushrooms because I was like how does this work tell me about it and also help make beautiful bags for our vegan customers and we want to become completely circular and mushrooms actually they have it in because you can grow from how do you call it the spores of the mushrooms what they have under the head and you can grow material which comes to foam and then you can press it and you can make kind of a leather a lady who is or a girl who is making progress on this and we really want to make bags out of it but we already had the first layer which we had already made the first bags out of them as well but it's not really in a large scale production unfortunately as yet it would be interesting right a mushroom bag, would it be something for you no I don't think so you don't like mushrooms I don't think I want them so close but we have to see it first you're complaining already while you didn't see the product yet well maybe I like it when I see it I'm curious what are the questions that came in the first one is from Jim at what moment did you know my or my was going to be a successful business and worth pursuing actually at the moment we just put those bags online because we had a green web shop at the time and we just put the bags online and then they were just 900 pieces sold in one day and then I thought people apparently like it because it's about bags but I am not it might sound a little bit strange but I am not particularly a bag person for me it's important no but of course there's many people around me that are a lot of bag persons en now my love has really grown and I really love all the bags we have at the moment but in the beginning I had to learn to love it we just talked to somebody who isn't a clothing person who started united wardrobe and now we're talking to somebody who isn't a bag person who started my or my it sounds like entrepreneurs maybe I think that's the key here we're talking with entrepreneurs en one thing you said is that you are a serial entrepreneur as well are you also thinking about the next step, the next company you're building well I am not thinking about the next company really but I'm thinking of expanding our company in more fields than only the bags because you told me you had the company good for all and you may be expanding to a new brand or to something new you can do within that big holding that big company can you give us a hint on what it's going to be that is a little bit difficult to say at the moment so please do not ask I will not ask let's skip all those questions about the next company what do we have then the next one is from Tessa how can startups in the fashion industry I'm sorry if I pronounced wrong but Distinguish themselves nowadays Distinguish themselves nowadays because there are a lot of brands that are being sustainable one way or another although we can't have enough sustainable brands of course To be honest I think there's only two things the product has to be perfect and the branding has to be perfect and you have to have a little bit of luck as well ok, so luck is and also I think you have to really practice what you preach because if you are doing greenwashing or if you just do something which is not completely sustainable at least if you choose for sustainability then consumers will find out immediately they smell it you know it's really you have to be really honest and transparent in that it needs to be part of your brand and you talked a couple of times on the why of your company already is that something that you would recommend to all students as well to start thinking about that why and then start building brands or can you do it the opposite way as well well maybe some people have done it the opposite way but I'm also a member of a global entrepreneurship society and we are thousands of entrepreneurs in the world and actually the why is one of the most important things because then you can really have clear what your goal of the future will be and you know there is a very interesting theory about that of Martin Sinek why, what, how and that's the beginning of everything it's something you strive for the why, the how, the what did they teach you that fontis? did you read it? well, not enough this is not an exam it's interesting because you Maria you told a couple of times also about the partners you have right, like Dijksteens voor onderneming in Nederland who is part of the government and they really helped you I believe with extending your brand and finding the right partners is it something that everybody can call to is it something that I can go to if I want to extend my brand just like Tony Schokoloni for instance did also a lot together with them but they have a font and there are many ways that you can get funding there but mainly actually if you have a sustainable business it's easier to get funding in that direction you really have a clear proposition and you have to have a match with the investors like there's investment funds and also RPO and they have criteria and you have to have a match with those criteria interesting so one thing I want to reflect upon is both you and Thijs are talking about investors in quite an early stage of the company, right while you also have this theory going on that says start bootstrapping make a minimum viable product don't give away your shares so early when you are building the company can you tell us why you found these founders and why you chose to have investors on board quite early in the company to be honest in my first company that was a services company we did advertising and we made magazines there we did not need any funding at all and I did it with partner and partners and we had each 4000 euros savings and we started with that we started with that and that was all and then the millions flew in but we did not really did it for that but it just happened but with capital intense company which is obviously IT companies and companies where you have to buy or pre finance things items or tangible business there you really need investments that's very cash intense like our cash is stock for 6 months of the stock and that's what you're building on because you need the stock because that's what you're selling and you need to pre finance it so then it's necessary to have these investments interesting Issa, more questions someone is asking do you see a gap in the market for a new startup within the fashion industry gap in the market is always a little bit difficult I think en also I think it is a false assumption that to start a company you always have to have a gap in the market because then you will be a first mover and the first mover have a lot of advantage but also huge disadvantages I think also you can do something which you really like like in my previous company we were at the end of the product lifecycle but we were the fastest growers so you can then look at how others do it and do it better so I think that is also a very good opportunity in the fashion market and what I now also think is mainly like selling directly and having others having the consumers pre finance your collection is also something which is very interesting at the moment I think interesting so are you looking then at crowdfunding platforms as well to do these kind of things like Kickstarter we are financed partly by crowdfunding we raised half a million last year with rabble and crowd and that is also a lot of fun because so many people are then a little bit owner of your company and then you are really a company for and from the people en it is interesting to get their input and their feedback on the product I guess yes absolutely and I think that is the future because you do it all together and then you combine all the talents wow, interesting do you have a question yourself to Maria no but I have another one from the chat is it a good one yeah I think it's a good one let's do one more from the chat we have a very personal question to Maria to end with Ruben in the beginning you stated that you are good at entrepreneurship what makes you a good entrepreneur and how can we as students acquire this skill wow that's a very good question I don't know what this skill is but I think you have to have a firm belief in yourself in your why a lot of discipline and have a lot of drive and I think that is the most important thing and think a little bit have a bit of luck stay healthy I don't know if you can learn that but you have to love it and you have to be it because I can't do anything else it's interesting right the same with Thijs he said I'm not sure if you can learn it if you can teach it it's something that's partly nature and that's something that Maria says as well so I have two more questions for you I actually was lying I have one really personal one and then a more broad one let's start with the personal one you said we will never give away our ethical decision making that's the most important part all decisions we make are based on our ethics we had to make that was hard where this was really an important role in the decision that you actually took tough question right it is a tough question because for me it's also like actually yes at the moment there is a very fast rapidly growing vegan society and you have now all our vegan competitors we have to say cruelty free and no animals are killed but they sell plastic bags if I would say in good Dutch like I would really start selling vegan plastic bags but this I cannot do because plastic if that is your virgin plastic is your product it's absolutely devastating for our planet for our future so the easy money would be to sell the plastic vegan bags right so what we do is we try to do like an exploring mushroom or ananas or many other items or recycle plastic upcycle plastic but we will never do plastic interesting that's good only if it's really necessary for the packaging ok so my final question to you is what tip or advice could you give all the students that are watching right now if they want to become an entrepreneur well for me it is if you want to become an entrepreneur in a field that you don't know please ask some people that are very experienced in this because it can be so easy like I did that too late and that made it much more difficult for me only some financial models or how you do the buying how you have your cash upside if you have like in fashion there are really practical models I did not know at all about them and they are so simple and I thought if I would have known them it would have saved me an awful lot of hassle good well thanks a lot Maria for your time and for being here and telling us your beautiful story of the things you do I think it was really inspiring I am going to check with Iza what she took away from you want to say one more thing I have something for Iza because you said you don't have my bag because I am a student maybe I have something nice for you because we all have a sample sale very soon I heard of it I am going to take a look November 26th we want to take a look as well I will tell my friends oh great you are more than welcome she doesn't want the mushroom bag but you are going to look at the sample sale Iza is going to be really happy thanks Maria once again for your time and your inspiring stories take care thanks for inviting let's do a little experiment we are in here for an hour right now I would love to ruin the zoom chat for a second for all of you please type in one word that summarizes the event so far just so open the zoom chat and let's see what happens if we all start chatting right now if we can break zoom I see all the organizers here what is he doing what is this guy doing one word what do you think of it so far just type it into the zoom chat and I am going to chat with Iza for a while we heard united boardrope do you think that these things are similar in both stories well it is about fashion like in the fashion industry so i find it interesting i love fashion but if we look at the entrepreneurs what do you think of their personality how do they match i don't know the english word say it in Dutch noechter Ja, natuurlijk. Ja, ik heb het vergeten. En ze zijn heel enthousiast over wat ze doen. En ik vind dat heel leuk. Ze kwamen gewoon met een goede idee. En het was niet zo dat ze het voor jaren gepland werden. Nee, het is gewoon gebeurd. Ja, precies. We zijn een entreprenuurtje, maar ik heb nooit gepland om te worden een entreprenuer. Het gebeurt, en het is nog steeds gebeurd. Ik denk dat dat een van de beste dingen is. Ik denk dat je gewoon moet laten gaan en het over te laten zien. Ja, je ziet wat er gebeurt. Ik remember dat in de begin van mijn entreprenuurtje ik was in een van de globale entreprenuurtjes, en dan waren we allemaal samen en hadden we mensen die ideeën hadden. En er waren mensen die gewoon wilden als entreprenuurtje. En dat was interessant. Want de mensen die wilden als entreprenuurtje waren zitten en wachten voor een ideeën om te worden een entreprenuer. Maar het moet gebeuren. Je moet er iets gaan. Oké, hadden we Ruin Zoom? Is het gebroken? Of is het nog steeds gebeurd? Het is nog steeds gebeurd. Er zijn nog steeds veel responsies over. En we hebben eigenlijk de volgende speaker gezien voor een paar seconden. En als we over passion reden, dan kunnen we zeker over A-Karisu. Want ze doet zoveel dingen. Ik heb haar linken gecheckt. Het was de longest link in mijn leven. En ze werkt als een ambassade van de Sustainable Development Goals, die eigenlijk reflecteert op mijn historie. Maar ze is ook de sommige entreprenuer van de jaar. Ze is actief voor de politieke partij. Ze doet veel internationale projecten. En ik ga echt naar A-Karisu. Ben je daar? Ja. Can you hear me? Ja, we can. Very good. En ik heb begonnen dat je wilt share een beetje van je historie. En dan kan ik later een paar vragen vragen aan je. En natuurlijk, alle studenten die je kijkt kunnen ze vragen in hun vragen. Dus, neem het uit, A-Karisu. Please, pay attention to her. I'll try to share my screen. Yes. Wait. Let's see if it works. Yes, it's always working. Exciting times, exciting times. Yes. Oh, you have to try it again because we have to make you host. Yes, we have to make you host. Now it's working. Yes, dashy is, look at the screen. So, yeah, my name is A-Kari. And currently I'm studying at the Global School of Entrepreneurship. And I've been involved with the SCG since I was 14. And when I was 16, I got more into the entrepreneurial world, which I started my own sustainable company for affordable clothes for students because I was like, yeah, when I was 16, I just realized that the clothes that I buy, I really love shopping, that they were not that sustainable back then or you had to pay a lot. And as a student, that was not affordable. So, that was like really, something I want to put in the market. But then I stopped because I felt like I was super young en I still want to discover more aspects of my life. So, with politics, who am I, my values, yeah, about life. So, that's how I got more into sustainable, stayed in the sustainable part of being human and didn't really focus on the business. And currently I'm starting two businesses since I'm studying here. And I feel like it's a time. I know who I am, who I want to get out of life. So, I'm starting two businesses more over later. And in my free time, I also am very involved with the sustainable development goals here in Amsterdam, in the Netherlands and I'm the voice. So, I do presentations or workshops. I help where I can. And why am I studying entrepreneurship and innovation is like, I really love innovation. And I think, especially we as youth in so fast changing time, we have seen in 2020 the world COVID, we have to change. We have to be adaptable all the time. So, that's what keeps me interested in entrepreneurial world and everyday is different. So, that's why I'm studying this. But for people who don't know the sustainable development goals, I, yeah, so let's start with the sustainable development goals first. It is adopted by all United Nations member states. And it's not only for the governments. So, big corporate, small businesses, starting entrepreneurs, but also like every individual. They, yeah, you have to be, you know, you can be a part of it. So, I started when I was 14. And back then I volunteered. Yeah, so I volunteered already back then. So, you don't have to think like really big, only the world leaders can make a change. But that's the beautiful thing about this sustainable development goals. Yeah, so the sustainable development goals might be very big in your feeling, but it's actually put in small, three modules, like pillars, and it might be still big. So, let me go into the goals that you can see. And all businesses can focus on one or two goals of that. And the goal is like to achieve these by 2030. Yeah, because together we will come further. And for companies, then you will think like maybe really sustainable companies, but also like Shell, for example, has to be sustainable to stay relevant in the future. So, they are also becoming very sustainable. I mean, otherwise they won't survive the future because BP is also really sustainable. So, they have to compete in the sustainable part too. En dat is something I think all entrepreneurs that want to start now and want to survive in the future has to be sustainable. So, let's talk about my project. So, the project of business that I'm building right now, it's focused on big corporates. Because of the COVID, most of us work at home and then the whole human part becomes less. So, a lot of employees are at really mental, like mentally it's going not that well before COVID was. So, that's what I want to focus on. So, currently I'm researching companies such as the Microsoft and Cisco. I'm talking with HR managers and directors to what is the job in the market that needs to be done and how can I help with my business. So, a lot of millennials, for example, young professionals, they see burnout. That's a really common thing. But also with female, if you have a lot of ambition, how are you going to combine that with a family, having kids? I got a lot of questions. If you have so much ambition, you want to do so many things, are you ever going to have kids? To talk about these questions, I'm still on a really early stage with this business, on the research. Later on, I will write a paper about my research and publish it. The other business that I'm doing right now is called Fambicious. It is a collaboration with YWCA. It's going to be focused on, especially women, because as women, sometimes it's harder to get at some point than men. We all know the hashtag N2. We also have to create a club for females to come together and focus on these bullet points, because after COVID, the whole banking is going to be a big topic. I feel like women should be more into this world, like investing in the stock market. Not that women are not there yet, but inspire each other. That's a club going to be about. This one is about the goal, number three, good health and well-being. Goal 17, partnership for the goals, but then for every company that's going to be more specific goals into that. With this one, it's about gender equality, for example. With your business, you can combine the goals with your business. What I believe is that you have to bring the value. Not only about money, but also purpose and not helping the world. I think you will get bored at some point. And also to stay relevant and we as humans all work together. The goals are related to each other. Whatever you're going to build the next Tesla or the big company, you have to think about the rest of the world and what do you bring into the world? The fashion industry is the second biggest cause of the global warming. How are we going to do that in 20 years, in 100 years? What about our children and also with a plastic suit? These are really important things to think about, especially as young entrepreneurs. How are we going to do that tomorrow? I'm sure you have amazing ideas and I would love to stay connected and also with the sustainable development goals. Feel free to add me on LinkedIn and to stay connected of send me e-mail of send me a message and if you have question I would love to hear them. It sounds like somebody is developing your room right there like building or something but the interesting thing is if I look at the story so far we've been all talking about sustainable all about sustainability and we've been discussing that quite sometimes right now. Let's reflect upon myself 10 jaar geleden ik begon als een interactief host en een beetje als een entrepreneur en als een presenter als ik gewoon een klein bedrijf het is me, misschien met een andere jongen moet ik echt denken over alle sustainability goals? Ja, ik geloof dat want als je een klein bedrijf hebt ga je op de energie eruit en het begint met één present. Het is niet het is niet het is niet allemaal om studieën of regeringen dat heeft impact op het ik geloof dat elke individueel heeft impact op het dus als je dat doet dan heb je al een stap aan andere companies die dat niet doen en ja, het is iets wat kind je wil zijn en dat als entreprenier wat kind entreprenier wil je zijn ben je alleen in dit wereld voor de geld of heb je meer voor de rest van de mensen of heb je een probleem en ik denk dat als je een probleem hebt dan heb je een van de goals oké, dus het is allemaal om de probleem, toch? om de waarom het is ja, dus wat is je waarom wat is de waarom hebben we zoveel vragen? ja, wat tip zal je de studenten geven? wat tip of advies kan je de studenten geven? ja ik denk dat het al op mijn eeuw is dus kijk dan naar wie je bent want je kan een miljonaire zijn met entreprenier, de geld het zal wel komen en dan, geld is niet aan het maken het moet gebruikt als een tool dus voordat je een company begint waarom doe ik dit? veel start-ups fail want ze hebben geen wijk voor zichzelf dus waarom begin ik deze company? wat betekent het voor de wereld? en wat gaat het veranderen? en dat is niet hetzelfde van een familie of een persoon het betere effect dus voordat je begint te starten met een company en dat is waarom ik op 16 stop en ik begin weer oh wow, het is interessant want ik denk als ik mijn eerste company vond had ik geen idee wie ik was ik weet nog niet en ik denk dat het interessant is dat ze zeggen, kijk uit wat je bent wie je bent, wat je geloven ik denk dat dat basis is het zou ja het zou de basis zijn aan de andere kant, ik geloof dat het gebouwen van mijn company zelf ook als een persoon ik vond uit wie ik in mijn company ben het kan ook wel kunnen werken het kan ook wel kunnen werken hoe kan SCG Nederlands helpen me met mijn company oké, interessant hoe kan SCG Nederlands helpen met mijn company ik denk dat het bedoelt hoe kan ik met mijn company je kunt altijd met ze in het interesse wat je kunt betekenen voor elkaar ik kan niet echt zeggen 1, 2, 3, dit kan helpen want ik weet niet wat kind van company dus het is echt een grote vraag dus het kan ook als advies ja en als we kijken naar je, Ekari en we hebben gewoon gevraagd waar hij in 10 jaar is laten we het een beetje kleiner maken dan dat waarom zie je jezelf in vijf jaar in vijf jaar zie ik mezelf in twee bewoners waarom 2 waarom 2, waarom niet 1 oh, want de vanbessies, dat is meer zoals mijn mijn hobby ik hou van beide van hem maar met de andere, ik wil meer een club als een vriendgroep dat je hebt met de studentsociety maar dan voor een vrouw en de andere is wel de mensen het is ook dezelfde idee maar het blijft separaties en ik ben ook heel enthousiëerd dus ik kan niet echt choose 1 ik hou van beide van hem wat zijn de vragen, Issa? ja, ik denk dat je hebt geëxt maar wat is je ultieme droom mijn ultieme droom mijn ultieme droom ja, mijn leven zou zijn financieel dependent om te doen wat ik wil en in dat geval mijn vriendgroep is van Burma die is een land in Asië dus ik wil iets doen voor de UN in een human rights want ik ben zelf een refugee ook dus ik wil financieel independent om iets te beginnen of om de UN te werken voor human rights we gaan er veel van ik denk in de toekomst ook dankjewel voor je tijd ik vond het een interessant speciaal wanneer je nog zo young en we hebben natuurlijk het Mariah's en Tijs's hoe zou ik het zeggen ontwikkeld entreprenierers ze hebben gebouwd en dan hebben we deze mooie storied van iemand die weet wat ze wil doen dankjewel voor je tijd en ik denk dat veel van de studenten die daar te bekijken zal je ook met hun ideeën dankjewel voor de studenten we zien het in de zoom dankjewel voor de studenten, bye bye laten we naar onze eind wow, dit is echt want je hebt totaal een mooie make-up denk ik vandaag, toch? maar je wist dat ze komen je wist dat ze komen ik ben totaal natuurlijk vandaag, zoals ik altijd ben maar we gaan met iemand praten en dit is interessant, ze leest in germany ze was geboren in france en we kunnen ze Caroline Caroline maar ik ben heel blij dat ze hier is graag je schrijven één meer keer voor Caroline Krol is ze kan ik haar zien, is ze daar? hi ik hoop dat je me kunt zien en jij bent een van de founder van NoCosmetics, toch? ja en we bekijken echt naar je storied weet je de brand? nee, ik gebruik het nog niet maar misschien misschien zonder vandaag maar hij krijgt het grote discount voor alle studenten en dan gebruik je het ook en dan heb je mijn oma je zet je oorlogs op de United Wardrobe je zet je inspiratie op Ekerie en last, maar niet least, je hebt de NoCosmetics ja, precies Caroline, je hebt ook een presentatie dus neem het weg, ik ga echt naar onze Q&A oké, ik hoop dat iedereen mijn screen kan zien we kunnen oké, super ik ben een van de founder van NoCosmetics en eerst van me mijn naam is Caroline ik ben een voeltijd internationaal marketing student en ik ben nu in mijn 7e semester en op de andere kant ik begon in dezelfde semester in 2017 mijn tijd om te zijn een voeltijd entreprenuer dus dat betekent dat ik producten, producten, trade fairs en alles wat je ziet ja, in de screen ik heb met de company met mijn dad gevonden, dus ik zal dat later explainen want onze company is groot in de laatste 3 jaar ik ben nu in de positie van een marketingmanager dat betekent dat ik de social media management influenceer relations voor Germany en internationaal ik doe de publieke relations de eventmanagement voor de marketingmanager en ook alle producten dus om je te explainen een beetje misschien makkelijker NoCosmetics is een skincare brand die bedoelt dat het iedereen zijn eigen beslissing moet zijn en hoe te voelen is en hoe te voelen is en hoe te voelen is want we hebben de school virtual iets gebeurd ik zal je in de office laten zien zodat je kan ja, even kijken op jezelf kun je de geluid nemen? je hebt geen geluid en het is zo'n mooie video we willen geen geluid nemen wacht, ik denk dat het werkt nu ja, daar is het dank je hallo, leuk te zien hallo Caroline hoe ben je? goed, dank je ik ben alright de coronanamten zijn op het moment dus we zijn in de office maar ik zal je overlaten wat is NoCosmetics? NoCosmetics is een clean vegan skincare brand dat ik met mijn dad vond en we zijn gemaakt in Germany wanneer begint je de brand te starten? ik begon in 2017 toen ik mijn studie in dezelfde semester begon en ja, hier kun je zien, dat is baby me en wat was de idee? de idee was dat ik nooit kunnen vinden producten voor mijn skin in de drugstore, ze waren voldoende silicones en alles en ik wilde iets budgetvriendelijk, maar hoog kwalitatief en mijn dad was in de cosmeticsindustrie en hij was nooit blij met iets dat ik rondkwam dus we dachten, laten we het doen dus je dad is in de cosmeticsbusiness voor een lange tijd al? ja, hij is in de cosmeticsindustrie voor 25 jaar hij is eigenlijk een foto van ons en ja, we begonnen het samen hij begon de cosmeticscompany en hij begon met de producten van de shave en toen in 2017 hebben we gezegd, laten we de skincare producten doen en nu je familiebusiness, hè? ja, mijn vrouw en mijn mama gingen ons vorig jaar cool, waar produceren je de producten? we produceren op de Dutch border de stad is called Kalka die is dicht bij Nijmere en ja, we zijn een heel klein product en we zijn ook pakken door disabled mensen dus, ik denk dat er genoeg vragen zijn ik zal je nu laten zien dus dat is ons klein maar fijn en mooie kitchet waar de employeurs hun koffie kunnen kopen dus... hoeveel employeurs heb je? we zijn 10 in Loaf met ons en waar is de office ontdekend? we zijn in Nois of in Dorma die is tussen Düsseldorf en Cologne in Norse Rangra stad mooi ja, ik zal je laten zien de tweede office dus dat is de tweede baan dat is waar onze zakenmanager onze accountant-managers zitten en dat is de desk van mijn vrouw die is onze creatieve coördinator en die doet alle creatieve dingen alles wat je ziet op de website en in onze communicatie is van haar en ook... vorige week hadden we een shoot want dat is onze nieuwe product en we gaan het zien dat is onze nieuwe hoed oh, dus dat is de top secret ja, dat is de top secret maar het zal online zijn als je deze video ziet dus ik ga niet om een secret te geven en ook is ze de zaken van alle shoots en alles mooi en wie zegt de zaken van projecten zoals dit? eigenlijk doen we het altijd samen want we hebben ook geen model we gebruiken nooit modelen we hebben vrienden en familie in alle onze communicatie dingen dus we doen het samen maar die is de man die de creatieve coördinator heeft wat zijn jouw main tasks eigenlijk? mijn main tasks zijn dat ik de marketing, de influencer relations de PR voor Amerika ook en ik doe ook alle launch eventen en als we nieuwe producten hebben er zijn er ook veel dingen om te praten en te organiseren en ook ik was aan de employeur maar nu zijn we zo groot maar mijn mama is ook aan het doen dus dat is de tweede, de groter office het is helemaal vol want we zijn echt bezig maar dat zijn de online shop dingen waarin alle pakken zijn en op de zijkant de e-commerce manager is daar en mijn kleine helper mijn marketing assistie is daar ja, misschien wil je zitten oké, dus wat was jouw grootste succes tot nu? ons grootste succes of ons beste gewoon ons grootste hoog is op moment want we zijn we zijn echt goed, we doen echt goed we hebben geweldige nummers en ook zoals je hier kunt zien nummer 36 in Focos Business Groove Champions op het moment dus we hebben een geweldige interview over ons die ook heel cool was leuk en wat motivates je om te continueren in je studie en waarom wil je graderen? ik denk want ik begon de business van een brand in mijn eerste semester dus ik weet nooit hoe het was om alleen te studeren en niet te werken op dezelfde tijd dus ik denk dat het gewoon een habit en ik ben genoeg met twee volledig jobs maar ja, het is heel hard dus als iemand wil doen ze moeten wel bewaren van alle werkbedrijven die komen en hoe vond je het? dus ik kan imagineren dat het hard zou zijn om dit te maken voor de company ik ben niet de beste studenten ik heb te admiten omdat ik zo veel heb op mijn werkbedrijf maar in marketing ik ben altijd goed en ik ben altijd echt succesvol maar accountering is iets anders en wat was je grootste setback en hoe did je dat doen? oh, onze grootste setback we begonnen eerst de business en het was niet called no cosmetics het was called no mkp omdat van make-up dus voor de short form en het probleem was dat we research deden maar niet genoeg en het was eigenlijk een business het was called mkp en dus we hadden loads of court things going on loads of money that had to be invested to take care of the issues dus ja, dat was definitief our biggest mistake maar nu hebben we de naam no cosmetics we liked much better dus het was eigenlijk quite good in the end dus is er iets wat je gaat doen anders vandaag? ik denk dat every mistake makes you just grow even more so I don't think you have to just try to start again because everyone will make mistakes in the beginning so maybe we are still learning to not take things personal and that we still have to have a difference between our private time and our professional working time because most of the time we're working on the weekends or in the evening as well and so I think we're still learning there but everything else I think went quite alright and where are you in 5 years and where do you want to go? in 5 years I want to have my MBA I'm doing my bachelor's right now and I definitely want to have my master's and probably there's hair care coming there's body care coming there's shaving products coming there's more clothing coming so hopefully in 5 years we will be one of bigger cosmetics companies in the world or international and also we're doing something differently we have aluminum tubes that are post recycled and we are having high qualitative ingredients that are upcycled and maybe with doing what we are doing right now and growing and getting bigger we can just do something good in the world so that would be pretty cool last but not least where are you available? our products are available at DM in Germany at BIPA in Austria at ETHOS in the Netherlands and also available in a few stores in Italy, Poland Spain, America and Canada thank you Caroline great, I will show you the door thanks so much for taking the time and have a great day thank you, stay happy yes so maybe that was a little bit more interactive instead of just me answering your questions so in a nutshell we had the problem of not having any clean, fair priced, high qualitative products available in the drugstore and every time I wanted to buy something my dad never had thought that anything was good enough for my face so then I thought well, if there is nothing on the market or in the drugstore then I will just do it myself and also I was not a fan of the social pressure makeup was being a necessity also in the media and also models were not diverse and they were also photoshopped and everything so our solution was that our products are price friendly vegan, cruelty free they are regionally produced sustainable ISO 9001 certified which is the highest standard you can have in Europe packed by disabled people and with high qualitative ingredients the products will make your skin look healthy, glowy and great which is why it's called no makeup so that you don't have to wear makeup anymore that it's not a necessity but you can still do it if you want to we don't use any models everything you see in the communication on the packages or on the website or in the pictures you see below we are all friends and family we got into stores in 2018 and we are already very successful we are currently in Germany and we are currently in the Netherlands Austria, Spain, Italy France, US and Canada and we are currently or I'm currently working on the UK then you have a quick overview of our product range so I guess you have seen Steamcare before it's cleansers, serums and different just moisturizers and many more things and then I thought maybe it would be interesting for you to see our journey so in spring 2017 I was disappointed with the drugstore offerings and in the summer we came up with our idea then in November we had our presentation at the German drugstore chain and they gave us the possibility to pre-launch at the Glokon which is the beauty convention we only had free products and nobody knew who we were we were just talking for two days and we were trying to have people try our products and then we finally succeeded DM liked us and we had our first limited install promotion only in June 2018 with five products and after this went alright and was successful in November 2018 we were finally available in all DM stores in Germany in March we introduced our new face serums hand cream and in May I finally got some help and got my first employee in August we were on our first US fair we have done free until now and in May this year we finally moved to our new office cause we just got too big cause we are now as you saw in the video we are ten employees with us counted with us and in September we introduced our new products which are in post recycled material packed and this November just last week I had a new presentation to get into DM with new product segments what we are up to next I already gave a quick teaser we will do body more clothing shading and hair and yes I thank you very much for your time and yeah if you have questions cool thanks Caroline thanks for this great presentation and what I really love is their branding it's really strong check their website the know it really became like a trademark with the Norwegian I think it is interesting what I'm wondering about Caroline you're talking about your father is working with you your sister is working with you your mother is working with you it's a little bit like a family owned company in the end what happens when you guys are not agreeing on a decision who is the boss in the end is it you? well the thing is that we all have our different tasks so if it's about marketing or anything that is with PR I am the boss but if there is something with law or with administrative things then my dad is just the one that knows it better we are just working completely together en also my sister she is studying just media design in Germany and of course I have some ideas but if she says that it will look better in the other way then I will just let her do it and then in the end I will love it is it hard to keep your private relationship with your family next to the business relationship you have with them or is it really easy going for you guys I think it's a challenge of course also because I was the one that was there first and then you're the boss of your mom which is sometimes hard because I'm the one that is able to decide more things than she is and I think we just have to respect each other and also that you just have now that we have an office it's much easier because you can just go home but I would be lying if I would say that we're not working on the weekends on Sunday at 10 in bed ja I can imagine I think it's really brave to start a company in the Netherlands we always say never start a company with your friends right because it will ruin your friendship but with families you cannot ruin your family it's always blood related do we have any questions yes for sure how did you start financing your brand and how did you find factories to produce your products we were actually really lucky because my dad as I said in the video my dad started with shaving products before we did the skin care because he was actually just someone who was just counseling other brands but the brexit came and he was taking care of an English brand and so DM said well the brexit is coming we're not sure about this so maybe can you do it on your own and he said well I never did this before so let's see and he just had an old friend and he was producing his skin care products already and then when I came up with the idea that friend said well I can take you don't have to pay in advance but for that I will get a share of what will come out of it so in the end just because I wasn't able to finance this on my own and I also wouldn't have asked my dad so that was the easiest to have this agreement that the production is also having something and then in the end sometimes we're faster than if he would just pay him because he also gets something from it so you were one of the few lucky ones with the brexit then yeah probably we've got another one from Tessa why should we buy no cosmetics and not for instance Cora or Genix or Milu which are also vegan oh wow, okay yeah well the difference between those brands is some are green beauty some are clean beauty and some are blue beauty and we started with clean beauty which is not completely natural it's 98% natural but that means that everyone knows it from hay fever that sometimes the nature does things that we are just allergic to so in green beauty we don't have any reactions to your skin so we said okay we will have just a really really high qualitative ingredient that is the best for your skin and then from this September on we made a step further and now we are blue beauty that means that we are also donating to ocean funds and our products are sustainable and recyclable and our aluminum truth goes into the trash bin and goes into the trash bin again there is no waste in the trash bin yeah so and also I don't know any brand in the drugstore right now that has this margin that we have with the high qualitative ingredients because we have the relationship to our producer and everyone else has a 60 margin with their producer and let's have another reason to talk to us today I think that's the first reason why we buy it and she has a great product and I really love the story of the brand yeah me too other questions Jim is asking do you feel like you have to meet out on a big part of your social life since you're an entrepreneur and student at the same time interesting well I think every entrepreneur has had several parties in their life that they just couldn't attend but the good thing about my social life was that my friends just grew with me so in lockdown in March when we weren't able to have anyone come to our office to pack the packages my best friend was sitting on the ground just packing things and we just ordered pizza because we just had to take care of all the orders so my friends are really supportive with the brand and also they're all using it they're all ordering online and not trying to get some free stuff from me did the corona crisis actually increase your sales yeah you have those zoom meetings and people are more at home they want to do something for themselves so they would rather buy a retinal serum that will freshen and make it glowy and healthy instead of buying the next liquid high coverage foundation just because they're at home and they want to spend something for themselves to improve their own skin so I guess that could be that's good that you have these friends that are actually working with you right do we have more questions how many do we have we have like 272 questions still okay let's do one yes do you also sell products for men well she talked about that she's gonna do it right with the shaving I think but are there already products for men well I think skincare does not have a gender so you can definitely use our products already we have many men that are already using it and if someone doesn't know what he wants to use or what he should use he can always DM us on Instagram and we are helping every single customer to find their perfect things so we have definitely many of our products are used by men so I don't think anything has a gender there okay, interesting, yeah, good another one? yes, do one more, yeah Dow is asking do you think because the production owner has a share in your company the innovation of your products more easily yes I don't think he is always happy with that because sometimes I call him and say I have a good and a bad thing to tell you and both are that I have many new ideas but he comes up with things very very fast sometimes he is probably going insane with me because I have those things that I want to have and they can't be vegan or something and he says we have to do it vegetarian and I say no, this is not possible we are a vegan brand but I think because I can just call him or if I also have a question on Instagram and someone asks me something I mean I know my products so well at some point I didn't study chemistry so sometimes I don't know the answer and then it doesn't matter at which time in the evening I can WhatsApp him and say I have this question, I don't know the answer and he will answer it within half an hour so that's much much easier I would like to reflect upon one thing you said in the video as well you said in 5 years time I want to finish my MBA you own a very successful company that is rapidly growing why are you so keen on finishing your studies why not focusing fully on this well a good question well I always wanted to have my masters it has always been a goal I don't even know why and this came before I even came up with the brand and we just stumbled into this whole thing we just had an idea and then we said we had free products we had 6 we had free people sitting in our cellar we thought maybe we need an office it came really fast and I shouldn't let myself down just because I have a brand so I should still focus on my goal I want to have my masters just for me just to have my educational standard but I want to have them myself and I think that's really important that even if you're an entrepreneur you should still just take care of yourself because maybe it will I mean I hope it will grow bigger but maybe in some years it won't and then I don't have my masters and then I have I don't know a child and don't want to do it anymore what is interesting again is that she's saying it just happened it's the same with Thijs, with Maria it just happened and they built huge companies so it is the luck factor I don't know if it's the luck factor I think it's like a combination of it I think you just have to you just have to have the right of the right but also a bit of luck because without luck you but also the guts to grab the opportunity because I think Caroline could have also said yeah that's not for now I'm doing my masters or I want to do my MBA but she took the chance again do we have more questions she only asks how much of the stuff you're learning your study you can apply in your business oh that's a good question well I noticed actually because I started my business in the same semester in September 2017 when I started my studies and then at some point I was learning from things that I had in school just in university in a lecture I can look that up later because I can use it or the other way around that I was talking to someone and he says yeah maybe you know this and that and I said yeah I know that from my private life now at this point I don't know how it is at the Tilburg University but in Fenlo we do the first two years and then the third year we are not in the university so I was in Canada and I did a traineeship in strategic marketing and that means that now my business grew and my lectures are now behind so because I learned a lot in that year that I wasn't in university so now usually it is like that that I listen to the things and I know what we're talking about and then you just do something else you do the dishes or something so your company outgrew the pace of the university that's what you're saying let's reflect upon one more thing if you could start over Caroline if you could start over what would you do differently or is there anything you would do differently as I said in the video we had this mistake with a name that was just not protected so probably more research and maybe also I think if you have that dream you just shouldn't let anyone bring you down because I have so many friends until this day and we're really big we're making really enough revenue and I still have friends that don't want to hear about the brand and I think you shouldn't let those people just in your inner circle and just focus on the ones that do good and that will think you're doing well and that will support you because if you just do that long enough you will probably succeed every entrepreneur story for that many years and we started again and again and I think maybe that's the reason that they succeed in the end so I guess I would try to have less toxic people in my life from the beginning on oh wow less toxic people that's a great lesson let's do a final question and then we're gonna reflect upon the stories we heard well I've got a question by myself by yourself want to start up an own company their own company what's the advice the students want to start their own company I think do your research so be sure that there's the brand name available and everything but then just look who's a real supporter and not somebody that will just run away in the second everything will go down and for it probably don't give up and take your personal time because as I sit in the video I'm still learning I need my free time and I need to close the laptop and just do something else and it's really really hard if it's for a baby and you're earning your own money so why would you stop but you just need it for your personal health so work life balance big tip as well was there still a good question from one of the viewers or was this like your final question you said this was the final one thanks Caroline for your time very interesting story with no cosmetics we wish you all the luck and if you ever need a model I'm here for you so if you need one just give me a call thanks and take care thank you so much for your time alright Isa, that were the four speakers we really looking forward to united wardrobe but were you also inspired by our final two speakers yeah definitely so what did you take away from them I think like what I said before I think it's very important to just do it just do it just go for it did it change your attitude because I was talking to you earlier I'm not sure if I want to become an entrepreneur did this change through these stories yeah I think you still I think it's not not that it's not right but I think it's easier and better to just focus on a nice idea instead of just saying I want to be an entrepreneur or something you know what I mean I think it's yeah I'm definitely inspired it's about grabbing the opportunities that come by right I think it's not necessary to say I want to go I want to become an entrepreneur it's not the way to become one no but we're here in the global entrepreneurship week and we are of course talking about entrepreneurship and in the end you have like this entrepreneurial mindset or you become an entrepreneur I think many many people can become entrepreneurial within another company as well and when we talk about entrepreneurship it's about doing the things you love doing the things you believe in I think that's the most important thing is to do something you love because otherwise you can't just put 60 or 80 hours in it and let's have a look on you what do you love we asked all the speakers what will you be in 5 years time what will you be doing do you have this plan pointed out for yourself or are you like a career well I first have to know myself and then I'm gonna choose that path well I don't have like a future we should become professional co-hosts oh that's something you should do I hope I'm doing what I love I think that's the most that's like a very general answer but I think that's the most important thing because I think I failed if I don't do what I love well let's take that away and let's say one final advice from me to all you students you have time right now and use that time I started during my studies well just as Caroline and take the time the extra time you have instead of playing FIFA on the play station take some time it's also really nice but take some time to do that and if I can give you one advice read biographies guys read the stories of all the big companies but also of Nelson Mandela you have the time really in these books are so inspiring I started reading them way too late I just started reading them United Warthroop About the Sustainable Development Goals of the Netherlands with Ikari of course and about No Cosmetics for brands, for persons for inspiring people who are being an entrepreneur or becoming entrepreneurial and who build great companies and I hope this inspires you on this Global Entrepreneurship Week to start thinking about your own company as well or to look around you taking chances and about inspiring each other and I believe that one of the things that's really important is to talk to each other about the ideas you have so if you have the best idea in the world don't start with protecting it but start by sharing your idea with your friends, with your family give feedback, talk about them develop them and when you feel that this has a chance of becoming successful just do it exactly I hope you had a great day here you can stay in the chat of course talk to each other make private messages have a lot of fun with that or just grab a nice beer what you would normally do at such an event this was the get inspired event of the Global Entrepreneurship Week thank you Issa for being my co-host and moderating all the questions thanks to all our speakers once more for being here and sharing their inspirational stories and thank you for watching