Start to scale. Startup and Scale-up Founder Stories.
Showcasing the vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem of Rotterdam - and our journey to support the startup and scale-up founders responsible. Hosted by Lars Crama, edited by Lisette Braakenburg. (Buma Stemra licence 10682974)
Episodes
62 episodes
Rebuilding resilience: Jouri Schoemaker on Pieter Pot's journey from bankruptcy to crowdfunding revival
Jouri is the founder and CEO of Pieter Pot, one of the most talked-about startups in the Netherlands. The online supermarket, known for using jars instead of plastic packaging, experienced rapid growth since its launch in 2019, rais...
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Season 4
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Episode 62
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51:12
Jos Lazet's Journey with Blockrise: From Bitcoin Basics to Crypto Leadership
Jos is a passionate entrepreneur who started his journey early, registering his first business at the age of just 15. In 2013 he got involved in Bitcoin and became captivated by its transformative potential. While pursuing a Bachelor’s degree i...
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Season 4
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Episode 61
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47:30
From Travel Enthusiast to Tech Entrepreneur: The Polar Steps Story with Koen Droste
From a young age, Koen built websites for clients, leading to his first startup, CompanySpot, the Dutch version of Glassdoor. Koen later played key roles at platforms like Hyves, Relatieplanet and Dumpert and co-founded Upcoming, a news and ent...
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Season 4
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Episode 60
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46:54
Plant whisperers unveiled: transforming agriculture and navigating the startup landscape with Berend de Klerk
Berend is on a mission to revolutionize the agriculture industry. With a Master in High-Tech Engineering ánd a Master in Management of Technology, he founded Plense Technologies together with Thijs Bieling. They use a pa...
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Season 4
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Episode 59
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35:59
Powering The Green Revolution with DeWarmte: Sander Wapperom's Journey to Sustainable Home Heating
Immediately after graduating from TU Delft, Sander and Auke developed an innovative product called HeatCycle - which recovers all heat from household wastewater. That led them to win the ASN World Prize in 2020. Later they added the sleek and s...
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Season 4
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Episode 58
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44:43
Scaling with Mycelium: How Bob Hendrikx changes the funeral industry with Living Coffins
Let me introduce Inventor, Biodesigner and Entrepreneur: Bob Hendrikx.With a background in Architectural Engineering Bob strives for a world in which we work in symbiosis with nature. In 2020 he founded Loop Biotech, on a mission to revo...
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Season 4
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Episode 57
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46:17
From Boxing Champion to CEO: Josefien Groot's Journey to Technological Innovation and Sustainable Leadership
With a masters degree in Complex Systems, Josefien Groot went from national boxing champion to Scale-up CEO, advocating for a sustainable future. Before reaching the age of 21, she had already established and sold her first business...
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Season 4
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Episode 56
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51:38
How to build a brand in consumer electronics with Repeat Audio founder Dorus Galama
After he completed his master in strategic product design from Delft University, Dorus began to do graphic studio work together with his fellow student Delft Tom. From a deep love for music and the determination to stand up against ...
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Season 4
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Episode 55
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49:30
Revolutionizing Urban Mobility: Bibi Jorissen's Journey with Umob and the Future of MaaS
With Master’s degrees in Strategy and Marketing, she excelled in mobility. From cutting carbon footprint at General Motors to boosting fleet growth at Greenwheels. In 2021, Bibi co-founded umob with Raymon Pouwels. They secured 8M i...
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Season 4
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Episode 54
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53:03
Reflecting on Rotterdam's entrepreneurial ecosystem and getting up-close and personal with Lars & Lisette
In the last episode of this year, Up!Rotterdam's Lars & Lisette reflect on the entrepreneurial ecosystem of Rotterdam and its development over the past 4 years. We'll talk about:How our scale-up ecosystem develope...
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Season 3
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Episode 53
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1:11:20
Technology adoption in healthcare and care robot Tessa with Wang Long Li, founder & CEO of Tinybots
During his PhD research, Wang explored robots' societal impact on the elderly, especially with dementia. In 2015, he left that and founded Tinybots, to make a tangible difference for those with cognitive challenges. Toda...
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Season 3
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Episode 52
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45:03
Negotiating a €40M deal with the EIB and reinventing yourself from a 1 man team to leading 100 people with Mattijs Slee from Battolyser Systems
With a Master in Hydraulic Engineering from Delft Technical University and an Executive MBA from INSEAD, he spent 15 years with Shell, where his latest roles included Investment Director for Shell ventures as well as Commercial Head for Shell H...
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Season 3
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Episode 50
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55:51
The opportunities in a $1 trillion Augmented Reality market with Joris Biskop, founder and CEO of AddOptics
Joris Biskop is the former CTO of Luxexcel, 3d printing lens specialist, which was recently acquired by Meta for €400 million. Based on his insights there, he founded Addoptics, of which he is now the CEO. Addoptics is a smart manufacturer of o...
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Season 3
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Episode 50
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46:50
How to clean the ocean with oyster reefs, with Oyster Heaven CEO George Birch
With a background in biology and a passion for environmental conservation, George embarked on a unique journey that led him from asset management to the world of oyster reef restoration. After completing this MBA from Rotterdam Scho...
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Season 3
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Episode 49
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57:20
Philips Innovation Award Special: learn about nature inclusive development and how to make the most of a competition like PHIA.
In this episode I speak with Auke Bleij, Founder of Respyre - the fascinating startup that helps cities turn green through a special concrete that holds moss. Respyre is a spin-off from Delft Technical University, on a mission to create greener...
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Season 3
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Episode 48
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41:02
Philips Innovation Award Special: Diversity in tech and starting a startup with 7 co-founders, with Marsha Goei from Breeze.
Marsha started Breeze - the worlds first offline dating app, together with 6 co-founders from the Technical University in Delft. That was 2019 and today, they are the fastest growing dating app in the Netherlands, with prominent investors suppo...
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Season 3
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Episode 47
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30:11
BAQME founder & CEO Souren Arakelian on the future of urban mobility.
Souren's career spans across esteemed institutions such as Merrill Lynch and Rabobank, where he excelled in investment banking and M&A.Today, Souren leads the charge at BAQME, the first company globally to offer a free floating share...
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Season 3
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Episode 45
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53:20
WEAR Co-founder Pim Roggeveen on the business of refurbished sneakers and pivoting from service to product
Pim and his co-founder Lorenzo van Galen, are challenging the fast fashion industry. With their company Wear, they are creating the largest platform for pre-loved sneakers. Their collaborations with established players like Bristol and Bijenkor...
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Season 3
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Episode 44
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50:50
CEAD founder & CEO Lucas Janssen on product market fit in large scale 3D printing and landing a €1M EU Grant
In 2014, along with Maarten Logtenberg, Lucas set out on this journey from a garage, fueled by their dream of designing and building cutting-edge machines. Fast forward nine years, CEAD has become a global leader in large-scale 3D printing,...
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Season 3
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Episode 43
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45:00
Profitable business models in the biobased economy by Lindy Hensen, founder of Tekkoo and PeelPioneers
In 2017 she co-founded Peelpioneers, the largest producer of raw materials from citrus peels in Europe - together with Sytze van Stempvoort and Bas van Wieringen, where she now sits at the supervisory board. Next to that, she ...
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Season 3
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Episode 46
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46:17
Staffyou founder Pavle Beslic on innovating the temp staffing business and getting punched in the face
As a chartered accountant Pavle Beslic started his career at Deloitte - after which he decided to go independent and stumbled into the world of recruitment. That inspired him to found Staffyou, now one of the fastest growing on-demand staffing ...
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Season 3
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Episode 42
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46:26
Arctic Reflections founder Fonger Ypma on his bold mission to slow down global warming
Fonger is an experienced leader in the energy sector. He obtained his PhD in mathematics and physics at Oxford University, after which he worked as a strategy consultant and McKinsey and as head of a Eneco Smart Energy Lab. Since then, he was t...
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Season 3
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Episode 41
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42:08
Dekbed-Discounter's CEO Niels Verwij on growth and keeping focus when opportunities seem unlimited.
Niels Verwij is a successful e-commerce entrepreneur. He started dekbed-discounter, a disruptive online duvet webshop, in 2014 from scratch. It disrupted traditional retail and soon became one of the most successful e-commerce companies in the ...
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Season 3
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Episode 40
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37:31
The Seaweed Company founder and SeaEO Joost Wouters on why we should re-align business and nature
Joost is the founder and SeaEO of The Seaweed Company. A global pioneer in developing high-quality seaweed applications, with farms in the Netherlands, Ireland, Morocco, India and Greenland.After a corporate career at P&G and Pepsico...
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Season 3
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Episode 39
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46:57
SolarDuck founder & CEO Koen Burgers on how to prevent rookie mistakes as a founder.
Koen is the co-founder and CEO of Solarduck, the Dutch leader in offshore floating solar. He started his career as a management consultant, before he joined Damen Shipyards, where he was the Director Strategy and Business Transformation. <...
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Season 2
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Episode 38
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43:48