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Netwerken Archieven - Startupboot

Pros and Cons of Business Grants

By | Finance

The realisation of a fresh business idea or an impressive development plan always comes along with financial and planning difficulties. However, as a real entrepreneur, you know about the support that the government provides to young and developing businesses. Subsidies and grants are considered as one of the best ways of funding. It might be a case that you are still deciding about your willingness to apply for the governmental grant. We would love to help you and provide some pros and cons of the business grants.

Advantages of grants:

Complimentary money

Grants are attractive for businesses because they do not have to be repaid. Not only that, but some grants offer a large amount of money, depending on the company’s idea or purposes of investment. 

Available information

Description and information about the subsidies conditions or deadlines is freely available to everyone. It can be found on official government sources or related blog posts. This aspect is essential for entrepreneurs as it is crucial to make qualitative research and find the grant suitable for you.

Waterfall effect

Once you have been awarded the grant, you become a reliable candidate. Therefore, you have better chances to receive other governmental subsidies or grants from other organisations.

Increased visibility

Winning one of the acclaimed grants shows that your work is of notice. Thus, it can perform as a way of promotion. It helps you to gain credibility not only from organisations and investors but also from potential leads or clients.

Disadvantages of grants:

Time-consuming

You have to do a lot of research and paperwork if you decide to apply for a grant. Once you have found a grant that suits you the best, you have to write a good proposal. The proposal is the most important step in the application process. A creative idea cannot receive a grant without a convincing proposal. However, the companies that specialise on subsidies can help you with the proposal and all the application steps. For example, the WBSO Software Specialist has been active in the market for 12 years and is experienced in obtaining software subsidies. Their advisors have handled and successfully submitted thousands of applications. Therefore, they can help you to write a successful proposal.

Big competition

Many of the businesses with bright and creative ideas hope to receive governmental support. Thus, the competition for one grant is high. Be prepared for the difficulties but do not let them inhibit you. From statistics, 99% of the WBSO Software Specialist applicants are approved for grants. Thus, in case they find your project suitable, the chance that the subsidy provider will also find it suitable is 99%.

Conditions and restrictions

Although grants are complementary money, they come with restrictions. When applying for a grant you have to be very specific about the ways you are planning to spend this money. After receiving the grant, you have to stick to the plan.

Overall, the pros of the decision to apply for a grant outweigh the cons. The advantages and disadvantages of governmental grants still point to the idea of complimentary money for the development of your business. In the end, the most important thing is your own belief in the future of the idea and willingness to risk.

Fuckup night

By | Geen categorie

This year almost comes to an end, and so it is time for a good old throwback. This year, we have spoken a lot about successes and all of those times, we concluded that to become successful, you have to make mistakes to learn a thing or two. With this in mind we have decided to make ‘FUCKUPS’ the subject of our last event of the year. A very interesting subject as the turnup was great! So.. what have we learned?

First of all, know what the company needs. When you know what the company needs, it is easier to make the hard decisions. You need to be realistic about this from the beginning. A lot of startups start as friends. Either someone from your close group of friends, a colleague, a family member or even your boyfriend or girlfriend. It always seems like a good idea because when you are good with someone, you can run a business with them right? WRONG! Do not try to force such relationships into a business relationship! Two of our speakers also lost their friends because they started a company together. What you do need, is someone to strengthen you. Know what you are good at and what you suck at. Then find someone to fill in the gap.

Same goes for employees. Of course the worst thing about a hiring process is that EVERYBODY lies on their resume, so try to make the process as flawless as possible. Make sure you know what kind of employees you need. Not only in skills, but also in contract. Sometimes it is great to work with a freelancer. They build something amazing for your company and afterwords, they are just done. Other times, you really need a loyal employee. But than again: consider whether you need an entrepreneur who prefers to work alone or someone who really fits in the team culture. You might also think about hiring more experienced employees rather than cutting costs by hiring a less experienced employee. This saves you some fuckups.

Now of course, hiring an employee costs money which we do not always have. Another thing we have learned is to be a bit creative. You do not always have to put them on the payroll. For example: You could reward them with a promise. When the company becomes valid, they earn their share in the company. It may seem to you that when you do not have the money to pay someone, you should not hire an employee. This could be so, but as a startup, you probably need investors to set up the business. As you know, a startup is build from a problem to which an entrepreneur finds a solution. To get investors on board, you need to show them that people are willing to spend time on your solution with you. Also the problem which you solve should be a serious pain to which the investors actually want a solution.

The next fuckup of the evening, which I think it is fair to say almost everybody can relay to, is that you need to keep ‘Ego’ outside the door. Of course, you are proud of what you have done and you want to scream it of the rooftops, but do not exaggerate. It will annoy your team and it does definitely not give you a head start with customers. Be aware of your ego and keep it in check. People do not buy your product or invest in you because you show off, they do so when you deliver the promise.

Last but not least: Do not bother to keep thinking about your regrets and do not let them guide you. Keep in mind that you need to go through things to value them. When the value turns out to be low, at least you know!

We called it the night at the successes. The speakers all are very successful so do not be afraid, be bold, take a risk, make some FUCKUPS and become successful.

Thanks to:
Renske de Bruine of Winkler
Erwin van der Vlist of Speakap
Wybo Wijnbergen of WeWork
Matthijs van Schendelen of Endeavour Group

How to get funding

By | News

For a lot of start-ups, creating an innovative idea is not the problem: it is collecting money to execute the idea. Fortunately, there are a lot of creative ways to do so. Sander Waterval has got a lot of experience in the matter, since he executed a lot of his expansive ideas.

Right now, Sander is working on one of his dream projects, the Wikkelboat, on which we have actually organized a barbeque last night after a cruise with Ronald Scholtus on one of the boats of Rotterdamishot. The Wikkelboat project is due in two weeks from now. It’s the first Wikkelboat ever to be made and will be located at the also to be expanded harbour ‘ The Red Apple Marina’ in Rotterdam. This project costs a lot of money as you can imagine and so, you need to be a bit creative funding it:

  • By involving your suppliers and partly paying them after delivery. When the project is done, the Wikkelboat will create turnover because it will be rented out. This money can be used to pay off the suppliers;
  • By involving your clients and let them pay on forehand with an interesting discount;
  • Get some extra cash by leveraging this by the bank;
  • Check for possibilities to get some subsidies.

When going on board with investors, there are some things to keep in mind. The most important lesson of today if you ask me, was to make sure that you are still the chief of your company after the investments. If the investor pays for most of your company, they have a lot of rights to make big decisions as well. Because of this and because quite a few investors do not like to take risks on their own in an early stage startup, it’s a good idea to match investors to fund the company.

After finding the right investor(s) for your company, always make sure you do your research on them and make sure that when they do research on you, which they will, your story will be good! Your story should be the one that makes them go on board with you and the idea of your company should be clear and unique. Doing research about them might seem a bit out of the ordinary, but when you promise someone to spend the rest of your life with them, you want to know them first right? Well guess what… when you choose your investors, you will spend your business life with them! You can ask around for information about the investor in your own network or find someone the investor has worked with or invested in already. Make sure the ideas and goals your investor has, are the same as yours.

Most (angel)investors know each other and are willing to invest in your company together. Know this: they will nog arrange this for you! Be on top of it and make sure to find the right mix of investors for your company.

What will the future bring us?

By | News

The event of today got us thinking: ‘what will the future bring us?’. Over the years, human beings have evolved a lot and we can take for certain that we’ll continue to evolve. Way back in time, we lived only on basic instinct. We were happy when we had food, a good health, shelter, water and love. Having these things made you a rich person, it was a luxury.

Now, we entered a time where these luxuries became our basic needs. We don’t hunt for food anymore, we don’t settle for shelter and love, we always want more! In the current business model of the world, people are controlled by money, power and rules. When we have a problem, a lot of people solve the issue with two solutions. Either by adding money or adding rules. What if more money and more rules don’t get us any further in our even faster changing world, what if we got more flow and trust? More creativity comes to the table, that’s for sure!

Who would have thought that today we would be able to talk to someone who’s on the other side of the world, that we could print toys and drive cars on electricity. Who would have thought we would be looking at a future where we will be able to buy a flying car and talk to your computer via a chip in your brain.

These thoughts were the subject of our Startup Boot event, where Peter Ros of Permanent Beta took the lead in an open discussion about the impact of technology on human behavior.

Now back to the question. ‘What will the future bring us?’. Together we thought of multiple outcomes as:

‘We will go back to basic. Be happy, not by striving for more but by loving and caring.’

‘We will become one big community. Everyone will take care of each other and we’ll develop the worlds possibilities together.’

‘People will work less, but have more. Technology will make sure of that by providing us with our basic needs.’

Regarding to Peter Ros, the future will probably be a mix of all possible outcomes and hopefully bring us to a next level in wellbeing by caring for each other and our planet. But to be totally honest, we ended the event without a clear answer about the future. We were only certain about one thing: we need to stop thinking in the two basic business models for the world where we either live by basics or strive for more with money and power.

So to answer the question, how about this:

How about we don’t know what the future will bring us. How about we settle for the not knowing and open ourselves up for a new mindset. What if we acknowledge that one person cannot create the future, but we will ease in to it step by step, together. It is human nature to want to know how everything works, this is what makes us develop and even evolve. What if, we stop waiting for the government to guide us to the future but take matters in our ‘own’ hands. We work together, share thoughts and create our future together. We want to know your thoughts!

How about that?

~Permanent Beta is a community about technology and social innovation. Do you have a vision about these subject and do you want to share? You are more than welcome to join!~

Radio interview ondernemerspassie: De netwerkkoning binnen de startupscene. Nick Reineman van Startup Boot.

By | News

Voor iedereen die succesvol wil zijn met zijn startup. Nick kwam de Startup scene binnen en wilde alle startup founders in zijn netwerk hebben. Hij begon Startup Boot en gebruikte dit om ondernemers met elkaar in verbinding te brengen. Startup Boot groeide gigantisch en binnen no time werd Nick de man bij wie je moest zijn om je startup te laten groeien. Ben je als ondernemer op zoek naar inspiratie een co-founder of investeerder? Kom dan iedere donderdag en vrijdag langs bij de Startup Boot.

65: Startup | De netwerkkoning binnen de startupscene. Nick Reineman van Startup Boot.

Interview Delta Lloyd: Zo haal je wél business uit netwerken

By | News

Netwerken voelt voor veel ondernemers als een ‘moetje’. Het lichte ongemak van eenzaam bij de bar staan, herkent iedere ondernemer wel. Ook Nick Reineman (33) had het idee dat het anders kon.Hij besloot het anders aan te pakken met zijn Startup Boot-events: netwerken terwijl je relaxt een kop koffie drinkt op een boot.

Hoe belangrijk netwerken is voor een ondernemer? Nick Reineman verslikt zich nog net niet in zijn cappuccino in een koffietentje in Amsterdam. “Netwerken is álles voor een ondernemer,” zegt hij stellig. “Om succesvol te worden moeten mensen je leren kennen en weten wat je doet. Er is één manier om dat te bereiken, en dat is door te netwerken.”

Biertje teveel
Reineman heeft een eigen bedrijf dat subsidies aanvraagt voor start-ups. In die hoedanigheid woont hij regelmatig netwerkborrels bij. De geijkte associaties bij netwerken van ‘geforceerd’ en ‘ongemakkelijk’, herkent hij dan ook meteen. “Ik ben zelf ook door schade en schande wijs geworden. Dus ik herken dat gevoel dat je niet weet met wie je moet praten, je te lang vastzit aan de verkeerde persoon of uit ongemak een biertje teveel drinkt waardoor je net iets te gevat uit de hoek komt bij die belangrijke salesmanager.”

Startup boot
Dat kan anders, dacht Reineman. Dus creëerde hij een setting waar netwerken doeltreffend, maar óók leuk en gezellig is. Met als een speciale locatie: een boot. “Ideaal! Van een boot kun je niet zomaar af, daardoor ga je vanzelf met mensen in gesprek.” Reineman fungeert zelf als host en kapitein. “Ik begin met een plenair voorstelrondje waardoor je weet wie er interessant is om potentieel zaken mee te doen. En mocht er iemand toch wat verloren in een hoekje zitten, dan betrek ik hem in een gesprek. Ik ben de verbindende factor.”

Ondertussen heeft Reineman in een jaar tijd 38 van dit soort boottripjes georganiseerd. Hij is dus met recht een ervaringsdeskundige te noemen en heeft nog wel wat tips voor de netwerkende medemens.

1. Bereid je goed voor. “Als je naar een netwerkborrel gaat: weet wie er komen en bedenk twee mensen die je sowieso wilt spreken. Het kan ook geen kwaad alvast een goede vraag te bedenken. Als een ondernemer blij is met z’n werk, zal hij het altijd leuk vinden om daarover te praten.”

2. Oefen je one-minute-pitch. “Als mensen bij mij op de boot komen, vraag ik ze altijd hun pitch voor mij te doen. Vaak gaan mensen toch een beetje hakkelen. Bedenk dus duidelijk hoe je gaat zeggen wat je precies doet en wat je te bieden hebt.”

3. Wees niet te gretig. “Alleen maar zakelijk praten om maar per se die deal af te sluiten, is geen goed idee. Netwerken is toch voor de semi-gezelligheid, dus houd het een beetje casual.”

De netwerkborrels van Nick Reineman op de boot starten in de lente. Houd de site van Startup Boot Events dus in de gaten voor de laatste updates.

Delta Lloyd

Interview nrc: Netwerken gaat het best op een boot waar niemand vanaf kan

By | News

Bo&Caro gaan elke dag naar een bedrijf. Ze zijn bij aandeelhoudersvergaderingen, productpresentaties of vrijdagmiddagborrels en willen graag weten: wie is hier belangrijk?

Wat: Een rondje varen over de Amsterdamse grachten met de Startup boot
Wie: Nick Reineman, commercieel directeur van WBSO-Software, advocaat Floris Pierik en vijfentwintig ondernemers met een start up

De start-upper die in contact wil komen met andere start-uppers heeft plenty mogelijkheden. Aan de lopende band worden er bijeenkomsten georganiseerd waar je waar je kunt netwerken tot je scheel ziet. Nick Reineman liep ze allemaal af, opzoek naar potentiële klanten om subsidieaanvragen aan te verkopen, voor zijn bedrijf WSBO. “Start-ups komen vaak in aanmerking voor subsidie maar het is een hell of a job om die aan te vragen. Dat doen wij dus.”

Eerst een visitekaartje
Maar de meeste netwerkevents waar Reineman kwam vond hij nogal suf. “Vaak staat iedereen een beetje te dralen bij de bar, te verlegen om echt op iemand af te stappen. Ook ik stond er soms als een lulletje rozenwater bij, terwijl ik best een vlotte babbel heb.”

Dat kan anders, dacht Reineman. Hij besloot de boot die hij met elf vrienden gekocht heeft te gebruiken om er een netwerkbijeenkomst op te organiseren. “Zet dertig man dicht bij elkaar op een boot waar ze niet van af kunnen en ze gaan vanzelf met elkaar praten.” Bovendien is het een gewiekste manier om nieuwe klanten te werven. “Voor dat ik iemand van boord laat wil ik zijn visitekaartje hebben.”

Investeren
En daar vaart hij dan, over de Amsterdamse grachten met een boot vol start-up CEO’s. Om het geheel wat meer cachet te geven heeft Reineman advocaat Floris Pierik uitgenodigd. Hij geeft ondernemers tijdens het varen tips over hoe je met een investeerder omgaat. Wie een investeerder zoekt moet geduld hebben, zijn zaken goed georganiseerd hebben, en vooral niet zomaar met de eerste de beste in zee gaan, hoe hard of snel je ook geld nodig hebt. “Een investering is een soort van huwelijk. Je komt er niet meer zomaar vanaf. Je wil dus zeker weten of je het oké vindt dat de investeerder over jouw bedrijfsvoering een veto kan uitspreken of dat hij meer de dan helft van je aandelen bezit.”

Interessant allemaal hoor, maar Reineman heeft iets anders aan zijn hoofd. Hij knijpt zijn ogen tot spleetjes. Zijn blik glijdt over de passagiers. “Zie je die twee jongens in die witte overhemden? Potentiële klanten. Ik heb mijn collega al geïnstrueerd met ze te gaan praten.” Hij draait aan het roer van de boot. “Als we hen binnenhalen hoeven we de rest van de maand niet meer te werken.” Reineman glimlacht. Dertig potentiële klanten op een boot waar ze niet van af kunnen. Dát is pas een investering.

nrc.nl