YES!Delft Students magazine #5 (August 2014)

START! EDITION 5

YES!DELFT STUDENTS MAGAZINE

ENTREPRENEURSHIP MINOR IN KENYA

WAKING UP AND SEEING THE KILIMANJARO

DELFTS GREATEST ENTREPRENEUR

JAN BRAND 6 ISRAEL

SILICON WADI 10

Editorial Dear Entrepreneurial Students, YES! You can start your own company.

And this magazine will prove it.

In the final edition of this year, a milestone, we publish the first column of our new columnist, Jan Brand. He is the most successful entrepreneur to have studied at TU Delft and will share his start-up story from its humble beginnings in this edition and many more to come! We look beyond the borders , to Israel, a great start-up nation, and Kenya. This might make you ponder the advantages of having conscription or make you wonder about what you can do to change the third world countries for the better.

Stukobeest shows us that it is an easy, funny, and very educational experience to start your own company during your study. So start, and breakdown the equity between your partners using Anonymous’s objective equity splitting advice.

We write a report about how the Valorisation Centre of TU Delft is helping bridge the gap between your knowledge/research and corporations, while sharing the fruits of our labour. And if you already have a great idea, and would you like to know how to protect it? Bouwy van Sambeek shares his experiences of getting a good patent.

After reading this magazine, you have no more excuses to not become an entrepreneur.

Regards, Hugo de Jong

inspiration 06 COLUMN

I am Jan Brand

13 STUDENT STARTUP

Stukobeest

27 inspiration

Films For Budding Entrepreneurs

28 Profile

Elon Musk

activation 05 UPDATE

Yes!Delft News

18 Report

Valorisation Centre

30 event

Women Event

31 yes!Delft students

New Board

education 14 ENTREPRENEURIAL MINOR

Sundried Tomatoes In Southern Kenya

16 Map

The Road To Entrepreneurship

COLOPHON Team Hugo de Jong Editor-in-Chief

Bernhard Sombekke Content

Koen de Veth

Design, Content

Wieske Oomen Design, Content

Contributors

Jan Brand Floris van Elteren David Markey Dorine du Mee Wouter Neisingh Sylvia Pubben Rixt Siebinga Jorik Bais Photo’s made by

Susanne Verstegen Acquisition, Content

Jorik Bais, Haalbeeld Fotografie

Marc Barendse

2.000 copies

Acquisition, Content

Maarten Vrouenraets

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QQ’er YES!Delft Students

(Published trimesterly) Mediakracht Centrale BV, Rotterdam

24 column

The START! is the informational magazine by YES!Delft Students.

YES!Delft Students

Molengraaffsingel 12-14 2629 JD Delft +31 (0)15 2784290 www.yesdelftstudents.nl Interested in advertising? magazine@yesdelft.nl Nothing from this magazine may be reproduced by other parties

Founding With Brains And Balls

realisation 10 ISRAEL

Silicon Wadi

22 interview

Bouwy van Sambeek

6 30

14 10

Content

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STUDENT ENTREPRENEURS PLATFORM Are you an ambitious student entrepreneur that aims to take your start-up to the next level? Than the brand new Student Entrepreneurs Platform is your chance to do so. A monthly event offers you the possibility of sparring in an informal way. You can do this with fellow student entrepreneurs, YES!Delft entrepreneurs and experienced coach The Students Entrepreneurs Network is the result of a fruitful cooperation between YES!Delft Students and SCORD. The main goal of this initiative is to form an active platform for ambitious student entrepreneurs from Delft, Rotterdam and its surrounding area. The advantage is that you able to focus on your needs and wants that you are experiencing at the moment: learning right away from the questions you ask and directly find the information you need. Furthermore a personal coach will be present to share his knowledge and help you with setting out the next logical steps between the monthly events.

Interested in being part of the Student Entrepreneurs Platform? Send an e-mail to studentboard@yesdelft.nl and take the next step in starting up!

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activation

UPDATE

YES! DELFT NEWS

By Hugo de Jong

Epyon (ABB) recognized as one of Europe’s ‘ Cleantech Companies of the Decade’ The Cleantech Companies of the Decade awards are part of a celebration of the 10-year anniversary of the European Cleantech Forum, an annual collaborative gathering of the clean technology innovation community including entrepreneurs, corporations, investors and government leaders.

If somebody asks us: “What are typical success stories from the YES!Delft incubator?”, Epyon is always at the top of our list. Founded by Wouter Smit, Wouter Robers and Crijn Bouman initially wanted to develop a fast-charging system for mobile phones. After numerous hours of market research, they found that the cellphone market wasn’t the place to launch their product.

They found that a whole new market was waiting for their product: the electrical vehicle market. They developed the product below and lo’ and behold: the first contenders who were interested in their product soon found their way to Epyon.

Did you know?

The Champagne Fridge Did you know, success is always immediately celebrated with a bottle of champagne at YES!Delft. It’s a tradition to drink the bottle in the champange fridge and replace the empty bottle as soon as possible. The funny thing is that there is no rule which brand you replace just as long as it’s of celebratory value. So no cheap rose, or sparkling apple juice. The unspoken code is to replace a bottle with an even better brand if you have a big deal. But, if you drink a bottle of the Bollinger House to celebrate, and replace it with a cheaper bottle, well then, you’re just ‘lucky’ aren’t you.

This way we all get a taste of big success even though we may not have deserved it just yet.

Launching the new website of YES!Delft Students The new website shows what YES!Delft students is all about, and what they can help you with. Which courses are available at YES!Delft and Which events you could join. The new site guides you to interesting courses and events specific for you. There will be a news page which highlights what’s happening in Delft regarding entrepreneurship. Last but not least, the most recent editions of START!Magazine can be read online at www.yesdelftstudents.com

AMPELMANN OPENS OFFICE IN SINGAPORE Ampelmann rapidly grows their impact by expanding their offices internationally.

Offshore specialist company Ampelmann from Delft in The Netherlands opens its first office abroad in Singapore today.

Ampelmann rents out high-tech systems to enable safe transfer between vessels and offshore structures and has been working across the globe since its founding in 2008.

At this moment the rental fleet comprises over 30 motion compensated gangways active on all 5 continents with an increasing presence in the Asia-Pacific region. To meet the growing demand, Ampelmann took this first step. This office is the first of several through which Ampelmann intends to increase its presence in the Farand Middle-East and the America’s.

Activation

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COLUMN

I AM JAN BRAND Written by Jan Brand, translated by Bernhard Sombekke

Little is known about Jan Brand, the most successful entrepreneur to have studied at TU Delft. In an exclusive column Jan tells us about his path to success from the very start until today.We read of the challenges he faced, the witty deeds spawning from his entrepreneurial character, and the joys of thinking differently.

We hope you enjoy this “Delftse” story.

My name is Jan Brand, born 11th September 1948 in Koog aan de Zaan, so in essence I am what the Dutch call a “Zaankanter”. I was the last to arrive in the family, but the great thing was, I was spoiled by my two older sisters. They were eight and eleven years older than me so with them and my mother I was raised by three women. I didn’t really see much of my father as he was often admitted into psychiatric care due to his war traumas and business setbacks. My mother coped with this by taking in the local gym teacher who became a surrogate father figure. My sister’s English boyfriend also lived with us, he was a composer of jazz music and trombone player. My mother felt that by having these men around home they would act like father figures to learn from and instil in me positive parenting skills, I’m guessing it worked. However I will have to check with my three daughters.

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My name is Jan Brand, born 11th September 1948 in Koog aan de Zaan, so in essence I am what the Dutch call a “Zaankanter”.

I was the last to arrive in the family, but the great thing was, I was spoiled by my two older sisters. They were eight and eleven years older than me so with them and my mother I was raised by three women. I didn’t really see much of my father as he was often admitted into psychiatric care due to his war traumas and business setbacks. My mother coped with this by taking in the local gym teacher who became a surrogate father figure. My sister’s English boyfriend also lived with us, he was a composer of jazz music and trombone player. My mother felt that by having these men around home they would act like father figures to learn from and instil in me positive parenting skills, I’m guessing it worked. However I will have to check with my three daughters.

Inspiration

During primary school as an ‘early student’ I had quite a playful character. It might have been better to have remained at school for another year to experience a smoother transition to secondary education. At least that’s what the head of my primary school thought. After junior high school (Mulo) and higher civic school (HBS) I ended up at higher professional education (HTS) in Amsterdam. My ambition was to become an architect. During primary school I had high marks for drawing, though my final report did literally state: “Jan, if you want to become an engineer, then you’ll have to pay more attention and talk less in class.”

Every day I would travel by train from Koog aan de Zaan to the HTS in Amsterdam. But in the second year I took a break because I had had enough. By Christmas I had pulled the plug and

“I asked the intermediary, who was also a student, if he could place me in an architecture firm.

The answer was... No.� accepted an invitation from an English family to work on their country estate for half a year. By chance I had met the owner while sailing on the Kaag lakes. I was with friends on a sailing vacation and just before the Kaag lakes we had to wait until the bridge opened the next morning. So did an English sailing yacht.

We made contact and in the evening went under the bridge in their side-boat, after which we strengthened our connection in the pub. The next morning 6am the bridge opened and we parted for now. These people gave my life a special twist. They were the ones that after spending half a year working on their estate inspired me to continue with my studies. Until this very day, after 50 years, I remain in contact with this family.

Returning to the HTS I had to redo my second year. My motivation was now a 100 percent. The third year consisted of two internships. The first period I spent running a pile driving machine in the Bijlmer, Amsterdam. Every stroke of the impact block was counted and a stop sign was only given when the pile

stopped sinking after a few strokes. I endured this mind numbing specialized work for 2 months. Afterwards the municipality of Amsterdam transferred me to the building of an elderly home as an assistant construction surveyor.

Due to my life in the city living at home was no longer an option. After finding a beautiful area in Amsterdam close to the Concertgebouw I just started ringing doorbells everywhere.

After ringing at least 20 doorbells someone took the bait. An elderly man stood at the top of the staircase beckoning me in.

The front door presented his name: Willem Hermans, Dental Prosthesis Technician. He was dressed in a T-shirt with the text of the Amsterdam Student Association on it. Communicating with Willem was difficult, because he turned out to be totally deaf.This 70 year old man, next to dental technician, also was a painter and writer. Many artists in Amsterdam were a part of his clientele.The duplex on Jacob Obrechtstreet was pretty much stripped to the bone. Most of the lamps had been yanked out of the ceiling. â–ş

Inspiration

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A worn shamble in an otherwise chic building. His wife had recently divorced him and taken all the furniture. All his rooms were empty except for his bedroom. I thought, we could probably make something beautiful of it. A deal was quickly made and the following weekend the house become a student residence. The top floor was a laboratory.The laboratory was moved to the first floor and compressed into the kitchen. All the rooms were sublet.

This was the beginning of a happy and inspiring period in my life.

Willem, our landlord, functioned as a type of father figure and was present at every party. If we’d go out clubbing, he’d always ask if he was allowed to join. Most of the time that wasn’t appreciated.

All the same he would often take a taxi to the planned location and arrived before we did.

The fourth and last study year at the HTS, in combination with the Amsterdam-like student life, stopped early. More and more ‘becoming an architect’ became a life mission but a diploma from the HTS was not enough to achieve this title. Together with Nico Cortlever we firmly decided to throw out our anchor in Delft.

However military service, or draft, would try to put a halt to this, after all, graduating with a HTS diploma for us meant a call for the draft in our mail box to the Ministry of Defence. How would you solve this situation? Re-examination was not an option, but Drs. Brouwer, director of HTS-Wiltzanglaan Amsterdam gave us a hand. After receiving our diploma we asked him to consider declaring us as failed, administratively. This provide us with a one year postponement of the draft and an enrolment at the TH Delft.

Of course the Ministry of Education did not give us a scholarship but with the many exemptions our HTS diploma gave us at the TH Delft we could easily work next to our studies to generate enough income.

Having arrived in Delft it was naturally important to find a new place to live. Buitenwatersloot 149a, above the motorbike shop of Ab Overkamp became our first dwelling. My second priority was to search for a source of income. In those days there were 2 student employment agencies: A$A or Algemene Studenten Arbeidsverlening & SUB or Student Uitzend Bureau. SUB, situated on the Voorstraat, was my first stop.The only jobs where students could be placed were on assembly line in the nightshift at Calve or rinsing bottles at Gist Brocades. I asked the intermediary, who was also a student, if he could place me in an architecture firm. At the HTS I had done a lot of architecture drawing work, and after that I also had worked at an architecture firm in Amsterdam. The answer was “No.”. In a very warm manner I asked whether I could use the telephone to call some architects to check if there was a demand for extra manpower.The initiative was rewarded and the intermediary even placed the Yellow Pages on the counter so that I could run through a list of architects. Some responded negatively, but most asked about my experience and made an appointment.

There was even an architect that wished I could start immediately.

The construction industry was booming at that moment. The intermediary who was eaves dropping was impressed by how I was able to create vacancies in such a short time. He proposed I work at SUB and called his boss, Guus Gillard, at the main office in Amsterdam.

After visiting Guus I left with an offer to start a department called the Technical Elite Corps in Delft for SUB. The news sank in and I found the conditions a bit on the lean side: 10 cent commission per worked hour. That meant I would receive 4 guilders for a student working for SUB for a week. With 10 students at work, I would earn 40 guilders (around 77 euros when adjusted for inflation) per week. Provided that every student would work 40 hours per week. Many questions occupied my mind. Questions for which I had no answer. Maybe it was wise to knock on the

the argument that I was irreplaceable as head of A$A Technical Management. In those days a delegation of the Ministry would personally check this. Their visit would be announced beforehand so we made sure that that day would be extra ‘busy’ at the office.

Also turnover data and accounting of our department would be presented. Eventually I received a one year postponement, but I had to find a replacement for my position at A$A as soon as possible. Naturally that wasn’t possible, and I was forced to ask for postponement every year.

“As head of the A$A Technical Management I quickly had 150 students at work.

No one could replace me at that moment.” door of A$A as well. Now with a different approach: What do you think about me starting a Technical Management department under your wings? Beforehand I had done the necessary marketing research. For example how many students have a preparatory education at HTS. How many and which exemptions do these HTS’ers have. These people were in fact the primary target group. At the Administration Office on the Julianalaan I was given sufficient information. I even got a hold of the address lists of these technically educated specialists whom with their perseverance wanted to secure an engineering diploma. Fine candidates for clients whom I can obtain through A$A nationwide.

This concept hit a home run with the board of A$A. From their office in Delft on the Koornmarkt I could get to work immediately.

Also all construction activities such as the expansion of the office net and the relocation of the main office were added to my responsibilities. A$A Technical Management was born and would become the future Brunel. Today Brunel is a stock listed company with over 12,000 engineers on the payroll, operations in over 35 countries, and a market capitalisation of more than a billion US dollars.

A long time after graduating I still received a call every year and every year I would ask to postponement and receive it. Coming home after a ski-vacation there would be another call in the post box. This would be the last call. I was 33 years old. The letter declared that I could no longer ask for postponement and that this call was final. The next day I went to the mayor of Delft and confessed my story. This was in 1981 and A$A Technical Management had become Multec. Multec had grown into a group of 500 engineers and no one could replace my position.

The mayor showed a lot of sympathy and would do his upmost to keep me out of military service. While leaving the City Hall he said to me: “don’t expect to hear from these gentlemen anymore!”, while holding a copy of my roll call in his hand. I am very grateful to this mayor because I never received any call for the draft after that. So procrastination is indeed a thief of time.

My friend Nico on other hand was mustered from his bed by the military police in Delft and served for 18 months as infantryman.

Unfortunately he never finished his studies. ■

Jan Brand, founder of Brunel

In 1973, Oude Delft 182 became the main office of A$A. This was also the year that I received a new call for military service.

The Ministry of Defence presumed that I had finished my studies at the HTS by now. Asking for postponement again on the basis that I now was studying at the TU Delft was pointless. Maybe a request for a re-examination would work? I had undergone a knee operation, perhaps they would reject me. No, of course.

There were two options left to stay out of the draft: Social indispensability or S5, a declaration of mental instability. As head of the A$A Technical Management I quickly had 150 students at work, so no one could replace me at that moment. Together with the dean Mrs Man LL.M., we pleaded for exemption with

Inspiration

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ISRAEL

SILICON WADI

By Susanne Verstegen

What would cross your mind when thinking about Israel? Would you associate it with the Holy Land and the Bible or its turbulent history of conflicts and violence? The fact is that most people are not aware of Israel’s current developments and that of the last few years. To summarize it for you: Israel found the key to success when it comes to entrepreneurship. With more startups per capita than anywhere on Earth, Israel is considered the second Silicon Valley. Rightly so, Israel’s nickname has become ‘Silicon Wadi’, the Hebrew’s translation of its American forerunner. But how is it possible that a nation of only 66 years old achieved this status? This article will present the different aspects which have contributed to the rapid development of the entrepreneurial side of Israel.

Israel Defence Forces

An important contribution to the Israeli entrepreneurial scene is that of the Israel Defence Forces. From Isreal’s declaration of independence in 1948 until the Six-Day War in 1967, the country primarily relied on French military equipment since both states maintained close ties. However, in response to the Six-Day War between Israel and a few neighbouring states, the cooperation ceased and the French government stopped the supply of its weapons. From then on, Israel relied on American arms, but also began to improve these American weapons and even started to manufacture them locally. In order to develop and maintain a powerful and smart army, Israel focused on technological innovations. The research and development in this area expanded and even commercial products started using military technologies.

Thus, one of the reasons of the entrepreneurial success of Israel is the advantage it has technological military knowledge.

This knowledge is not the only contributing aspect of the Israel Defence Forces, also the military service is a very important aspect. Service is mandatory for most young Israelis, for male as well as female. For this reason, young people join the army for a few years before starting an educational study or applying for a job.The time in army provides potential entrepreneurs with many useful skills. Not only do they become familiar with highly advanced technologies, they also develop a mindset which perfectly fits that of an entrepreneur. Relatively young military experience how it is to take responsibility, they learn to lead and to serve.

Israelis are often described as people who are mainly focused on themselves instead of a group or community. However, in the army, people learn they can only achieve a goal with a team and not as an individual. These lessons support young men and women who fulfilled their service when starting a company. ►

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“Not only do they become familiar with highly advanced technologies, they also develop a mindset which perfectly fits that of an entrepreneur.”

Migration

Israel has known long periods of immigration. This is largely owed to ‘Aliyah’, the return to the Holy Land. It is an aspiration for Jewish people who are spread worldwide. The concept of the Aliyah was not usually fulfilled until the late nineteenth century. Since the declaration of independence, more than 3 million Jews made Aliyah and settled in Israel. That is why the Jewish population in Israel now exists of 90 percent immigrants and their descendants.

Since many immigrants left their home to seek for a better life, they have nothing to lose. They have to build up their life again and start from scratch. For this reason, they are willing to take risks, such as starting an own company.

Besides the willingness to take risks, immigration brings along another advantage. Immigration causes the nation to become multi-cultural. In order to own a successful company, entrepreneurs need to adapt to the various preferences of different people. Entrepreneurs have to deal with diversity and need to be flexible. These characteristics keep an entrepreneur focused on the most important thing in entrepreneurship: the consumer.

Culture

Another cultural aspect which contributes to the success of Israel as startup nation, lies in ‘chutzpah’. The word chutzpah means something as ‘rudeness’ or ‘audacity’. Although this may sound negative, in the current Israeli society, chutzpah is seen as essential ingredient of daily life. The word describes the courage to overstep boundaries. Unlike other countries, chutzpah is interlaced with the culture and mindset of the people and is passed on from generation to generation.

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Realisation

When ‘having chutzpah’, you have it in you to become a great entrepreneur. It means you try to tackle problems that seem out of your reach: mission impossibles. Besides that, chutzpah gives entrepreneurs the power to maintain their goals, even when obstacles prevent them from achieving these goals.The downside of having chutzpah becomes clear when cooperating internationally: A few Israeli may come across as too direct and impolite.

Role of the government

The success Silicon Wadi wouldn’t be so great or might not even exist, if it had not been for the governmental support. The government made a strategic decision when it became apparent that the technology used in the military, could also be used for commercial purposes. This science-based sector was financially supported so it could expand and improve its position and reputation worldwide. The concept became bigger and the venture capital industry was born. Venture capital funds arose rapidly after each other. These funds provided early stage, high potential and high-risk startups with financial capital.Their financial support sometimes goes to a failing startup, however, other startups make up for that loss as they do succeed in setting up a successful company.

In conclusion, Israel has proven to be a perfect place for people to start their own business: military service and migration develop useful skills for entrepreneurs as well as challenge entrepreneurs by a diversity of consumers.The government provides support so people dare to take the leap. Last but not least: Israeli entrepreneurs have their own kryptonite, they have chutzpah. ■

STUDENT STARTUP

STUKOBEEST

By Rixt Siebinga

After a typical student’s night out, my cousin and I started talking about the huge amount of animal suits owned by students in the Netherlands. Most of those suits are imported from China by the students themselves, our bought in relatively expensive party shops. We agreed that this could be done way easier, and that is where Stukobeest started.

After an orientation phase, we ordered our first batch of suits for a quality check in the summer of 2013. The suits fitted within our perspective of high quality and durability. The suits need to be able to stand typical student conditions like beershowers and intensive partying. Photos of the suits were taken and the website was launched September 2013. It took quite a while before our second order of animal suits arrived from the manufacturer, but halfway October nearly 250 of them were stored in my average sized room.

The animal suits that we sell are all one-size and come in different types, so they are suitable for all kind of people. My personal favorites are the pink unicorn, Eeyore, and one of the best-selling suits, the kangaroo. As mentioned, the suits are stored in my student room, and take a lot of space. Suits can be ordered on www.stukobeest.nl, and can be picked up or send to the buyer.

Our aim is to get the suits to the buyer within three days, and therefore send them the same or the upcoming day after the payment is done.

Now, six months from the founding, we are halfway through our third batch, and things are going in the right direction. Future plans regard building a new website, doing a professional photo shoot and participating in marketing activities more actively. Personally, I have learned a lot from starting my own company, from paperwork to negotiating with manufacturers.

Of course, it does take a lot of effort and time, for example during the week prior to carnival. That specific week, we sold around 80 suits within 5 days. I had to walk to the post office three times a day which made the local postman worry about me working too hard. But this is all worth it a thousand times, especially when you go to a random party and see people wearing in YOUR suit! â–

Inspiration

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ENTREPRENEURIAL MINOR

sundried tomatoes in southern Kenya

By Floris van Elteren

Last semester I participated in something completely different from what I am used to doing.

During my minor International Entrepreneurship & Development I completed an internship in a third world country. I travelled to Kenya together with two other students from the Technical University of Delft, who I barely knew when starting the minor in September. We prepared ourselves through courses about culture, finance and sustainable entrepreneurship. I experienced something which was mind-blowing for me. Now, back home, I can share my experiences.

When we started, our goals were set. We were going to help a very small Kenyan company to grow to become a successful company. The company was started by last year’s minor team together with a management team from the a small Kenyan village named Namelok. When you wake up in Namelok, seeing the Kilimanjaro when walking out of your hut you realise you are not in Europe, but in the countryside of an African country.

The melting water which in summer runs from the Kilimanjaro, contributes to high groundwater levels in villages like Namelok.

About 10 years ago, the introduction of groundwater pumps changed the life of many Masaï living in the area. Instead of taking care of cows and sheep, now growing vegetables like onions, potatoes, avocado’s and especially tomatoes became the

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Education

way to make money. Harvest season is three times a year and with the amount of tomatoes produced during these seasons, Namelok is self-sustaining in terms of food. However, when working in seasons, you are really time-dependent and thus price-dependent.Therefore the mission of the company, Sundried Kenya Foundation, is to buy tomatoes as cheap as possible and produce sundried tomatoes, which can be sold at higher prices during the off-season.

For almost three months we cooperated with the current management team, trying to work on a kick-start for the company.

Fully prepared, as we thought we were, we left off to Kenya in October. However, when we arrived there, nothing was like we expected. As a white person you could not walk the street

by night. You had to be alert at all times. It was clear to us we needed to accept and adapt to the culture to be successful and to complete our mission. We learned about the cultural differences during several courses. They seemed unreal at first, but once you have been to a third world country you see they are real. Every time a safari tour came by the village, we realised a safari tour to learn about Kenya, is the same as only visiting the Efteling theme park to learn about the Netherlands.

A lot of projects like ours fail when Western people who started the project leave, this was something we wanted to prevent from happening. Therefore we rearranged the management team, by introducing a ‘leader’, someone responsible for the growth of the company. To help him we made a sales strategy in which our most important clients were wildlife lodges who use the sundried tomatoes in their kitchens.

Besides this plan we used our technical knowledge to create a new sustainable drying machine. ‘Students 4 Sustainability’ helped us out by sponsoring prototypes and certificates. We also had to run our own household, without a toilet or shower this is a challenge and a great experience.

“A safari tour to learn about Kenya is the same as only visiting the Efteling to learn about the Netherlands.”

Working in Kenya is working with cultural differences. The best way to capture our experiences on how to deal with these types of projects is: the TU-mentality is ‘meten is weten’ (measurements are knowledge), however the way to accomplish things in Africa is actually ‘proberen is leren’ (trying is learning).

My final advice would be, book a ticket to a third world country.

Go to the countryside and avoid tourist attractions. Talk to locals, open your eyes and ears, try to find out what you can and cannot do. And last but not least do not forget your sunscreen. ■

Education

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9 ECTS

(C)leantech launch path use the Lean Startup Method to start your company 5 ECTS

Experience Entrepreneurship Practice and experience entrepreneurship

MASTER ELECTIVES

assist you to startup your own company

5 ECTS

Sustainable Business Game Win the biggest worldwide sustainable business plan compention.(In combination with the Cleantech Challenge)

6 ECTS

Ready to Startup!

Learn from the experts, how to write a business plan and how to start your company

5 ECTS

Turning Techonology into Business How do I create value out of a patent from the TU Delft.

EDUCATION ABOUT ENTREPRENEURSHIP

17 ECTS

Entrepreneurship Annotation Use your own business idea for your graduation thesis.

Delft Centre for Entrepreneurship

MASTER PROGRAM

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Education

THE ROAD TO ENTREPRENEURSHIP

By Koen de Veth

Thinking about being an entrepreneur? Do you have a fantastic idea or are you just curious about what entrepreneurship has to offer for you; stop searching the web. This map is your guide to entrepreneurship. Courses offered by YES!Delft and the TU Delft are captured on this page. They will help to improve your knowledges and skills regarding entrepreneurship.

So choose your own path, pick your favourite courses, and become an entrepreneur!

30 ECTS

Free Minor Use your own company during your minor?

YES!Delft Students can help you with this

assist you to startup your own company

BACHELOR MINOR

30 ECTS

Medtec-based Entrepreneurship What is entrepreneurship like in the medical world?

EDUCATION ABOUT ENTREPRENEURSHIP

30 ECTS

International Entrepreneurship & Development Learn to setup a company in a developing country

FOR MORE INFORMATION MAil to EDUCATION@YESDELFT.nl or visit www.tudelft.nl/zakelijk/onderwijs-in-ondernemerschap

30 ECTS

Technology-based Entrepreneurship Learn the different aspects of bringing a technical product to the market

Education

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Valorisation Pillar The three pillars of Delft University of Technology are Education, Research and Valorisation. The first two are obvious, but people often forget or diminish the importance of the third pillar, valorisation. Nevertheless it is a very clear and important part of the university’s mission: ‘DUT’s mission is to make a significant contribution towards a sustainable society for the twenty-first century by conducting groundbreaking scientific and technological research which is acknowledged as world-class, by training scientists and engineers with a genuine commitment to society and by helping to translate knowledge into technological innovations and activity with both economic and social value.’

“It’s just not in every researcher’s DNA”, Mrs. Du Mee reasons why there is a need for VC’s help to get more traction in knowledge valorisation. Researchers have a real passion for discovering new things and absolutely like to share their findings with the academic

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world. They love to transfer their knowledge and enthusiasm for the subject to their students, but unfortunately it mostly stops there. Research is however only truly valuable when the findings are actually transferred to society, such that the world can really benefit.This is where the VC comes in and helps out.The VC aims to fill the gap that exists between a ‘research’ idea and the actual application in the market.

Valorisation Centre The goal of the VC is knowledge valorisation, which specifically means ‘the creation of social-economics value on the basis of academic knowledge and skills.’. The VC supports, stimulates and facilitates DUT researchers, support staff and students in the area of knowledge valorisation while the university may gain a tertiary source of funding.

TU Delft employees and students can benefit from the VC’s valorisation expertise, to among other things, create a stronger patent, make use of their willingness to promote IP among potential licensees, and receive financial support for developing

REPORT

Valorisation centre

By Bernhard Sombekke

What should you do if you have found a unique innovation?

Who can you talk to safely? How can Delft University of Technology (DUT) help? We meet up with Dorine du Mee, a recently employed intellectual property manager for the VC of DUT. Dorine’s background is in biotechnology, which she studied at Wageningen University. Most in her field would end up becoming full-time scientists, but Dorine discovered that research was not her favorite activity. At the same time she also noticed a significant gap between research and how it is applied in real life. ‘I thought that helping out in research probably wouldn’t help the gap situation. Thus I decided to solicit for a job at DUT, Valorisation Center where both worlds are bridged and facilitated.’ To us it sounds like a match made in heaven. We talked about her view of the current intellectual property policy of the DUT and what the VC does. Below a summary of our findings.

a patent/business . On the other hand, start-up’s or developed companies can benefit from valorisation through the application of breakthrough technology from DUT and even create a most trustworthy image by being related to a university. Ideally the VC hopes to help both sides take advantage of the application of new knowledge.

Valorisation has become more important in recent years because the university environment is notably different than companies.

There is more freedom to investigate challenges with longer leadtimes or less obvious return-on-investment projects. The nature of fundamental research unfortunately is also that a lot of (what seem) great hypotheses lead to nowhere. This does not mean they are a waste of time and money. One could say that because of the insights gained in many failed hypotheses one can come up with the one breakthrough technology. The VC helps make the successful innovations see the light of day and implementing them as fully as possible.

Who’s Intellectual Property As a student you do not have an employment contract with the university, so you do not have to fear that your ideas will automatically become property of the university. However, there are cases where your contribution to an innovation may mean dividing the fruits of the respective intellectual property between the contributors. For example, if a student does a project at DUT, and the university contributes something to the idea of a student (for example the initial idea, background knowledge, or facilities), it may be the case that a DUT employee becomes a coinventor of an invention created during such a project. The DUT and student negotiate their relative positions, roles and revenues before the patent is filed. It is fair to say that by allowing the use of its facilities, together with ideas from other employees, the university creates an environment that facilitates the creative process towards a viable solution, and thereby earns its share in owning part of the intellectual property. In an all out different case during an internship for example, an involved company whom you signed a contract with may claim all intellectual property ►

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created during a specific project or initiative.

It’s important to remember that the government / university pays for the majority of your education. While it is not claiming a particular idea in hindsight it can be said that the university plays a role in bringing your ideas to fruition. “I understand people feel uncomfortable by this. They have the feeling they did all the work and now the university just claims it.”, Mrs Du Mee acknowledges

which path one should take. Will it be smarter to apply for a patent? Or might it be wiser to start a company? Or will the rights be sold or licenced to a corporation? In return the university may receive anything from royalties to research assignments for its contribution to the development of the technology. This is also a subject for discussion.

Many students don’t realise how far knowledge often is from

“We absolutely need to lose the mine-vs-ours mentality.” the distaste, “but this is a one-sided perception and not based on reality.”. Another way of looking at it, is that one must also try and understand that the university is funded with public money. This means that the value created with that money also belongs to society. Giving away innovations to a particular company would not only be unfair support from the government, undermine the competition, but also might not be a service to the citizens whom financed the research in the first place. Dorine emphasises, “We absolutely need to lose the mine-vs-ours mentality. It is important to realise that valorisation is an absolute win-win story.”.

The Valorisation Process for IP Owners Students or researchers with an invention or software application can start by going to the VC-website and filling in an invention disclosure application before setting up their company. After starting your company it is not possibly to apply for a patent unless the intellectual property has also been developed with an employee of the TU Delft.

While filling out the eIDF does not determine ownership yet, it is the starting point for a discussion.

The form, among other things, describes, the idea itself, what makes it unique, who financed the research, subsidies involved, who the co-inventors are. This gives the VC management a fairly clear picture of what they’re dealing with and is the basis for an admission interview where the future of the intellectual property is discussed. The main goal is to discuss how the VC will continue to help you and

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being used in real life. In spite of this students can still come by and share an innovation or idea. Non disclosure agreements during interviews with students are not used since DUT valorisation employees are acting on behalf and in the interest of DUT and its students. All DUT employees are bound to confidentiality through their employment contract. The eIDFs process with which the admission of an invention starts is strictly confidential and protected. DUT in return, for the transfer of the students share in the ownership of a patent, applies the 1/3 policy, whereby, the inventor(s) jointly obtain 1/3 of the profits of DUT with little to no effort beyond the usual development of the patent. Thus you can generate an income based on your ideas, if they have any market value, after patent costs and business development criteria have been met. That seems like a very generous offer.

If on the other hand you, as a student, choose to startup with your own idea, and use the DUT as a one-stop-shop service to facilitate the protection of your intellectual property, you can then licence or buy exploitation rights to the intellectual property from the DUT. Under these circumstances a negotiation of the terms will most likely occur the result of which replaces the 1/3 policy. Usually the resulting contract is quite lenient for the sake of the start-ups viability which is also in DUTs best interest. The VC can help you to apply for a patent, help fund your business and concept development to find a market niche and product, which will be asked for when applying for a place in an incubator. Before talking to the VC it’s

worth investigating what kind of value you are creating with your new invention. It’s a challenge to determine this before having created a tangible product, or company that is alive and kicking.

None-the-less important for a sustainable joint-venture with the DUT. Connecting IP to an Entrepreneur So what if you don’t have an idea but you did see a patent, in the patent portfolio of DUT, with promising applications? Well, the process of selecting candidates for exploitation of a DUT patent is entirely open and driven by the market perspective that the candidate company offers to DUT. For this reason students are not always the first candidates to be selected. There is a process which the patent goes through, which helps determines the right candidate.

Before applying for a patent the VC checks who owns the knowledge as sometimes intellectual property developed at the university is bound by the right of first refusal. This is, for example, the case when if your project or research is supported by a STW grant, the co-financiers which may be corporations, are first in line to be able to accept an exclusive licence based on new knowledge spawning from their support. An anti-freeze policy is in place for patents which are not effectively used by co-financiers, and these patents remain in the hands of TU Delft.

possibilities of becoming entrepreneurs by using knowledge from the DUT.“Right now we are working on making students more aware about the possibilities of receiving support from the VC to develop their and our intellectual property,” Dorine states. Since every case is different, dynamic and often has special needs, the exact ins and outs of our policies/terms and the related criteria to implement these policies are not published online.

Negotiations for the Best Cooperation There are many ways to set-up a contract with the DUT. The central goal is a cooperation to make sure both parties have something to gain from the fruits of their labour, research, and thoughts. Think Nash equilibrium and you might get a picture of the incentives which drive this negotiation process.

From the VC’s perspective there are various ways the DUT can profit from knowledge valorisation. Royalty fees, a percentage of the profits, a share in the company and research project funding.

Then there are a number of ways not to hinder the success of a company, like shares instead of a royalty.

Advancing to YES!Delft Mrs. Du Mee feels that DUT is already very advanced in promoting and supporting entrepreneurship. “The YES!Delft incubator does a really good job to increase the awareness of valorisation.

“It is important to realise that valorisation is an absolute win-win story.”

After the ownership is determined to be open, the highest chance of utilization (of the innovation) is considered. The VC looks at the market, which approach would be wise, and what type of entrepreneur/company would be necessary. This means that companies, spin-offs with co-inventors/PhD students/ professors in it, and also student start-ups are considered. Again, for companies there is an anti-freeze policy whereby licence holders must use or apply the knowledge and not just use it for defending their own intellectual property.

There is no apparent openly defined selection process regarding your background, nationality and/or experience. We also realise that some of these relevant aspects which if selected upon would greatly enhance the chance of success are very difficult to implement in a public institute. Exclusive agreements with the DUT are possible if they are the most suitable form of cooperation leading to a higher chance of utilising a patent. In light of fairness and access to publicly funded knowledge all students with their related fields have a right to licence IP from the TU that go unused. The VC is actively educating students about the

Especially in the amount and quality of entrepreneurial courses offered is advanced compared to other universities.”

The very difficult process of developing a technique or concept idea into a marketable product and the mind shift needed to think from a consumers rather than from the technological perspective is very challenging for engineers and research minded people alike. This process is what the ‘Turning Technology into Business’ course given by Dap Hartmann focuses on, where often patents from the VC are used to educate students in how to determine the feasibility of a product. ■

Interested in reading about the success stories, look no further than Ampelmann or Ephicas. Both great high tech ideas developed by students during their PhD or MSc that show how successful valorisation can be at DUT. If you would like to find out more about valorisation and what DUT can do for you, send an email to Dorine at D.J.M.DuMee@tudelft.nl

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INTERVIEW

BOUWY VAN SAMBEEK

By Hugo de Jong

Bouwy van Sambeek, a graduating student in Mechanical Engineering, founder of JackSavior, a company with a new innovative plug design that prevents your headset from breaking. The design reduces warranty costs for manufacturers and increases the life of consumer electronics.

The solution has become his intellectual property (IP). The path to this patent wasn’t easy. In the interview below Bouwy will give us some tips: How do you protect your innovative ideas from being stolen?

Don’t talk about it with anybody, unless you trust them. It is wise to deposit your ideas with the BOIP. You can upload a zip file for a small fee and you get a document which you can use to refer to as your idea.

Patents are the last option for protection, branding or the black box principle is always better! If you want to explore the possibilities for a patent, use the first free meeting with large patent attorney offices!

Is it a myth or a fact that patents are expensive?

This is definitely a myth! Patents are not expensive, but they can be if your innovation is useless.To get a better feeling about what is expensive, a patent usually costs about 10,000 euros. This is peanuts in terms of a strong innovative idea. If the

idea is good, you can make a lot of money.

I earned most of the money needed for the patent from competitions.

When creating something, you might lack knowledge in some areas, how do you deal with this and even more importantly how do you deal with sharing important (secret) information?

The most important thing about sharing your idea with others is trust. The way I handled this was to keep my idea really vague during the period that I didn’t have a patent, like during competitions such as the Philips Innovations Awards.

My description was; to improve the manufacturing of a small part of a mobile phone.

To protect your idea even more, registering at the I-Depot by BIOP is

very useful. It saves your ideas in digital database. However to be perfectly sure and secured you should let your experts and clients, who work with your IP, sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA).

By signing this agreement they approve it is your idea and they are only allowed to use it when you give permission. The registration number of the I-Depot can be used to refer to the invention in the NDA. What happens if you do not protect your idea using IP? A good example of what happens when your idea is not properly protected is the story about the Dutch company ‘Bolletje’.

In 1997 Theo Tempels had the idea of making a notch in rusks.This made it easier to get the rusks out of the packaging. He approached Bolletje the same year to see

Useful tips by Bouwy 1 Visit big companies like Arnold + Siedsema for help about IP. The first consult is for free, so use these free consults with the bigger firms to discover your IP position. The Netherlands Enterprise Agency also helps you for free.

CURRENT PLUG

2 IPs needs to be perfect. The best advice is to read carefully.You are the person who

knows your product the best. I got headaches from reading my IP over and over again, but do it!

3 The most important date is the priority date, not the publications date. When con-

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sidering using your I.P. in foreign countries, you have to go through the PCT trajectory.

You can claim your first priority date within a year of your first Dutch application.

Realisation

if they were interested. However this was not the case. In 2002 after patenting his idea in the year 2000 Tempels brought his idea to the market by introducing it to several rusk manufacturers. This was good news. Tempels started to earn money from his IP, or didn’t he? By the end of 2002 Bolletje actually sued him and took him to court. They accused him of several things and wanted the court to forbid him from talking with the media and claimed to have first discovered the idea.Tempels was also asked to stop going after the supermarkets which sold the rusks and gave Tempels a fine of 100,000 euros. Luckily, Tempels had contact with IP bureau Arnold & Siedsema through email. This mailing contact was used as proof that he was indeed the first to have discovered the idea. Therefore, on the 20th of December 2002 the judge of Zutphen ruled that Theo Tempels was right in all the cases.

When are you allowed to apply for a patent?

To answer this question you have to consider another question, namely, is your

idea new and innovative? To be innovative you can use a really simple, already existing concept. However the way you use it can be really innovative and can solve several problems. Therefore the description of your idea and how it is used is very important.

Not every company uses patents, so when should you really apply for a patent?

Patents are not always the best option to protect your product or intellectual property. For example branding or secrecy can be a better tool for protecting your IP. A classic example is ‘Cola’, there are a lot of different companies selling a similar product, however most people know Cola as ‘Coca Cola’ and want ‘Coca Cola’.This is a typical example of branding. Besides this, Coca Cola’s recipe has remained secret for more than a hundred years inspite of many attempts to achieve the same taste. This also shows us lack of IP is not necessarily a dealbreaker in achieving your dreams. ■

DID YOU KNOW?

There is a famous IP story about a Donald Duck comic being used as prior art against a patent on a method of raising a sunken ship. A 1949 Donald Duck story used the same technique.

How do you quickly raise a sunken ship full of sheep? The Danish inventor Karl Krøyer thought of a very creative solution: pump buoyant bodies into the ship to achieve sufficient upward lift to bring the ship back to the surface. The solution was so creative he got a patent on it. In a 1949 Donald Duck comic, titled The Sunken Yacht, a ship is raised by stuffing it full of pingpong balls. That kind of prior art may have killed the patent. But whether the comic was actually used by a patent office to nullify the patent (application) remains unclear.

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COLUMN

FOUNDING WITH BRAINS AND BALLS

By Anonymous

Bet you don’t know how to found a company properly? No, I’m not talking B.V. this, or Delaware C-Corp that, and certainly not holding companies for stock and whatnot. Those are minute details.

What I’m talking about is the establishment of the very core. The foundation of how you and your team will build something out of nothing and create a boatload of value. Many of the founding blocks seem tiny and trivial at the outset, but can turn out to be a keystone and will have huge implications later on. How you found can boost or utterly destroy your startup, So learn to found like a pro.

I was recently called by a friend who was invited to join a startup. He’s an incredible iOS and Android developer, but has no startup experience whatsoever. He wanted to talk me through ‘a few details’ of what was offered to him. Well, it turned out those ‘details’ were critical, and they had gotten them all wrong. Let me help you get some founding experience through his case: Step 1: Trust is based on honesty. Know your value to the venture.

In amateur startups, stock is usually the first thing to get divided. And it’s usually equal: “Hey, it’s the 3 of us, so everyone gets 33.3%.Yaay!” Allow me to be blunt: it’s nearly impossible that each person is exactly equally valuable at each phase of a startup. So then why is stock often divided this way by novices? Most of the time it’s because discussing who’s worth what is an uncomfortable discussion and after all not many enjoy tension at the start of a long enduring venture.

My advice: do not avoid it. You don’t need to go Gordon Gekko and try to screw your co-founders, but you probably have to work with these guys for years to come. That is why I suggest trying to execute this founding keystone objectively.

The offer that my friend received, didn’t give everyone equal stock. There were 3 founders: two inviting business-school guys, and my friend as a technical founder.

The proposition was as follows: idea is worth 50% in stock, so both MBA-type guys get 25% of stock as their share of the idea. The remaining half was divided by three. So my friend would end up with 16,7% stock and the other two founders 31,7% each. So it’s an uneven stock split, which should be good, right? Wrong. It’s uneven for faulty reasons.

And just to clarify: they didn’t spend years researching the cure for cancer and had patented stuff that was close to being mass-marketed.

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They had a potentially interesting idea for a web/app service pretty much most of us could come up with after a few days of brainstorming. Ideas, or what I’d call hypotheses, are cheap and execution is expensive. So although we might agree that being ‘the idea guy’ isworth something, it’s far from worth half the stock.

What I proposed to my friend is to make a simple table and discuss everyone’s value at each stage of the startup - openly. Do note that it’s not just labor we’re looking at: If I have to work for a month to get an app going, while it takes another team member one espresso with an investor to raise a million euro’s - then we might be equally valuable to the venture. Let’s just say it’s best to stick to clear (broad) deliverables and objective criteria. So for example, “I will do some business development” does not qualify. Try measurable KPIs like: “How many customers will you reel in by first year?” Check out the example for deviding company equity in the table below.

Table: Splitting PHASE NAME SYLVIE

JUSTIN

VIKRAM

STOCK VALUE

Education

0. IDEA

1. PROTOTYPE DEVELOPMENT

2. FINDING BUSINESS MODEL

Responsibilities

invented idea with Vikram

1st investment

and advisors

get partners on board

Value in stock

2.5%

3.75%

5%

Responsibilities

--

-

chief of validation

Value in stock

0%

0%

12%

Responsibilities

invented idea with Sylvieent

build prototypes

R&D iterations

Value in stock

2.5%

11.25%

3%

5%

15%

20%

“Ideas, or what I’d call

hypotheses, are cheap.

Execution is expensive.”

Particularly technical or creative people are the ones that tend to get the short-end in these situations. Don’t let it happen to you. Founders with an MBA or Law School type of background are usually much more experienced in negotiations and often prepare the first draft of the contract terms because this often anchors the deal range. A technical guy, with perhaps different values, just wants to build this awesome thing and might decide to simply agree with what’s on the table. There are many, many cases around of people who got a terrible deal this way and regretted it decades afterwards.

Equity The Right Way 3. GETTING FIRST CUSTOMERS

4. SCALING BUSINESS (YEAR 2)

5. SCALING BUSINESS (YEAR 3)

6. SCALING BUSINESS (YEAR 4 & 5)

TOTAL

scaling, become profitable

operations & finance

operations

operations

CEO

12%

5%

6%

5%

39.25%

grow partners, first marketing

marketing

leaves after two years

-

CMO

5%

4%

0%

0%

21%

continious R&D

build R&D and engineering team

lead R&D and engineering team

technical management

CTO

3%

3.5%

4%

2.5%

29.75%

20%

12.5%

10%

2.5%

90%

To be absolutely clear: don’t assume your co-founders are trying to screw you. Instead, together, find objective criteria to split stock and always take time to discuss the deal with your mentors or advisors who do have experience in this kind of matter.

This is exactly what I wanted to help my friend understand: they need him to make that thing happen. He can find a similar opportunity in a few months as well.

He needed to understand he has much more room to assert his value.

Step 2: Realize all valuations are fictional until sold.

Until someone actually purchases stock of your startup for a certain price, all valuations are purely fictional. Just look at how the Belastingdienst, or Dutch tax authority, looks at these matters: you are taxed when you sell stock in a limited company. Because that is when valuations become real.

To come back to my friends’ case: The two guys offering him to join had valued the company at over one million euro, and his stake was therefore worth north of one hundred and sixty seven thousand euro. How did they do the valuation? By using the discounted cashflow method. If you’re unfamiliar with how that works John Johnson explains it beautifully on YouTube. In short, it’s what you can use to evaluate big corporations full of healthy cashflows with little risk. A startup is a polar opposite: there is no business model, no product, zero cashflow and mountains of market and execution risk. In other words, counting fictional cashflows, then multiplying it by ridiculous risk coefficients, leads to very fictional valuations.You might just as well throw two dice and put five zeroes behind whatever the dice add up to. ►

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Practically, they asked him to develop a product while they wait for a prototype to start promoting it, meaning he would be doing 80-90% of the work the start-up phase, for zero money now and some stock with wildly fictional value. What would be a better option? I suggested it might be wise to ask for a modest monthly fee during this phase, in exchange for a bit less stock. And an option to buy that extra stock later on, in exchange for the monthly fees he received. Why make things complicated you ask? That brings us to the next step: Step 3. Make dynamic agreements.

Another friend of mine, a brilliant TU Delft engineer, was recruited by a cowboy-ish young entrepreneur to develop a prototype for an idea that an entrepreneur had. He would get 40% stock for developing the prototype and being responsible for continuous development later on. The brilliant engineer spent a couple hundred hours ideating, designing, testing and building. When the prototype was 90% done, he got message from the cowboy that he decided not to pursue the opportunity anymore. “What about all my work?”, my friend asked. “You agreed to work for 40% stock.

That stock is now worth zero, so you get zero for all your work” was literally what this guy replied.You could call him a bastard, but in all honesty he was allowed to do that. My friend made a static agreement, without discussing ‘if ’s’ beforehand.

Life and startups are incredibly complex and dynamic. There are a lot of ‘unknown unknowns’ that can hit you unexpectedly. A startup will also probably pivot, lose founders, attract new people and more. So the stupidest thing to do is make static agreements, like the equal stock utopian rule for such a dynamic world.

Again, I’m not arguing that business-oriented founders are the devil, there are many great ones around which can help you do amazing things you’d never be able to do without them. Just make sure you have fail-safe agreements in case they prove not to be trustworthy or some external shit-storm happens.

What would be included in a dynamic agreement? Vesting would be a great example. Dig into more details by researching vesting, but in short, this is what happens: Instead of getting all your stock immediately, the stock vests over a certain time. So let’s say 25% is reserved for you, but you only get 5% every year (usually divided into smaller periodic chunks). Let’s say you decide to leave after 2 years, but the startup goes on? No worries. You keep 10% and the 15% is freed to grant to someone who will replace you. It’s fair, after all you’ve only worked for 2 years and your co-founders will continue working and building value. This helps to prevent a big turf war.

Another example would be discussing a few scenarios beforehand: What if someone wants to leave? What would be an acceptable timeline? A few weeks? A few months? Who has to find a replacement? Perhaps you can already set milestones (after 1 year or so?) to discuss if everyone wants to keep going and whether roles need to change.

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Education

Also discuss important changes in someone’s life: Let’s say you’re still students and once one of you has graduated, he gets an incredible job offer at Apple from Tim Cook himself? Does the rest expect him to stay - or not? Under what conditions could he leave? What if someone gets married or wants to buy a house?

Has kids? You do not have to have a contingency plan for every possible situation but discussing this also lets you understand how your co-founders see their future and priorities. It may prevent big fights and threats to the survival of your startup later on.

“Don’t get suckerd into

Newtonian business logic

when you should be using

quantum startup logic.”

Don’t be naive. The team you start with will most likely not stay working together ‘til the end of time. Wozniak quit Apple, Jobs got kicked out, Paul Allen got cancer. So don’t pretend you will be working together until the end of time. You might even find out you’re missing a skill set or someone just sucks at what they’re supposed to do. Reserve some stock for future hires or replacements. Avoid panic and conflict by having clear, adaptable expectations.

Startups are a high-risk, high-noise and dynamic environments.

Just like near a black hole, the laws of business physics work differently there. Don’t get suckered into using Newtonian business logic when you should be using quantum startup logic. Discuss who’s worth what openly: it will build a foundation of trust your team will need in this singularity.The value of your stock yet needs to be created: so don’t talk about millions yet and don’t think like a big firm. Finally, realize tons of unexpected stuff will appear on the event horizon. As an entrepreneur, you have to plan for and expect the unexpected. ■ Some say, women give birth to promising startup companies after spending a night with the Anonymous. And that while sleeping they can dream and make notes in their journals at the same time. All we really know is this column is written by ‘The Anonymous’.

INSPIRATION

FILMS FOR BUDDING ENTREPRENEURS

By Marc Barendse

As an entrepreneur you probably won’t have much time. While trying to make your business a success, you work hard and make long days. But sometimes you just need to sit down and relax.

Last editions, we already discussed books and trends as sources of inspiration. This time we will focus on television. Instead of seeing the sixth season of Game of Thrones it might be interesting to broaden your view with a good documentary or a story about a successful entrepreneur. Here is a list of films that might be worth viewing.

CITIZEN KANE

THE CORPORATION

PIRATES OF SILICON VALLEY

OCTOBER SKY

YEAR 1941 IMDB RATING 8,5 WHY Nice movie. Enjoy life as a growing firm itself may not make you happier.The film is based on the life of William Hearst, a newspaper tycoon in the beginning of last century. After his dead, a reporter tries to find the meaning of his last words. What follows are pieces of newsreel-like flashback footage detailing how Kane amassed his fortune, and turning around full circle at the end. Although it may not meet modern viewers’ standards, the movie has been rated as one of the best ever made.

YEAR 2003 IMDB RATING 8,2 WHY Hundreds of years ago, people formed companies, in which they bundled their skills and knowledge. This enabled them to make more profit out of their own products.

But should companies always strive for maximum profit?

The documentary describes the company as a ‘psychopathic’ entity. Although it might almost seem anarchistic sometimes, the film tries to underline the importance of corporate social responsibility. And it does a good job.

YEAR 1999 IMDB RATING 7,2 WHY Rivalry and copying may result in good business.

The film compares the two firm’s operations and gives insight in differences between their founders: Gates, a crafty Harvard dropout, and Jobs and Wozniak, a pair of hippies. Even though the title may put you off, the film is a nice semi-biographical story about the early days of Microsoft and Apple

YEAR 1999 IMDB RATING 7,8 WHY True story of a coal miner’s son who was inspired by the launch of Sputnik, the first artificial earth satellite. He tries to realize his dream of launching a rocket into space by building small models, made of whatever material he can borrow, notably against his father’s wishes. And with success: eventually he becomes a NASA engineer. So stop dreaming. Start realizing your dreams.

Inspiration

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profile

ELON MUSK

By Bob Wouterlood

A man who programmed and sold his first game at the age of twelve for 500 dollars: not only did he found what would become PayPal and sell it for $1.5 billion to eBay, but while running SpaceX, the first commercial company to successfully launch a rocket to the International Space Station he also started Tesla Motors, which recently produced the Tesla Model S. Considered by many to be the best car ever made. If that wasn’t enough, he is the source of inspiration for the genius hands-on billionaire Tony Stark of the Iron Man Movies. Who is this man we are talking about, whom owns more companies than an average person has hobbies? It is Elon Musk!

Elon Musk was born in Pretoria, South Africa in 1971. He taught himself to program computers at a very young age. The first program he sold was a ‘Space Invaders-type’ game at the age of twelve. He did this anonymously without the buyer knowing he was so young as he was scared the authorities might find out and cause trouble. From an early age he wanted to go to the United States of America where he thought everything would be possible.

This led him to earn a bachelor’s degree in economics and physics at the University of Pennsylvania. He then headed for Stanford University to start his PhD in energy physics. But after just two days he dropped out of Stanford to start his first company, Zip2.

Zip2 was a software company helping bring newspapers onto the internet. Musk sold it in 1999 for $22 million.

Instead of retiring as a very young millionaire, Musk co-founded X.com in March 1999. After one year X.com merged with Confinity, which operated PayPal. Both systems, X.com and PayPal, had a person-to-person email-based payment system. X.com was renamed to PayPal and in two years PayPal became very popular through extreme viral marketing like ‘Beaming at Bucks’ and ‘Join Paypal or get a referral to receive 10$ in your account’. Paypal was eventually sold to eBay for $1.5 billion.

Because Musk owned 11,7% of the shares of PayPal, he became a very wealthy man. Nevertheless, for Musk this was not the time to retire settling for an isolated chain of islands. Instead, he founded and invested in more companies. SpaceX started in the same

Finally there still is a concept Elon Musk thought of, but yet left it up to the public for further development: The Hyperloop. Proposed to be a new form of transportation between Los Angeles and San Francisco using a tube with a partial vacuum through which a vehicle can travel. The vacuum reduces the aerodynamic drag which will result in a travelling speed of approximately 1200 km/ hour. The travelling time is faster than current airplanes can reach and the costs of transportation would be lower than now. But this new concept of transportation is still a challenge and by opening up the concept to the public he hopes that others will join in solving the technical challenges.

year as PayPal was sold. It was to become the first successful private space transport services company. His goal was to reduce space transportation costs and enable the colonization of Mars!

Musk intends to create a colony on Mars of 80,000 people, with a price of $500,000 to get there. SpaceX became the first private company to send a satellite into geosynchronous orbit, recover a spacecraft and send a spacecraft to the ISS (International Space Station). Because SpaceX was so successful it was awarded a $1.6 billion NASA contract in 2008 for twelve flights of the Falcon 9 rocket to the ISS. Because Musk collaborates with the U.S. government on energy and transportation policy, he has earned plenty of face time with President Obama!.

Iron Man is a movie about an American billionaire playboy, industrialist and ingenious engineer known as Tony Stark. Tony Stark is played by Robert Downey Junior who builds a weaponized suit among other things to save the world. When the director Jon Favreau started developing this movie, he experienced some trouble establishing the character of Tony Stark. When he hired Robert Downey Jr. to play this part, Downey immediately recommended to sit down with Elon Musk. The character developement of Iron Man was partially inspired by Elon Musk, who himself believes that engineering is closest thing to magic that exists in the real world. ■

In 2004 Musk also got involved in Tesla Motors, the company that makes one of today’s best electric cars . As the CEO of Tesla Motors and the product architect, he has got a great influence on the products created by Tesla. With a range of 426 km and faster acceleration than a Maserati, Tesla produces the Tesla Model S. This car earned numerous ‘Car of the Year’ awards and turned the luxury sedan market on its head.

SolarCity, which was initially a concept from Elon Musk, was co-founded by his cousins. SolarCity is the largest provider of solar powered systems in the United States. The motivation for SolarCity and Tesla is to help reduce the effect of global warming.

Inspiration

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EVENT

WOMEN EVENT

By Wieske Oomen

Female entrepreneurs, our future?!

In Delft, the number of women in entrepreneurial professions is very small. That is why, we as the Women Activation Committee want to contribute to stimulating entrepreneurship amongst the female students of Delft University of Technology. By organising Women Events we would like to inspire students for entrepreneurship. Women are needed in all companies. They have a different point of view, which can contribute to a better result.

The whole year we worked hard to meet up with female entrepreneurs, and tried to make appointments with them about speaking at our events. Sometimes this was harder than it seemed.

However we are really glad with what we accomplished.

This year we organised three events. Two of them took place at

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activation

YES!Delft. The first one being a workshop from Ormit, specialist in talent- and leadership education. Secondly entrepreneurs from YES!Delft shared their knowledge and experience with entrepreneurship.

The third event was bigger, we visited the business woman of the year 2011, Thecla Bodewes. Thecla is the owner and chief executive of the shipyard Bodewes. The day started off at YES!Delft, doing a workshop. After getting lunch and a goodiebag the bus left to the shipyard. We were guided around at the shipyard and spoke with Thecla herself.

Our main goal was to encourage more students for entrepreneurship and the activities we organised for YES!Delft Students.

We are sure our goal was accomplished and we hope the Women Events will be even more successful next year. â–

YES!DELFT STUDENTS NEWS

NEW BOARD

Dear reader, Welcome to the world of entrepreneurship! We are Wouter, Menno, Dyonne, Charlotte and Koen and from next September onwards, we will commit ourselves to students and entrepreneurship as the 6th YES!Delft Students board. But what exactly is entrepreneurship? Why is it important and how can you become an entrepreneur? In order to find answers to these questions, we will organize a variety of events and activities throughout the year.

Most universities are known for their two core tasks ‘education’ and ‘research’. However, since 2003, TU Delft has also acknowledged ‘valorization’ as one of its core tasks.Valorization means the utilization of (scientific) knowledge in practice and hereby creating value for the entire society. Although education and research will always be essential, their full potential will never be revealed as long as reports and patents remain lying on a shelve – unused.

In 2005, on the South side of the university campus,YES!Delft was founded to carry out this third core task. The so called incubator offers graduates, scientist and professionals the tools and support to use their knowledge as a basis for starting their own ventures. Innovative, high tech startups are brought together in one building, creating a breeding ground for innovation, knowledge, technology and talent. In the past year, over a hundred successful companies have been established, such as Senz Umbrellas, Ampelmann Operations, Epyon Power and Ephicas.

As the student organization of this incubator, we want to take you into the world of entrepreneurship. After five successful years, we would like to inspire even more people. We believe that technology and innovation are the driving forces of progress. And

you can be a part of it as well. Do you already know how to use your knowledge to change the world? Do you dare to push the boundaries of our society? Would you like to work on the challenges of the future every day? Then you might very well be the next successful entrepreneur.

Students like you have valuable scientific knowledge. Converting this knowledge into practical applications is one of the key tasks for entrepreneurs. By using your abilities, you can make the world cleaner, safer, better and more fun. Therefore, with five full-time board members and 50 committee members, we organize a wide variety of entrepreneurial activities just for you, such as inspirational lectures, the entrepreneurship forum, starting a company during the 1•2•Startup Weekend, this START! magazine, entrepreneurship courses and even trips abroad. YES!Delft Students is always looking for new board- and committee members. So who knows you might soon be working with Europe’s largest high tech incubator as well! Don’t hesitate to contact us whenever you’re interested.

See you at the incubator or at one of our events!

With entrepreneurial greetings, YES!Delft Students Board 6 Wouter Neisingh Menno Van Der Zee Dyonne Op Het Veld Charlotte Girardin Koen Emmer

President Marketing & Communication Treasurer Business Affairs Education

Activation

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Wil jij commissie doen bij YES!Delft Students?

YES!Delft Students Committees Lecture Committee

Organises multiple inspirational lectures per year, in a hall for 400 people.

Cleantech Challenge Committee

Organises, together with the FSR (Financiele Studievereniging Rotterdam) and the Energy Club, a CleanTech business plan competition. (www.cleantechchallenge.nl)

Activation Committee

Organises multiple activities where students are activated to become entrepreneurs. One of the activities is the Do-It! Game. A game which gives students a sense of what it takes to set up a company.

1-2-Startup Committee Organises a 3-day weekend where students develop a final product and everything around it. From a technical idea, to the marketing, to the patent, and financial picture.

Awareness Team

Organises multiple cool stunts during the whole year.

Magazine Committee

Makes the magazine of YES!Delft Students. START! Magazine!

Changing stories into entrepreneurial literature since 2012.

TEDxDelft Award Committee Women Activation Committee

Organises the qualification rounds of the inspiring TEDxDelft.

Organises multiple activities per year, just for women.

Entrepreneurs Club

Helps shape the platform for student entrepreneurs in Delft.

Datum: 15 september 2014 Tijd: 17.00 uur Locatie: YES!Delft