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Start to scale. Startup and Scale-up Founder Stories.

Up!Rotterdam

66 episodes

1 month ago

Crijn Bouman is a pioneer in EV charging. In 2005 - long before EVs were a hype - he co-founded Epyon, one of Europe’s first fast-charging startups. That company later sold to ABB, where he grew their EV charging business in over 50 countries. In 2019, he founded Rocsys, making EV charging fully autonomous through a smart combination of Computer Vision, Soft Robotics and AI. With offices in the Netherlands and Portland, Rocsys serves fleet operators: From automated trucks in the port of Rotte...

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Entrepreneurship

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Crijn Bouman is a pioneer in EV charging. In 2005 - long before EVs were a hype - he co-founded Epyon, one of Europe’s first fast-charging startups. That company later sold to ABB, where he grew their EV charging business in over 50 countries. In 2019, he founded Rocsys, making EV charging fully autonomous through a smart combination of Computer Vision, Soft Robotics and AI. With offices in the Netherlands and Portland, Rocsys serves fleet operators: From automated trucks in the port of Rotte...

Show more...

Entrepreneurship

Episodes (20/66)

Start to scale. Startup and Scale-up Founder Stories.

Building hands-free charging solutions for the Autonomous Vehicle Revolution with ROCSYS CEO Crijn Bouman

Crijn Bouman is a pioneer in EV charging. In 2005 - long before EVs were a hype - he co-founded Epyon, one of Europe’s first fast-charging startups. That company later sold to ABB, where he grew their EV charging business in over 50 countries. In 2019, he founded Rocsys, making EV charging fully autonomous through a smart combination of Computer Vision, Soft Robotics and AI. With offices in the Netherlands and Portland, Rocsys serves fleet operators: From automated trucks in the port of Rotte...

7 months ago

54 minutes

Start to scale. Startup and Scale-up Founder Stories.

Turning CO₂ into future-proof building materials - with Marta Sjögren from Paebbl

Marta spent over a decade backing startups as a VC. Now, she’s on the other side of the table, scaling Paebbl across Europe - balancing deep-tech innovation, manufacturing at scale, and a fast-growing team. She’s building a company that could change the way we build the world. A serial migrant, obsessed with frameworks, and here to share her story. In this conversation, we’ll cover Martha's journey: What did she learn going from investor to founder? What’s it really like scaling a deep...

8 months ago

50 minutes

Start to scale. Startup and Scale-up Founder Stories.

Crafting safe digital habits for the next generation with Marjolein van Tilburg

Marjolein is a driving force for digital well-being and responsible tech. In 2022, she left a successful career as a lawyer, mediator, and privacy expert to launch ChatLicense, helping families navigate responsible use of smartphones. What started as a simple idea quickly became a fast-growing company, blending digital literacy with real-world impact. From pitching a wireframe at CES to winning startup competitions from Rotterdam to Silicon Valley, ChatLicense has built serious momentum. ...

9 months ago

50 minutes

Start to scale. Startup and Scale-up Founder Stories.

Riding the Storm: Philip Hess (Senz Umbrellas) on Innovation and Resilience in Entrepreneurship

Philip co-founded Senz in 2005 with two fellow students. Together they created the 'original storm umbrella' that - pun intended - took the world by storm. Later on, Philip joined sleep startup Somnox and coached scale-up founders to implement Rockefeller Habits. With his latest venture - Rotterdam Factoring - he is on a mission to become the largest factoring company in the Netherlands, with no more than 10 people on staff.In this episode, we'll cover:How an innovative storm umbrella - ...

11 months ago

48 minutes

Start to scale. Startup and Scale-up Founder Stories.

Revolutionizing Nuclear Energy: Thorizons' Kiki Lauwers on Molten Salt Reactors and Sustainable Innovation

Kiki leads Thorizon, a revolutionary deeptech company backed by the EU, creating thorium-based molten salt reactors. Thorizon was founded by Lucas Pool and Sander de Groot as a spin-off from the national nuclear research institute of the Netherlands. In 2023, Kiki bemame the CEO. With an Aerospace Engineering degree from TU Delft and an MBA from INSEAD, her journey spans McKinsey, Bol.com, and now the ambitious goal of launching Thorizon’s first reactor.In this episode, we'll talk about:Kiki’...

11 months ago

47 minutes

Start to scale. Startup and Scale-up Founder Stories.

Rebuilding resilience: Jouri Schoemaker on Pieter Pot's journey from bankruptcy to crowdfunding revival

Jouri is the founder and CEO of Pieter Pot, one of the most talked-about startups in the Netherlands. The online supermarket, known for using jars instead of plastic packaging, experienced rapid growth since its launch in 2019, raising €12.5 million in capital. However, in 2022, the company encountered financial troubles, and despite a takeover, faced what seemed like a final blow at the end of 2023 when it went bankrupt. Now, in 2024, Pieter Pot is back in the startup phase with a new r...

1 year ago

51 minutes

Start to scale. Startup and Scale-up Founder Stories.

Jos Lazet's Journey with Blockrise: From Bitcoin Basics to Crypto Leadership

Jos is a passionate entrepreneur who started his journey early, registering his first business at the age of just 15. In 2013 he got involved in Bitcoin and became captivated by its transformative potential. While pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering, his fascination with blockchain led him to found Blockrise, where he now serves as CEO. Today Blockrise is a trusted partner to prominent individuals, corporations and family offices who want to have complete control over their ...

1 year ago

47 minutes

Start to scale. Startup and Scale-up Founder Stories.

From Travel Enthusiast to Tech Entrepreneur: The Polar Steps Story with Koen Droste

From a young age, Koen built websites for clients, leading to his first startup, CompanySpot, the Dutch version of Glassdoor. Koen later played key roles at platforms like Hyves, Relatieplanet and Dumpert and co-founded Upcoming, a news and entertainment platform. In 2015, together with 3 co-founders, he founded polarsteps. Today over 10 million travelers from all parts of the world use the app to plan, track and relive their adventures. So does my wife - as I found out only this summer....

1 year ago

46 minutes

Start to scale. Startup and Scale-up Founder Stories.

Plant whisperers unveiled: transforming agriculture and navigating the startup landscape with Berend de Klerk

Berend is on a mission to revolutionize the agriculture industry. With a Master in High-Tech Engineering ánd a Master in Management of Technology, he founded Plense Technologies together with Thijs Bieling. They use a patented technology with smart sensing devices that literally listen to plants - and turn that into data for growers.In this episode, we'll talk about:Measuring the inner working of plants;The importance of tough love from critical advisors;How to make the most of a co...

1 year ago

35 minutes

Start to scale. Startup and Scale-up Founder Stories.

Powering The Green Revolution with DeWarmte: Sander Wapperom's Journey to Sustainable Home Heating

Immediately after graduating from TU Delft, Sander and Auke developed an innovative product called HeatCycle - which recovers all heat from household wastewater. That led them to win the ASN World Prize in 2020. Later they added the sleek and smart AO heatpump, that won the iF Design Award 2024 out of almost 11,000 entries from 72 countries. Today, DeWarmte is well underway to install their 3000th heat pump by the end of 2024.In this episode, we'll talk about:A smarter way to get residential ...

1 year ago

44 minutes

Start to scale. Startup and Scale-up Founder Stories.

Scaling with Mycelium: How Bob Hendrikx changes the funeral industry with Living Coffins

Let me introduce Inventor, Biodesigner and Entrepreneur: Bob Hendrikx.With a background in Architectural Engineering Bob strives for a world in which we work in symbiosis with nature. In 2020 he founded Loop Biotech, on a mission to revolutionize the funeral industry - through coffins that turn people into plant food.Bob's journey received widespread attention, making headlines in Wired, CNN, The Guardian, and the BBC. VICE Media even awarded him the title of Human of the Year. His backe...

1 year ago

46 minutes

Start to scale. Startup and Scale-up Founder Stories.

From Boxing Champion to CEO: Josefien Groot's Journey to Technological Innovation and Sustainable Leadership

With a masters degree in Complex Systems, Josefien Groot went from national boxing champion to Scale-up CEO, advocating for a sustainable future. Before reaching the age of 21, she had already established and sold her first business specializing in circular products. In 2017, she co-founded QLayers alongside Ruben Geutjens. Her significant contributions have been widely recognized through numerous accolades, including the prestigious European Rising Innovator and EY Emerging Entrepreneur...

1 year ago

51 minutes

Start to scale. Startup and Scale-up Founder Stories.

How to build a brand in consumer electronics with Repeat Audio founder Dorus Galama

After he completed his master in strategic product design from Delft University, Dorus began to do graphic studio work together with his fellow student Delft Tom. From a deep love for music and the determination to stand up against the industry with products that produce massive electronic waste - they started Gerrard Street, in 2015, which was later renamed Repeat Audio. Today, Repeat offers a range of modular high fidelity headphones. Notable users include the Metropole Orchestra,...

1 year ago

49 minutes

Start to scale. Startup and Scale-up Founder Stories.

Revolutionizing Urban Mobility: Bibi Jorissen's Journey with Umob and the Future of MaaS

With Master’s degrees in Strategy and Marketing, she excelled in mobility. From cutting carbon footprint at General Motors to boosting fleet growth at Greenwheels. In 2021, Bibi co-founded umob with Raymon Pouwels. They secured 8M in funding within two years. And today, umob stands as the first MaaS operator in the Netherlands to integrate all three e-moped operators (Check, GO Sharing & felyx) into one platform.In this episode, we'll talk about:The opportunities and business model i...

1 year ago

53 minutes

Start to scale. Startup and Scale-up Founder Stories.

Reflecting on Rotterdam's entrepreneurial ecosystem and getting up-close and personal with Lars & Lisette

In the last episode of this year, Up!Rotterdam's Lars & Lisette reflect on the entrepreneurial ecosystem of Rotterdam and its development over the past 4 years. We'll talk about:How our scale-up ecosystem developed over the past 4 years;Who you found the most interesting founders this year;All you ever wanted to know about Up!Rotterdam.Links mentioned:People: Lars Crama, Lisette Braakenburg, Hans Scheffer, Friso Schmidt, Han Kleppe, Fonger Ypma, Koen Burgers, Mattijs Slee, Nalden, Ellen S...

1 year ago

1 hour 11 minutes

Start to scale. Startup and Scale-up Founder Stories.

Technology adoption in healthcare and care robot Tessa with Wang Long Li, founder & CEO of Tinybots

During his PhD research, Wang explored robots' societal impact on the elderly, especially with dementia. In 2015, he left that and founded Tinybots, to make a tangible difference for those with cognitive challenges. Today, their care robot Tessa is a proven solution for patient self-reliance, used by care providers all over the Netherlands on a daily basis. In this episode, we'll talk about:How care robot Tessa helps clients lead more independent lives;The challenge with technology ...

1 year ago

45 minutes

Start to scale. Startup and Scale-up Founder Stories.

Negotiating a €40M deal with the EIB and reinventing yourself from a 1 man team to leading 100 people with Mattijs Slee from Battolyser Systems

With a Master in Hydraulic Engineering from Delft Technical University and an Executive MBA from INSEAD, he spent 15 years with Shell, where his latest roles included Investment Director for Shell ventures as well as Commercial Head for Shell Hydrogen.In 2021, he was asked by Koolen Industries as the first employee of Battolyser Systems, a cleantech company with patented technology. Fast forward three years, and Mattijs is the CEO of a company of almost 100 employees.We'll cover the following...

1 year ago

55 minutes

Start to scale. Startup and Scale-up Founder Stories.

The opportunities in a $1 trillion Augmented Reality market with Joris Biskop, founder and CEO of AddOptics

Joris Biskop is the former CTO of Luxexcel, 3d printing lens specialist, which was recently acquired by Meta for €400 million. Based on his insights there, he founded Addoptics, of which he is now the CEO. Addoptics is a smart manufacturer of optics, serving an impressive list of customers worldwide from their office in Rotterdam.We'll cover the following topics:The opportunities in a 1 trillion Augmented Reality market;Pivoting from niche prototype production to scalability;The pro’s and con...

1 year ago

46 minutes

Start to scale. Startup and Scale-up Founder Stories.

How to clean the ocean with oyster reefs, with Oyster Heaven CEO George Birch

With a background in biology and a passion for environmental conservation, George embarked on a unique journey that led him from asset management to the world of oyster reef restoration. After completing this MBA from Rotterdam School of Management, he founded Oyster Heaven - on a mission to make marine regeneration financially sustainable.We'll cover the following topics:Cleaning the ocean with oyster reefs;How To Make Ecosystem Regeneration ProfitableWhat George is up to in his freetim...

1 year ago

57 minutes

Start to scale. Startup and Scale-up Founder Stories.

Philips Innovation Award Special: learn about nature inclusive development and how to make the most of a competition like PHIA.

In this episode I speak with Auke Bleij, Founder of Respyre - the fascinating startup that helps cities turn green through a special concrete that holds moss. Respyre is a spin-off from Delft Technical University, on a mission to create greener cities through the application of mosses. You hold a Master in Construction Management from that same University. We'll cover the following topics:Auke’s entrepreneurial journeynature inclusive development and how to make the most of a competition...

1 year ago

41 minutes