Still waters run effectively: how Vibrotwist is silently changing the offshore world
“They call this the valley of death,” says Stas Verichev matter-of-factly about the phase his company Vibrotwist is currently in. The term describes the notorious period between innovation and commercialisation, where tech start-ups can run aground. But this Russian-Dutch entrepreneur has already weathered quite a few storms. From missing out on investors to catching the “last grant train” at the last minute. Stas navigates challenges with the determination of someone who knows he has a revolution on his hands.
Eureka on the Maasvlakte
The story of Vibrotwist began six years ago with a moment of pure amazement. During a demonstration on the Maasvlakte, Stas saw a test pile go silently into the ground. “It was very noisy, and everything was shaking,” he says of the traditional method, “and then they switched to our method, and you couldn’t feel a thing… the pile just went in. I immediately thought, Wow, this is going to change everything!”
He can explain this revolutionary technology in surprisingly simple terms: “Imagine you’re on the beach and you want to put up your parasol. You don’t just push it, you twist it into the sand. That’s basically the whole idea.” By twisting piles instead of hammering them, Vibrotwist eliminates the deafening underwater noise and thus saves millions in noise abatement measures. This also significantly reduces installation time and makes it possible to completely remove the steel from the seabed later on.
From PhD to parasol pioneer
Stas’ path to entrepreneurship was not a straight line. “I started off as a researcher, then became an engineer, and then an entrepreneur,” he outlines his professional development. After completing his PhD at Delft University of Technology and prior working at Schlumberger, Royal IHC and Allseas, respectively, he ran a concrete mixer truck company in Russia. “I do have some entrepreneurial background,” he says modestly. That experience came in handy when he decided to commercialise his former supervisor’s revolutionary pile-driving technology.
Support where needed
Once Vibrotwist was established, the reality of running a business came into play. For a start-up, it is very important to fully account for grants and to have clear financial reports in order to convince investors. Through Delft Enterprises at TU Delft, Stas came into contact with Enbition and found them to be the right partner to support him in this. “They also help me with practical questions about matters such as taxes, which is nice when Dutch is not your mother tongue,” says Stas.
Welcome to the valley of death
Tech entrepreneurship comes with considerable challenges: “The biggest challenge remains financing,” says Stas. He hoped to raise money through a grant, but that also required a 20% personal contribution: “But my pockets were empty, and they wouldn’t accept my Albert Heijn bonus card,” he jokes. It became a race against the clock: “You’re trying to catch a train that’s already leaving the platform.” Fortunately, he managed to arrange a cooperation deal with Ampelmann and, with their help, to secure the last available HER+ subsidy before the programme was discontinued.
Now, two years later, the grant is coming to an end, and there is still no final deal with a commercial investor. Vibrotwist finds itself in what Stas calls “Valley of Death”: the period when money is running out, but the commercial breakthrough is yet to come.
“The offshore market is quite difficult, quite conservative,” he sighs. Soon, together with Ampelmann, will be able to prove their technology at sea. Only then will customers dare to get involved commercially. “And then it may take another five years before the first projects are actually up and running,” explains Stas.
Persevering despite uncertainty
Stas cannot yet say what the future holds: “In the worst case, Vibrotwist may go into hibernation. Like a bear in winter. But we will do our best to secure additional financial streams before that.” Despite all the uncertainty, his story is full of enthusiasm, and you cannot help but be convinced that their silent technology will save the industry billions and ensure that the construction of wind farms no longer causes nuisance to marine life.
Small, sharp, effective: how Flocsam is changing the consultancy game
“Most of my life has been pure luck, if I’m entirely honest,” Tom Fleuriot says with refreshing candor. But behind that modesty lies a sharp mind determined to shake up the consultancy world. From the charming Dutch town of Edam, he runs Flocsam, a company that supports companies’ legal teams without binding them to costly contracts. We spoke with Tom about his ambitions.
Tom’s story begins at defence and security company Babcock, where he worked on tenders, contracts, costs, pricing and compliance for submarine and surface ship fleets around the world. As well as offering him the chance to study law, his career progression led him to Australia. There he met his Dutch wife, with whom he eventually settled in Edam. He became Global Legal Director at Reckitt Benckiser, where he spent ten years supporting R&D, marketing, procurement, ecommerce and product development teams around the globe. This experience gave him valuable insights into how legal teams function in large corporations.
The Consultancy Circus
During those corporate years, Tom observed a frustrating pattern: consultancy projects often started small but grew into expensive, multi-year trajectories that frequently stalled or failed to deliver promised value. The biggest frustration? “All of the knowledge and understanding is housed in the consultant. I saw consultants doing this to us as a company.”
Small, Sharp, Effective
A year and a half ago, Tom decided to take the leap and launch Flocsam to approach things in a radically different way: “What I focus on in Flocsam is the smallest impactful change that you can make. We go very tiny, very narrow, very deep, and we produce a shift in working within two days.”
His process is clear: he visits the company, speaks with stakeholders, and determines within days what can change tomorrow and how success will be measured. As Tom sees it: “It’s like learning to fish. Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day, teach him to fish and he’ll eat for life. Probably you still can’t learn to fish in a day. It takes time and practice, but you have to start somewhere.”. If something can’t be fixed within two to three days, Tom believes that shows it’s too complex for the next step, and risks running into yet another failing long-term project: “Focus on what can be done”.
Tom Fleuriot, founder of Flocsam
A world of difference
As an international entrepreneur in the Netherlands, Tom faced practical challenges, for example with his previous accountant. As he puts it: “They showed no interest in what I actually did as a company.” A filing mistake eventually cost him a significant five-figure rebate.
Through Portside Tax, Tom was referred to Enbition, and he describes the difference: “When we had the kickoff session, their enthusiasm for seeing how you can maximize the financial assessment was brilliant. It was a complete sea change from the previous accountant.”
Now Tom works with Gabriella at Enbition and particularly values their shared philosophy: “It’s the exact same principle. You want people to have enough knowledge that they can have ownership and that they can do it themselves if they want to. While also understanding that sometimes it is more effective if someone with that day-to-day regular expertise comes in and does it for you.”
For Tom, the partnership provides peace of mind: “It’s just the comfort that I’m not getting it wrong, particularly as a non-native Dutch speaker. It means I have to spend less time second-guessing and looking into stuff.”
Let’s move fast, let’s fix something
Tom remains committed to his approach going forward. He already has several lawyers in mind to bring on board to make legal support “sharper, more outcome oriented and more systemic.” Even with growth, he sticks to his core principle: “I am deliberately rejecting the land and expand business model where you take a client, and you rinse as much cash from them as possible.”
For companies struggling with their legal workload, Tom offers a 60-minute conversation: “They download on me what their challenges are, and then I come back and say, look, here’s what I think will be that smallest impactful change. And then it’s like: let’s move fast, let’s fix something!”
Rapid Growth with Your Start-Up: This Is How PATS Does It!
Imagine this: a small drone that swats that annoying mosquito, so you can sleep undisturbed. In 2017, Bram, Kevin, and Sjoerd also found this a pretty bizarre idea, but they decided to explore what might be possible. This was the beginning of PATS Indoor Drone Solutions. After extensive research, it turned out that the real match for their technology wasn’t in the bedroom, but in horticulture. In early 2018, the idea was further developed, and in 2020, PATS welcomed their first customer.
The Start of the Start-Up
From a start-up with three founders, PATS has grown to over 14 employees in six years. How do you achieve such rapid growth? Bram Tijmons, CEO and co-founder, gives us a behind-the-scenes look.
“Developing technology takes time and money,” Bram explains. “Especially when you don’t have paying customers yet. That’s why we made use of programs like the NWO Take-off program and the UNIIQ investment fund.” In PATS’ early years, they carried out several (paid) pilots, allowing them to demonstrate interest in their technology and that there was a market for their solution. These pilots not only provided PATS with the necessary funding but also the confidence that they were on the right path. “We saw an opportunity to make a sustainable impact with our technology in the transition from chemical to biological pest control.”
The Challenge of Financial Administration
PATS started using Exact for their financial administration. “At first, I thought, ‘I can easily keep track of this myself. It’s straightforward, and I have everything under control.’ But as we grew, it quickly became more complex and took up more and more time,” says Bram.
A valuable tip led Bram to Enbition, and he quickly decided to outsource the financial administration. “Enbition not only took work off our hands but also brought structure and insights. Thanks to them, we were able to get a detailed view of our cost flows and justify our business operations.”
Continuous Innovation and Scaling
As a tech company, innovation is at the core of PATS. While scaling up, they continue to work intensively on developing their technology. “For example, we received the EIC Accelerator, a European subsidy that helps us continue our innovation,” says Bram. “To qualify for such subsidies and properly account for them, transparency and well-organized financial administration are absolutely essential.”
Bram Tijmons, CEO van PATS
The Role of Enbition
“Enbition plays a crucial role in accounting for subsidies and maintaining an organized administration,” Bram continues. “Thanks to Bart from Enbition, we can view our finances in detail with just the push of a button. He has streamlined everything. I don’t know if he ever takes a vacation because he seems to always be available. I can call or text him anytime for advice. His hands-on approach and extensive knowledge are incredibly valuable. It’s fantastic to have such a personal collaboration!
Tip
Bram is now focused on attracting new financing and closely monitors PATS’ recurring revenue. “Looking back, there is one thing I would definitely have done differently,” Bram reflects. “I would have started working with Enbition much earlier. It has given us so much insight and peace of mind. My advice to other start-ups? As soon as you notice you’re spending more than a few hours a week on invoicing and other administrative tasks, seriously consider outsourcing them. This allows you to focus on the growth and core activities of your business, and gives you a clear view of your financial position.”
Dashboarding: How do I present my company to interested parties?
If you run a startup and have ambitions to grow, it is instrumental to be able to convince investors of your potential. An important part of this is having a well-organized dashboard. And no, it doesn’t have to be an expensive system! In this blog, Tjitze explains why dashboarding is so important and how you can use it to effectively present yourself to financial parties.
What is Dashboarding?
Dashboarding is the process of collecting, visualizing, and interpreting key data in a clear overview – a dashboard. This allows you to quickly gain insights into your company’s performance and support strategic decisions.
Tjitze explains: “When presenting to an investor, you need to not only pitch your idea and solution but also make it clear how you’re going to make money with it. Investors want to know that you have a firm grip on your finances and that you understand precisely what’s important for your success.”
The first question when setting up a dashboard is: what exactly do I want to know?
Tjitze emphasizes the importance of setting specific goals from the start. If my company is successful: what does that look like? A good dashboard provides insights into both financial and non-financial goals. Tjitze explains: “Often people remain vague in their approach: ’Just measure as many things as possible,’ or they think ‘we’ll report on costs and profits.’ But if you don’t focus on specific goals, you won’t achieve your success. That profit should be the result of achieving your objectives.”
Choose a fancy system
Set up a dashboard with your specific goals and make sure to regularly review it. ‘How are we performing compared to our objectives?’. A dashboard doesn’t have to be a fancy tool – an Excel spreadsheet can work perfectly, as long as it helps you monitor and evaluate your goals clearly.
Stay Focused!
“It’s about having clear goals,” says Tjitze. “Whether you pull that data from Excel or a nice PDF, investors can see through the fancy presentation. The most important thing is that you can demonstrate that you know where you’re heading and can objectively determine if you’re achieving your goals.”
Tjitze encourages using the OKR method (Objectives and Key Results). This method helps in setting the most important goals for your company and linking measurable short-term goals to them that will help you achieve success.
Measure, Evaluate, and Plan
Once your goals are set and measurable, it’s important to evaluate regularly. “Schedule a review, whether it’s weekly, monthly, or biannually – find what fits your business. Then ask yourself: do you think you’ll achieve your goals? If the answer is yes, great, keep going. If the answer is no, it becomes a discussion point: what will we do to still reach the goal? This ensures you constantly confirm you’re on the path to success.”
A Helping Hand
If you’re struggling to get concrete goals on paper or if your team can’t agree internally, Tjitze assists companies – whether starting or already established – with setting up dashboards through business consultancy that goes beyond financial figures. In one or more sessions, he asks critical questions and helps clarify objectives. “It’s best if an internal employee takes over the process and handles the monitoring,” says Tjitze. “Sometimes I stay involved to keep asking the critical questions and ensure the company stays on track.”
Want to know more about how Enbition can help your company with dashboarding and project management? Get in touch with Tjitze!
Populytics: from rapid growth to calm and clarity through project control
Achieving the company’s five-year goals in just eight months is an impressive feat. This is exactly what Populytics has accomplished. However, this also raises the question: how do you maintain control over your projects during such rapid growth? This blog delves deeper into Populytics’ successful approach and offers insights for other service-oriented companies.
Populytics: innovation and participation
Populytics emerged from academic research and has not slowed down since. The company applies an innovative methodology to better involve citizens in government decision-making. Through the use of Participatory Value Evaluation (PVE), citizens can digitally take the place of ministers, politicians, and other decision-makers. They engage with an issue and advise decision-makers, ensuring citizens are effectively involved in government decisions. Shira Hollanders, director of Populytics, explains: “Our goal is to truly make the voice of the citizen count. With our methodology, we can present complex decisions in an understandable way and make meaningful participation possible.”
Calmer waters
Since its founding at the end of 2020, Populytics has grown rapidly. “After five months, I fully committed and became a co-owner of the company, and we now have 14 employees, 12 of whom are in the research team,” Shira says. “Our clients are mainly ministries, provinces, and municipalities. We are now in calmer waters, which is what we wanted. We no longer need to move at the same frantic pace as the past years.”
In addition to government agencies, Populytics is now also targeting the business sector as a new market to involve employees in decisions that affect them. “We remain ambitious,” Shira adds.
From little insight to calm and clarity
At the start of their journey, Shira and her team had little insight into their finances and were dealing with a labor-intensive bookkeeping process. This changed quickly when they were introduced to Enbition in the spring of 2021. “Tjitze from Enbition helped us largely automate our bookkeeping and brought structure to our financial planning and project management. That brought us a lot of peace,” Shira says. Tjitze from Enbition adds: “Starting a business out of passion is fantastic, but in the long term, it’s necessary to have good control over your projects. This helps you manage costs, monitor results, maintain satisfied customers and employees, and, above all, ensure profitability!”
Project Control
How do you, as a consultancy company, maintain control over your projects? Tjitze offers three tips:
- Monitor projects from the lead phase. Your first conversation with a lead is the start of the project. How big is the deal? How much time can you spend on it? Does the client have a budget? Also, include the financial goals of a project from the start so you’re not surprised later.
- Make one person responsible for the project. This person should report on everything, including finances. This is what we call project control. Even if this person doesn’t execute all tasks, they maintain an overall view.
- Set clear goals for margins and results. How much margin do you want on a project? Do you always aim for 10% or 30%? Clear goals are essential for effective project management—make them measurable.
Sharing goals
A crucial element in aligning your entire organization is making your goals clear within the company. Tjitze explains: “Populytics has done this well by applying the Objectives and Key Results (OKR) methodology, setting goals, measuring and tracking them regularly. They also share their goals with the entire organization, so everyone is aware and involved in working toward the common goal.”
Enbition tailors its approach to you
“Enbition is an accessible and pragmatic organization,” Shira says. “They consider the stage your company is in and adjust their approach accordingly. They are flexible in their thinking, which is great.”
Want to experience what Enbition can do for you in terms of project control? Contact Tjitze!
"What I think would be really cool is to work on all the transformer houses in the Netherlands with our product."
Respyre is turning cities green using their bio-receptive concrete that moss can thrive on. We spoke with their founder and CEO, Mark de Kruijff, who we've been working with since last year. We hope in this interview we can learn more about the exciting world of moss.
Hi Mark! It's great to get to sit down together and catch up. Let's go back to the beginning of your ambitions. How did you get started with Respyre?
After my master's in physics, I started at Delft Enterprises, the valorization center of TU Delft. At the center, we looked at how the knowledge coming out of the university can be used in society. Together with 2 professors (Marc Ottelé and Henk Jonker), I started to see if we could find a solution to make cities more sustainable in a cost effective way. What struck us is that there is still a lot of greenery missing on vertical surfaces and that systems that are currently available to create vertical vegetation are too complex, too expensive, and too difficult. With this state of things, you are not going to bring about systematic changes. The professors I worked with had been researching bio receptive materials for years and knew that you could facilitate and stimulate the growth of moss on this material. And if you applied this concrete to existing buildings and stimulated the growth of moss on it, then those buildings would naturally turn green
Wow, you're really trying to make a green covered world! What are all the benefits of a moss-covered facade?
It is of course desirable to have more greenery in the city, and when something is green and growing it absorbs carbon dioxide. Certainly, the little plant "moss" has a number of advantages over other greenery. This little plant has been around for 300 million years and is incredibly resilient. Because it has no roots but "Rhizoids" with which it attaches itself to a material, it does not cause damage to the soil. Because they have no roots (and therefore cannot extract nutrients from the soil), they obtain all their nutrients from their environment (from rain and from the air).
Moss takes in a lot of nitrogen from the air, contributing to fixing the nitrogen problem, and it also traps particulate matter in the foliage. Moss has a thick foliage, which means it can "suck up" water. During heavy rains, this foliage absorbs a lot of water and relieves the capacity of the sewer systems. If this water then evaporates back out of the moss, you get evaporation which cools the city. In addition to water, overgrown facades also absorb a lot of sound. You can also apply this solution to sound walls next to the highway to make them extra sound absorbing. Another major issue today is the loss of biodiversity, the loss of plants, insects and other animals. The moss layer we apply consists of many different types of moss, each of which provides a habitat for several types of insects, which in turn serve as food for different types of birds.
Did you start the company to provide bird food or did something else persuade you to go into business?
From a university, you can share the research that has been done and hope that someone will take it up, but if you take it up yourself you can make a lot more change and do it faster. There are huge problems in urban areas, namely; heat stress, noise pollution, water pollution, poor air quality, and a lack of greenery. We wanted to solve these problems and that's what drove us to turn an invention into a business so we could make a real change.
We have fixed the lack of greenery outside of our own office at Enbition, it is great that someone is doing it out in the world! So, what things did you run into when you started your business?
During the process we have been through so far, there were huge peaks and valleys we encountered. Sometimes you think the whole thing is going to collapse, but then one day you suddenly see the solution, and everything looks a lot rosier. It's been a fantastic adventure so far.
Obviously, the Empire State Building or the Kuip would be a great project to put moss all over, but which building would you most like to tackle in the future?
The usual answer to this is that we would like to have a showpiece. A beautiful building on the Zuidas, for example. But what we would most like to show is that you can go in many directions with our product and that you don't have to spend a lot of money to make it work.
Something with a large surface area and something that is currently perceived as "ugly" can be made to look incredibly nice and therefore, has even more functionalities. What I think would be really cool is to work on all the transformer houses in the Netherlands with our product.
We of course are wishing you the best of luck in transforming all of the transformers! Of course we know, but I’m sure our readers would like to know, how did you come into contact with Enbition?
Through a colleague at TU Delft. He knew Tjitze from Enbition and told us we needed an accountant. He told me that Enbition wants to go one step further than your traditional bookkeepers and that they can support us more with our administration and set it up so it works for us. I found this very interesting!
Our year of working together has been great! In what ways does Enbition support you that you would like to highlight?
Mainly with accounting and human resources but the most important is actually the introduction to finance. We all have a technical background and don't have a lot of knowledge about what is involved in the administration of a company. Enbition is very important for us to see which steps are necessary to set up all the processes in the best way.
Control over your finances
Do you feel that you have a good grip on your companies finances or have you found out due to corona that your insight is limited? Now is the time to make sure you are in control!
To help you get better control over your business, we have created a standardized dashboard in #Powerbi, connected to ExactOnline. This dashboard gives realtime insight into your companies data. By focussing on the data that is most important for you, this releases you and gives you more control over your finances. This way you can spend that time on things your are actually good at!
Om ervoor te zorgen dat jij meer regie krijgt over jouw bedrijf, hebben wij een standaard dashboard ontwikkeld in #PowerBI gekoppeld aan Exact Online. Dit geeft jou realtime inzicht in je cijfers! Door inzicht te geven in de data die voor jou belangrijk is, ontlasten we jou en geven we je meer grip op je financiën. Heb jij ook weer tijd over om te doen waar je goed in bent!
This dashboard you can also share with other, like your investor or other stakeholders. This way all connected parties have direct insight in what they need to know. What else do you need?!
Interested to see what this dashboard would look like for you? We are happy to visit you and determine the most important variables for you company and showcase the dashboard.
Don’t hesitate to call Tjitze for a meeting → +31 70 221 00 17
Too much work, too little time? Create time and stop working on your own administration!
After years of involvement with multiple start-ups and scale-ups there has always been 1 issue there was in common, a lack of time! As soon as your company starts to grow and the first signs of succes are visible, the admin and other supporting processes are the first victim of the succes. Yet they are essential for the next stage of growth!
From that experience we have developed an administrative approach to support entrepreneurs in a fundamental area of your company: the backbone of your organisation!
The scan
Before we start working for a new customer we first conduct a scan. We visit your company and within 1 day we make sure we have a good view of the current state of affairs. We speak to the relevant people, see how your processes are organises, what level of automation you already have and what the key things are that are important to your company!
The advice
After the scan we present to you a report with our advice on how the processes and procedures can be improved. And, if you agree, we also implement this. Why? Because telling someone how it should be done is step 1, but actually implementing it is a whole different ball game, and you don’t want to spend your time on that! Convenient for you, because in the end you have a smoother and more efficiently organised company. But it is also convenient for us, because this way we can support you in a future role with even more efficiency, which saves you money!
The follow up
Your administrative organisation is now rock-solid, but then the real work starts. All the things that happen on a daily, monthly and yearly basis. Off course, you can do this yourself as you used to, but I guess you have other things to focus on, right?? This is where we step in again. We become your “employee” that makes sure that all the work is done and done well. We come and work at your office when needed and partly we work remote. We make sure all the important KPI’s are visible in an online dashboard, we scale with the company as it grows, we monitor the process and we chip in some advice for free! Sounds good right?
Are you done with the stress and work of the administration, have you lost sight on all the different costs or are you tired of paying big bucks to your accountant every year with a minimum of support? Lets chat and have a cup of coffee! We are here to help.
Hi! Let's introduce ourselves
As you may have read on our website, we are Enbition! But let's get human! It's bad manners not to personally introduce ourselves.
We would love to tell you all about our services and what that all entails, but the truth is... people do business with people. Thats why in this blog we give a sneakpeak into the team, so that we get to know each other a bit better already. Or to be more precise,you get to know us... if you want us to know you too you would need to click here or at the end of this blog!
Levi
When you are talking about the stereotype 'controller', than Levi is not your guy. This young professional who loves making music is not inclined to the ‘the old fashioned ways’ within controlling. He has a strong entrepreneurial spirit and combines a personal approach with a skilled professional approach regarding the key metrics of your company.
Age: 29
Fun fact: Before his master in accounting and control, he did a year of music academy in the UK.
Strength: With his strong entrepreneurial spirit he is able to apply a data-driven approach from the perspective of the entrepreneur.
Robert
Robert is a serial entrepreneur. With years of experience in bookkeeping, consultancy and software development he is able to apply a broad view on your company. He flourishes when he is able to work together with people who live out there passion.
Age: 54
Fun fact: Robert is litterally one of the largest entrepreneurs you will meet, ever! And his 2,16 metres in length is half of that. The other half is his years of experience as an entrepreneur.
Strength: Robert wakes up early, so don't be surprised if the first e-mails are in your inbox when you still need to get your breakfast.
Tjitze
Supply chain management, Policy advisor, projectmanager, implementation consultant, management consultant, business developer…is there an area Tjitze didn't gain experience in? He has started and finished many procesimprovement projects and it is an area he always excels in.
Age: 37
Fun fact: Doing nothing is not something Tjitze is good at. In his spare time he is always doing something, if it isn't DIY, then he plays the guitar or plays sport.
Strength: Tjitze doesn't hold back. He is quick to discern the area's of improvement and will come up with a plan before you even asked for it.
Well, that's enough for now, we can always talk about ourself later. We are curious about you! We would love to get introduced over a cup of koffie, we will bring the goodies!