Author: Florine Dams

“HAN Center for Entrepreneurship is the department within the HAN University of Applied Sciences for young ambitious (student) entrepreneurs at the HAN and is active on the campus in Arnhem and Nijmegen. Our mission is to inform and inspire HAN students about entrepreneurship, and to train and guide them in their entrepreneurial journey. In doing this, we aim to create an extra, or new, professional perspective for them in which students can create and add social value.

We offer interesting workshops and organise inspiring events. Students can also do a minor in which they can found and grow their startup and develop themselves as an entrepreneur. In addition to that we offer startup guidance, coaching and support in obtaining funds for their company. We also facilitate students in combining their business with their study curriculum. They can even do an internship or graduate at their own company! Students can also rely on our large and external network to help them scale up.

Want to know more about what we can do for you? Go to our website and schedule an appointment with one of our business coaches. We are ready to help you make your entrepreneurial dreams come true! Already graduated? Good news: alumni up to 2 years after graduation are also welcome at our center.”

Do you want to know more about the Center for Entrepreneurship? Mail Mathilde van Wijk

“I usually start off my day quietly by reading a book or watching a series in the early morning. At 8:00 AM I get up, have breakfast and prepare for the day!

At 09:00 AM, I crawl behind my laptop for the Marketing meeting with the Mercator Launch marketing team. We go through our weekly planning: which events are coming up? What articles and blogs do we have to write and share? And, not unimportantly: which entrepreneurs are we going to put in the spotlight this month? It is nice to meet each other every week to discuss our marketing & communication plan and check how everyone’s doing.

After the meeting, I attend my online lecture ‘Introduction to Language and Speech Technology’. Next to my job at Mercator Launch, I am in my first year of the Master Artificial Intelligence at the Faculty of Social Sciences. On average, I spend 4.5 days a week studying for my Masters. However, since my study program is very flexible, I thought it would be valuable to work alongside it and gain experience in content creation. Before I joined the Mercator Launch team, I was the website manager of the Radboud Research Facilities (RRF). The RRF manager, Ed Koster, pointed out that Mercator Launch was looking for additional support on Marketing & Communication. That’s how I ended up as their Content Officer which involves writing posts, blogs, articles and analyzing our content. It is nice to combine my studies and work as they each focus on very different topics.

After my lecture, I quickly grab some lunch and go to the Zoom meeting for growth hacking. Growth hacking is a creative, low-cost and experiment-driven strategy to help organizations acquire and retain customers. With the Mercator Launch marketing team, we work in 2-week-sprints in which we improve aspects like webpage visits and social media engagement. By implementing small but creative changes followed by data collection and analysis, we can make smart and substantiated decisions for our next marketing activities. We really have to think outside the box and the great thing about growth hacking is that every two-week-sprint, a different ML business coach joins our growth hacking team. As a result, I work with all my colleagues on a regular basis, even though I only work for Mercator Launch one day a week.

After a brainstorm that went in all possible directions, a creative idea suddenly emerged on how we can promote our Hero Entrepreneurs event even better. More about this soon… 😉

After the growth hacking meeting, I start with my to do list that rose from our marketing meeting. I prepare a number of social media posts and ensure that the articles are published on our website. I check with my team if I can help with anything else and then I grab my tennis racket to go hit some balls on the university tennis court with my buddy.

All in all, it was a fun and productive day that ends with a dinner together with my roommates.”

We know by now that images have an impact on people who are coping with dementia. The right image can spark a long forgotten memory and will bring a moment of clarity for people who can not easily acces their past. For a moment they are father, mother, spouse, grandma or grandpa again. Tolooba provides a streaming service for memories.

We asked them 6 questions:

1. What is your Value Proposition?
Tolooba develops data driven software solutions to enhance health and well-being for people with memory decline due to ageing or illness. 

Tolooba complies with the following SDG goals:

• SDG goal 3: Good health and well-being

2. What’s your mission?

We want to help people use their memory as long as possible and thus enhance health and well-being for people with memory decline.

3. How did Mercator Launch help you?

Mercator Launch has opened doors for us and connected us to valuable contacts. The business coaches also provided us with useful tips and feedback on our business plan. The coaches know a lot about the entrepreneurial ecosystem and are able to spot opportunities.

4. What are the future plans for Tolooba?

Our plan is to help at least a million people improve their lives. To achieve this, we aim to grow and go international within 5 years. Ultimately, we want to work on prevention of memory loss rather than help people better cope with it.

5. What do you need to make this happen?

At this moment we need funding for signing a key partnership with Philips and for further developing our scientific prototype into our first market ready prototype. We need this in order to activate the license deal that we already agreed upon with our launching customer.

6. If you can give one piece of advice to future entrepreneurs, what would it be?

Challenge yourself to learn and develop a little more every day. Where you start is probably not where you will end up anyway.

Want to challenge yourself? Contact us!

Visit Tolooba’s website here: https://www.tolooba.com/en/

How did you end up at Mercator Launch?

“Two years ago, I applied for the student marketing position at Mercator Launch. Based on my love for and experience in event management, they asked me to join the team as the event coordinator.

I have been organizing events since high school and during my studies I joined various event committees and organized many formal and informal excursions, weekends and lustrum activities. I also had an internship at an event agency that organized festivals all over the world.

In two years´ time, I have been able to organize major events for Mercator Launch, from the first edition of Women in Business to Hero Entrepreneurs, where Tony’s Chocolonely and Swapfiets were the keynote speakers. While organizing these events, I became increasingly involved in the marketing and communication processes. And it is precisely this combination that interests me and makes this the ideal job for me. So, when the permanent position for marketing & communication advisor became available, I did not hesitate for a moment. I was able to start the minute after I handed in my thesis (ok, it was a month 😉).”

What is your ultimate goal for Mercator Launch?

“That nobody – and I mean nobody – on campus doesn’t know Mercator Launch. In a while that is, I just got started. 😊”

Where can we find you if you’re not at the Mercator Launch (home) office?

“I like to do fun and crazy things with friends such as game nights, or organizing competitions such as cake baking, all you can eat and painting competitions. I’m also a big fan of VRIJMIBO’s (Friday afternoon drinks) and like to have drinks with friends or go to festivals. Oh, and my guilty pleasure? Binging Temptation Island and RuPaul’s Dragrace.”

Do you have a question about Florine’s crazy hobbies or a great idea for an article that you would like to see in the newsletter? Let her know and send an e-mail to

2020 was an eventful year, especially for entrepreneurs. But despite and perhaps precisely because of the extraordinary circumstances this year, there were a lot of innovative and ambitious entrepreneurs who were determined to make their startup a success! In this closing month of the year, Mercator Launch puts a successful startup in the limelight each day. Startups that we are particularly proud of. We asked our business coaches why these companies deserve their place in this list. So, keep an eye on our channels and discover our top 20 of 2020!

3D Neuro

Rob: “3D neuro managed to find a niche market on customized implants for electrophysiology and started excelling and delivering in that segment. As researchers they provided qualitatively high products to solve problems of other researchers”

Aerocount

Brechtje: “Aerocount took major steps this year. No wonder they were nominated as student startup of the year and won the Jan Terlouw competition. The startup finished it’s prototype, committed launching customers, designed their manufacturing process and attracted sufficient investments to start sales in 2021.”

Charmtop

Brechtje: “Charmtop develops easy to use hardware to include elderly in the digital age. The company was impacted heavily by the covid lockdown and needed to change their plans several times. They have been very creative in finding solutions to continue the development and testing of their proprietary software and hardware.”

Crowdience

Brechtje: “Crowdience / ikonderzoekmee.nl is up and running! And… contributing to an inclusive society in a unique way.”

Dearly

Rob: “The team of Dearly excels in determination of achieving their goals. No matter how many problems appear, Quirine always solves them and focuses on the progress of her business.”

De Lerende Mens

Brechtje: “De Lerende Mens develops innovative digital products with which children learn to read better, based on cool techniques such as gamification, virtual, augmented reality, and the most recent scientific insights. In this difficult year when going to school wasn’t normal, these products have made a huge difference.”

Flowview

Brechtje: “FlowView is moving fast! The company was founded in April of this year. They are working on their first MVP and expect to launch already in 2021. In addition, they entered into a very promising collaboration and attracted its first investment directly after from Health Holland.”

Gelijkspel

Rob: “How can a team of medical students contribute to the life of people having Alzheimer disease? The team of GelijkSpel introduced gamification to improve the interaction between people having Alzheimer disease and their close ones? Now that’s creating social impact!”

Ji Shin Martial Arts

Brechtje: “Mariska from Ji Shin Martial Arts was able to transform the research results from her PhD into a sports programme that improves resilience in vulnerable people, like young women or people with a disability. The trainings are fun and make the participants physically and mentally stronger. Since the program can be copied by other sport centers, it’s a great way to make exercising possible for everyone”

Labm8

Brechtje: “Labm8 develops an ‘automated chemistry robot’. How cool is that! In 2020, Lab8 managed to finalize the complex development of the robot and is now testing it at Radboud University.”

Micro-Cosmos

Britta: “The idea for Micro-Cosmos originates from the Dutch Hacking Health – a hackathon to stimulate innovations in health care. In 2017, the dome of Micro-Cosmos was invented to protect patients from disturbing sound and light in order to increase sleep in hospitals. Despite troubling times in hospitals due to COVID-19, Micro-Cosmos has managed to raise funding, develop their next prototype and initiate a pilot project at the Intensive Care of Radboudumc. Proud of the progress Micro-Cosmos has made, we are looking forward to the first implementation of the dome to improve patient’s sleep and recovery.”

Mindtrace

Rob: “How can society benefit from scientific knowledge from the field of Neuroscience? The team of Mindtrace manages to translate this knowledge into tangible problems solving products . Now that is an example of bringing science to society.”

Pixelstad

Ed: “In addition to his master’s degree at the management faculty and a temporary full-time job, Roger was able to keep the focus on his company Pixelstad. He has always taken small steps and followed the advice of the Mercator Launch business coaches. Currently, he has developed a prototype using the Gelderland Valoriseert Voucher. Roger has a number of parties with enthusiasm for the application and is now looking for his first paying customer.”

Plexuz

Rob: “Now what is possible to achieve in actions next to your study. The team of Plexuz shows us you can be a successful student and startup at the same time. And by offering an app to enhance preparations for exams they help other students be successful as well”

Sexual Healing

Ed: “Nienke from Sexual Healing contacted us via the Design Academy Eindhoven. We put her in touch with sexologists from the Faculty of Social Sciences and Radboudumc. Furthermore, we’ve helped her validate her idea throughout our IMPROVE program. Britta has helped her with finding a cofounder. She’s doing very well at this moment and I couldn’t be more proud!”

Soluxa

Brechtje: “I don’t have to say much. Just check out Soluxa’s solar panel pilot on the Huygens Building 🙂 “

Sustainables

Britta: “Plastic. It is so convenient and familiar in our daily lives, but the impact on the environment is huge. At biochemical laboratories it is common to use disposables which results in over 800 liter plastic waste on a monthly basis. While this waste is currently burned, Sustainables aims to clean and recycle it. Taking action to combat climate change is one of the SDGs and Sustainables takes this job really serious.”

Tolooba

Ed: “With RMBR, Tolooba develops software that retrieves ‘hidden’ memories for people suffering from dementia. That’s just awesome!”

Van Eigen Deeg

Rob: “How does it get better than this? The cookies from Van Eigen Deeg are delicious, healthier cookies in environmentally friendly packaging. And they just fall on your doormat when you want them the most. Plus our favorite giveaway to our IMPROVERS!”

Volta Energy

Britta: “Volta Energy contributes to the global climate goals by replacing diesel aggregates with solar-based alternatives. As one of our first Improvers, it is great to see the progress Volta Energy is making. Last year, despite COVID-19, they raised a tremendous amount of money to scale their business. With this opportunity to scale, the founders are truly changing construction sites and make the world a little bit more sustainable. That is the impact we love to see!”

Ready to take your entrepreneurial skills to the next level? We’ve got you covered! In February and March of 2021, Mercator Launch will host four masterclasses. The subjects of the masterclasses will be: Build your founding team, Get connected, Pitch perfectly and Promote your startup.

Build your founding team

Founding a startup takes place in an uncertain and complex environment, and requires a broad spectrum of knowledge, experience and skills. More often than not, a single founder does not have all the required abilities. This is one of the reasons to find the right co-founder(s) and assemble a team in order to succeed. However, finding a co-founder is easier said than done. In this masterclass, you will gain insight into your own competences and skills as well as the vision of your startup, and what qualities to look for in a co-founder. This way, you can eventually make that perfect match and expand your team!

Get connected

An important part of being an entrepreneur and business owner is networking. Networking can bring you valuable contacts that could take your startup to the next level. This masterclass is all about communication and relationships. You will map your current network, learn how to start networking and how to sustain professional relationships and connections.

Pitch perfectly

Pitching is key when you try to sell your ideas. A great pitch can be just as important as a good business plan. Accordingly, pitching is a skill you should definitely put time and effort into. After this masterclass, you know exactly what to do and what not to do while pitching, in a way that you are able to pitch your startup to anyone.

Promote your startup

Last but not least, this masterclass is very useful when your startup is in the phase of entering the market. You want to generate a lot of attention for your startup and create awareness amongst your target audience. To do this, you will need a well thought out strategy. In the masterclass, you will learn how to translate your goals and message into a functional marketing plan!

The masterclasses will take place in February and March of 2021 and will last between 3 to 5 hours each. They will be both informative and interactive, which allows you to put your newfound knowledge and skills into practise immediately.

Interested? More information and detailed descriptions of each of the masterclasses will follow in January, so stay tuned!

Do you already have some questions regarding entrepreneurship?

Contact us

In our series “Catching up with …”, we catch up with former IMPROVERS to see how they are doing now and what they are working on!

Volta Energy develops the most sustainable power generators on the market. The Volta Solar Generators are designed to replace diesel generators and are 100% CO2 free.

Earlier this year, they successfully participated in Dragons´ Den… and we are very curious to find out what Volta Energy is up to these days.

How did you originally come up with the idea for Volta Energy?

Roel Bleumer: “Well, my brother and I were brought up with a lot of love for the environment (mom was a biology teacher) and all things technical (dad was an engineer). Then, one day, I was driving through the Achterhoek and I saw a diesel generator that was simmering… And on my way back it was still on.  I thought to myself: this is not good for the environment. There must be a more sustainable solution. I started researching the possibilities… and then the idea of a solar powered generator was born.

A couple of weeks later, I was at a social networking gathering at my school where I met someone from GreenTrust consultancy. This is a consultancy company specializing in permits and calculations for sustainable wind farms in The Netherlands. We started talking about sustainable energy and the fact that during open days they hosted for those – very sustainable – wind farms, they still used diesel generators to power their event. To me, this was mind-blowing and something I wanted to change! So, I pitched my idea about creating a sustainable and mobile generator that would be easy to use for events such as theirs. He was very interested and before we knew it, my brother and I were at the GreenTrust consultancy office shaking hands. We were going to build our first prototype especially for them. We started building our prototype over the weekends, because we were both still in school. We worked on it for a solid three months. Our dad helped welding it and a friend (who is a carpenter) helped us finish the prototype. We took the prototype to one of their events and it worked really well!

But we immediately saw that a lot of things could be improved. We saw the business potential, but we needed to become more business savvy if we really wanted to pursue this as a career.

Back then, I knew nothing about being an entrepreneur. So, in 2018 I decided to participate in the Mercator Launch IMPROVE program. This track helped me gain a lot of knowledge about the business world and helped us through vital steps to professionalize our business. We looked at our value proposition and business model.”

How are things at Volta Energy now?

“Well, at the end of 2019 we participated in the TV show Dragons´ Den. With the support of the investor we found on the show, we were able to build a very large fleet of new generators. She is such a good fit for us. She loves to share her ideas with us but also gives us the freedom to do what we feel is right for the company. In August, we moved to a new location in Duiven, since our old building was getting way too small for our trailers. Fun fact: we even had to make a hole in the wall so that we could continue building! 😊 Next to expanding our working space, our team has been growing as well. Right now, we have a team of 9. So, our organization is growing in all possible ways!”

What are you working on?

“In 2018 we produced our first small mobile generator. Since then we’ve continually been building bigger generators. Right now, we’re working a truck size-generator of a staggering 13,5 meters long!

Due to Corona, we decided to make the switch from events to the construction industry. We just went for it and that really paid off! By telling many people that we were looking for construction companies and posting about it online, word started to spread and more companies became interested in our products. We were very lucky!”

What challenges did you face over the last year?

“Getting the financial resources we needed to expand our fleet proved to be the most challenging for us. Now that we’re experiencing growth, our challenges are growing with us. In order to keep growing, we need more investments. And for that, we often need to be able to show (promising) historical financial figures that go back for years. So, raising capital to accomplish this growth remains challenging, but we are looking at many possible banks, investment companies, subsidies and innovation funds that can help us pull it off. So, we’re confident!”  

What is your ultimate goal for Volta Energy?

“It may sound corny, but we believe in a better, more sustainable world. Our vision is to have an impact on the transition to sustainable energy. We know we can’t do everything ourselves or save the entire planet, but we can at least do our bit to contribute. So, we want to replace as many diesel generators as possible. Of course, replacing all of them is the ultimate dream, but we are realistic. We are going to need others to help us do that! 😉”

What inspires you to do better every day?

“We’re very conscious about what we do and we try to make the world a better and cleaner place every day. Working with my brother and having such an awesome company together brings us a lot of joy. The best part of our day can be something simple like fixing a malfunction, we love that each day brings on a new adventure. We feel very lucky to have the success we’re having right now because this allows us to dream even bigger in the future!”

Do you have one last tip for entrepreneurs (to be) who want to turn their passion into their job?

“We have had a healthy dose of luck and coincidence that helped to turn our idea into a real company. And coincidence might not exist, but you can certainly help the universe a hand in creating it. Just go out there and share your idea with people, get started, make connections and go for it!”

Do you want to become an entrepreneur and join our IMPROVE program?

Contact us

3Dneuro answers the need for reliable, care-free and affordable tools for electro physiology. They provide custom accessories for silicon probes enabling your cutting-edge research and this month they are in our spotlight!

We asked them 6 questions:

1.        What is your value proposition?

We design innovative brain implants that lower the barriers to access the latest recording technologies for neuroscientists.

3Dneuro complies with SDG (Sustainable Development Goals) 3: Good health and well-being. 

2.        What is your mission?

As is often the case, this was unkown to us when we first started. Silicon probes are the state-of-the-art in our field for recording the activity of neurons. But they are extremely fragile and expensive: difficulties with handling them caused frequent breakages, leading us to consider inferior technologies instead. That is, until one of us decided to tackle the issue, by leveraging the latest improvements in high-resolution 3D-printing to design a custom device. After multiple iterations and thorough lab validation, our problem was solved. A few conversations with colleagues gave us the sense that the problem is fairly widespread in neuroscience research labs. We decided forming a company was the best way to disseminate our innovation with maximum impact. 

Our mission is to reduce barriers to entry for the most advanced brain recording technologies, first in academic settings, and in future, in pharmaceutical research. In line with our mission, we also disseminate some of our work as open source. 

 3.        How did Mercator Launch help you?

Mercator Launch assisted us with securing seed funding (Brechtje and Rob especially), and with informal advice around a cup of coffee or lunch from the whole team. Talking to other entrepreneurs in the context of the monthly lunch was also quite useful.

4.         What are the future plans for 3Dneuro?

We are working on growing sales of our current offering, based on our microdrive product, while making the user experience increasingly easier. Later on, we want to expand our custom design activities, which for now is mostly limited to our participation in grant consortia (e.g. NWO Crossover INTENSE). 

5.        What do you need to make this happen?

Our product development and user experience are quite mature. We are now focusing on marketing.

6.        If you can give one piece of advice to future entrepreneurs, what would it be?

Advice is better given on a case-by-case basis, as no size fits all. In our experience, the right team, lots of work and asking for advice often can get you a long way.

Contact Brechtje or Rob

Visit their website here: https://www.3dneuro.com/