Entrepreneur Spotlight: Maurice Bakker

Reading time: 5–10 min.

We had the pleasure to interview Maurice Bakker for our ‘featured entrepreneur’ series. Maurice is the co-founder of Holland Startup and the founder of Startup Utrecht. Let’s just get straight to the interview that Ivan, our marketing intern, had with him. Make sure to read until the end to find out what the main takeaway is for ambitious entrepreneurs.

IVAN: Hello Maurice, can you give us your elevator pitch?

MAURICE: I am 44 , a proud father of a 5 year old girl, married for 16 years. I am very passionate, having been all my life in innovation, and I believe that we need to innovate if we really want to make sure that everyone in the world has a certain level of wealth and health.

Redistribution of wealth is one of the things I am concerned with because I see it as being one of the biggest threats to the safety of the world and to the harmony of the human race. And I am also passionate about helping young people because I was 23 when I got the opportunity to start my first company with the help of a person older than me. They gave me a little bag of trust, network and money — and it worked out. I really do believe in the power of young people.

Furthermore, I am sort of a liberal at heart because I believe in the freedom of every person and every society. Freedom is really what lets feel safe and innovate, or come up with different ideas.

IVAN: What is your vision?

MAURICE: I believe innovation is the way forward to wealth and health of the world. To do that, I want to enable young entrepreneurs to help shape our society. My dream for the Netherlands is that by 2025, every city will have 100 new startups per year. My part is with Holland Startup, we are a venture builder. But we’re in it for the long haul, building 5 startups every year. My contribution will be at least 10 startups a year by 2025.

IVAN: When did you realise that you would become an entrepreneur?

MAURICE: I think I was 11 and got the opportunity in high school to distribute leaflets for a local supermarket. I got 15 bucks a week for doing that, and had 2 of my friends help. I told them, ‘look, with the 3 of us, it’s 5 bucks each but I found the job so each of you will get 4 bucks and I get 7’. That’s how I did it, and I thought this was actually a nice business model. I found the business, I gave 2 others a job and earned a little bit more than them.

IVAN: Where does the passion for helping young entrepreneurs come from?

MAURICE: Definitely because of Robert, my business partner. He was 22 when he finished his studies and he also got an opportunity to become an entrepreneur at a young age. When we founded Holland Startup, we knew that we wanted to build a factory that produces startups. When we talked about the resources needed — we’re talking about 2014 — we saw a lot in the newspapers about graduates not getting the opportunities they would like, there were no jobs and the crisis was still felt. We saw some horrifying examples in the newspapers that graduates needed to work for free for one whole year just to get work experience and only then get a job.

So we thought it would be cool to unlock young talented people’s potential, the way we ours got unlocked, and made a business out of that. Of course, people were declaring us for insane because building startups is already high-risk. Startups fail often, but one thing that fails more often are young entrepreneurs. Nevertheless, we still had that drive and we really took the ‘no’ that people gave us an indicator that we were on the right track. So we set out and did it anyway. And I think the passion that has kept driving us was the passion for innovation for building startups and for doing it with young people. I think that is also why I like the theme “Giving Back” of ACW this year so much. That’s really what has kept us going in those moments when people said that we couldn’t do it. During the first 4 years we worked without earning anything — and you need passion to keep you going.

IVAN: ‘Giving Back’ is our theme this year, it is a broad term but we see it as opening up our networks, sharing knowledge to help others grow. A great way of doing this is through mentorship. Did you have any mentor and are you currently mentoring someone?

MAURICE: Yes, I am mentoring others as a part of Holland Startup, our venture builder. So, we have a weekly program in which we see all of our startups and bring experts in to push them and help them grow. Mentoring is one of the cornerstones of our business model and I myself am also mentoring student groups that are trying to find a business model. You will often find me at universities giving workshops and lectures or actually working as a mentor and coach to help people get the entrepreneurial and lean mindset.

IVAN: Do you think that mentorship is important?

MAURICE: If you try to get somewhere, you can try and get there by yourself but wouldn’t you like to talk to people have already been where you want to go? Why reinvent the wheel? It has already been invented. I mean, you can try a square or triangular wheel first, but we all know that a round wheel works the best. There is so much knowledge out there that you can acquire, that is one side of it. And the other one of it is a philosophical discussion. I have made a lot of decisions which caused me a lot of embarrassment and that have cost me money. I mean that’s ok but the one thing that it has really cost me, is time. The funny thing with time is that you can’t buy it, you can’t lease it and you can’t get it back. Life is already short and I could for example have been where I am right now 5 years ago, and that is 10 percent of my life. I could have saved a lot of time if I would have had proper mentoring when I was growing up as an entrepreneur.

IVAN: Do you think that opening up your network is a good way to grow and create a win-win situations?

MAURICE: Yes I do, but you have to do it out of selflessness, otherwise it’s not going to work. I believe that as long as you give, it will always come back to you in some way. Probably not from that same person but from someone else. It’s just a vibe.

IVAN: What is one small thing any entrepreneur can do to give back?

MAURICE: The smallest thing any entrepreneur can do to give back is having an hour coffee with an other entrepreneur every week. Especially if an experienced entrepreneur has a coffee with a less experienced entrepreneur every week.

We don’t want you to go without having a deeper look into a mind of an entrepreneur. Here are some rapid-fire questions to get to know Maurice better.

IVAN: What does the word ‘success’ mean to you?

MAURICE: Being happy with the state of your company that you have achieved.

IVAN: What is you favourite book that you would recommend any entrepreneur?

MAURICE: Skin in the game from Nassim Taleb.

IVAN: What is your morning ritual?

MAURICE: I get up between 5 and 5:30 before my family is awake, get a cup of tea and take all my actions. The first thing I do is take my laptop, answer all the emails and Slack messages I have and then, when my family wakes up, I have the peace and quiet to have a nice morning breakfast with my little girl and wife. So, before I get to work at 8:30 I will have worked at least 1 hour.

IVAN: Do you separate family life and work?

MAURICE: Look, family is the most important thing. I keep a balance and am fortunate enough to have a wife that also has a big job. What we love to do, for instance, is talking about our day after coming home, and once our little girl is in bed around 8 o’clock, we both drink a cup of tea, get our laptops, sit down, work together and enjoy our time together. We have the similar drive to get somewhere.

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The takeaway of this interview for entrepreneurs in the audience:

IVAN: What struck me the most when interviewing Maurice, was his enthusiasm when we talked about Amsterdam Capital Week’s theme ‘Giving Back’. He was so passionate about that topic and even told me that he is an ‘open networker’ who tries to help anyone, even if he does not know that person. After conducting the interview with Maurice, it was clear to me that he is a firm believer of the ‘Law of Attraction’.

We can conclude that the support of people — your spouse, family or friends, etc. — is crucial to an entrepreneur’s success. Starting a business can be very hard and your journey is going to be unnecessarily difficult if you’re not open to hearing what other people have to say. Welcome the help and support of others who may be more experienced.