Maarten slept on the couch for a year and a half.
The five of us lived in a 60-square-meter apartment.
And yes, we had to rent out a room to expats to cover our fixed expenses.
That’s the story. And that’s exactly how it went.
Here are a few photos from back then. Mid-2019.
I came across many more, but these give the best impression.
You can see us during our very first Chamber of Commerce registration.
You can see Maarten at his first prospecting meeting at Liberty Global. We really felt like big shots.
We’d only been at it for a few weeks, and there we were. They never became clients, but that didn’t matter. It’s the experience that counts.
We literally started at the kitchen table. You can see it here.
We soon bought a new table and bigger monitors, but this was the one. The very first one.
I’d gotten a 6-year-old Mac from a friend.
I had to restart it about 10 times a day because it kept freezing.
Maarten had a laptop with a broken trackpad.
That’s how we started.
And then?
After 6 months, we had 35 clients.
After 9 months, our first colleague.
It seemed like things were moving really fast back then. But the reality was different.
I wasn’t able to pay Maarten a normal salary until after 1.5 years. Until then, he worked for room and board and later for equity. In hindsight, not a bad deal 😉
The first few months, we literally worked 14 hours a day.
Even on Saturdays and Sundays. I think we didn’t stop working on Sundays until after a year. And even later on Saturdays.
I sent 50 LinkedIn messages a day.
Within 3 weeks, I had 30 meetings a week.
After 6 weeks, we landed our first client: Rob Koppen. Our founding customer. Sadly, he has passed away, but he will always be in our hearts ❤️ Here’s our last photo together.
Through him, we connected with our still-cherished client and friend, Jeffrey Janssen.
That’s how we started.
And now?
7 years later.
A team of 25.
300+ clients.
We’ve learned a lot. We’ve been through a lot. Time has flown by.
All our dreams from back then have come true.
But along the way, they’ve also changed. And sometimes we’ve even forgotten them a little.
The most important thing?
Staying grateful. And remembering that this was exactly what we wanted.
Enjoying every moment. That’s not something to take for granted.
