Congratulations to Juvoly – our 2024 winners!

The Juvoly team’s exceptional pitch and promising business prospects earned them the well-deserved 10,000 euros prize.
Your dedication and innovation truly shone, inspiring us all.

Dreams coming to Life (Science)

Kudos to AlphaPace for securing 2,500 euros for the Life Science Award, thanks to their groundbreaking work in radiopharmaceuticals.
A special shout-out to BioPartner Leiden for sponsoring this award and being a key part of driving progress in this vital field.

Shooting for the Stars

A round of applause for Floris van Rijn with TilapAI, the wildcard entry to the NL MOONSHOTS ’24, paving the way for transformative changes in the fish farming industry.
Your vision and ambition are truly commendable!

A Bright, Promising Future Ahead

A heartfelt thanks to CupHub for their enthusiasm, great team spirit, and impressive market research.
You left an indelible mark on the judges and showcased the power of dedication and thorough preparation.

And what a Jury Panel!

And, of course, not to forget, a very big thank you to our esteemed judges—Rob Mayfield, Bas Reichert, Jasper Verbeek, and Christina Caljé.
Your insights, questions, and expertise made this event all the more special.
Their generous act of offering a guidance session to each finalist reflects their commitment to nurturing the next generation of innovators.

To everyone who attended, we hope this evening left you inspired.

Pursue your passions, tackle the challenges you care about, and who knows – maybe next year, we’ll see you on our stage!

All photos were taken by the amazing ©Jaime Korbee – you can find more of his work on Instagram or on LinkedIn

The post Juvoly – Best Start-Up of 2024 appeared first on Gulliver.

In the end the jury decided to reward ExCulture with €10.000. Mainly the stage that the different startups are in contributed to the hard decision. ExCulture works on a solution for the following: the production of some medicines is dependent on Heparin. Heparin is a substance that originates from pig intestines. Heparin is on a shortage list, amongst other things because of swine fever. Aisling Foley and Ilaria Poledri develop a new drug development method for lifesaving pharmaceuticals independent from animals

The Special BioPartner €2500 price for best life science idea went to Baseline. The jury argued that this €2500 will help Baseline a lot in the verification of her methods. The €2500 will be enough to further proof the concept and then attract more funding. The jury had good faith in the solution that baseline develops for hormones testing. Besides the price money, baseline also won 6 month of free working space at PLNT.

The post ExCulture – Champion of The Gulliver Competition 2022 appeared first on Gulliver.

Where: PLNT Leiden, Langegracht 70, 2312NV

When: 8th December 18:30

What: Gulliver final for €10.000 cash

BASELINE

Baseline develops a device that can monitor your Hormones in realtime. It can help you to determine you hormone baseline and then also detect changes from your baseline. This will help you to respond quicker to those changes.

EX CULTURE

The production of some medicines is dependent on Heparin. Heparin is a substance that originates from pig intestines. 
Heparin is on a shortage list, amongst other things because of swine fever. @aisling_.foley @ilariapoledri develop a new drug development method for lifesaving pharmaceuticals independent from animals

HELIOSTROME
Irrigation can increase crop yields by 40-300%. Irrigation itself is constraint by the availability of energy for pumping the water. Solar power seems the best way to go, but that brings a whole lot of challenges which solar panel providers do not seem to be able to tackle. Heliostrome provides software to optimize solar power for irrigation systems.

The post Are you ready for the Gulliver Final 2022? appeared first on Gulliver.

The final contestants are:

• DDLD (Data Driven Leukemia Detection) – Bobby Bahov
• Whoomp (Innovative and sustainable online marketplace) – Bas Sanderink
• Bionomic (molecular techniques to detect pathogens and predict crop losses) – Stand Anhane & Diederik Mud

A jury is formed by

• Bastiaan de Roo, Director of PLNT Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship
• Thijs de Kleer, Director of Biopartner Leiden
• Sadi Hasanov (Entrepreneurs and startup coach)
• Rogier Gardien (Account manager Rabobank)

For the life sciences price a special jury, consisting of life sciences specialists will be consulted:

• Maximilian Green (founder of Panorama Laboratories)
• Niall Hodgins (founder of SeraNovo)

You are invited to watch the livestream of the final via our Twitch account.
The finale kicks off on 2nd December at 20:00

The post The stage is set for the Gulliver Final 2021 appeared first on Gulliver.

Send in a 1 minute video and tell us what you start-up does, and how your business is running in these times. We would love to learn from you. 

The online competition is open for Leiden (-+20km) based companies of which at least one of the entrepreneurs is under 35. Furthermore, you accept that we will share your video online.

DEADLINE June 1st. Tag us in your video on social media and send us a confirmation email at info@gulliver.nl.

The post The Gulliver Online Competition 2020 – Prepped and Ready appeared first on Gulliver.

Tuesday December 3rd, student start-up competitions PHIA (Philips Innovation Award) and Gulliver, along with ELF (the Enterprise Leiden Fund) will be introducing themselves through ex-participants that got a big boost by receiving both funding, exposure and loads of feedback by ‘joining the circus’.

Those who did will tell

Tensail, Bonnie, Levels Diagnostics, and Polariks will share their experiences with start-up competitions (and also further challenges they did overcome).

For Whom

Do you have a start-up, or are you working on a startup and are you looking to make your next move? This event aims to show you a broad scala of opportunities that you have in the start-up scene. Gulliver, PHIA, ELF and PLNT are there to support your start-up financially, by means of promotion or mentorship. We are here to help, make the most of it. 

Program

• 17:00 walk-in and dinner
• 18:15 Opening and introduction by organizers
• 18:35 Polariks, Bonnie, Levels, and Tensail tell their story in a short pitch
• 18:55 Discussion on funding and competitions
• 19:15 introduction to pitch competition, short preparation, drink
• 19:30 1minutes pitches by those who would like to share their idea
• 20:00 drinks

The post Student Start-up Competitions: meet PHIA and Gulliver appeared first on Gulliver.

1. What is Onescnd?

Onescnd is a calling system for restaurants. How it works is, there is a button you can press which sends a signal to the waiter/waitresses’ smart watch, and this signal tells them which table has made a service request. We are now developing a data management system, so that you can see the average waiting time live, and also what the average waiting time was that day or how many clicks there are per table. We want to collect the data for three basic types of service that exist in restaurants: (1) ordering drinks, (2) ordering food, (3) payment and then be able to put this data into a dashboard we are now developing. So ultimately, it’s not only a calling system but also a data management system. 

• How did you come up with the idea?

That’s a funny story actually: We were second year commercial-economic students at the Hogeschool Leiden and we had our final project of the year that had the assignment of starting a student company. We had to think about a product or service we were going to launch. We were thinking about stupid ideas the whole time because we were forced to make something up out of the blue, until our teachers told us we had to be more creative about the process. So one sunny day we went onto a terrace and ordered some beers, and we wanted to order some more drinks and snacks at some point and tried to catch the attention of the waiters, so we were waving and waiting but they didn’t see us. So after a while I was forced to go inside to order directly at the bar. I put the beers on the table and said to Niels, “Why has no one ever thought about something to get in contact with the waiters?” And that was how we came up with the idea to invent something that will help you get in contact with the waiters even when they don’t see you waving.

• You two are the team driving this innovation, why did you guys team up and why are you the best people to be doing this?

We are very much on the same page which helps us make decisions really quickly and move forward quickly. That’s something that makes us very special and we’re both ambitious and forward thinking which is why we want to reach a big end result. 

• When you think about the future of Onescnd and where you guys are headed, what’s the part you are most excited about?

On online review platforms you have forms, in which the systems filter different items that are involved in the experience, such as service, food and decoration. Through these, the restaurant gets an end score or rate. We would like to be able to see improvement in these ratings through the use of our system. Being able to see that before using Onescnd they had a 7 for service and then after using Onescnd they go up to an 8, this will make us feel great but most of all, this will let people see that our system is working!

But that’s why we need to launch pilots and get that data, more than we have done so far. 

• At this point you’re aiming to finish building the platform and ultimately to really get in front of people and show that it works?

Yes and also, to finish a platform like that, first you need to contain data to know what you still want to finish. We have thought of what we want to do but if the data tells us something else we still don’t know really what’s going on deeper within the workings our customers are seeing in practice. 

In America it is already normal to have calling systems, but here in the Netherlands it’s not done. You won’t see a lot of calling systems in restaurants here. Maybe in fast food restaurants. We want and prefer the personal contact between the guest and waiter. I enjoy talking to someone in a restaurant, those interactions create and hopefully improve the atmosphere.

• What’s one of the hardest moments so far?

We are two commercial-economic students, so we are not very good at ICT/programming/HTML. That is something we could be learning from YouTube tutorials of course, but we decided to hire some trainees who can do that for us right now. It would be nice to do this on our own, this was definitely something we had problems with at first. But we contacted the Hogeschool about it and from the beginning, teachers or students were helping us out with this. But yes, sometimes there is a time gap before we can fix something.

• Why do you think Onescnd should win compared to everyone else?

In my opinion, we think we can make the life in restaurants and bars much easier for the guest. And we think we have got a common problem that everybody has but the solution is not there yet. And we want to sit down and just relax and just talk to each other in a meeting, maybe with some friends. It shouldn’t be an experience which becomes irritating for. And I think that if we can solve that problem, it could be a lot nicer.

And maybe we will set an example for other students from the Hogeschool Leiden, to show them you can win Gulliver even without a University or Master Degree, but a 3^rdyear student is good enough. Of course, in the end it’s up to the jury to decide.

As we’ve said we just started by drinking beers on a terrace. So everybody can just reach this. And it is a student entrepreneur competition. So why not try. “See where the ship sails to”.

• For somebody who wants to follow your journey and find out more about what you’re doing, how/where can they do that?

You can follow us or get in touch with us through e-mail, or our website, Facebook page, and even our LinkedIn page. We have a website with a chatbox, so if you start chatting there we get a message directly on our phone, which is probably the easiest way. Especially if someone is really interested in the data of the restaurants and wants to improve their service. They must see the same thing we do. As a restaurant owner, you might feel as if your staff is doing perfectly and sees everyone, but then when you sit there as a guest, you’re actually waiting around. They have to admit that even they can improve. 

We’ve always been optimistic to help restaurant owners, because there are always vacancies open at restaurants and not enough people to fill the positions. So we were also thinking of a way to help restaurant owners. 

• What is your advice for other people like you, who want to make the jump into entrepreneurship?

In my opinion: Just try it. We’ve learned so much in the past year and a half, because things go right and then some things go wrong, and you just learn everything that has to do with a company. Not just a company or start up but also about people. You learn a lot from other people, you will get new contacts and will learn how to network. So it’s not just starting a start-up but a lot more, and I think just try. Students that try to set up a start-up, it will be more challenged and more rewarded in the end.

Especially in a group, I think working alone would be a lot harder. Get together with some good friends and always taken in everyone’s thoughts, everybody has some ideas. From there, just work one out and see where it goes.

1. Anything else you’d want to share?

It’s a really quite simple system, not much more to say. Very simple, just one push on the button, they get a message you want to get helped. Very simple. Yes you’re in one second in contact with the waitress so yes we think if you take that into your concept and you get experienced with it will really help especially restaurant owners we have to just wait if something comes out.

To find out more about Onescnd and keep up to date with the work, get in touch with the team through their website, http://www.onescnd.com/or through their Facebook and LinkedIn pages.

The post 2019 Finalist: Onescnd appeared first on Gulliver.

1. What is Bonnie?

Bonnie is a new technical solution that aims to get rid of paper receipts.

• What inspired you to work on this?

I came back from a business travel from the US and I probably had around 40 receipts that I had to manually take pictures of [for reimbursement]. While there are a lot of apps which can digitise my receipts for me, I wondered why I couldn’t have all my receipts in a digital format already. Of course, I had some receipts in my [e-] mailbox, because when I stay at a hotel, they ask whether I prefer a receipts or if they can just e-mail it to me, so I say ‘yes sure, e-mail it’. And even some restaurants did that as well. 

I felt fine doing that for the first five restaurants or hotels, but then I wondered whether they are certain that their technical back-end is secure enough that if there’s a breach, my e-mail won’t be out there in the blue along with all my other information. That’s why I thought about it for myself and I wondered ‘how can I design the next generation of receipts?’

It’s not about the technical know-how, it’s just about being creative. I don’t have any technical know-how, my training is not in IT or Information Sciences; it is purely in Bio-Tech as I have a Bio-Tech background. But in Bio-Tech you don’t start with the technical know-how of what is possible, you start with “What is the mechanism of the problem?” and then you can address it. Here, the mechanism of the problem is that the receipt is being printed. That’s the problem. But it’s a necessary evil that the transaction takes place and then the merchant has to give you proof that the transaction has been confirmed. 

I thought about how are we currently dealing with digitising money, and that is through cashless payment. Cashless payments happen through interfaces and something called tokenisation of information. And I thought ‘how can we reverse that?’ Instead of only you [the customer] giving something to the merchant, the merchant would be using the same platform and technology to give something to you. Getting something back is always good. So it’s basically reverse engineering the process, turning the technology that we use to pay contactless/cashless around. Instead of just paying, you get something back – the receipt. 

• Tell me more about you, how are you involved and why are you the best person to this kind of business?

Why I am the best person? I am currently the ONLY person trying to bring all the puzzle pieces together, because this is not something that has already been performed. That means it’s a conceptional project, although there is some proof that it is feasible. The stuff I’m talking to you about doesn’t sound like science-fiction. So because it’s feasible, I am trying to put together the software parties, the hardware developing parties, and actual end-users and buyers, to see what’s going to be the best fit. 

• You’re in the finals now, and you’re in a very exciting period for the business. What is the thing in the near or far future that you’re most excited about when it comes to Bonnie?

I think I am excited about when the project launches. And I am excited to then see on a daily basis how many users the product has and what kind of user base is getting involved. The initial way of advertising the product will be to have it shown on every cash register, on every counter. There will be an interface and probably some kind of banner that people will look at and see “oh, I could have my receipts in paperless form now”. I’m wondering how that adoption will go and if I can see an exponential growth in user-adoption. That will be something I will probably be addicted to. Like some Youtubers that keep pressing refreshing their analytics to watch their subscriber count grow. I think that would – for me – be something to be excited about. 

• Naturally there are up sides and exciting bits to the journey but there are also times where that isn’t quite the case. Talk to me about one of the hardest parts you’ve had so far with Bonnie.

Well, the most challenging moments are the moments where you have to deal with something you know absolutely nothing about. And then you have to put time and effort into this tiny bit that you had absolutely no intention of using in the future. But it’s essential, because it’s a question that comes up. It’s also a case that sometimes you feel like you’re the only person that knows anything about the product and you’re the only person that can answer this. But in reality you’re not the only person who can because you don’t know the answer either. 

• Anything you can name specifically?

Off the top of my head, some of the market research I am currently doing is “What is the cost of an actual receipt?”, because something like that can easily be dismantled within the operational cost of a store as something minimal. We are obliged to buy these receipt rolls every now and again but the numbers don’t really seem to add up, in our opinion. When you scale that stuff up, there are some really interesting calculations that I had to do because nobody on the internet has the answer, nobody was crazy enough to calculate it. 

Once you scale this to more than a 100 stores –some franchises have easily more than 500 locations – it starts adding up significantly to the operational costs of a store. Up to hundred of thousands of Euros which is mind-boggling to a lot of people. It’s something we don’t think about but it’s actually a hidden cost within retail operations. And even with the calculations that I do – which I put a lot of effort into making them as accurate as possible, because I see it as a type of research – I still sometimes think that the numbers must be too high. That’s why for actual presentations that I give to retailers, I say “Well this is the calculation, but let’s say your procurement department is really good, let’s slash the price in half, even then it’s a compelling case.” 

• Why do you feel Bonnie is the best of the three finalists? Why do you think you should win?

I don’t necessarily think Bonnie is the best of the three. I think that in the future, whether we like it or not, paper receipts will be dying or at least should. And it is inevitable that some sort of digital alternative will take its place. Whether it is Bonnie or another innovation is up to the general public to decide, but I think that between the three choices the jury has, Bonnie is the most disruptive technical solution that can tackle a large market. 

• For the end-user, where can people go to find out more about Bonnie, what you’re doing and where you’re going – follow your journey?

I’d say right now it’s a bit too early for end-users to see where we are. But after the competition I will be disclosing some of the new features of Bonnie and some of the user experience elements. So if you’re really interested in knowing how the app is going to look like and maybe if you have comments our new website will launch a couple of days after the Gulliver, but we will also be showing the new user interface on social media and through presentations.

•  What’s your advice for newbies?

Don’t do it. I don’t know, I think it’s hard. I think entrepreneurs aren’t made. You either are an entrepreneur or aren’t. And this doesn’t mean that if you ARE an entrepreneur you have to own a business or build a company, you can also express yourself within a company, but my idea is if you feel that this thing you are thinking about is worth pursuing, then do give it a shot! Most ideas people start companies with, it’s something you’re in love with the idea of it becoming reality, so you start thinking about it constantly, as if you’re in love with a girl. And it’s actually this thing you obsess about. So if you have THAT in your brain, start that company, it will probably work out for the better. 

To find out more about Bonnie and keep up to date with the work, get in touch with Arian directly or keep an eye out for the launch of the website following the Gulliver final.

The post 2019 Finalist: Bonnie appeared first on Gulliver.

As part of the preparation for the final on 20th of June, we sat down in a series of interviews to understand a bit more about each of our three finalists, ShareDnD, Bonnie and Onescnd, and to give them a chance to share more about their amazing work. 

First off, we sat down with Nick Plokkaar, one of the co-founders of ShareDnD, excited to hear more about what he and his team have been up to:

1. What is ShareDnD?

ShareDnD is an online platform for living room restaurants. That means hobby chefs/cooks who would like to cook some more can open their own restaurant at home, for guests to reserve. 

• How did you come up with the idea / What inspired you?

It’s not originally my idea, I actually don’t even like to cook, but I do like to go out to dinner. Therefore, I am so to speak on the other side of the table. 

The interesting proposition and the great potential really triggered me to step in and work on the growth of ShareDnD. Now it’s my job to make sure ShareDnD reaches is full potential.

• Who is your team and why do you feel your team are the best people to be doing this?

The main team members are me and Suzan. Suzan is my community manager who is mainly responsible for the loneliness programs we do for municipalities (=a town or district that has local government). Then we have two people working in the background: Floris, he is doing the finance parts, and Ruud who is doing the business development side. Ruud is also a consultant at a large consultancy firm so he’s really an expert in that part. Floris and Ruud are part-time entrepreneurs and are more in the background for now while Suzan and I are running it.

• When it comes to the business itself, obviously you’re on the good road now, you have the final coming up, what are you most excited about in regards to the future of ShareDnD?

It’s hard to say. I think the most exciting part is the potential to growth of ShareDnD. National awareness is the main goal, and eventually to grow outside of the Netherlands as well. But for that a lot of things need to be done and it’s all going to take some time.  

I think in the end the main proposition will be group dinners. That can include bachelor dinners, dinner with the family, or with your team, but there it’s really hard to boost marketing since there is a revenue model with a 15% booking fee, so marketing has to be really creative. You have to think about what kind of marketing you will do in order to break even and not have any losses. Since there’s no budget yet, I have to do it in a more creative way.

That’s why I started doing the loneliness programs and more low-key dinners called “Aanschuif-diners”, which translates to Joining-the-table-dinners where people join a dinner solo. Now the idea is to raise subsidy and then promote a more low key concept: To decrease loneliness and bring people together. 

So far, I started this project for one municipality, and with good results I want to do 2-3 more municipalities this year. If that succeeds, I can extend even more, but also with this I can show future investors the proposition and let them see the value and the growth I realized. With that I want to focus on group dinners again, and split the group and solo propositions into two. Because the segments in the market are completely different, I don’t want to mix them up too much, but at this point we don’t have a choice yet. 

• Loneliness is an interesting angle, it’s a huge issue at the moment. Is there a specific reason you chose “loneliness” as the way in, or did you consider other concepts as well?

I had to look at ways how to raise money without actually going to investors or banks. And thinking about other, more creative ways, subsidy projects definitely presented new possibilities. Since loneliness is such a booming subject, it was a logical way to move forward.

• So far there have been many up parts and you have been achieving a lot, but I can imagine there have been some difficulties too. Along the ShareDnD journey, what’s the hardest thing you had to deal with?

I’m not sure if you’re familiar with the graph, but if you’re an entrepreneur you really vary between the ups and downs, and that’s exactly how I often feel. It doesn’t have to have a specific reason, it’s just that one thing doesn’t work out so you move on to the next one and that might work and it goes up again. It’s really a rollercoaster. 

Thinking about the main down-side… When I started I wanted to work on group dinners. In the beginning I saw a growth in revenue, because I manually checked the reservations. Chefs that didn’t react I contacted and therefore the revenue increased, but at a specific moment I reached a maximum, so the manually checks didn’t do anything anymore. After that it decreased again, because there was no marketing budget and the manually checks weren’t necessary or didn’t help anymore. That really demotivated me at some point. It was roughly around the same time the municipality started so luckily that gave me some comfort.

• You’ve passed the challenges and now you’re on the up, why do you feel ShareDnD should win compared to the other finalists?

I think ShareDnD should win because it has so much potential and already come such a long way. Although we haven’t been able to do so yet, ShareDnD really has the potential to disrupt a variety of markets. Also did I realise significant growth with almost no budget, imagine the possibilities with 10k. 

• At the moment you have a lot going on, such as the loneliness dinners, and also the usual ones. If somebody now wants to get involved, where do they go and how do they get in touch with you?

Chefs and guests can apply through the platform. Everything goes through there. You can make up a profile, set up a dinner and make reservations. Also payments and reviews, everything goes through the platform. And if they have questions they can call or e-mail. 

For any business questions, they would have to reach out to me personally. As mentioned we want to increase the marketing side so one of the first new team members we would like to get on board would be someone with experience in marketing. Someone who is really involved in the business. That would be the next step for the team, yes. 

• Ok, super exciting. It’s in an early place and yes of course there’s still a lot to do but seems you’re very happy with where it is and the team is good

Yes, but as I said, I think the team is really missing a marketing guy but it’s hard because there’s not enough revenue to really hire a co-founder or a COO. I would like to have a COO before we go to investors, to present a more complete team 

Definitely that you cannot do anything alone! Maybe in the beginning, but you will fall pretty soon, so that’s the first thing. I also always wanted to do things alone, but if you’re an entrepreneur you just can’t do that. 

To find out more about ShareDnD and keep up to date with their work, check out their website at https://sharednd.com or follow them on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin or Instagram.

The post 2019 Finalist: ShareDnD appeared first on Gulliver.

On may 23th the semi-finals will take place. We have a total of 13 teams left who will pitch their ideas in strictly three minutes. They have to convince the jury that they deserve €10.000. Below you will find all the competing teams and a short description of their ideas.

1. Bonnie Digital receipt as a replacement for the traditional paper receipts.
2. Tensail Efficient tent structures to save time and money.
3. YourBuild Customized high-end computers.
4. Shared DND Radicalized restaurant concept, where people can start their own restaurant at home.
5. Onescnd Horeca buttons to get attention from the waiter.
6. AR World Use of AR by municipalities to engage with their citizens.
7. Bak-Fiets Sales of small sized foodtrucks in the form of a transporter bike.
8. Habibi Creates x Project ALZ Anti alzheimer marketing campaign.
9. Borrelnood Delivery of party snacks.
10. Alia.hr HR survey chatbot, to improve your chance as employer of attracting
11. Waypoints AR, 3dimensional wayfinding
12. FashionScout Digital model scouting office with the use of ai.
13. Phoxie Anti radiation shields to store your phone.

The post The Gulliver competition so far appeared first on Gulliver.