Recap Alumni Start-up Night
Last march it was time for the second edition of the Alumni Start-up Night, an event that was organized for alumni of both Eindhoven University of Technology and Tilburg University. Multiple speakers share their interesting stories with the crowd during a night which was dedicated to themes of climate, energy transition and entrepreneurship.
Thursday March 28, the Alumni Start-up Night was opened by Cas Verstappen and Bob van der Meulen from Round One Ventures with a statistic that combined more than 500 start-ups were set up by TU/e and TiU alumni. Nevertheless only 10 start-ups were set up by a team consisting of alumni from both universities. The goal of the night was to stimulate the public to share their knowledge and create start-ups to battle social problems. This was also emphasized by the Rectores Magnifici from both universities, Silvia Lenaerts and Wim van de Donk, who stressed the importance of the different qualities and skills that the alumni from both universities possess.
After this it was time for the keynote speaker of the evening: Mohammed Chahim, member of the European Parliament (responsible for the European Green Deal) and an alumnus of Tilburg University. He pleaded that change is necessary, but like he said: “change without hope will lead to chaos”. According to him it is important that European countries collaborate more, but his focus mostly was on the fact that the government should not shy away from taking risks and start co-financing start-ups and scale-ups more often. Financing is a more practical side of innovation; however, it is definitely not unimportant to achieving the goal of change.
One of the other speakers was Martijn Ildiz who as a TiU alumnus spoke about his company IM Efficiency, a company who produces solar panels that go on truck trailers, but he mainly spoke about his own experience as an entrepreneur. His message was that being an entrepreneur cannot always be fun, but that you should keep going on, because then it will at some point all fall in place for you.
Additionally, the TU/e alumnus Bas Verkaik presented his story about becoming and being an entrepreneur. He founded the company ELEO together with his partners, a company which produces high-performance battery systems for a wide variety of applications. Bas had an inspiring journey as an entrepreneur, and he had many highlights, but of course he also experienced some pitfalls. He shared his acquired knowledge about being an entrepreneur with his audience, a story which appealed to many.
At the end it was time for Harmen van Heist, co-founder of Spark, to get on stage to talk about his company and experience as an entrepreneur. Spark is a company founded by a collaboration between alumni from both TiU and TU/e. Spark brings light to rural regions where there is no electricity, by providing off-grid solar systems that power homes and villages. Spark is a great example of a successful collaboration between alumni from both universities.
The night ended with a networking drink where multiple tables were set up with different subjects related to the program of the evening. Participants with similar interests could share their knowledge with each and broaden their network. We look back on a very inspiring and successful evening.