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Exact Coaches Delft Entrepreneurs "aanmelder.nl"

• Publication date: 11 December 2009

After 25 years of entrepreneurship, Exact wants to give something back by serving entrepreneurs of the future. One of the ways the company has chosen to help is by developing initiatives to stimulate entrepreneurship.

Together with the TU Delft, Exact supports former students who want to start their own businesses - the so-called technostarters, whereby TU Delft acts as an incubator. The goal is to support innovation and to generate revenue with the intellectual property of the TU Delft. TU Delft already supports Yes!Delft, a foundation that provides young entrepreneurs such as Senz Umbrellas an opportunity to start their own company. However, some starters need specific guidance in their entrepreneurship, in areas where the TU Delft lacks specific knowledge. That's why Laura Zondervan from the TU Delft and Toine Hurkmans from Exact suggested that Exact help aanmelder.nl, a start-up founded by two students/IT engineers from the TU Delft, Freek Zindel and Jelle Roozenburg.

Aanmelder.nl originated at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Sciences, after a research group experienced the amount of work involved in successfully organizing an event. Based on this experience and feedback from other organizations, the students decided to develop a product to support event management. Aanmelder.nl then began as an independent start-up on the university grounds. The result is a product that has greatly simplified event management, eliminating the need for an event organization bureau. Users benefit from online registration forms, e-mail invitations and online payment. In its first year on the market, aanmelder.nl has already been used to organize dozens of large events. Customers include Senter Novem, Nikon, and the Radboud University in Nijmegen.

A personal coach

Xander van der Heijden, acting as personal coach from Exact, is helping the starting entrepreneurs with questions related to entrepreneurship, as opposed to providing funding assistance or help with product development. Xander's assistance is in line with Exact's vision of serving the entrepreneurs of the future.

According to Freek Zindel, together with Jelle Roozenburg now one of aanmelder.nl's directors, the coaching is very effective. "Aanmelder.nl is the first technostarter that is receiving support from Exact under their initiative with the TU Delft. The in-depth knowledge Exact has in the areas of accounting, legal issues and the various market segments are invaluable for starting entrepreneurs." Questions are answered professionally and they feel commitment from Exact's side. Also, aanmelder.nl is really satisfied about the substantive knowledge Exact is prepared to share with them, a strong contrast to support programs offered by other initiatives. Where the non-government organizations (NGOs) dwell on generalities, Exact and the personal coach offer very concrete advice and useful information. "Aanmelder.nl is an innovative technostarter with a new business model, so it's fantastic that Exact has expertise about our situation that can't be found anywhere else," adds Roozenburg.