Open Social CEO and Founder Taco Potze chats with the host Joe van Burik of the special — continue reading
Open Social CEO and Founder Taco Potze chats with the host Joe van Burik of the special Dutch-language podcast initiated by EY and created by Dutch startup media partners MT/Sprout.
In this podcast, you can hear all about how startups like Open Social managed to not only survive but thrive during the COVID-19 global crisis.
What is this podcast all about?
MT/Sprout’s newest podcast
MT & Sprout are two organizations with a long history working at the forefront of the Dutch start-up scene — sharing breaking news, captivating stories, poignant business insights and facilitating inspiring events that have helped make the Netherlands one of Europe’s top startup destinations. Amongst their editorial collaborations, they have already launched a listen-worthy podcast series called Reset in which they talk to entrepreneurs about the successes and failures of local startups, giving listeners valuable insights into how to run a prosperous business.
This new podcast from MT/Sprout, however, was initiated by EY — a Dutch company that specializes in helping clients capitalize on transformative economic opportunities. As such, it is easy to see why the topic of this special 2020 podcast would be about thriving amongst the disruptions to global and local economies that came with the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the second episode of this series, the MT/Sprout team tries to pin down how a company like Open Social managed to secure 1.25 million Euros in new investment and scale-up, while most start-ups were struggling to simply stay in business.
Taco Potze takes us behind-the-scenes
An informative interview with Open Social’s Taco Potze shines a light on the puzzling question posed by MT/Sprout about thriving during COVID-19. In the interview, Taco shares some key insights gathered from clients who saw their existing online community and membership management platforms become increasingly central to their operations during this period of uncertainty. In addition to the clients, Taco also talks about discussions with other organizations who were suddenly scrambling to find solutions to new work-from-home policies, social distancing measures and cancellations of in-person events.
Opportunity means nothing without adequate preparation, however. Luckily, Open Social had started talking to two potential new investors, Peak Capital and Nimbus Ventures, long before the pandemic broke. And as we also hear: investing in startups during a global pandemic is not for the faint of heart.
The investors share their side of the story
Along with Taco, this episode includes a particularly insightful interview with Peak Capital co-founder Johan van Mil who shares some expert knowledge about investment, portfolio management and risk-assessment during COVID-19. While many of the companies in their existing portfolio faced new challenges, van Mil says, it was important for them to also look where the world was heading and which kind of companies would thrive in a post-COVID-19 world.
Where to listen
To hear the full interviews and get all the insider info, you can listen to this special episode of the MT/Sprout podcast in Dutch at the following links:
