{"id":12039,"date":"2015-06-23T08:54:54","date_gmt":"2015-06-23T08:54:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/e52.nl\/?p=12039"},"modified":"2015-06-23T08:54:54","modified_gmt":"2015-06-23T08:54:54","slug":"neelie-kroes-fights-against-start-up-modesty-and-fear-of-failure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/en\/neelie-kroes-fights-against-start-up-modesty-and-fear-of-failure\/","title":{"rendered":"Neelie Kroes fights against start-up modesty and fear of failure"},"content":{"rendered":"

In an interview with Forbes<\/a>, Neelie Kroes encourages Dutch start-ups to, above all, develop\u00a0in time. Contrary to the conventions in other countries, Kroes doesn’t believe that aspiring to having \u201cour own Silicon Valley\u201d here in the Netherlands is advantageous. She also says that Dutch start-ups are still struggling with a kind of inferiority complex and suffer from a culture where failing is not desirable.<\/p>\n

In the Forbes article, which emphasises that the Dutch tech start-up scene is concentrated around Eindhoven, Kroes explains how the Netherlands and Europe benefit from the start-ups that relocate to the United States:<\/p>\n

According to Neelie Kroes, special envoy for Dutch startups, her country sees a strong argument for giving its innovators the opportunity to take flight for greater opportunities in other nations, rather than trying to keep them at home. \u201cThey will start to develop their business in the U.S., then enlarge their market to Europe again,\u201d says Kroes. \u201cIt\u2019s a global thing.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Forbes uses the examples of companies such as Shapeways, Mendix and AdYen. According to Forbes, Kroes’ encouragement may be difficult for traditional developers to understand, but, given the situation in the Netherlands, it does also make sense. The Dutch market is simply too small to hope to create its own Silicon Valley.<\/p>\n

Kroes is only too aware of the start-up situation in the Netherlands. But, at the same time, there are two large obstacles that also need to be overcome: our innate modesty and our fear of failure. Kroes:\u00a0\u201cIt is a general attitude of Dutch people that you don\u2019t profile yourself as being successful.\u201d\u00a0This is definitely a huge disadvantage in comparison to American start-ups, especially when it comes to finding investors.<\/p>\n

The same goes for our\u00a0willingness to take risks. Kroes believes that this is too small at the moment in the Netherlands. \u201cThe culture of failing is far more accepted in the United States. You need failure to be successful in your next step. That is not really accepted in general terms in the Netherlands yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Schermafbeelding<\/a>Eindhoven Innovation Hotspot<\/strong><\/p>\n

Forbes<\/a> already praised Eindhoven as one of Europe’s five “fertile innovation hotspots for trailblazing entrepreneurs<\/em>” the day before. Forbes:<\/p>\n

It has been described as one of the world\u2019s most inventive cities, thanks largely to its prolific patent activity; patent intensity being the yardstick of innovation used by the OECD.\u00a0Home to successful startups such as Shapeways,<\/a> the 3D printing marketplace, and Gynzy, an interactive education enterprise, Eindhoven has become renowned as a centre for hardware design and high-tech<\/a> innovation.\u00a0At the heart of it sits the\u00a0High Tech Campus,<\/a> a base for more than 130 businesses, and 10,000 researchers and entrepreneurs, and Startupbootcamp, the biggest network of startup high-tech startup accelerators in Europe, has its\u00a0Startupbootcamp HighTechXL<\/a> branch located there, making it an ideal spot for any entrepreneur who wants to be surrounded by technical brilliance.<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Photo: Neelie Kroes during a visit to the High tech Campus earlier this year<\/em>)<\/p>\n

\"Schermafbeelding<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In an interview with Forbes, Neelie Kroes encourages Dutch start-ups to, above all, develop\u00a0in time. Contrary to the conventions in other countries, Kroes doesn’t believe that aspiring to having \u201cour own Silicon Valley\u201d here in the Netherlands is advantageous. She also says that Dutch start-ups are still struggling with a kind of inferiority complex and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1585,"featured_media":11734,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[482,486,825,484,827],"location":[],"article_type":[],"serie":[],"archives":[],"internal_archives":[],"reboot-archive":[],"class_list":["post-12039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sustainability-nl","tag-economy","tag-geen-categorie-en","tag-high-tech-campus-en","tag-innovation","tag-start-ups"],"blocksy_meta":[],"acf":{"subtitle":"","text_display_homepage":false},"author_meta":{"display_name":"Christa Parrish","author_link":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/author\/christa-parrish\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/neelie4-608x400-1-300x197.jpg","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["Sustainability<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Sustainability<\/span>"]},"tags":{"linked":["economy<\/a>","Geen categorie<\/a>","High Tech Campus<\/a>","innovation<\/a>","start-ups<\/a>"],"unlinked":["economy<\/span>","Geen categorie<\/span>","High Tech Campus<\/span>","innovation<\/span>","start-ups<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"0","relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 11 years ago","modified":"Updated 11 years ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on June 23, 2015","modified":"Updated on June 23, 2015"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on June 23, 2015 8:54 am","modified":"Updated on June 23, 2015 8:54 am"},"featured_img_caption":"","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1585"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12039"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=12039"},{"taxonomy":"article_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article_type?post=12039"},{"taxonomy":"serie","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/serie?post=12039"},{"taxonomy":"archives","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/archives?post=12039"},{"taxonomy":"internal_archives","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/internal_archives?post=12039"},{"taxonomy":"reboot-archive","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reboot-archive?post=12039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}