What is your customer really waiting for?
![Leonie Ebbes 2021 02]()
Leonie Ebbes
Flinc no longer exists. At least: the name. The specific activities of the label continue to exist, only from now on "just" under the name NOM.
And that actually makes sense, says Ellen Ploeger. The Business Development team leader led Flinc in recent years. ,,You can say that Flinc has grown towards NOM, and vice versa. Then at some point it is no longer useful to have a fence in between. And that moment is now. Questions at Flinc were increasingly no longer just about funding, but also about the development of startups in the early phase. That fits exactly with NOM's vision. Conversely, NOM is increasingly embracing Flinc's accents. Then you're talking about getting investor ready and connecting with investors. We want to work towards more and especially high-quality startups in the northern ecosystem. And then you have to facilitate from more sides.
Same philosophy, same goals, same principles. Then it is much clearer to do it under one name. Apart from that, the 'merging' offers innovative entrepreneurs in the Northern Netherlands additional advantages. The entire Flinc team is now 'just' NOM. In concrete terms, this means an expansion of expertise that benefits all entrepreneurs. We work more and more integrally, to help entrepreneurs even better on their way. I see it this way: our people at Flinc continue to do their work, but have more to offer. Moreover, our team has been expanded with sector specialists''.
Shift NOM
Flinc arose organically fifteen years ago, as a project of several parties including TCNN, KvK, the northern provinces, Syntens and the NOM. Starting entrepreneurs faced the problem that they had a good idea and were ready for rapid growth, but had difficulty finding investors. Flinc helped them make their business more suitable for lenders by looking along. It then connected the entrepreneurs with investors. That yielded great results. Flow Your Money, for example, which was linked to Robert Kraal, former COO of Adyen, thanks to Flinc.
Ellen Ploeger: ,,Those same issues are still there, but Flinc was more and more asked to also look at startups in the earlier phase and offer programming in that. The Market Readiness Program is an example. That fits perfectly with NOM's vision: to offer startups the support they need to grow. So slowly but surely our services were already shifting together.''
Getting investor ready by using the network remains. ,,These can be investors of NOM, but also lenders from outside NOM. In that respect, Flinc has always maintained an independent position. And that remains the case. The fact that we are now called NOM does not mean that we automatically turn to our own colleagues for funding. The development of the company we assist is the starting point. From there we look at what is best. That was so, that is so, that remains so.''