Preferably forever pioneer

How do you stay delightfully entrepreneurial as an entrepreneur? How do you discover a (new) gap in the market? Do you rely purely on your business instincts, do you let your gut decide on an investment, or do you do two years of thorough market research before you take the plunge? René Schoenmakers has already chosen the most logical route several times: listen carefully to your own experience as a consumer.

We should perhaps thank René's son for that. He was 10 years old when they started looking together for a special place to stay for a nice father-son weekend, in the "comfortable but adventurous" category. Finally, after intensive sleuthing, deep hidden on a campsite's website, they found the address that promised plenty of goosebumps: a Dragon's Egg to sleep in. High above the ground in a nest, wooden door, a sort of porthole to peer up at the night sky. It could hardly get cozier. For a moment they felt like participants in a comic strip or a movie in the Fantasy genre. After the weekend, his son came home with the decisive announcement, "This was the best weekend ever!

René says, "On other platforms like Booking, Trivago or Expedia, you often spend hours searching. You have to struggle through long lines of search results. Even the standard chain hotels, with 20 doors down a long corridor. Neat, but not exactly what makes you happy. You can't see the forest for the trees, which can make you very tired. And then the vacation has yet to begin. Did you know that more than 15 million vacation accommodations are offered worldwide? We carefully select the most exciting 5% for you. Users appreciate that.'

Unknowingly or not, the Vipio concept is secretly very similar to Catawiki. There, too, the main principle is to make a manageable preselection of special objects for collectors. The professional term is "curation. At the time, René came up with the idea as a collector of comic books and vinyl records. Again thanks to the frustration along the way, the need to dig through mountains of 'bagger' on marketplaces, looking for that one gem.

Fair is fair, Vipio had the wind with it right away, too. Because it fit the spirit of the times so well. That is also a quality of successful entrepreneurs: don't peak too early, only when the time is right. 'People feel that life is too short for boring overnight stays. They like to collect memories, which is a trend you see in everything. You see, still collecting again as a common thread.'

Certainly no coincidence: the NOM had already been closely involved four times in growth plans of René and his team. These included investments in web builder The Missing Link (back in 2001) and software developer Wisdom, now jointly acquired by Ordina as a package deal. For Vipio there were more interested parties to invest (past results are starting to count); nevertheless, René chose with conviction for a new cooperation with NOM. 'They are nice, dedicated people there. Moreover, they allow you as much freedom as possible as an entrepreneur. I have also experienced that an American investor called every day to see how things were going. That doesn't work!

It was not a preconceived plan, but it was extraordinary that all of René's companies were started during a crisis. Catawiki at the beginning of the credit crisis, The Missing Link just before the dotcom crisis and Vipio just after the outbreak of the corona pandemic. René on that: 'Suddenly the whole economy collapses. Then you immediately find out who really matters within your company. These are not the consultant-type types who love meetings and are handy with PowerPoint presentations. That is of no use to you. At such times you need practical hands-on people, who can move well with the new reality'.

'Feel free to start over. I often hear from other entrepreneurs: the early days of our startup were the best. Nothing was fixed yet, it could go either way, we still had to invent everything. Making something out of nothing. The energy you get from that together is wonderful. It's so interesting to use experiments to further improve your product. Then I think: if you enjoyed that so much, why did you stay where you were for 15 or 20 years? For myself: when Catawiki employed about 600 people, I was suddenly mainly busy managing a lot of employees, the investors and the board. In terms of product and strategy, everything became crystallized. We knew very well how to enter new countries and had launched all the auction categories. The pioneering phase had come to an end and I then found it less challenging. I hated meetings and hardly ever did. Now there is a manager sitting there who does enjoy managing a large company. I think entrepreneurs should above all do business.'

Tip for the reader of this story, which is not from Rene himself: don't check out Vipio.com - you let everything fall out of your hands. You want to leave.