Third installment Young Business Award - Feel good is the big winner

Helping people. With life-saving healthcare, with reducing stress, or with paying for better products. That's what the third installment of the AFAS Young Business Award is about. Three scale-ups, between which it's hard to choose, it turns out.

You could call it an advantage in such a pitch competition as the AFAS Young Business Award is. That you develop your own product and let it shine in front of you during your presentation. Patrique Pi Zaman does that cleverly. The founder of Avy talks with special enthusiasm about his product: a completely autonomous flying drone aircraft that is used for charity. When you see and hear it, you have to love it.

So does the jury, although it still has some information to gather. Carlo Ezinga (Rabobank) wants to get a better picture of the competitive landscape. ,,Doesn't such a thing exist? Didn't there already fly drones carrying medicine to the Wadden Islands?'' Zaman replies coolly. ''That was us.''

Great pick-me-up is that when asked by the judges, he can further portray the competitive landscape. ,,You see in recent years that a lot of focus goes to warfare. We also get calls every day asking if we can't provide something for that. So we don't do that. We are there for humanitarian purposes. As said: you have to love it.

Remarkable in Zaman's pitch is that he begins and ends with the Netherlands as a place where his drones can save lives, even though his field of work is mainly in remote areas such as in Africa. By now there are between 35 and 40 of his drones in operation, he says. ''In five years we want to be able to produce 500 a year, because our customers are asking for them.''

Those customers include NGOs and other sub-government organizations. Not the fastest decision makers. That might put the brakes on rapid development. The man-with-a-mission certainly doesn't let that stop him. He adds to the feel-good story. ''We are working for maintenance and more especially with local partners, so that we can also stimulate local economy, for example in Africa.'' This is a pitch that stands like a house.

The same cannot be said of Marieke Jongsma's story. She explains why VRelax is an exceptional scale-up that deserves a spot in the finals. What she tells makes sense. But she lacks the enthusiasm of her predecessor in the competition. It is clear that she has often practiced her lines. She comes across as less natural and self-conceived. And then you start at a considerable disadvantage.

VRelax itself is a great product though, brought about thanks to a lot of scientific research. All revolves around software for VR glasses packed with sophisticated images and exercises. ''You experience forty percent less stress in ten minutes.'' That's a result that stands. There's more. Care personnel are relieved, medication use reduced. Or as Marieke Jongsma says in her slogan: ''Fewer pills, more glasses.''

The jury mainly questioned the uniqueness of the Groningen company. Jury chairman Bas van der Veldt: ,,Can't this already be done with Youtube, or at least something that comes close?'' Co-founder of VRelax Stefan Vogelzang is adamant. ,,No, what we do is much more than creating images in an app. We enrich those with numerous exercises and links, such as bio-feedback.''

Jongsma and Vogelzang reason logically that what they are creating really works. Scientists are behind it, medical parties are embracing the technology. That is potentially attractive to larger parties, the Groningers realize. Vogelzang: ,,We build the technology in such a way that we appeal to larger parties. But for us it is mainly about knowledge and science, not just about technology.''

Technology is also the driving force behind In3, which is mostly a good idea. The payment method allows buyers to pay in three installments with no interest charges. Unlike competitors, the revenue model does not lie in fining people who pay late. In fact, non-payment actually means high costs for In3.

This service is potentially a world conqueror, but that doesn't become entirely clear during Hans Langenhuizen's pitch. He focuses entirely on the social responsibility content of the scale-up. Without a doubt, In3 does very much better in that area than comparable afterpayment services. But that is not the reason why this company might go very far.

Better Langenhuizen could have used his minute of pit time to explain how it works. Because that seems almost too good to be true, but it isn't. Put quickly: consumers want to buy a refrigerator and go for the cheapest model. If he can pay in three parts - without interest - then the more expensive version comes into the picture. That one is more energy efficient and lasts longer. Better for the consumer, better for the Earth, better for the seller. Only the latter pays a small fee for it.

It clearly takes the jury to fathom that system. So it is not well explained. The questions are mostly about that system and the process. When jury member Marleen Evertsz (NXChange) asks after a while: ''What exactly is your revenue model?'', then you know something didn't go right.

There is also something to be put about that social responsibility. Because don't you actually encourage people to borrow? They do put themselves in debt. Langenhuizen does have a good answer to that. ,,That's the idea, that we handle that well. Only people who can afford it can use our service. We screen based on 122 points, including the state of the phone while ordering.''

In3 has everything it needs to become big, but unfortunately that does not become clear. The discussion with the jury focuses on the secretive screening of customers. Deadly is the example Langenhuizen cites to clarify the importance of In3. ''You just want to keep eating out four or five times a week and not compromise on that because you have less money for a while. With In3 you can do that.'' Well.

With Amsterdam-based Avy, Patrique Pi Zaman and now more than 50 employees are working toward his dream: building zero-emission, self-flying aircraft to be used for humanitarian purposes.

Marieke Jongsma and Stefan Vogelzang have an answer to stress complaints with Vrelax. More than 230 hospitals, companies and mental health institutions are using the VR glasses with software to treat excessive stress. The Groningen-based startup raised one million in funding.