Startup Pass-port

Season 07 of Startup Pass-port by Frontwalker continues with Episode 22 – Arezoo Shajiei, Founder of MicroHealth.

Arezoo Shajiei, Founder of MicroHealth, discusses how the company is developing an AI-powered preventive health platform that combines microbiome functionality with lifestyle information to provide personalised guidance on diet, sleep, stress, exercise and supplementation. She explains how MicroHealth uses a database covering 160,000 individuals, with the microbiome part of the database covering around 10,000 individuals, to train its AI model on lifestyle, habits, exercise and microbiome functionality.

Arezoo also discusses why current health advice is often generic, how the microbiome is "very dynamic", and how MicroHealth combines data, an LLM and scientific literature to generate science-backed personalised advice. She shares that the company is reaching MVP and preparing for its pilot, while reflecting on her founder journey and advising founders to "not accept all advices" and choose their own route.

This new season brings conversations with founders, innovators, investors, and ecosystem leaders shaping the future of entrepreneurship, in partnership with Erasmus Enterprise and the NL Startup Competition.

These conversations are powerful, inspiring, and game-changing, and we can't wait for you to hear them.

Stay tuned! New episodes dropping soon!

#Frontwalker #podcast #StartupPassport #rotterdam #ErasmusEnterprise #NLstartupecosystem

Season 07 of Startup Pass-port by Frontwalker continues with Episode 21 – Vilmar Bliekendaal, Co-founder of My Jewelry.

Vilmar Bliekendaal, Co-founder of My Jewelry, discusses how the company entered the traditional jewelry industry through direct-to-consumer e-commerce and benefited from the rapid growth of the online market. He reflects on how the business adapted as e-commerce became more competitive, moving into offline retail while maintaining a strong online channel, and how continuously reinvesting profits and adopting new marketing technologies supported the company's growth. He also shares how revenue grew from around €1.5 million to €5 million, giving them confidence that they were onto something.

Vilmar also discusses building the company with a complementary co-founder, where each brought a different perspective and strength. He explains how the people a company needs change as it grows, moving from generalists to specialists and later managers, and shares his biggest lesson for founders: "hire slow and fire fast." He also emphasizes being more selective when hiring, saying, "you rather speak to 20 persons instead of two."

This new season brings conversations with founders, innovators, investors, and ecosystem leaders shaping the future of entrepreneurship, recorded at the Upstream Festival in Rotterdam in partnership with Erasmus Enterprise.

These conversations are powerful, inspiring, and game-changing, and we can't wait for you to hear them. Stay tuned! New episodes dropping soon!

Season 07 of Startup Pass-port by Frontwalker continues with Episode 20 – Jouke Goslinga, Program Manager at the Port of Rotterdam.

Jouke Goslinga, Program Manager at the Port of Rotterdam, discusses how the Rotterdam Makers District, formed by RDM and M4H, is creating an environment where young talent and startups can develop solutions for a more sustainable port. He explains how the district provides fertile ground for companies to experiment, develop prototypes and processes, before they are ready to enter the port and scale their solutions.

Jouke also reflects on why the Netherlands cannot compete on price alone and needs to focus on high-end innovation, why he sees sustainability as an opportunity, and why developing local talent is important. He shares his 10-year vision for the Port of Rotterdam to become "an inspiring forefront on sustainability", with the innovation district helping put the port on the map as a major business opportunity in the region.

This new season brings conversations with founders, innovators, investors, and ecosystem leaders shaping the future of entrepreneurship, in partnership with Erasmus Enterprise and the NL Startup Competition.

These conversations are powerful, inspiring, and game-changing, and we can't wait for you to hear them.

Stay tuned! New episodes dropping soon!

Season 07 of Startup Pass-port by Frontwalker continues with Episode 18 – Ieva Palubeckaite, Founder and CEO of Akin Solutions.

Ieva Palubeckaite, Founder and CEO of Akin Solutions, discusses how the company is tackling rubber waste, with around 87% of rubber waste currently wasted and tires making up around 70% of that waste. She explains how Akin is developing enzymatic technology to break shredded rubber down and separate it into individual materials that can be used in new rubber products.

Ieva also explains how Akin integrates its machine units into existing recycling plants and operates as a B2B platform for recyclers. She discusses the importance of partnerships, bringing biotechnology into a traditional industry, and the company's global ambitions.

This new season brings conversations with founders, innovators, investors, and ecosystem leaders shaping the future of entrepreneurship, in partnership with Erasmus Enterprise and the NL Startup Competition.

These conversations are powerful, inspiring, and game-changing, and we can't wait for you to hear them. Stay tuned! New episodes dropping soon!

Season 07 of Startup Pass-port by Frontwalker continues with Episode 17 – Adriaan Jacob Brouwer, EY.

Adriaan Brouwer, who leads EY Innovation in the Netherlands, discusses his role in connecting startups and scale-ups with the expertise and capabilities of a large services firm like EY. Drawing from his own experience as a founder, he explains how EY can support growing companies with its scale, expertise and flexibility, particularly as startups begin building the backbone of their operations across different markets. He also reflects on how his entrepreneurial background helps him understand founders, build trust and connect their challenges with the right people. Beyond EY, he shares how he continues building through two foundations, including a venture philanthropy initiative supporting an underserved patient group. The conversation explores his views on hustle culture, purpose and planning.

Adriaan explains why he doesn't glorify grinding for the sake of grinding, why "purpose is way more important," and why letting go of the illusion of control matters. He believes the journey of working toward something matters more than simply chasing an end goal. He closes with two key lessons: working with founders means learning a lot, and "don't assume." He explains how assumptions about other people's intentions can lead us to misunderstand situations and miss opportunities.

This new season brings conversations with founders, innovators, investors, and ecosystem leaders shaping the future of entrepreneurship, in partnership with Erasmus Enterprise and the NL Startup Competition. T

hese conversations are powerful, inspiring, and game-changing, and we can't wait for you to hear them. Stay tuned! New episodes dropping soon!

Season 07 of Startup Pass-port by Frontwalker continues with Episode 15 – Liesje Goldschmidt, Erasmus Enterprise.

Liesje returns for her third appearance to talk about what she sees working across the startups and scale-ups Erasmus Enterprise supports. Over five years the team has guided 1,245 teams. Roughly 500 of those startups are still operating, and 30% have stayed in the region.

She's direct about where early teams struggle: many students are learning how to work at the same time as they're learning how to run a company, from guiding a team to building a process. Money becomes the problem later, once a startup starts to scale.

On what makes a good entrepreneur: passion first, then solving a problem you can actually build the product for, then the team. And a fourth thing she credits to Ironman training - you also need to enjoy the bad days. Not every training session is a good one.

This season brings conversations with founders, innovators, investors, and ecosystem leaders, in collaboration with Erasmus Enterprise and the NL Startup Competition.

These conversations are powerful, inspiring, and game-changing, and we can't wait for you to hear them New episodes dropping soon.

Season 07 of Startup Pass-port by Frontwalker continues with Episode 14 – Efil Bengisu Saygı, CEO and Co-founder of Gelectric. Efil says she was born around vessels - her father has run a traditional maritime maintenance company in Turkey for over 40 years, and she trained as an electrical engineer to work alongside it. She founded Gelectric in 2022 to fix a problem she had watched vessel owners live with for most of her career. Her estimate: a single vessel generates enormous amounts of data, and around 80% of it sits unstructured - text files, PDFs, emails, even photos. Gelectric's AI agents collect that material, analyse it, and turn it into something usable for performance analytics and regulatory compliance. The compliance side is where the stakes are clearest. Crews still file reports manually, which means what Efil calls fat finger errors - a typo, a wrong figure. Submit incorrect data, knowingly or not, and the penalty can run from €100 to a fleet-wide ban from certain ports. Most of these rules come from the IMO, so they apply to vessels everywhere, not just Europe. Efil also talks about finding the maritime industry in Rotterdam far more open to innovation than she expected from a traditionally conservative sector, why partnerships are the unlock for reaching customers at scale, and her plans to expand into Germany and Greece. Three and a half years in, Gelectric runs on around 30 vessels with a team of five. At the NL Startup Competition 2026 finale during Upstream Festival, Gelectric won the Frontwalker Digital Development Prize. This new season brings conversations with founders, innovators, investors, and ecosystem leaders shaping the future of entrepreneurship, recorded in partnership with Erasmus Enterprise and the NL Startup Competition. These conversations are powerful, inspiring, and game-changing, and we can't wait for you to hear them. Stay tuned! New episodes dropping soon!

Season 07 of Startup Passport by Frontwalker continues with Episode 13 – Sjoerd van Berkel, Co-founder and Operator of Dutch Operator Fund. From building his own companies to becoming an angel investor, Sjoerd shares the experiences that shaped his approach to entrepreneurship and investing. In this episode, he explains why the team is always his number one investment criterion, why founders need grit and commitment to succeed, and why believing in the people behind a startup matters more than the idea itself. Sjoerd also reflects on the lessons he learned from building scalable businesses, the importance of finding the right co-founder, and how validating ideas early can prevent costly mistakes. He discusses how education helped him develop the network and skills that supported his entrepreneurial journey, and shares his perspective on why the Netherlands continues to be a strong place for founders to build innovative companies. This new season brings conversations with founders, innovators, investors, and ecosystem leaders shaping the future of entrepreneurship, recorded at the Upstream Festival in Rotterdam in partnership with Erasmus Enterprise. These conversations are powerful, inspiring, and game-changing, and we can't wait for you to hear them. Stay tuned! New episodes dropping soon!