That One Thing

Today in episode 14: Ties den Dekker, founder of Staxxer and Spy-Fi. I think he is the type of entrepreneur that succeeds because he has a great sense for business ideas that are spot-on. On top of that, he has a very forward thinking vision on building teams in a new way. At Staxxer - he is building a fully remote team, creating the job of his dreams for himself AND for all his employees. And with global CEO’s backtracking on their promise that staff can work from home, I want to know: how does Ties do it? We talk about how he wants to build this company around the life he wants, how you manage a team remote and if you can truly achieve the same as when working together in an office.

Today in That One Thing, how to build a fully remote company, Ties den Dekker, Founder of Staxxer.

To record today's episode, I flew to Barcelona - a city now known for many entrepreneurs to move to. Who doesn’t want to work by the beach and eat tapas all while building a successful business? I wanted to talk to Enric because he has a story that I think is too often not told. His business Picker, an online platform that allowed influencers to easily sell products for vendors, had 1 million Monthly Active Users and sold over 1.5M EUR worth of merchandise  every month until their main partner, Amazon, canceled their contract. A 60% drop in those numbers overnight. We talk about what it is like to start a business in Barcelona, the day he found out Amazon canceled their contract and what it is like to actually come to that final decision: closing your business. Today in That One Thing, Enric Gabarro. 

Now, today’s episode might just be my most personal one yet. You see, my guest and I go way back—we were neighbors in downtown Yangon during the Military coup on the 1st of February 2021, both of us trying to navigate our businesses through the aftermath of that awful day. Today’s episode is about resilience, and let me tell you, if there’s anyone who embodies this quality, it’s her. Forget Elon Musk, forget Bill Gates—when it comes to learning real, hard-earned lessons in entrepreneurship, she’s the one to listen to.

From growing up in the small town of Mogok, Myanmar, to making her mark in Yangon, Singapore and now Thailand, she’s become a global force to be reckoned with. She’s not just an entrepreneur; she’s a powerhouse listed in Forbes 30 under 30 and the mind behind Icarus Media, a social enterprise reaching over 11 million people every month.

In today’s episode, we’ll explore how she expanded her horizons beyond her hometown, steered her business through a military coup, and managed to stay sane and successful through it all.

Today in That One Thing: Resilience with Lach Baniya.

Today in That One Thing, Marieke Van Gent, Founder of IT Efficiency. Her mission is to digitize the cultural sector, by helping organizations with strategic IT project management: think about everything from ticketing to workforce planning, to implementing Microsoft Office 365. All in a very interesting sector: Arts and Culture. Interesting of course because of the beautiful art, but also because it is an industry that is traditionally leap years away from the progress other organizations have already made.

A perfect match for this podcast: as we talk about the no-nonsense approach Marieke has to digitalization, not focussing on the next shiny invention, but on real life solutions that truly make people's life easier. And no, that is not always a fancy AI tool. Today in That One Thing: Marieke van Gent on Digital Transformation.

Today, we're joined by Hugo Pereira, who has dedicated his career to working with start-ups and has now founded his own business, Ritmoo. We talk about That One Thing that so many of us seem to struggle with getting: clarity. Find out why Hugo loves to work in start-ups, how he creates clarity in his own start-up and where he often sees management teams fail to provide clarity in their business.

Today with Bob Verhagen, founder of Buurtdokters and an entrepreneur that is working in a space that is known to be difficult to innovate in, Healthcare.

With his company Buurtdokters he is focussed on keeping a personal GP for everyone in the Netherlands. With his previous experience - and failure - in the start-up world that tries to bring innovation in healthcare, I think he has a great view on do’s - and absolute don’ts. We discuss his love hate relationship with technology, the key to prevent innovations from dying in vain and - is AI going to save the day?  

Learn more about Buurtdokters here: https://www.buurtdokters.net/

Today in That One Thing – Michiel Trouw. Michiel  is a specialized physiotherapist that did his masters in manual therapy. He has his clinic in Hengelo, Netherlands and treats people with headache, neck pain, tinnitus,

In this episode of That One Thing we talk with Dorit Roest - serial founder and entrepreneur. Dorit and I walked similar paths - while mine was in Asia, hers was in the Netherlands and San Francisco. When she realized that her food blog was a great way to do sponsored content deals back in early 2012, she was one of the first people in the world to start an influencer marketplace: The Influencer Movement (or TIM). Within a few years, her company had over 4.000 influencers on their platform and ran more than 500 campaigns. Of Course a great success: but one of the cool things about Dorit is that she decided to step out when it did not feel right anymore. She moved on to found ScaleNL, where she worked with the Dutch government in Silicon Valley to help Dutch founders scale to the US. All of this experience is now bundled in her new company, the Strategy Sprint Academy & Agency. 

The Strategy Sprint is a revolutionary 1–day formula made by entrepreneurs, for entrepreneurs, that help you regain your focus as a founder. After a one day intense pressure cooker, you walk out with a redefined strategy, your top 10 priorities and a roadmap with goals for the next quarter, year and 5 years.  Spoiler alert - you can now book these Strategy Sprints with Rianne, your podcast host, as your facilitator.

Find more information about booking a Strategy Sprint here: https://www.getpractic.com/Strategy-Sprint

Today in That One Thing, a personal one: my guest Milla Rae and I know eachother from Myanmar where we both spent a large chunk of our lives and careers before the Military Coup in the 1st of February 2021. We talk about her career in marketing and communications that that led her to Myanmar, and how Myanmar became home not only to herself, but also to her husband Dylan and her newborn son Jasper. How that story went? Well, not quite as planned. Her exceptional story of becoming a mother shortly before experiencing a military coup in Myanmar led her to turn her hobby of writing into a career. Last year, she self-published her very own book about her story: Not Quite To Plan. Today in That One Thing: Milla Rae on self-publishing a book.

Follow Milla’s writing journey on: https://www.instagram.com/millarae_writes/

Buy her book on Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/Not-Quite-Plan-experience-pandemic/dp/1399947508

OR listen to her audio book on Spotify here: https://open.spotify.com/show/7oSoPYpVEMo1zBuZ1JaYtO?si=e9c52c78bcdd4ac9 :

Today on that one thing: Vanessa Monsequeira. A starting entrepreneur, that I would say has had an entrepreneurial mindset for quite some time in her corporate career, since she co-founded the Agility Advisory practice for PwC in Australia. While learning some - sometimes harsh - lessons about leadership in that role, she further deepened her knowledge on what a good leader is when she was the Head of People design at Miro. While Miro was in a period of hyper growth, she built internal products that helped to empower teams through agile coaching, onboarding people in the right way, and making sure the teams were formed as a community even in times where there was a global pandemic.