Kaizo co-founder Christoph Auer-Welsbach | Image: Techleap.nl
It did not start with a Eureka moment. There is this assumption that all startups are built based on a lightbulb moment. For Joost Brugmans, Orderchamp does not originate from a lightbulb moment. It was, instead, built on multiple years of exploring culture and understanding business. From a student exchange programme that landed him in NUS Singapore to working for a US-Canadian company, all these life events led to him starting Orderchamp.
Culture at the centre
Right off the bat, Brugmans tells Silicon Canals that culture was the biggest learning for him during his visit to NUS for a student exchange programme. He is modest enough to say that he was mediocre at best in most things while his Asian peers were working way too hard. This culture, which is common across all Asian countries, Brugmans says, inspired him to build something that allowed people to push the boundaries and, in the process, eliminated tech boundaries.
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This honest admission is in contrast to many big tech firms grappling with cultural and ideological differences right now. We think we should not go by his words alone here because Brugmanst is underselling himself as most visionary CEOs do. This culture, Brugmans explains, is essentially a process helping entrepreneurs navigate the environment with digital tools, use of AI and data that makes building businesses easier.
“I learned that diversity is such a powerful tool that it allows you to switch streams and business models,” Brugmans says about his biggest learning during the student exchange programme.
Hiring the best talent
Everything Orderchamp does is an extension of the culture on which the fundamentals of the company is built. Apart from diversity and an environment prepared to scale itself as the situation changes, hiring is another key area. Joost Brugmans is keen on highlighting the hiring being done by the company on his LinkedIn profile. He confirmed that the company has recently hired 10 to 12 people in various leadership roles.
He says that any startup should always hire early on and hire “strong people with similar ambition”. He further clarifies that Orderchamp is currently hiring in the field of Engineering, Leadership, Data Science, Sales, Support and Marketing. Orderchamp, according to Brugmans, is hiring based on a vision that aligns with the existing employees and will be further proliferated by the new members. Yes, there is a word for that vision, and Brugmans calls it “Magic Five”.
The Magic Five is essentially the character traits that Orderchamp is looking into people that it is hiring right now. These character traits are Ownership, Commitment, Entrepreneurial, Energy, Detail-oriented. Joost further explains that these character traits are something that people would find in the co-founders of Orderchamp, early employees as well as those who joined the retail startup recently.
He says ownership is super important to him, while he also wants to see commitment to the cause (which is helping SMBs) from the candidates. By entrepreneurial, he means people who think on their feet and are independent. Joost describes himself as an energetic person and when hiring, he expects to see similar energy. Last but not the least, he wants people who are organised and detail-oriented. In a nutshell, the magic five means the vision of changing the world, helping local retailers adopt technology and elevating the experience.
Rising through RISE
“We have always been interested in helping SMBs to navigate the changing environment.” This is the mission of the company, according to Brugmans. In order to expand this mission, he and his co-founders wanted a partner and they found that partner in Techleap’s RISE programme. He says before joining RISE, he looked at the previous batches and the companies that came out of the programme and their performance.
Another reason that motivated Joost Brugmans to join RISE was the fact that he is always in contact with other CEOs and he got the realisation that RISE was a perfect opportunity to learn about business, build connections and expand his own understanding and learnings. “RISE provides a deeper connection than any other way of connecting with people”, he explains. “We had a really cool batch with great companies”.
He also drives a bigger point that was central for him to understand at the RISE programme: Whether Europe has an ecosystem similar to Silicon Valley for startups to thrive and become unicorns? After the RISE programme, Brugmans believes that Europe indeed has scale up programmes that match the level of Silicon Valley. As someone who raised two Dutch funds, he highlights how the RISE programme helped him build connections.
When prodded about one big takeaway, he is quick to highlight the education about good investors with bigger funds. He also says there are great examples of companies that grew organically and went to IPO. “So definitely, there’s an ecosystem, we have smart people, we have, you know, a lot of things”, he adds and pivots to note that the US, in general, is more entrepreneurial when compared to Europe and the resources in place will help the startups like Orderchamp become as good as their US counterparts.
Levelling the playing field
Orderchamp is a marketplace for wholesale products that aims to make it easier for independent retailers to buy from brands. It is building a digital marketplace that brings independent retailers and brands together. With this digital marketplace, Brugmans says that the company is trying to level the playing field. It recently raised €16.6M to further build and expand this marketplace.
The company is also addressing the bigger question that often limits local retailers from adopting digital business models. He says there will always be bigger giants in every space but that does not mean independent retailers cannot continue to thrive. Brugmans explains that bigger players in the market will have more means but may even be better at the negotiation table but Orderchamp is trying to bring all the smaller players together to build a community.
He says with a network of these smaller players, the network effect will allow them to challenge the bigger retail. It is particularly fascinating considering 18-year-old Dutch teenager Oliver Daemen, who recently flew to space on Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin rocket, admitted to not ordering online from Amazon. Brugmans cites a study that shows that even though teenagers are digitally savvy, they are also welcoming of local retail.
While the retail landscape has changed dramatically and the pandemic forced a number of local as well as independent retailers to shut down, Brugmansargues that it is boring retail that is shutting down and not the ones digitising themselves and equipping themselves with data to face the new reality. He says “powers of scale” drive the future of retail and for Orderchamp, the focus remains levelling the playing field for every independent retailer out there.
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