Bob van den Berg, recently impressed investors with a compelling pitch on Dragons' Den, securing investment from Shawn Harris of Orange Wings. This funding will enable Bob to scale his startup to the next level. Throughout his journey to find the right financing, Bob was guided by Ronald Beuk from Generous Minds. Here, Bob reflects on his experience navigating the funding process and the valuable support he received.

Great that you want to share your experience with us, Bob! Can you tell us a bit more about yourself?

Absolutely! I'm Bob, 28 years old, and I studied Innovation Sciences at TU Eindhoven. That's when I discovered that I needed to do something in the social domain. I didn't know exactly what that should be yet. The themes of labor participation and sustainability already appealed to me. After my studies, I got the opportunity at de Voorwerkers to build up Tworby. That's when everything came together for me. Keeping people mobile longer to stimulate self-reliance and vitality. Labor participation because Tworby is made at de Voorwerkers by people who are distanced from the job market. And sustainability because we help people preserve their own bicycle.

Why did you start your own business? What's your driving force?

It also has to do with my upbringing. My mother works at a mental health institution, my father has worked at a social firm and now founded de Voorwerkers. A social company where he offers people with distance from the job market a place. So the social aspect has always been unconsciously embedded in me.

Many people around me went to work at the big consultancies and corporates, and I thought about that too. You can certainly learn a lot there. But such a huge company just wasn't for me.

The funny thing is that many of my friends are now moving from these big companies toward smaller companies with more focus on making a positive contribution to society. I think that's actually a good movement.

That's recognizable indeed, we see this with people around us too.

You're obviously a social entrepreneur with a purpose, focusing on a specific domain of impact. If you look at the bigger picture of the change you'd like to see as a visionary, what would that be? How would you want the world to look?

Peter Hobbelen wrote a book saying "stop with social entrepreneurship." I find that really interesting, and that's how I look at it too. If we all pay a little attention, a small group doesn't have to pay so much attention. Social entrepreneurship should be embedded—not through laws and regulations, but from intrinsic motivation. The fact that Tworby is made by people who are distanced from the job market seems only logical to me. I would want it to be self-evident for people and companies. That would be my utopia. Stop with social entrepreneurship, make it the new norm. Let's all work on it together—then it becomes much lighter and we achieve much more.

How do you see this, Ronald?

I see this movement as what I call the "Reverse VOC." I believe that we on this side of the world have too much money and have earned too much for our own gain. We have accumulated, destroyed, and created imbalance at the expense of others in the past. That's why we now have so much money and you see such a large imbalance in the world.

My dream would be for people to realize that the excess money they have here, they want to invest in social enterprises that focus their business on correcting this imbalance. Especially in the early stage of these social enterprises, because if we can guide potential 'impact unicorns' through this risky phase, that's where the big difference can be made. Traditional investors prefer not to invest in this phase because the risk is too great and they don't yet have sufficient insight into the financial returns that serve as their starting point. There's still too large a group of wealthy people who invest to become even wealthier.

Fortunately, more and more wealthy people are investing to create more impact. If we as humanity ultimately restore balance, social enterprises will no longer be needed because everything will be right again.

Bob: Exactly. What I also want to move away from is the term "Social Enterprise." This feels patronizing—I have a regular business. But just because I base my company on social core values, I'm a Social Enterprise. While I don't feel any different.

Ronald: I also hope that the real social costs we incur will be included in the P&L. Something that True Price, for example, has been working hard for. This way we'll ensure that bad products become more expensive, so you won't buy them anymore. That's actually where I have the most hope in the medium term.

Bob, you were naturally looking for financing. What exactly did you have in mind for support? It's a world you dive into that might have been new to you?

That's right. I had never gone through a financing process before. So it seemed nice to have someone alongside you who looks with you and knows exactly how it works, gives you tips on what information is most important to share. I don't like making mistakes. I thought if I do it with someone who has done it more often, it becomes much easier.

Generous Minds, and in this case Ronald, helps you search for the right financing. As a beginning entrepreneur, you don't know how this works, what steps there are. You need someone who guides you through the wonderful world of investing. How do you make a pitch deck, which parties do you approach, with what story and tone of voice. You learn a lot during such a process. You need that intensive guidance.

Especially in the beginning, it was nice to have conversations with investors together with Ronald. This gave me confidence in how to approach it. I learned how to keep my head cool and not make choices I might regret later.

Without Generous Minds, I wouldn't have spoken with so many parties and gained that knowledge and experience. The network and guidance were valuable.

Ronald: I've also seen you grow enormously, and your pitch on Dragons' Den was the absolute pinnacle!

Ronald: What matters to us with every financing challenge is not just the goal of getting you funded, but especially doing it in the best way possible in our view. It's not only important that we fill the ultimate financing need 'numerically' with often a diversity of financiers according to our 'Integrated Capital' approach. But especially that the financiers are truly aligned with you and your company. Both in terms of impact objectives and the space and support you need as an entrepreneur to flourish. And that can only happen, in our view, if you transcend the level of 'matchmaker or fundfinder' by truly acting as a trusted partner, doing everything necessary to make the entrepreneur successful. And I dare say that you've found a perfect and promising match in Shawn Harris and her team at Orange Wings.

"That can only happen, in our view, if you transcend the level of 'matchmaker or fundfinder' by truly acting as a trusted partner, doing everything necessary to make the entrepreneur successful."

How did you experience working together on the entire financing, Bob, collaborating and figuring out with all parties how the financing could best be structured?

From my experience, I've also worked with other parties. The dedication of Generous Minds, and in my case Ronald, is exceptional. That dedication is so great that I can say with certainty that people close to him—on vacation or in the evenings—certainly have to deal with it too ;).

Yet that's really wonderful—you know that you're truly going for it together with the same dedication and energy. That gives confidence, which allowed me to let go a bit more. You really want to work on it and build together. If you're not aligned in terms of dedication, you know this quickly enough.

Ronald: You enter into quite an intensive collaboration for often a fairly long time. That's why it's so important that you're aligned together, otherwise you won't succeed.

I happen to be the person standing next to Ronald ;) And I see that dedication, but I think that's beautiful. Going for that dream and impact together—that's what we do it for.

Ronald: What I also found beautiful about you, Bob, is that you're also open to some coaching. For example, we introduced phasing in the financing and adjusted some things there, even though you felt ready. This attitude and way of working also ensures that you achieve success together faster.

Can you tell us more about the collaboration, Bob? How did you experience Ronald? Is there anything you'd like to highlight?

Positive. In the beginning, I'm always searching in a collaboration, since I always have a very clear picture of how and where I want to go. Once I have an idea, I go 120%, and then it's all hands on deck—and I look for that in a collaboration too. With Ronald, I quite quickly felt that was going well. I quickly discovered that Ronald has exactly the right knowledge and network that I needed. The communication was fast—I like that too.

How was that for you, Ronald?

Once you get used to the speed you want to make together and are intrinsically motivated together to make it a success in the right way, then it goes well. If Bob had wanted to approach financing in a way that didn't feel right to me, it would have created friction. Which is also okay, because then you ultimately come together to the best approach. But we didn't have that at all.

What did you take away from the financing process, Bob, besides the financing itself?

I learned how to best structure a financing request and how you go through a financing process from start to finish.

Is there anything you'd like to share with Generous Minds?

It would have been nice for me if there had been an expert connected who has knowledge of valuations.

Ronald: You're absolutely right about that. We've now attracted that expertise and are integrating it into our financial model. Throughout the entire process, valuation is now much more integrated.

Thank you, Bob, for sharing your experience! We're certain that Tworby will continue to be a great success and give people confidence to get back on their bikes!