Two people know more than one. Especially if one of them has years of experience under their belt. Add a critical foundational component to your new business by seeking advice and guidance from someone who has already travelled the road you’re on.
Two people know more than one. Especially if one of them has years of experience under their belt. Add a critical foundational component to your new business by seeking advice and guidance from someone who has already travelled the road you’re on.
At StartLife we believe that startups are the driving force behind innovation and that innovative agrifoodtech startups can make a lasting impact on the world. However, the fact that only one out of every ten startups thrives past the five year mark, indicates that entrepreneurs who enter the food and agri domain face many challenges.
Research has demonstrated that 70% of SMEs that receive mentoring survive for five years or more. Well-known founders of the world’s leading companies have reached out to mentors in their early days, and often still do. So why not consider a startup mentor and double your chances of success? Go ahead, it’s free.
Your mentor is an experienced sparring partner with a passion for startups. He or she will share insights, information, knowledge and experiences around entrepreneurship and help you understand the nuances of the business and the varied nature of the markets at hand.
Your business is your business and your responsibility. A mentor will ask relevant questions but will not provide you with all the answers. Your mentor will not replace Google Search or you as the decision maker. So be prepared to listen, ask questions and reach your own conclusions.
Your mentor is most likely well-connected and might – but is not obliged to – open certain doors for you that result in access to early customer trials, strategic partnerships, potential customers, interested investors and more.
Most likely the moment you ask yourself this question. The start of a mentorship is often, but not necessarily, linked to an important business situation that requires a decision or a critical change that is about to happen. Sparring with a seasoned entrepreneur or professional at moments like that, can help you build up the extra confidence you need to do the right thing.
Depending on your need, your mentor will be available for a maximum of 4 hours a month. Together with your mentor you’ll agree upon the duration and number of interactions per month.
Our startup mentors once stood where you are now and are intrinsically motivated to help you any way that they can to enable you to build a solid company and grow as an entrepreneur. They offer their service free of charge, often in their spare time.
All mentors have signed agreements with StartLife that assure confidentiality.
Mentors can do wonders for you and your startup, but there are rules of engagement to be taken into consideration. Check our 6 do’s and don’ts in startup mentorship.
The StartLife Mentor Program is available for all startups actively supported by StartLife. You need to be a StartLife alumn or currently take part in one of our startup support programs: StartLife Accelerate or the StartLife à la Carte .
1) Go to your StartLife Account.
2) Search for a mentor who suits your needs and is available.
3) Request a connection and set your first meeting
Purpose driven mentor with 20+ years food and non-food experience working across most European markets. Strong network with CPG players and retailers. Established consultancy business 68North with mission to accelerate sustainable and disruptive food solutions.
Compounding one degree shifts will lead to a whole new destination.
Steven Alexander champions food & agri tech innovations to hasten the shift to a sustainable food chain. With 30 years of global food industry expertise, spanning from SMEs to major corporations, he excels in business development and team leadership.
Currently, he serves as an Advisory Board member and mentor for emerging startups and scale-ups. Throughout his career, he’s driven business growth and fostered innovation at companies like Campina DMV Food Systems, FrieslandCampina Kievit, and Creamy Creation, leveraging his creative thinking and knack for strategic partnerships and organizational efficiency.
He is open to discuss what is needed to speed-up the development of your company and determine if he could contribute with his experience, knowledge and network.
Skills and experiences:
“to get ahead you need to get started”
I have a passion for innovation and change. I have a lot of fun when I can help innovative start-ups further. Change is also the driving force when I coach people; who are stuck in any area and want to change something.
My strength is to keep asking questions and get to the heart of the matter. This is my basic attitude by nature, and has been reinforced by extensive experience in coaching, system constellations, and mediation. People describe me as strategic, driven and reliable.
From my own company “VanAltvorst” I am active as a coach and chairman of the Advisory Board of innovative companies.
As a business developer at InnovationQuarter, I support companies in bringing innovations to the market, for example by sharpening the value proposition and helping to improve business models.
I have a large and diverse network in international greenhouse horticulture, Vertical Farming and protein transition.
I studied plant breeding in Wageningen and obtained my PhD in plant biotechnology in Nijmegen.
The choices you make as a founder and activities you conduct in the early stages of your business are vital to maximizing the chance of becoming a true scale-up. If your startup is in this critical phase, I am offering you my support to help you reach your relevant milestones and prepare for future growth. I can you assist you with scaling your organization, provide candid and actionable feedback on your proposition and business model or simply create relevant entries by connecting parties and ideas.
I’m interested in any agri, horti, food and biotech startup with the ambition to make a significant positive impact by contributing to a more sustainable food system. Hence, the proposition should be scalable and the founder team competent, experienced and well balanced. In particular, I am keen on supporting B2B startups involved in Horti, protein shift, food waste, agritech and circular concepts.
“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”
― Mahatma Gandhi
Ana Carolina Bajarunas is founder and CEO of Builders Construtoria. She is a creator of the Foodtech Movement, and has launched the first Brazilian AgriFoodTech Map.
Ana will utilize her experience building the AgriFoodTech Movement in Brazil, gathering all level of Food Chain stakeholders looking for precise, in depth information about this sector and generating new businesses. She enjoys the challenging entrepreneurism realm with resilience, hard work and focus in what really matters.
With twenty years of experience in Corporate Communication, Ana is a specialist in Business Innovation. She has worked in global companies such as Santander, Mastercard, FMC, Nespresso, Brastemp, Zurich and Bosch. Here she was responsible for developing, implementing and monitoring of Business Innovation projects in the Food, Agribusiness, Financial, Consumer Goods and Entertainment sectors.
Ana hold a bachelor degree in Communication & Advertising from Methodist University of Piracicaba. Ana is passionate about innovation and everything that can transform business and the human being in a positive way.
I’d be thrilled to share my experience building the AgriFoodtech Movement in Brazil, gathering all level of Food Chain stakeholders looking for precise, in depth information about this sector and generating new businesses. Also good talks about how to thrive this challenging entrepreneurism realm with resilience, hard work and focus in what really matters.
She is interested in startups in the field of AgriFoodTech in general, from farm to fork and beyond.
“I like the impossible because there is less competition”
Walt Disney
Edwin Bark is an experienced c-level manager and investor.
Edwin is a senior executive who gained experience in the personal care, consumer healthcare and Food&Agri industry. He has worked extensively in the fields of Marketing, Sales and General Management and is passionate about Brands in the FMCG industry. As an investor, Edwin is involved in startups in marketing & advertising tech (Collider.io) and acts as a board advisor to private equity as well.
Through his most recent roles in Food&Agri, as well as in Consumer healthcare, Edwin developed a strong interest in health and sustainability topics. While investigating the possibilities to build an eco-system of innovation around Nestlé’s Tivall Europe, he got involved in StartLife and became very enthusiastic about the StartLife program and the opportunity to share his experience with young entrepreneurs.
Edwin has seen several startups optimizing and changing their proposition (pivoting) without quick market validation. The advantage of startups (versus big corporates) is their ability to test, learn and go fast, so that’s what they have to do. And this requires focus. Quite often, the entrepreneurs see plenty of opportunities and have difficulties in choosing one of them. Startups should think big and act big, but start small and focused.
Edwin is open to a conversation with startups from the StartLife network.
Huub Beelen is a recently retired general manager at Limagrain Benelux. With a long tenure in the breeding business, in the position of general manager and marketing manager, he knows the sector like no other. Aside from his in depth sector knowledge he is very skilled in business strategy, management and marketing. He also purchased seed treatments for Limagrain Europe for many years.
Today, in the spirit of the Limagrain cooperative, Huub is setting up a Herenboederij (Farmers Cooperative). The farmers co-op, also known as Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), refers to a partnership between one or more farmers and a community of members. It is a small farming co-operative, owned by approximately 200 families (“Herenboeren”). Together they decide what to eat and what the farm will produce. The farmer, who is employed by the co-operative, grows a dozen types of fruits and vegetables and looks after the farm animals for the production of meat and eggs.
Huub obtained an engineering degree in plant breeding from Wageningen University & Research.
I can quickly identify opportunities and threats in agriculture, and have a broad network.
Jeoffrey van den Berg is a serial-entrepreneur who just loves the challenge of starting up new activities.
Starting up new activities is what Jeoffrey does best. He has been enjoying it for more than 15 years already. As as student he built a company that developed high-tech energy management systems for pleasure yachts. Later he built and successfully sold his company Flowid, which involved high tech chemical reactors that are implemented in production processes in the chemical and pharmaceutical industry worldwide. For some time he was interim CFO at SAIA Agrobotics, one of StartLife’s startups. And now he is actively involved with floating solar parks.
Jeoffrey’s strength is being able to translate difficult and abstract technology into understandable transparent concepts that makes people enthusiastic. With great pleasure he has given countless presentations that have led to different awards, but more importantly, in the trust and adaptation of a newcomer in a highly conservative industry. He likes to create motivated and professional teams and know how to convert relationships into win-win partnerships.
I’m interested in your story. We can share experiences, see how we can manage risks and most important, find ways to get your company up to speed.
Ciska is a hands-on corporate entrepreneur with a strong passion for the agrifood sector. As co-founder and CEO she launched a successful international corporate spin-out. Currently she is involved with initiating, developing and accelerating new business propositions in the context of Food System Transition within Rabobank. As a former corporate venture builder, she co-developed multiple propositions for several big corporates.
Her strength is an unstoppable drive to understand customer’s problems and subsequently test, (in)validate and iterate on a solution that solves the problem and turns the solution into a profitable business model. Her expertise covers the spectrum from idea phase up to and including product-market fit.
‘Vision without execution is just hallucination’ – Henry Ford
Through his background in marketing, Sebastiaan Bierma is a commercial guy with a strategic, long-term vision. He has been successful by building relationships both on the production side as well as in distribution. At the start of his international career, he worked with multinational organisations in food as well as luxury/lifestyle products in various countries.
After completing his MBA, Sebastiaan moved to work in different commercial roles for startups and scale-ups. There he learned that commercial success depends on the strength of the partnerships you create around you.
As one of the founders of Unica Global, parent company of Jovie Organic Goatmilk Formulas, he developed a specialty food product, while building a brand from scratch and rolling out an international sales network.
His most recent professional move is in the field of animal healthcare. A completely different field altogether, although strategic partnerships will again be the key to success.
Sebastiaan Grew up in Belgium, studied in The Netherlands (MSc International Business, Maastricht University) and in Spain (Executive MBA, IE Business School) and worked and lived in Belgium, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Mexico and Spain.
Particularly interested in niche products with unique product characteristics that can make a difference in the lives of the consumer.
Experience in marketing and sales but above all relationship building. Strong cultural understanding. Experience in working with multinationals, large accounts as well as startups and scale-ups in various countries around the world. On your path to success, you will inevitably have to make countless decisions. Often, with only partial knowledge on the topic in question. I hope to be able to help guide you in this process and limit making mistakes.
If you want to grow your revenue fast, you must be ready to share it with others first.
Elise is an international, strategic, and creative marketing executive and senior leader with 25 years of experience in the (healthy) food business with global companies such as Danone, Nutricia, and Arla Foods. She is driven by a passion for creating relevant consumer-centric innovations, meaningful brands, and communication that triggers. When Startups have technical solutions but they do not know how to address this idea with consumers or how to position it in general to other companies, she can help. Through her work at Arla, she has also worked with agricultural needs and challenges and how to address them. With many years of experience working in an international environment and across functional teams, so she knows how big corporates work and this might be relevant for Startups pitching toward corporates. She has proven leadership and people management skills so can also help with team questions and expanding teams in times of growth. Elise brings high energy and speed and values clarity, honesty, and doing good for people and the planet. It is also important for her to have fun while working hard on achieving goals. Elise has an MSc degree in Economics and Business from the Erasmus University in Rotterdam and is currently doing an Executive Leadership program at THNK, school for creative leadership in Amsterdam. She wants to use her broad international food experience to help drive change and transformation in the food system.
I can offer many years of experience working in big food companies, like Danone and Arla Foods. I know my way around big corporates and know how they collaborate across functions and markets. I have worked successfully on how to create innovations and how to roll them out across different countries. I am passionate about business ideas that make a difference to people and the planet.
Instead of a quote I really like the German word for passion which is:
“Leidenshaft”
It can be translated as the ‘act of suffering’. It means to me, that when you are really passionate about something you don’t give up. You dig deep to go for it with all that you have.
mentor
With over a decade of experience in East Africa, Thijs Boer is known for his pioneering efforts in establishing the first potato crisps company in Rwanda, Thijs is dedicated to improving the livelihoods of smallholder farmers while making a sustainable impact on the community.
Thijs holds an MSc in Development Studies from Wageningen University, with a specialization in agricultural economics, which he complemented with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration. With a passion for developing profitable and sustainable value chains with a social or environmental impact objective, Thijs brings a unique blend of academic knowledge and hands-on experience to the table. His strategic vision, coupled with a deep understanding of the East African market, has resulted in the successful implementation of his venture and other projects that prioritise both financial returns and societal and environmental well-being.
Thijs is interested to get in touch with disruptive business ideas for the african continent, or impactful business, and develop ideas to make it scalable, impactful, and sustainable.
Tom van den Boogaart is a global account director at IQVIA, a leader in helping healthcare companies accelerate innovation. Tom has had a passion for the life sciences for the majority of his professional career which is due to a combined interest in biology and the wish “to contribute to solving the challenges the world is facing today”. Having worked across geographies, cultures, companies and disciplines Tom understands that commercial success is about integrative thinking.
While most organizations still have separate functions/departments that focus either on sales, marketing, business development and even strategy, it is the integration and alignment that is the key to success. Sales cannot work without aligning with marketing and vice versa, strategy is not about trying to do everything but about focus and deciding where not to play, and business development does not equal sales.
I offer you my above-mentioned skills and fields-of-expertise.
I am keen on helping startups with the ambition to tackle the bigger issues that our society faces today, and particularly founders that appreciate my ability to ask the difficult questions that need to be asked.
“That what does not kill me makes me stronger.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Martine Boon is global head banking for food education & engagement at Rabobank. Martine has a broad experience within the financial industry, in a wide range of financial product offering such as AgriProject Finance, Leverage Finance and Special Asset Management, and also in leadership roles.
Martine has demonstrated strong execution power, a good sense of engagement experience and has excellent cooperation and communication skills. She is currently member of the Board of Advisors of SantePartners (large care company in Holland) and is therein member of the Audit Committee.
Provide feedback on (financial) businessplan, sharing and access to Food & Agri knowledge, insight into Food Security Challenge and related topics, access to network in Food & Agri and potential investors.
“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.”
Charles Darwin
Holding a PhD in protein chemistry, Johan Boot has over 25 years of experience in food and food ingredient innovation. He has a broad knowledge of innovation process management, strategy definition, portfolio and cross-functional project management and business development for novel products for the business-to-consumer and the business-to-business food industry.
For over two decades, Johan worked at Unilever, both in central R&D and in operating companies, mostly in global roles. He lead large innovation project teams across functions and cultures in Europe, Asia and the Americas, providing him a proven track record of commercially successful product innovations and an extensive global network. Also later at Griffith Foods, a global family-owned food ingredient company, Johan was responsible for implementing innovation process management. Johan was also Vof the newly founded Hampton Creek Foods (now EAT JUST); a company that develops plant-based and cultured meat products for retail and foodservice outlets. Together with the company’s founder, he laid the foundation for this successful venture capital-funded startup in San Francisco.
Today, Johan is an independent consultant helping companies and startups in accelerating the protein shift and stimulating the circular economy.
Combining my technical and business expertise in both corporate and startup business environments, I can help startups define commercially viable ideas, translate these into product concepts and subsequently bringing these successfully to the market. My strength is creating fully integrated technical and commercial teams and ecosystems.
Startups that are instrumental in accelerating the protein shift: working on plants, algae, seaweeds or insects as novel protein sources. Startups that develop new ways of upcycling food side- and waste streams. Bringing these from the idea stage all the way to the scaleup stage.
“If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.”
Erik has a background in the Healthcare and Nutrition & Health industry with 25+ years’ experience in various commercial, strategy and general management roles both with corporates and startups / scaleups.
Before starting his own consultancy company in 2014 and co-founding NutriLeads (food ingredients with proven health benefits) in 2015, he has worked for 20 years at Baxter International and Danone of which many years in regional and global executive positions.
At NutriLeads he and the team have built a health ingredient company from scratch based on 2 patents. When handing over his CEO responsibilities late 2022 NutriLeads had its first ingredient BeniCaros® (trains the immune system to respond faster) on the market in the US, Bayer Consumer Health as their launching customer and DSM as a distribution partner for premixes. The team was ready to grow the company with new ingredients and new territories to the next phase.
He is now exploring various new opportunities as well as supporting startups and scaleups based on his dual experience with corporates and startups/scaleups.
Erik grew up in The Netherlands, studied at the Technical University Delft, The Netherlands (MSc Mechanical Engineering) and at IMD in Switzerland (MBA).
Skills and expertise:
Interest:
Interested in talking to people working on Nutrition & Health innovations both B2B and B2C.
Dax Denneboom is commercial director at Ahold Delhaize and founder of New Foodtech / Agtech Venture.
Dax has been guiding business strategy for small entrepreneurial companies and large corporations, credited with 10 years of food B2C business marketing (Nestlé and FrieslandCampina), and 8 years of online retail and e-commerce experience (Hema). Talent for developing and empowering large teams and launching innovative programs, recognized for growing sales, improving processes, and developing robust and scalable business. Lifelong learner and listener with a reputation for honesty and integrity. THNK-er. Strong passion for nature and food.
I love the unlimited passion that entrepreneurs have in developing their idea into a growing and healthy company. Their drive and unique perspective on reaching their goals is truly contagious. I bring a strong focus on consumer insights, setting priorities and delivering differentiated propositions to the market. I strongly believe in asking the right question on the right moment. This will bring the right reflection on solving problems or grabbing the right opportunities.
Besides my personal knowledge and competences, I offer access to my network in the categories (food, hard goods, fashion), in specific sectors (digital marketing, e-commerce, retail and FMCG) and capital (VC and PE).
