The circumstances were ideal: the Frits Philips Lounge was filled with representatives of almost all former Gerard & Anton Award winners, the networking stakeholders were there, and PSV also won its fifteenth consecutive game this season. No wonder the over one hundred attendees witnessed the start of the Gerard & Anton Community in an elated mood.
- On December 7, the Gerard & Anton Community was introduced.
- With the community, Innovation Origins wants to strengthen further the power of former Gerard & Anton Award winners.
The desire for such a community came from the start-ups themselves. A Strategy Unit and Innovation Origins study showed that the Brainport region harbors various characteristics to stimulate the success of a start-up, but also that there were still some areas for improvement. To address these issues, Innovation Origins took the initiative to establish the Gerard & Anton community. Yesterday was the launch, which took place at Philips’s invitation just before the PSV – Heerenveen match in the Philips Stadium.
Since 2014, Gerard & Anton have been visible once a year. The many talents in the Brainport region have been given a great stage with these Awards for nine years. Our research has proven the success of that formula: where, on average, about ten to twenty percent of start-ups are permanently successful; for the former winners of the Gerard and Anton Awards, this is around 75 percent. An unprecedentedly high number.
The survey also made clear that there are ways to develop further. Most importantly, former award winners overwhelmingly asked for more ways to stay connected. In other words, they asked to create a Gerard & Anton Community. With support from the Gerard & Anton Award sponsors, that can now come about.
Sylvia van Es, president of Philips Netherlands, emphasized that principle in her introduction yesterday: “It fits into our DNA that the experienced companies help the start-ups where necessary. In this way, we try to further stimulate innovation and entrepreneurship in the region. By supporting the Gerard & Anton Community, we want to continue investing together in the unique strength of Brainport: a finely meshed network of cooperating parties from the business community, knowledge institutes, and government. In doing so, we will continue contributing to this crucial breeding ground for new ideas. Together with the innovative start-ups of today and tomorrow, we can build on what once started with Gerard and Anton.”
Alderman Stijn Steenbakkers – also the chair of the G&A jury – confirmed that importance, following up on Van Es’ story. He commented on the unprecedented success of the Gerard & Anton start-ups and promised his help in the years to come. After this, the community’s initiators could explain their plans further. With a new website, an accompanying newsletter, and a closed forum for the most pressing questions and suggestions, there is now a structure that should further strengthen the power of this group of start-ups.
Their strength is already considerable, which is evident from the data presented by Matthijs Bulsink (Braventure). With a total of 1.4 billion in funding raised, almost four thousand employees, and a combined valuation of 4.2 billion euros, the Gerard & Anton Award winners are a factor of significance. Also interesting is the founders’ origin: TU Eindhoven and Fontys account for over half of their education backgrounds. In their next step, besides TU/e, HighTechXL, and TNO/Holst Centre also play a decisive role. And looking at the spinout factor: therein, not unexpectedly, Philips is the main supplier.
That further growth is partly dependent on the surrounding network was confirmed yesterday evening by the representatives of large companies and ecosystem parties, such as BOM, Brainport Development, TU Eindhoven, Fontys, and the municipality. For the community to succeed, everyone’s input is needed, just as Gerard and Anton would never have made it without the support of their immediate environment. Bert-Jan Woertman explained this again at the end of the introduction by calling two other successful start-up brothers to the fore. Johan and Erik Plasmans – founders of Zens and G&A winners in 2016 – conveyed in a few sentences the special dynamic of having such a strong family bond at the top of your company. “Except at Christmas dinner.”
That was the signal for the attendees to move to their seats in the stadium stands. Extra fitting was the minute of silence that the stadium observed in honor of Wim van der Leegte, another figurehead of cooperation in the Brainport region and also someone who made his company benefit from the strength of the family. PSV did not show its best side, but even that was enough for a 2-0 victory. We could not have wished for a better start for the G&A community.
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