On Friday, June 1, 2018, twenty Dutch startups presented themselves in the battle for a Computable Award. ICreative CEO Vincent Wouters is one of the judges and co-determines which ten will advance to the finals on Oct. 30. "There are a number of promising companies among them," he judges.
Computable presents 21 awards this year, including the award for Dutch Startup of the Year. There is an overall increasing interest in startups. This is because established companies often lack the ability to experiment with new products and new business models without losing existing customers. 'A lot of innovation and innovativeness comes from small companies. They are not hindered by rigidity or other interests and are therefore often better able to think out-of-the-box,' says Vincent, who is a member of the jury in this category for the first time this year. Previously, he judged ICT projects in SMEs.
Companies that could apply for this election must not be older than five years. By the end of April this year, 105 young companies had applied. After being judged by a team of Computable experts, twenty startups remained that were allowed to present themselves to the jury on June 1. The jury consists of seven people who have earned their spurs in the IT world.
'Startups are not hampered by rigidity or other interests and therefore are often better able to think out-of-the-box.'
Without revealing further which companies he believes have a chance, Vincent can tell what he has looked for to assess a startup's viability. 'I always look first at the copyability of the concept. What is the unique value offered and how is the intellectual property established?' In addition, Vincent looks at the revenue model: What does the business case look like? Is international rollout possible? How can the company continue to develop and scale up? Is there a launching customer?
The jury will ultimately nominate ten companies for the title Dutch Startup of the Year. On October 30, 2018, it will be announced who gets to call themselves such for a year.
The 20 startups in the running for a nomination:
- 20Face
- Carapax IT
- Expivi
- GoBlock
- Homerun
- Hotelchamp
- Ibenfrits
- Mind Mansion
- Oblivion Cloud Control
- Ockel Computers
- PlaygroundVR
- Quant Base
- SD-Insights
- Shypple
- Temper
- me
- Tryst Energy
- Watermelon
- Stream
- Winq