What inspired you to establish Zensor?
I did a PhD in the engineering department of VUB (Vrije Universiteit Brussel), during which companies regularly stopped by and presented examples of collapse pieces and asked us: “What happened here?”. To me it was interesting, so after doing a few of those projects I recognized that most of the time the reason for the collapse was that the companies didn’t look after their assets. This was the problem I then encountered. Moreover, during my research, as a result of the PhD, I got in touch with a lot of sensors and different softwares. This combination was basically the scratch from which Zensor started.
Knowing what you know, is there anything you would have done differently when you were first starting out?
For sure, I would have started way much earlier to establish Zensor. In general you could do things differently, but when you establish a company you have your idea and just have to learn going forward: the only thing you learn is by doing it, by being out there. You can have many ideas about the product you want to sell but if in the end people don’t want to buy it, it is either because you didn’t explain it well or is not the right product, so the key is to improve both. In my opinion, the only way to learn how to optimize and explain your product, especially at the beginning, is by having customer interactions.
What challenges did you have to overcome at the beginning of your journey with Zensor?
In general the first big challenge is matching what you are offering and what people actually need. At the beginning it was difficult because I didn’t come from an entrepreneurial background, so I didn't have experience with that. I learned it day by day, interacting with people that have been through this journey before.
What is unique about your business at Zensor?
I think what we focus on primarily is “simplicity”. We offer technological solutions, which include complex analysis, but at the end we try to make sure that the outcome is simple and clear for the end user; this means integrating all the necessary tools and aspects that are often so complex and technologically advanced, but having the interface that the customer sees in the simplest way. You are only going to create an industrial revolution if your user actually understands what you are doing.
How do you define success?
To me, success is linked with achievement. During the time I conducted my PhD research, I experienced that many things are being constructed and then they just run until they fail or break. That is not a very sustainable way of operating. Now for the future, when people would be actually taking care of their assets, making sure they are actually used longer, and Zensor partially contributed to that change, that would demonstrate success for me.
What have you enjoyed most about starting your own company?
On the one hand, when I encounter people and start talking to them about our vision and mission, they get excited as well and you really can feel the enthusiasm, that is what I enjoy most. Having such conversations with potential customers are the greatest talks you can have.
On the other hand, I enjoy looking back, what we have already achieved so far. We have grown to a team with around 17 people that are doing meaningful things together. So once in a while, I enjoy reflecting on that.
What are the qualities of a good entrepreneur?
I think there are two. First, persistence, up to being stubborn even. You really have to go for it and not let you stop by bad faith or anything like that. Second, you should regularly take a moment to reflect on things. Not of course spending your entire days thinking, but just when you see something fails, that you think about the reason for the failure. So keep on believing in yourself, but also be self-critical at the same time. It is a fine balance, but this is for me the biggest asset you can have as an entrepreneur.
What advice would you give to someone who is trying to become an entrepreneur?
Next to what I already mentioned before, that you should start soon, you should also try to get in touch with other people that are at an ‘N+1’ level. That is a mathematical term and stands for people that have gone recently through the same journey as you, but are already at the next step. It is important to know the challenges that you are facing today and how they will impact you in the future.
Another aspect, what I would recommend to do, is to stay away as much as possible from paid consultancy. There are a lot of people, circling around the start-up world that long to be paid to consult you, but most of them have never set up a company in practice themselves. So as such, they don’t really know what is going on and what you actually need to do. Also, they are not in it for you, they are doing it to make money. Mostly at times where you don’t have it or could put it to use for a lot better purpose.
So try to reach out to other entrepreneurs, they know what you are going through and get what you are trying to achieve. They will feel nothing but sympathy for you. That allowed me to talk to really top people!