”I used to watch the Discovery Channel and programmes like Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman all the time with my dad. I found it all absolutely fascinating. That’s why I went on to study Physics and Astronomy at Radboud University.
I had no idea what I wanted to do later on. Becoming a research scientist seemed like a logical next step after my degree. But then I took part in the Student Company programme, which focused on entrepreneurship. Together with Business Administration students, we not only developed a business plan – which was the assignment – but we also set up a small business called Gight. Our product was a guide light for the elderly, to help them get from their bed to the toilet safely.
After a couple of years, we wound up the business. It wasn’t viable, and we all wanted to graduate as well. I did, however, learn a great deal about entrepreneurship and experienced first-hand how rewarding it is to create something that benefits people.
Micro-Cosmos was an idea conceived by medical students, which emerged from a health hackathon at Radboud University medical centre. They weren’t quite sure how to turn it into a business, so they came to me. When, a while later, it turned out that those students would rather do something else after all, I was given the go-ahead to take it forward. The idea behind Micro-Cosmos is that people in hospital often sleep poorly because it can be a hectic environment. And yet they need a good night’s sleep for their recovery. Our product is a bed canopy that you can place over a patient’s head, creating a peaceful little cocoon.
We were able to test the prototypes at Radboud University medical centre, where my mother worked for years in the oncology department. Although our product was developed for hospitals, it is now mainly used in care for the elderly and people with disabilities. The feedback has been positive; people are sleeping better and are less restless.
We make the bed canopy ourselves; that’s done by my co-founder, Skip van de Kandelaar. He handles the technical and product development aspects, whilst I take care of the commercial and financial side. There are now more than 200 bed canopies in use across the Netherlands, so it’s a success.
Our company is based at The Launch, the centre for entrepreneurship at Radboud University. That environment is a huge help during the start-up phase. There’s so much involved in running a business; you can’t possibly know everything. So it’s great to be able to easily ask fellow start ups based there, how they’ve tackled things. And The Launch also offers entrepreneurial programmes that have helped us turn our business into a success.
We’re not thinking about new products at the moment, but we are focusing on further improving the bed canopy. So that it doesn’t just stimulate, but also genuinely calms you through, for example, light and sound, and perhaps even becomes reactive in the long run. And we also want to scale up and explore international markets.
I’ve strayed quite a long way from my degree in Physics and Astronomy. Sometimes I do find that a bit of a shame. But what I love about entrepreneurship is that everything you do has an immediate impact. It’s wonderful that we can make a difference to people in the healthcare sector: both patients and staff, who find their nights a little less hectic thanks to our bed canopy.’
