Raising your hand and not being seen by the service staff, annoying isn't it! The three gentlemen of this start-up have apparently experienced this a little too often, so they came up with something new: OrderMe. An app that allows you to easily order and pay for your food and drinks via your smartphone by simply scanning a QR code. MASTERS spoke with one founder of the OrderMe triangle: co-founder Floris Visser.Text: Patrick Stoffer
Image: Floris VisserDuring the Corona crisis, a day on a terrace or dinner at a restaurant looks a little different for all of us than we are used to. The rules and measures do not always make it easy for the hospitality industry, but this is how new ideas are born. Floris Visser, Dex Holman and Roderick Schuller had to wait just a little too long for their drinks and came up with an app, which allows you to scan a QR code with your smartphone and easily order your food or drink in the catering industry. Easy, fast and above all extremely efficient. MASTERS spoke to the young co-founder of OrderMe: Floris Visser (26).
What are your hobbies/what do you do besides entrepreneurship?
"In addition to working on OrderMe, I have recently become more and more involved in the wine world. For example, I am involved in a beautiful vineyard in northern Spain called Mas Fuertes. This is an idyllic, small and unique vineyard that produces beautiful wines. For Mas Fuertes, I am currently working on introducing the wines to the Dutch market.
Outside of wine and OrderMe, I am always busy organizing events, such as small parties or get-togethers. Furthermore, I also like to enjoy myself, think of sitting on the terrace with friends and I have several hobbies such as sports, cooking and flying."
What is your personal USP?/What sets you apart from other entrepreneurs?
"I think there are two things that set me apart from other entrepreneurs. First, my creative, yet critical view of problems and issues. Because of this, I am not overoptimistic, but rather I also look critically at my creative solutions. The second thing that I think sets me apart is that I can remain very calm regardless of the situation and put things into perspective well. Consequently, I don't remember real stress moments very well. By always looking at the situation calmly, putting it into perspective and dealing with it rationally, things usually work out."
What can the older generation of entrepreneurs learn from you?
"I think the older generation of entrepreneurs can learn from me how to operate more efficiently. What I experience a lot now with the older entrepreneurs I talk to or have worked with is that they often stick very much to the old ways while today there are so many tools and tricks to work more efficiently and better. If older entrepreneurs can combine their experience and expertise with today's capabilities of technology and tools, I think that makes them even more successful."
Who is your teacher or inspiration in the entrepreneurial field?
"Partly from my family, where my father is an entrepreneur at heart. This certainly also gave me the inspiration, ambition and enthusiasm to be an entrepreneur. Furthermore, I get a lot of inspiration from figures like Elon Musk. I find it fascinating how he got to where he is today and how he was able to put it all together, really quite unique."
What is your motto or quote?
"I don't have a real quote, but I do stand in life that everything you do, do it to the best of your ability."
What is the biggest entrepreneurial risk you have taken so far?
"Think I'm going to get into OrderMe full-time anyway. This was a fairly impulsive decision. I had just finished my thesis, had yet to defend it, and the obvious option around you then is to apply for a job. Once we had a bit of traction through COVID, we decided we should just give it a shot and see where it lands. Without really doing any research or weighing the pros and cons, which was a big risk. Especially since we had to establish a product in the software corner, which none of us had any knowledge of."
Where will you be in 3 years?
"I am never much into looking ahead to where I am in 1, 3, 5 or 10 years. As I also wrote with my motto, in 3 years I want to be able to look back on the things I've done and be able to say, yes I did that to the best of my ability and I learned a lot from that. Where or what exactly that has been only time will tell."
