Small start, big ideas

A fascinating new book chronicles seven years of successful start-up innovation at TU Delft.

Entrepreneurship in Delft is encouraged in a big way. The YesDelft incubator helps fresh start-ups get on their feet and supports more mature start-ups in expanding their operations. Since its inception in 2005, YesDelft has been associated with more than 100 start-ups created by students, professionals and professors in Delft. In early January 2012, the incubation center published a review (in English) of the top start-ups that have passed through their offices thus far.

Reading like a yearbook of who’s who at the forefront of engineering in our corner of the world, ‘High Tech Companies: 2005-2011’ spans seven years of innovation in Delft. The series starts in reverse chronological order, with profiles of YesDelft companies that have joined the center since 2011. At the end of the book the most mature companies are featured - the ones that started up in 2005.

What is interesting to see are the industry trends that have emerged from year to year in each group of inductees, specifically in the sustainable energy and climate sectors. The year 2011 saw a slew of teams that presented sustainable energy and climate-control solutions. Of note is FlexSol Solutions, started by Lennert van den Berg, who has patented a technique of molding solar panels to any shape. An immediate application of these custom-molded panels is energy storage for street lamp poles. With aesthetically pleasing panels, municipalities would seemingly be mistaken in not adopting this greener-than-green technology for their roads.
On the sustainable energy side, Shifft, started by Stefan Versluis and Auke Verwerde and a YesDelft member since 2010, has developed products that make optimizing energy consumption easier for homes and buildings. Shifft is all about making the end consumer ‘smart’ about his or her energy usage. The team’s approach to interactive products for energy consumers makes these inventions good for the long-term.

VirtuaLock, a YesDelft start-up from 2009, has already made its product visible on the TU Delft campus. Started by Sander Schutte and Jasper Schuurmans, a few faculties have adopted the VirtuaLock function into their networks. Like a car alarm for a laptop, this software can localize the thief within a certain radius of the crime.
My favorite YesDelft companies from the past years are: Carice (2010), which is developing sleek, electric microcars that I foresee appearing in the next James Bond movie; Flux (2009), a fun company that creates colorful folding chairs out of a single piece of material; and DeltaSync (2007), which is working towards creating the first sustainable, floating city in the world.
These entrepreneurs are evidence that TU Delft is not only a respected research institution that develops high-caliber, international engineers, but is also a leader in bringing technology to the marketplace. What will be your big idea?

www.yesdelft.nl/home/bladerboekje.aspx.