20 Year anniversay

On Monday 03-03-03 I did my first consultancy job as an official entrepreneur. Today 20 years ago!

It started early 2003. I mentioned to my employer Philips I wanted to quit my job and I would like you to hire me back.?

First response; “we’re crazy to pay you the same for 2 days a week of what we do now for 5 days a week”. But thankfully they did, so my first “thank you” is to Philips to help me quit my job and start as entrepreneur.?

An easy start with just a cell phone, a laptop and a contract in the pocket.?

The whole 20 years was a great journey with fun, successes and failures?.?

It started with continuous development within Philips for the Joint Strike Fighter engine soon followed with process development for the diaper industry (wasn’t on my shortlist for potential clients/ industry).?

Soon followed by;

·??????Implants, brain implants, BAHA

·??????Aerospace products

·??????Cutting in Russia 2 m3 blocks of pure W and Cr in slices

·??????Development of complex microstructures smaller then 1 mm2

·??????Energy systems in Southern Korea

·??????Consumer products

·??????Automotive parts with major brands

·??????Space products and high-speed supersonic projects

·??????Machine supply to the US, Southern Korea, Scandinavia and Israel?

·??????From parts that needed to be manufactured to go into orbit to parts that now go km’s deep into the earth crust

Great trips to Venezuela flying through the Amazon part of the country in private jets with customer. - Eating raw herring with clients. - Having great time and doing exciting stuff in China. - Had the chance to visit the most sophisticated factories but have also seen nasty stuff in factories. - Worked with small start-ups, but majority of all our clients are global playing multinationals. - Hosting visits to Leeuwarden with companies from all over the world. - Developing a membrane technology with a college friend Sybrand Metz where we transformed metal into ceramic with unique spin-offs like e-coils for personal vaporizers (which was a journey on its own) and phone casings for a high-end phone with the team of Andy Rubin solving antenna problems. - Research programs in Belarus and Russia where we worked closely together with researchers and scientists in Moscow and St. Petersburg. I always said if I ever sell ECM Technologies , I’ll back-pack 2 months in Russia and will come home with a new technology (That’s now hard to imagine these days as the world has changed). - Border controls and locked in for full car inspection because of having a yellow Dutch license plate. - Having beers up to almost pure local distilled from undefined liquids with clients. - Being invited at home with clients means a lot in many cultures, it was unique and I have meet lovely families. But also having clients becoming friends and eating “boerenkool” with my family at our home. – Sleeping in fancy high-high-end hotels to crappy rooms where rats didn’t even want to enter. - Trips with 17 flights in 10 days crossing Northern America. - Being classified as a spy??? ?- Crossing countries in our car from meeting to meeting and traveling 3800 km in 42 hours. - A whole team arriving of Apple in our city Leeuwarden on queens-day while the whole country was partying and dressed up in orange. Or meeting their CEO in the cantina in Cupertino. - Doing 7 am gym/ yoga with all company employees as company start of the day in Southern Korea. – Having to come to court for speeding 5 miles in West Virginia. - Flying with a helicopter with a business partner through the Grand Canyon. -?

A special thanks to all companies that have trusted us to do business with us in the last 20 years!

A special thanks to all the team members. Some I have worked with for more than 25yrs when starting at Philips. And employee no 1 that started in 2006 is still with the team. Thanks to all these brainiacs. The real smart asses! Chatting around the clock with our BD in the US running together global market development, thanks Aaron Baxter for this WhatsApp book, as we are writing our journey!

Thanks for all the support from our suppliers. A big shout out for their support.?

Thanks to all our investors. Started as single man up till 9 shareholders and now back to single owner. Thanks for all their trust.?

Although there is enough to complain about our Dutch government, I also would like to thank them for their support during COVID. Sure, we will pay it all back with taxes!

The whole story is about ECM. Electrochemical Machining. A unique metal machining technology based on electrolysis. So maybe as well; thanks Mr. Michael Faraday. The Father of the modern ECM technology who published his Faraday law in 1834!

But the best of traveling all over the world is coming home??.

I THANK my family for their support, my wife Karin van der Gun for making this all possible continuing operations at home. And I’m writing this while I’m traveling home from a 2-day trip to Bangkok.

It’s not a family business but my wife Karin van der Gun has worked in the company and helped us out. All my 3 sons have helped in some way with installation work, supporting on international projects and weekly cleaning as “pleeboys”. Last but not least our daughter that sometimes misses me when I’m out for a “few” days and I miss her.

An interesting journey that becomes more exciting day by day. From diverge to different technologies to hardcore converge and super focus on one single product and become world leader in Metal to Metal power sections with Full-Metal-Power

Building now a new product, a unique product that is produced in our factory 24/6 fully automated. Designing a process from scratch. Our biggest achievement is to transform a research company into a full automated production entity. Getting into 24 countries in 3 years with our new product line has been a huge achievement.

I always said from the beginning if I retire with 10K or 10mio. I don’t care. As long the journey is worth it. It is a journey for sure and I enjoy all the highs and the lows and every day is worth it. As soon tomorrow will be the same as yesterday I’m done. That’s the excitement of my work life. Exporting our Technology, Knowledge and products to 45 countries.

Looking forward to the next 20 years of this exciting journey!

Thanks to you all supporting us on LinkedIn. Have a wonderful weekend!