Techport: for small businesses and bundling innovation power
Wouter van Gerwen is a true ambassador of innovation and therefore of Techport. Wouter works at Bilfinger Tebodin. Bilfinger Tebodin is a multidisciplinary consulting and engineering company with 1,350 specialists in 8 countries in Europe. They create a future-proof industry and have reliably managed industrial projects for more than 75 years.
Wouter: "By coming second in a Techport Challenge we were allowed to go through GO!NH's accelerator program. Here I was made extra enthusiastic about innovating and now I am a coach myself at GO!NH. Bilfinger Tebodin is an engineering firm in the process industry and from there I want to help companies that are growing explosively or making large investments. Every month we organize a three-day on-boarding program for new employees. We have this group of 15-20 employees think about a real-life case of a startup that I pick again from the GO!NH network. Based on a briefing, the new employees get to think about the business model, process, layout and permits and sustainability measures of the investment. This is so much fun. Not only for the startup that contributes its case, but also for the new collaborators. Above all, we hope that we allow a startup to experience what it takes to make an investment and offer them insight into what questions to ask engineering firms."
Bilfinger Tebodin is also a partner of Techport. They have participated in several Techport Innovation Tribes and Wouter is now also affiliated with the Hydrogen Learning Community. Wouter: "There are great manufacturing and maintenance companies within Techport. Sharing knowledge within the network is very interesting. You need Techport to bundle and make visible all those small companies and that enormous innovative power. I firmly believe in this."