Show notes
This podcast interview focuses on product innovation that has the power to ensure everyone with an electric car to always have access to services on the go. My guests are Gijs van Lookeren Campagne and Jan Borghuis, co-CEOs at Ease2pay.
Gijs and Jan share a long history together. They started their first company, Greenwheels, together in 1995.
Together they're captivated by new technologies that can change the world, dreaming about how it can be easier, better, and especially without hassle.
With Greenwheels, this meant innovating car rental into a 24/7 self-service concept. And today, with Ease2pay (which they founded in 2017) they are gradually making that dream a reality again, enabling managers of gas stations, charging stations, parking garages, camper sites, marinas, inland ports, and truck parks to turn their location into a self-service site.
In this way, they are making the energy transition easy for everyone.
And this inspired me, and hence I invited both Gijs and Jan to my podcast. We explore what stands in the way of making the rapid transition to electronic vehicles happening. The two founders discuss their journey of building the business from scratch, and how the accelerated this by leveraging M&A from the start. They share insights about the complexities of merging companies and the potential losses in synergy if done improperly. They also discuss some of the mistakes they've made along the way, including delayed integration of acquisitions and changes to pricing systems without careful consideration.
Here's one of their quotes
We are facilitating the energy transition. Ton, you didn't make the transition yet yourself. I didn't make that transition myself, actually. So why people don't do that transition to battery electric cars? Because it's a lot of hassle. You need to have three plastic cards if you want to go on holiday. But most people have multiple cards, and then the card doesn't work here, and it is not bookable, so you drive to France, arrive at the station to charge, and there are three people waiting in front of you. So Book, Park, Charge, and pay at the base, we think there's an innovation to be done to facilitate people. And that would drive the adoption of battery electric cars - but also ships, boats, and trucks.
During this interview, you will learn four things:
How to create a work environment where the team becomes your advantage.
How to accelerate the process of gaining a multi-year headstart advantage and gaining product traction fast.
What they've learned from launching a new B2B concept into a market that's dominated by multinationals.
What they believe is the formula to being ready for the market and shaping a sustainable business with long-term success.
For more information about the guest from this week:
Gijs van Lookeren Campagne
Jan Borghuis
Website Ease2pay
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