Stories about the perseverance and resilience of startups are part of the folklore of the entrepreneurial world. Except it’s all true. The pandemic tested so many strong startups to the point of breaking. Now, we’re seeing companies such as byFlow that have been battle-hardened to the extreme.
From her office in HTC 12, Nina Hoff has seen it all in the six years since she and her brother Floris founded byFlow in 2015. The startup makes a unique and patented 3D printer/software package expressly for the food industry. Their latest product: a 3D Printer for automatic printing of chocolate.
In addition to 3D pioneers, the Hoffs are examples of the kind of fortitude it takes to survive market turns and not one but two extended periods of lockdown in the Netherlands. Overall, the Hoffs’ approach has worked. They’ve sold hundreds of printers across multiple industry sectors, including restaurants, universities and culinary institutes. That said, there have been highs, lows and toughest of all, near-misses.
The pandemic didn’t do byFlow any favors. For two years, they had a collaboration with a giant American food multinational, one of the largest in the world. But halfway through the pandemic, both parties decided to end that partnership. “What you don't want is a big, conservative food multinational, who then immediately puts a hold on all innovation projects,” Nina says. “They're like, ‘Oh, my God, there's a crisis! We don’t think the chocolate market will recover fast enough … so we have to focus on the main business. It’s too scary right now.’ ”
Luckily, the partnership gave them the time and resources to perfect their 3D printer, with its evolution from a suitcase-sized contraption to an ergonomic piece of equipment you're going to keep in a kitchen and use every day. “A new kitchen tool for professionals, with a first implementation of chocolate” is how Nina puts it. “But we already see other applications for our patented technology. Everything is validated with customers globally."
They developed their proprietary 3D design software platform that doesn't require a technical background. Users can, for example, upload an image from Google, type in a name and send it to the printer, "and the printer will do the work for you," she said. "It's totally automated." Nina said what byFlow team members experienced over and over again was that even though the salespeople inside the big corporations loved their products and begged management to invest, the C-suite types were more hesitant.
“We said, ‘Okay, if those people keep on doubting, then let's do it ourselves.’ We don't need any money anymore for R&D. I mean, we're done with the development and ready to scale with our partner VDL.” Now, byFlow is raising capital to focus on expanding their sales & marketing.
