Here is an interview with Karin van der Ven, CEO at Jules and You Maastricht. The Entrepreneurship Blog has also helped with this interview. Jules and You is an innovative company in Maastricht which makes the life of students easier. Find out how Karin and her team do this and which challenges they face.

What is Jules and You
Maastricht is a small town, but it has a considerable student population: almost 15 thousand. Out of these, almost 50% are international students. Jules and You is a company which caters to their needs and strives to make their students lives easier. Jules and You is the place where you go if you look for student housing, want a cheap phone contract, register easily with the municipality and so on.
But apart from there services, Jules and You also helps you with your specific needs, such as organizing a party, finding a good doctor, filling out paper work and all that comes to mind. Jules and You is most often an intermediary which brings chosen services that fit the needs of international students to them- but still the service is always personal in a way and your individual needs are always considered.

Interview

Denes Lenard: Can you give us an overview of the evolution of Jules and You
Karin v.d. Ven: Jules and You started precisely 2 years ago on the 2nd of December 2007. That is when the idea became solid, when we decided what to do and how to call it. Before, it was an idea in my head, inspired by my student experience and my experience with international students from the study association Concordantia. I had the idea for a while and I hadn’t done anything with it.

I thought it is too simple, and that someone else had to have done it already. But then I realized it had not been tried out before so I decided it was time to pick it up. I got in contact with Johan, whom knew from before. He was interested in doing the IT side of the idea and we came to the conclusion the idea was worth trying out.
We started talking to the university and potential partners. That is how we found a partner willing to provide us with our first office. In 2008 we started the activity itself.
Now we have 6000 members and our services are growing. We have a new office, because the old one was too small.
Last May also other universities became interested in our concept and now we are also moving to Tilburg and Groningen where we open offices on the 1st of February 2010.

Dene Lenard: How do students respond to your offer? Did the attitudes change over time?

Karin v.d. Ven: Students have always been positive. Student and study associations where more difficult to convince in the beginning, since we were also to cater to the needs of students. Student and study associations were already in this field. It was difficult to make sure they wouldn’t feel we would be doing the same or that we might be a threat. Textbooks are important for the study associations in Maastricht because this is a way for them to finance their activities and to get members. They thought we would also provide students with books, but we managed to convince them that we will not get into this area and we agreed together that we will not do that.

Slowly, as we were growing we proved we are no threat. We complement the activity of student and study associations, and today we can also facilitate them with the partners we have and help them with sponsorships. Since then it is much easier. And now, recently, we launched a running events calendar for Maastricht (recm.nl) in cooperation with the associations. It’s a new calendar of events based on a need all associations had: to get an inside look into each others activities so there are no overlaps. Quite a few associations have committed themselves to contributing. So now all skepticism is gone and we have partnerships with most major study and student associations.
It is almost too early to say more about the student’s attitude. We have done only two inflows so far. At first it was more difficult for them to get used to what we do. Now Jules and You appears to be a set concept and they know what we do, and we get recommended by older students to 1st year students.

Denes Lenard: How did authorities or other business partners react in the beginning when you approached them?

Karin v.d. Ven: They all really have trouble reaching students. And international students are even more difficult to reach – there is a cultural divide, there are many very different groups, and they are hard to be addressed as one group.
The business partners found it to be a good initiative, since it is an easier way to communicate to students for them. We were critical with what they had to offer and chose the service we thought would be useful for a student. If students benefit from the service, the partner also benefits. We always tried to have a look at things from a student’s perspective. We did a lot of translating and finding ways to explain procedures for example.
The authorities and business partners where very welcoming from the beginning. For example the municipality told us in an early stage that they had trouble reaching students and we now help students go through all formalities. We succeeded to help them the municipality and explain to the students how and why to register. They have been satisfied. The number of students who get registered has increased with something like 30%, even though we do not have an exact number.

Denes Lenard: In your relation with the Jules and You members, you always adopt an approach that is strongly oriented to individual needs. But there are so many diverse people from different cultures in Maastricht. Does this sometimes create problems?

Karin v.d. Ven: It is really difficult. In the beginning we knew the cultural differences between international and Dutch students would be the main problem or main issue in making sure they settle here. But we weren’t really aware between all the cultural differences amongst them the international students themselves.
While working we were able to understand that for example Chinese people have a different concept of contracts than Polish students for example. Now we try to integrate this knowledge all the time. We try to explain things from the perspective of different international students. But now we want to try to integrate more specific cultures and be more sensitive to all these issues. We learn as we go.
For example with the housing contract we do so far we only used to go through the contract with the international students and explain them in English what they say. Now for many people we must also explain the status of a contract in the Netherlands, because for example in Asia a contract has another status.
Another example: in the Netherlands registration with the municipality is a normal thing and a legal obligation. It makes the government able to find you in a good way. If there is a fire in the house you are registered in the firemen know they have to search for your, or you get other facilities in general. But in some cultures we found out that having the government find you is rather associated with a big brother thing and it is perceived as a bad thing.

Denes Lenard: What was the biggest challenge you had to face with Jules and You?

Karin v.d. Ven: We are an intermediary, without students we can’t reach business partners and the other way around. At first it was difficult as we had no business partners and no students. We had to convince people with an idea, without a track record. Now we have it, and for example in Groningen or Tilburg it is easier. That was the most difficult part.

And then the university was skeptical about our footing as a commercial company. It was as if they expected that companies would automatically go over dead bodies for anything. Now they understand that a company can do something that is socially beneficial, while also paying themselves rather than living by subsidies. Commercial is not a dirty word, but at first they did not realize this.

Denes Lenard: What is you vision for the future: where would you like to see Jules and You in several years?
Karin v.d. Ven: Jules and You definitely has a long way to go. We will deepen our services and elaborate on them. We also hope to widen to more cities. Higher education is constantly internationalizing so there is a growing market for us. We are just really enthusiastic about what we do and this is why many universities approached us and they also want to implement our concept. There is also some interest from abroad. In the long run maybe we will try something in Germany.

As for my personal position, I think that after a while you are not close enough to the students anymore to feel what they need, and in the long run I would let other people make strategies and policies and then I would occupy a different position in the company.