At this very hour I am supposed to be up in the sky, 30.000 feet, on my way to India, but I am not…
"Can I have your visa please?" struck me by lightning. @#*%!
For almost three years now, my company Qelp has been working closely with one, subsequently two business partners in India. For some people it’s hard to believe that we work together successfully, while we have never met in person. We do meet in cyberspace, some weeks even on a daily basis including weekends. We email, we chat through GTalk, we conference call, development work is delivered through workflows in our software platform, on test and live servers, JIRA issues fired back and forth, invoices sent and paid. Week after week, month after month. For a range of reasons I never went to India to meet Kalpa, Rashmi, Rabiya, Ravi, Swetha and their colleagues in person. Today I was supposed to go there for the first time, for a full program of meetings in Mumbai and Pune until Thursday. It just did not occur to me anymore, that I would need a visa until (not) checking in. Stupid of course, embarrassing even ;-) Having worked so closely together, my brain apparently felt the Indian embassy in The Hague implicitly granted permission to finally meet these people in person. At Qelp I think we practise Thomas Friedman’s, The world is flat to a significant extent. Offshoring, software-as-a-service for our customers, teleworking, virtual teams, operating internationally. Yet, we still live in a bricks and mortar society - one that does require a visa every now and then, for quite different reasons. Travelling in the European region, to the US, various countries in North Africa and the Middle East does not require ordering a visa in advance. There is either an EU treaty in place, you fill out a form in the plane or pay some duties upon arrival.
Hold on friends, sorry about this, I’ll plan for a new trip.
Last week I had the privilege of participating in the Benelux Techtour: an event where a selection of 24 “promising technology companies” from the Benelux meet with “60 senior representatives from VC funds, leading corporations and institutional investors”.
Being selected with my company Qelp as one of the 24 “winners”, I was invited to attend a great networking dinner at the Beurs van Berlage in Amsterdam. The COO of a tiny start-up from Luxembourg called Skype, explained us in his key-note speech how they became so successful. On Wednesday the Techtour left Amsterdam by boat for Utrecht and 8 selected technology companies including yours truly delivered a presentation to the investors. 
While I am not actively looking for venture capital right now, the event was an excellent networking opportunity to refresh some existing contacts and get some new buscards from investors, entrepreneurs, press and even a few potential customers. Compliments to Coen van Duiven and Ron Belt for putting this event together in their "spare" time. Coverage on the event can a.o. be found in Het Financieele Dagblad and De Telegraaf (both in Dutch).
Five years after founding ThreeFive Photonics, it’s time to move on. It has been a roller coaster of ups and downs, but first and foremost a tremendously valuable experience in entrepreneurship. So much that I think I got addicted to it. Most of 2005 I have been working part time, to build a new company in parallel, Qelp Mobile Solutions, thereby leaving the semiconductor industry and going back to my mobile roots. For the past 2 months I had to get full time engaged again to work on a management buy-out for ThreeFive. Have not been able to complete the MBO before September 1 unfortunately. Good luck guys, I hope you will be successful in finishing the process quickly.