{"id":80001,"date":"2017-08-08T14:27:24","date_gmt":"2017-08-08T12:27:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=80001"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:22:49","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:22:49","slug":"het-beste-idee-krijg-je-gewoon-in-de-kroeg-deel-1-coolblue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2017\/08\/08\/het-beste-idee-krijg-je-gewoon-in-de-kroeg-deel-1-coolblue\/","title":{"rendered":"The best ideas from the pub – Part 1: Coolblue"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSanne van der Most<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

A quick doodle on a beer coaster. That\u2019s the genesis of Coolblue, in 1999. The first chapter of a classic success story: three student friends sitting in a bar, unaware that they are all future millionaires.<\/p>\n\t

\n\t\t

Company: Coolblue (worth EUR 1.2 billion)<\/p>\n

Conceived by: Pieter Zwart, Paul de Jong and Bart Kuijpers<\/p>\n

Thought up at: Grand Caf\u00e9 de Dijk<\/p>\n

Conceived after: \u2018a number of\u2019 beers<\/p>\n

Graduated yet? No<\/p>\n\n\t<\/div>\n

A beer coaster from Grand Caf\u00e9 de Dijk. Table 7. A few times a week, Pieter Zwart (39) can be found sitting there with fellow students Bart Kuijpers and Paul de Jong. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t trendy or anything, so it was nice and quiet. We\u2019d sit there talking until they closed up. And one of our friends worked there as a barman. It was a comfy situation for us, financially speaking. And he could also talk with us from behind the bar. That\u2019s why we always set up at that table.\u201d<\/p>\n

The \u2018De Dijk\u2019 Room<\/h3>

Nowadays, the table in question can be found at Coolblue\u2019s headquarters on Weena. And not just the table: Zwart build a miniature version of the entire bar. It\u2019s called the \u2018De Dijk\u2019 Room, and is located next to a reconstruction of his student room.<\/p>\n

The \u2018De Dijk\u2019 Room houses a fake bar, pub colours and tables from the actual establishment. It\u2019s an integral part of the Coolblue story, according to Zwart, who has also installed ball pits in a number of rooms in the office.<\/p>\n

At Table 7, the conversation always centres on starting a new company. Every evening, the three friends \u2013 \u201cwe were basically sitting there drinking beer from a vaasje<\/em>\u201d \u2013 fill \u2018piles\u2019 of coasters with new ideas. Each coaster sets out a different business plan. They never actually make work of them. \u201cWe were basically hanging around, wasting time. The problem wasn\u2019t a lack of ideas. It was actually doing something with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scribbled coasters<\/h3>

That evening, the day before the establishment of Coolblue, Table 7 once again has a new stack of scribbled coasters. Zwart is fed up. He picks one up and says: tomorrow we\u2019re going to the Chamber of Commerce and simply doing it. We left at 10 in the evening \u2013 a lot earlier than usual. And the next morning, we were standing in front of the Chamber of Commerce at 9 a.m., ready to get started.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the birth of Mp3man.nl: a specialised online shop for mp3 players. In the years that follow, this first store is followed by hundreds of other outlets. The founders earn millions. Zwart, looking back: \u201cIn hindsight, you could say that idea wasn\u2019t half bad.\u201d<\/p>\n

The three build up Coolblue at \u2018De Dijk\u2019. Six days a week, you can find them sitting around Table 7. \u201cFor two years, we hardly did anything besides work and sleep. It was my ultimate sog. If an exam was coming up, I would think: \u201cWell, I won\u2019t be studying for this one \u2013 I\u2019m busy building my own business.\u201d Course books don\u2019t pay a lot of attention to simply doing stuff. But we were doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read pub reviews<\/h2>