{"id":95089,"date":"2019-02-15T11:37:26","date_gmt":"2019-02-15T10:37:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=95089"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:23:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:23:13","slug":"start-up-huge-intellectual-puzzle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2019\/02\/15\/start-up-huge-intellectual-puzzle\/","title":{"rendered":"‘In a way, my start-up is a huge intellectual puzzle’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Why do students establish their own companies? And how do they turn their business ideas into a reality? In this series, student entrepreneurs tell us about the incubation stage of their start-ups. In today\u2019s episode (the first of this new series), we talk to Graci\u00eblla van Hamersveld, who founded Closure<\/a>, an agency that allows people to terminate all sorts of subscriptions, contracts and accounts after their loved ones have passed away.<\/p>\n

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Graci\u00eblla van Hamersveld<\/span><\/p>

\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>

What happens to a person\u2019s Instagram account after he or she passes away? These days, people leave a huge number of subscriptions and accounts behind when they die. It takes their next of kin an enormous amount of time to close and edit these accounts, because, until now, there was no hotline service to do it for them.<\/p>\n

Econometrics student Graci\u00eblla van Hamersveld, too, saw first-hand how much pain and discomfort people around her experienced following the passing of their loved ones.<\/p>\n

After all, each phone call may remind you of your loss. And why notify thirty individual parties when you can notify just the one? \u201cWe were thinking: this administrative hassle is something no one should ever have to go through. But we were also thinking: there must be a way to streamline this process,\u201d says Graci\u00eblla.<\/p>\n

Which is why she established the Closure start-up with Chantal van der Velde, a fellow Econometrics student.<\/p>\n

From public transport chip cards to Second Love<\/h2>
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Graci\u00eblla van Hamersveld<\/span><\/p>

\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><\/div>

The Closure agency provides a service designed to make the surviving relatives\u2019 lives easier. When a surviving relative contacts the agency, he or she can indicate which of the deceased person\u2019s subscriptions or contracts must be terminated. The changes can either become effective at once or enter into effect at a later stage \u2013 for instance, if a car must be sold before its insurance policy can be cancelled.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn average person has about thirty accounts, such as insurance policies, Facebook profiles, public transport chip cards, or ANWB [roadside assistance \u2013 ed.] membership. But we\u2019ve even come across Second Love,\u201d says Graci\u00eblla.<\/p>\n

The surviving relatives are then asked to provide certain information, whose nature depends on the nature of the account that must be closed. For instance, women\u2019s magazines typically only require an address and a death certificate, while banks or insurance companies such as ING generally ask for more proof, such as ID.<\/p>\n

Every customer opening a Closure account is provided with his\/her own dashboard, where all communications are centrally handled. For instance, if you wish to put a subscription in a new name, you can sign the new contract here straight away. \u201cIn other words, you\u2019ll never have to make a lengthy call to a helpdesk again. Since some companies do not have a phone menu, surviving relatives sometimes had to listen to cheerful music on hold for thirty minutes. In order to prevent insensitive things like that from happening, Closure handles the whole process on their behalf,\u201d says Graci\u00eblla.<\/p>\n

Complete overhaul of strategy<\/h2>\n\t
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\n\t\t\u201cWe often had that horrible music inflicted on us. We were also told, \u2018Well, enjoy your new provider, then.\u2019\u201d\n\t<\/blockquote>\n\n\t<\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

Graci\u00eblla and Chantal hit on the idea of establishing Closure during the final stages of their degree programme. \u201cOf course people will often have ideas they\u2019ll never realise, but we decided to give it our all at once. We quit our part-time jobs to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n

Graci\u00eblla and Chantal decided to offer bereaved people around them the service of closing the deceased person\u2019s accounts on their behalf. \u201cWe assumed at the time that cancelling these things was a lot of hassle for the surviving relatives, which was true. We often had that horrible music inflicted on us. We were also told, \u2018Well, enjoy your new provider, then\u2019. It was confirmed at once that there was a problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

After doing this type of research for a while, they established conversations with companies to ask them whether the process could be streamlined in any way. \u201cWhich was when we discovered that companies were badly in need of our services, as well, since their customer service costs were very high, and also because grave mistakes were being made. For instance, in early December 2018, we were told about a widower who was still paying the service costs for his wife\u2019s debit card seven years after the wife\u2019s death.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is when Graci\u00eblla and Chantal decided to completely overhaul their start-up\u2019s strategy. \u201cWe started out as an agency providing services to survivors and ended up becoming a link between two parties with the same need.\u201d Within half a year, they were collaborating with parties such as Ardanta (the Netherlands\u2019 largest provider of funeral insurance) and KPN (a major telecommunications provider).<\/p>\n

No large bank account<\/h2>
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Graci\u00eblla van Hamersveld<\/span><\/p>

\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><\/div>

\u201cI did stop to think that I didn\u2019t have a particularly large bank account that would allow me to invest hundreds of thousands of euros in Closure, but I hadn\u2019t really considered the entire investment process. I hadn\u2019t expected us to deal with KPN so soon, either. That first nudge turned out to be the most important one. After that, things started to snowball.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2018, Closure won the Philips Innovation Award and was a finalist in the TedxAmsterdamWomen competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cWinning the Philips Innovation Award and getting so much attention from the media wasn\u2019t just really cool. It also helped us in that we, a new start-up, were taken more seriously. Although I do have to admit that the Econometrics degree programme has a good reputation, as well. It taught the parties we were negotiating with that we\u2019d found a career we were fully committed to, despite the fact that we could have found high-paying jobs elsewhere,\u201d says Graci\u00eblla.<\/p>\n

Econometrics is related to the entrepreneurship involved in Closure in several respects. \u201cObviously, I have an affinity with data because of my degree. If not, I would never have taken up this case,\u201d explains Graci\u00eblla. \u201cIn a way, this start-up is a huge intellectual puzzle. Maybe that sounds weird in this context, but in my own way, I\u2019m making the survivors\u2019 lives easier quite efficiently.\u201d In Closure\u2019s back office, Graci\u00eblla is now automating the way in which parties are notified and integrating new partners into the system. \u201cI understand the technological aspects of what we\u2019re doing, and I still benefit a lot from that knowledge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Poke bowl food truck<\/h2>\n\t
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\n\t\t\u201cThe biggest risk you\u2019ll run is having learned a great deal a year from now.\u201d\n\t<\/blockquote>\n\n\t<\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

That Graci\u00eblla would become an entrepreneur after completing the work placement that was part of her graduation project did not come as a surprise. She took the relevant courses during her Bachelor programme and also took part in the Australian Entrepreneurship Challenge. During her Master programme, she considered starting a poke bowl food truck business with a good friend. \u201cI enjoy starting up projects, seeing how they progress, and learning a lot along the way,\u201d is the conclusion Graci\u00eblla herself has drawn about it.<\/p>\n

It does require great adaptability and perseverance. \u201cAt one point we began to refer to the repeated complete overhauls of Closure\u2019s strategy as \u2018whiplashes\u2019. In the long term, we found a greater balance in responding to learning moments.\u201d Graci\u00eblla\u2019s advice to the entrepreneurs of the future is, among other things, to refrain from wanting to do everything themselves, and to agree on a clear division of tasks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat said, I do recommend that all students become entrepreneurs and learn by doing. Particularly since becoming an entrepreneur while you\u2019re still a student is relatively risk-free,\u201d opines Graci\u00eblla. \u201cYou don\u2019t have a family to support, and you\u2019re not sacrificing a salary. As I said before, everyone has thousands of ideas, and I\u2019d advise everyone, but particularly students, to do something with those ideas. Think big! The biggest risk you\u2019ll run is having learned a great deal a year from now. I\u2019ve never regretted my decision. Moreover, DUO is the most risk-free investor you\u2019ll ever come across in your life.\u201d<\/p>\n

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This story was made in cooperation with Babette Kleine Deters<\/em><\/p>\n\n\t

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De redactie<\/h2>\n\t\t\n\t\t
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