What Ever Happened to the Class of '06?

No losers here—this year it's straight A's for the winners of BusinessWeek's Europe's Young Entrepreneurs contest

by Andy Reinhardt

What has become of the 15 nominees and six winners of last year's Europe's Young Entrepreneurs contest? We reached out to all of them and heard back from 10, and for the most part, the news is good. In fact, many said that their participation in the contest and the attention it garnered had been a major lift—either in attracting further media coverage or bringing in customers and business partners from around the world.

The Price is Right

Last year's top vote-getter, Ben Woldring, got perhaps the biggest publicity boost. His Netherlands company, Bencom, runs a collection of consumer-oriented price comparison Web sites that allow Dutch users to search for the best deals on mobile phone service, broadband Internet access, and utilities (see BusinessWeek.com, 11/14/06, "Europe's Best Young Entrepreneurs 2006").

After the BusinessWeek contest, Woldring was showered with coverage by the Dutch press as well as by media from other European countries. He was invited to give a presentation to the Emerging Young Entrepreneurs Society (EYES) and has received business inquiries from Canada, Australia, and South Africa, among other places.

And what of the business itself? Woldring is a bit coy about results, but says that Bencom's revenues remain on track to double every two years and that he has enjoyed a "steady" increase in traffic to the Bencom sites, several of which have been redesigned and enhanced since last year. Next up: Bencom plans to launch an international vertical search engine within the next few months, taking the company into a whole new market.

In the Round File

Runner-up James Gibson has had a tougher time—one perhaps more typical of many startups. His big idea, hatched when he was still a university student, was a new way to dispense trash bin liners by unrolling them from a box stashed at the bottom of the can. Gibson's BinFix won some design awards and attracted a lot of attention, including from a major (unidentified) seller of so-called "fast-moving consumer goods."

Starting last October, Gibson and the company spent six months trying to negotiate a licensing deal. But in the end, he says, the FMCG company couldn't figure out where to fit BinFix liners into its product portfolio. Gibson was disappointed but unbowed. "There's clearly a market for BinFix, and being a true entrepreneur means having buckets of determination and persistence," he says.

Gibson has now started negotiations with another consumer products company that, he says, already makes trash-related products and has a suitable brand for BinFix to fit under. The lessons? Agree in advance to a shorter negotiating time and don't put all your eggs in one basket—or in this case, trash bin.

A Persuasive Case

What about the No. 3 vote-getter, Lars Duursma? His Rotterdam company, Debatrix, has gone gangbusters since last fall. Debatrix offers an unusual range of services, including communications coaching and managing public debates for corporate and public-sector clients. In the last year, Duursma says, revenues have soared 300%.

Thanks in part to the exposure he gained from the BusinessWeek contest, Duursma has become a highly-visible expert on rhetoric and persuasion, appearing often on Dutch TV and radio shows, especially during last fall's election. The energetic entrepreneur writes frequent newspaper columns on political speech and other topics and has launched a Dutch blog on the art of debate. He's also at work on what he promises will be a "provocative and entertaining" book about persuasion.

Debatrix, meanwhile, is set to open its first office outside the Netherlands, in Istanbul. Duursma calls Turkey "one of the biggest and most attractive markets in Europe," and says he thinks good debate will help Turkey and the West communicate better. He's also talking with potential partners about opening other international branch offices.