Scott Hinton
Resilience is the ability to pick yourself up. More importantly, it’s about picking yourself up for the right reason or people.
Today we had the opportunity to interview Koen Munneke.
Koen is the CEO of Intrinsik. The idea for Intrinsik began when he realized that dental practitioners are often forced to juggle between managing their patients and following up with suppliers, which can be time-consuming and tedious. In order to solve this problem, Koen created Intrinsik – an augmented reality solution that helps dentists communicate with medical device producers (ie. crowns, bridges, etc.).
Intrinsik’s B2B solution is redefining the fulfillment process of medical devices through Augmented Reality (AR), 3D Scanning, and cloud computing. They help producers consolidate all their data flows while allowing doctors to offer superior experience to patients, anywhere.
Tell us a little bit about your current projects. What exciting milestone would you like to share with our readers? (Don’t hesitate to delve into your achievements, they will inspire the audience)
Koen Munneke: We have been seeing 206% average QoQ order volume growth since Q2 2020. We have generated over USD 250k to date with over 200 producers (incl. producers and clinicians) across North America, Europe, and SouthEast Asia. With a 100% retention rate and the premiere mobile app in the dental space, the future looks bright and exciting.
Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?
Koen Munneke: It’s hard to pick a single person, but I would say Douglas Horne has been foundational to the emergence of Intrinsik. When we started the business, he was the first clinician that was open to trying our MVP. Every week he sat down with us and gave feedback about how he’d like our apps to help him do his job. This not only shaped our product, but also our extremely customer centric approach towards the healthcare industry. To this day, Douglas uses our software applications and while I don’t get to spend as much time with him. We will never forget the profound impact which he’s had on our company and its values.
What are the most common mistakes you see entrepreneurs make and what would you suggest they do?
Koen Munneke: For first time founders, it’s very common to listen to too many advisors (something we called “mentor whiplash” at 500 Startups). Instead of focusing on their core strengths, they – I was one of them – start listening to contradictory advice from a range of advisors. You forget sometimes that it’s far easier for an advisor to tell you what to do (especially if they are not in your vertical) then it is to successfully execute. So be sure to have a solid and small group of advisors that you hold close, people that invest in you throughout a long period of time. Most importantly, listen to your customers as they are paying you for the amazing product you are building. They have actual skin in the game when it comes to your success!
Resilience is critical in critical times like the ones we are going through now. How would you define resilience?
Koen Munneke: Resilience is the ability to pick yourself. More importantly, it’s about picking yourself up for the right reason or people. When building a company you also need to be honest at times and stay down if you are building something that simply isn’t right. By surrounding yourself with the right people, you can be more certain that you are getting up for the right reasons and receive help so taking a hit leads you to doing better next time.
When you think of your company, 5 years from now, what do you see?
Koen Munneke: We see Intrinsik as the Deliveroo for Dental. We want to help dentists worldwide use their mobile solution to order dental products (ie. crowns, bridges, etc.) from the best producers in the world. Not only that, our superior chat and mobile experience makes sure that all stakeholders can operate securely, seamlessly, and efficiently. Some 5,000,000 medical devices are produced on a monthly basis by thousands of suppliers. We want to bring them together in our marketplace and ensure that dentists can offer the best products to their patience based on data driven decision making.
What do you consider are your strengths when dealing with staff workers, colleagues, senior management, and customers?
Koen Munneke: Whenever possible, I try to band together with relevant stakeholders and distill a multipronged approach. Instead of trying to simply rely on my own ideas, testing my approach with several people always leads to a better strategy. In addition to maximizing stakeholder buy in, I try to manage expectations to the best of my ability. By informing people early about next steps and upcoming hurdles, I find that most people are far more willing to be with you as they see themselves as being an integral part to a successful journey. A journey they chose to be part of because they were aware of the relevant facts.
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Finally, my team knows that I will always take final responsibility to external stakeholders. The success of Intrinsik belongs to the team, its short fallings are mine. This “shield” ideally provides a safe environment for people to grow within the organization. This inclusive approach to stakeholder management might be time consuming, but it ensures a more stable long term outcome for the company and its customers.
Being a CEO of the company, do you think that your personal brand reflects your company’s values?
Koen Munneke: If you are the Founder of a company, I believe that your personal values define (or at least strongly reflect) those of your company. I’ve always had somewhat of a struggle with the concept of “personal branding” as it feels like amplifying who you are for the sake of raising your stock with others. I strongly believe that living the values that you espouse and holding yourself accountable to them is the strongest – or at the least most sustainable – source of social capital. Instead of investing time and energy into projecting leadership, I’d prefer to be perceived by my team – and customers – as a person who fights for what he believes in, despite the odds.
How would you define “leadership”?
Koen Munneke: The ability to balance the needs of your team with those of the business and translating these into executable plans. In an ideal world these plans will lead to cohesion as it reflects the ambitions and ability of your team. In a less ideal world, this also means that your people understand why decisions were made and feel that they chose to be part of the journey, even if the outcome wasn’t what we were all aspiring to.
What advice would you give to our younger readers that want to become entrepreneurs?
Koen Munneke: There is no single recipe to success as an entrepreneur. It’s key to figure out what your key drivers are and what gets you to perform at an optimal level (ie. “flow”). Ideally, this process that leads you to flow aligns with some key parts of building a business such as: problem solving; helping those around you grow; giving yourself for others; and so. If you can find that drive and make that part of your entrepreneurial journey / activities, you have tapped into an endless source of positive energy. And believe me when I say, you will need it!
What’s your favorite “leadership” quote and how has it affected the way you implement your leadership style?
Koen Munneke: “Does that make sense?” was something that a mentor from 500 Startups (Robert Neivert) always used to say. It might sound weird when I call this a leadership quote, but for me it truly is. Getting buy-in from stakeholders, showing your fallibility and vulnerability increases the likelihood of building a resilient team. By incorporating those four simple words in your speech patterns you provide people the opportunity to remain part of the journey. It’s up to them to step in and start shaping the narrative. That might be the most important part of building a leadership team.
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This interview was originally published on ValiantCEO.
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