Jonne is in charge of future collaborations with various parties at Flow. When he comes to the Flow office on Tuesday, he spends five hours traveling that day. But he finds that living on Texel (NL) is totally worth it. He likes to work without a clear structure, doesn't like lager and has just bought a brand new caravan.
Cooperation
"At Flow, I am responsible for developing partnerships. So far we are focusing on selling our app to consumers, freelancers and self-employed people. In the future, we would like to partner with companies, such as neo-banks, accounting software and payroll automation companies. The idea is for such a partner to integrate our product - Flow, that is - or parts of it into their platform or app. So that they can offer our functionality, automating your money flows, to their customers. You would think that banks, for example, have already built this functionality themselves, but that is often not the case. Flow can connect multiple banks, which is one of our strengths."
Island
"Since one and a half years my wife and I live on Texel with our two children. She is from here, but after living near Brussels for years it felt like coming home on the island for me as well. As far as nature is concerned, it is so rich: you have woods, beaches, dunes, fields and you can cycle here fantastically. I do that a lot with my family, just like walking through the woods, going to the beach or eating fish. The nice thing is that, in addition to all the nature, here you have everything you need: restaurants, stores, a cinema. Yes, Texel is of course a remote area. I have to get out of the door before 6:30 a.m. in order to be at the office by 9:00 a.m. And from 9:30 in the evening the island is no longer accessible. Fortunately, I have never missed the last boat."
Measure
"We at Flow have already been approached by several parties who want to explore whether we can work together. That is very cool. We ourselves are also looking closely at who we could enter into a partnership with. I am now setting up a scoring mechanism, a kind of measuring stick along which we can place various potential partners. For example, it is an advantage if a company is already involved in some way with money jars, and we can help them to professionalize that further. It is also an advantage if they are focused on B2B, and of course if they like to work together. I test all kinds of companies on those kinds of things, together with the team. In the coming quarter we are going to draw up a list of possible partners with whom we want to enter the next stage. And within a year we want to start doing an integration with one partner."
Lager
" I think there are very few men who don't drink lager. I would describe it as a kind of water with an incredibly foul taste, which I will never drink. I do like a good Dutch or Belgian triple, on the other hand; that beer has a much fuller taste. I don't drink a lot; for me it's about quality instead of quantity. And in a restaurant I prefer a good red wine."
Fun factor
"What attracts me to working at Flow is that there is no finished structure. As a result, there is a lot of room to develop and adapt things. I thrive on that, just let me swim a little, then I'll make sure that structure will be there in the end. Furthermore, I really believe in our product and I think we have found a very good balance between functionality and the fun factor. This applies not only to the app, but also to the atmosphere at Flow. The focus is on the employees, who all provide input that is really listened to. There is no hierarchy here. And everyone enjoys their work and wants to go for the best result. That gives me a lot of energy, especially since I'm doing what I love: developing new directions."
Caravan
"I have to honestly admit that Flow hasn't changed my money habits yet. My wife is better at controlling spending than I am: she never buys unnecessary things, and inhibits me from making spontaneous purchases. For example, eating out - I'm not much of a cook. It's a good thing she keeps me in check a bit, otherwise we would never have been able to pay for the caravan we just bought. It won't be delivered until February, so we can look forward to it for a while. Such a house on wheels seems ideal for us with two young kids, because I hate packing and unpacking all the time. Soon we will have everything we need right next to us, and it will be our own stuff too. I'm really looking forward to that, haha!"
Stopping working
"I find everything that has to do with financial independence incredibly interesting. I also invest my money, I don't save it because I don't get anything out of it. I think the cooperation between Flow and, for example, a party like Meesman is very strong, because it offers people help with the question: how do you arrange your money matters for the future? And only if you have that sorted out can you stop working at a certain point because you have to, and go and do what you maybe really enjoy doing without having to think about earning money. For me, that would still be Flow now, for sure, but being involved in sustainable innovation seems cool to me, too."
