#159 - Quintus Willemse, CEO of The Share Council - On solving big societal problems through tech and entrepreneurship

This podcast interview focuses on product innovation that has the power to let every employee have its fair share in the capital of our society. My guest is Quintus Willemse, Co-founder, and CEO of The Share Council.

Quintus is on a mission. Every day, he is solving societal problems with technology and entrepreneurship. This mission started in 2014 as a long journey to change the world with the use of technology. To change how people work together and the working conditions, change how life and work are perceived, improve education and knowledge spread, improve the equal division of capital, and prepare the world for the next generation of technology and innovation.

This inspired me, and hence I invited Quintus to my podcast. We explore what's wrong in society when it comes to the capital divide. We talk about the biggest bureaucratic hurdles and how we can leverage technology to overcome them. We talk about the importance of big vision thinking when drawing the right people in – people who share the belief – and help spark the momentum. Lastly, we discuss some of his big entrepreneurial lessons learned.

Here are some of his quotes:

One of the things I stumbled upon along the way was the enormous divide in the capital in our society. Just the example of Europe, 64% of the capital in Europe is in the hands of 10% of the population.

The reason that the divide is there is that the return on capital is higher than economic growth. So my salary will never keep up with the speed at which there's a return on capital. If you can leverage that, if you can get more people the leverage of capital, one of the forms is having savings account fine. Another form is having a share.

About five years ago, I ran into that and wanted to make everybody co-owner. And I figured out it's pretty difficult in the Netherlands to make someone co-owner of your business.

I had a company of about five employees, and to make them co-owners, the first bill I was looking at was between eight and 10,000 euros.

This is more or less a smack in the face for any entrepreneur, any good willing entrepreneur who wants to give employees this opportunity.

During this interview, you will learn four things:

1. That some of the most remarkable software businesses start because they were bold enough to solve the problem that was in the way of their own success
2. How to spark momentum by having a sensitive eye for the most critical (and often illogical) roadblocks to be removed
3. Having a strong vision and believing in what you do will act as the magnet to get the right people to join you on that journey.
4. That as an entrepreneur, you better be prepared you will make all the big mistakes at the same time – And surround yourself with the right people to protect you.

For more information about the guest from this week:

• Quintus Willemse
• The Share Council Website