We like to give our community some insight in the entrepreneurial people that walk around everyday at the ECE Campus. Today we are presenting Foove. A data-driven startup with highly skilled and motivated guys, located in the Rotterdam Science Tower.

Foove is a tech startup that designs and builds (big) data driven applications. The adventure started with the awesome project Festivalkriebels.nl. Festivalkriebels advices which festivals are most suited for you and your friends. We have built a hybrid recommendation engine that takes into account 1) your music taste, 2) what artists and festivals are popular in your social networks, and 3) the opinion of the Netherlands based on sentiment analysis of thousands of online sources as social media and news websites. We use complex classification algorithms and Bayesian statistics to present a unique personal recommendation based on these three pillars. One year ago we decided to give the team an own entity, and Foove was born. So now Festivalkriebels is a product of Foove.

What achievements have you accomplished?

The last few months have been an intense roller coaster filled with thrills , doubts, and big decision moments. Various companies and entrepreneurs are interested in either the knowledge & expertise of Foove, or Festivalkriebels as a product, or both. Half of September we pitched Festivalkriebels.nl in front of the board of SFX Europe (Executives of ID&T, Paylogic, Tomorrowland, Sensation Q-Dance and b2s). We nailed it and were invited to become a partner of SFX and Open House, an initiative from the founders of ID&T and the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs. Open House’s primary goal is to create and accelerate new innovative eco-systems for the Event, Dance and Music Industry with the ultimate goal to convert highly innovative ideas into new Innovation Driven Enterprises. The Open House program will be launched at the opening of Amsterdam Dance Event this month where we will present Foove and Festivalkriebels. Further we have just started a co-operation with Open House and its partners to accelerate Festivalkriebels to the next level. Next to this we are exploring invitations to apply the technology of Festivalkriebels to external parties.

How many members are currently on your team?

9: Masi Dawoud, Robert Scheepjens, Rian van Gijlswijk, Ronald Capelle, Gabriel Maher, Angelo Vaudo, Jordy van Kuijk, David Hoogland and Wouter Kooyman van Guldener. Foove is a mix of hardcore mathematicians, data scientists, software engineers, a user experience hero and a business developer.

What are your ambitions for the next 5 years?

We just want to build next level things. There’s a big chance we will sell/apply our technology to external parties. However, at this stage we want to remain focused and grow our own product. Currently we are going full throttle into the Open-House program in which we are coached by ABN Amro, Business Model Inc., BIRI, and other awesome companies to bring Festivalkriebels to the next level. We are aiming for the moon and Festivalkriebels (ofcourse with an internationally oriented name) will become the globally dominating social network for festivals and dance music in which festival-lovers socialize, share their passion, follow artists and festivals they love, buy their tickets, etc. etc. etc.

With so many different office space options in Rotterdam, what is it that inspired you to move your startup near the ECE Campus in the Rotterdam Science Tower?

To be part of the startup scene here. Our academic backgrounds from the Delft University of Technology and the Erasmus University Rotterdam led us to the ECE. We believe we are a typical startup that belongs to a community like this. We love the vibe at ECE, the many interesting events and ofcourse the free coffee. 🙂

What is your contribution to the entrepreneurial community within the Rotterdam Science Tower?

We’ve got some bright minds in our team (read: rocket scientists) that could easily sell their souls to corporates. We believe many young talents out there are somewhat afraid of really starting the startup adventure and our team is an example of individuals that thought “screw it, let’s do it”. We hope this serves as an inspiration for those out there that are balancing between doubts and deeds.