Op donderdag 8 oktober vond de eerste editie van SOFA (Steward Ownership Festival Amsterdam) plaats in De Kromhouthal in Amsterdam. Tussen sprekers als Tweede Kamerlid Joost Sneller en Jan Peter Balkenende mocht ook Sprinklr-oprichter Suus het grote podium beklimmen. Wat een eer!
Wat is SOFA en steward ownership?
Wat een mijlpaal: op groot podium, vertellen over Sprinklr, onze missie, onze stappen naar Steward Ownership en hoe we de laatste stap afgelopen februari hebben kunnen zetten: het terugbetalen van onze investeerders.
Geleerd van Gijsbert Koren van organisatie We Are Stewards: We zitten met z’n allen in een door mensen ontwikkeld economisch systeem, dat meer onttrekt dan onze planeet en de mensen erop aankunnen. Gedreven door aandeelhouderswinsten die maar een klein groepje toekomen.
Deze geweldige dag draaide om een ander economisch systeem: Steward Ownership. Want een systeem dat door de mens gemaakt is, kunnen we ook veranderen. Steward Ownership is een bedrijfsvorm die sociale en ecologische waarden centraal zet. En past bij een economie die opereert binnen de grenzen van deze planeet. Dus past bij Sprinklr.
Bij Sprinklr helpt Steward Ownership ons om onze missie en de lange termijn altijd voorop te zetten in alle belangrijke beslissingen. De resultaten: een gezonde groei, een gelukkig en trouw team en een stevige financiële basis.
Plants Over Profit!
Suus op het grote podium. Foto: Emma Pot.
Liedewij kijkt trots toe. Foto: Emma Pot.
Lees hier de keynote- speech van Suzanne
(In het engels)
My name is Suzanne van Straaten, I’m one of the founders and stewards of Sprinklr. Sprinklr is a webshop for organic garden plants, flower bulbs and seeds, for everything you need around organic gardening.
In this amazing warehouse we pack plants from organic growers and ship them to gardens in the Netherlands and in Belgium. My own garden - a 10 minute walk from here - is now full of life. It buzzes, it flutters. But 11 years ago I knew nothing about plants.
Sprinklr started with the dream of a greener city. Plants are great in so many ways. They soak up rain water, they keep us cool on hot days. They’re good for our mental health. And as I thought back then: plants are great for biodiversity. For the bees, the butterflies, all life in the garden.
Unfortunately, this turned out not to be true.
Because this research came out in 2015. It showed that 81 out of 84 tested Dutch garden plants contained pesticides that are harmful for insects. The only plants without these harmful pesticides, are organic plants. And they were nowhere to be found.
How was this possible? We wanted to change this super conservative, multi-billion euro horticulture industry. But this requires a lot: a cooperative government, growers willing to change, buyers in garden centres with guts, and consumers willing to pay the real price for less picture perfect plants.
We saw that everyone was holding each other in a bit of a deadlock: who is going to move first?
This was where we found our role, we wanted to break through this impasse. It’s where we found our mission:
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we want to restore biodiversity
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by helping and inspiring people to green up their space
- for biodiversity restoration organic plants should be the norm in all of our gardens
Well, the most basic rule for an entrepreneur is that you need demand and supply. Your sweet spot between them is the so-called: product-market-fit.
It explained in hindsight why it was só hard to start Sprinklr. There was no demand yet, there was also little supply. And we had no money.
We wanted to launch this company using as little outside capital as possible. But we did need *some* money. So, we immersed ourselves in the startup culture. It was then that we learned about the hockeystick. That when you find your product-market-fit, you have to grow like crazy. It looks like: starting from nothing, small baby steps and then —*bam*—exponential growth.
We needed investors, and they needed to see a hockeystick. So we played along and created one too. It’s really easy to make on paper.
Another aspect of this hockeystick model is the idea that rapid growth will allow you to sell the company for a good price within a few years. The so-called exit. And that’s where the problem lay. Liedewij, my co-founder, and I never felt like we wanted to sell Sprinklr. A few years after our first investment round, that feeling became very concrete.
It was 2019 and we were on the verge of bankruptcy. We had to look for new investors. At that time we spoke with a VC investor. Without even knowing our numbers, they sketched out the plan: put in half a million now, then expand to big European cities, Then another million and then sell. “Everyone gets rich.”
That’s when we felt: this is not our path. Because all the money that goes in, has to come out again eventually. And in tenfold. What would be left of Sprinklr?
We explored another path.
We challenge the norm of poisonous plants with our organic plants. Couldn’t we also challenge the norm of this extractive profit-driven model, with an alternative and sustainable business model?
We wanted a business model centered on creating social and ecological value. Supporting a green economy that operates within planetary boundaries.
We wanted a structure that guarantees that Sprinklr will always work towards its mission and that prevents any successor from thinking one day: let’s just sell this baby to Amazon!
A structure that places plants over profit. So we chose Steward Ownership.
However the reality was that we already had a lot of "old-style" shareholders. We took the following three steps:
Step 1 was determining: what is enough for us?
Not "what is the maximum we can get out of this?" but "what is enough?" A great question for everyone.
Our answer: a regular salary and a pension—that’s enough. It’s bizarre that we, as founders, could make a massive fortune. Sprinklr was built with endless help, many strong arms, many sore backs. We created Sprinklr’s value together with our team, our growers, partners and customers. So, it felt right to not keep that value to ourselves, but to hand it over to a foundation. To dedicate Sprinklr to the mission.
Step 2: Convincing the shareholders
For context: this was in covid times, everybody was gardening and ordering online. Things were going really well for Sprinklr.
So with our hearts in our throats Liedewij and I met with all our shareholders over pizza. Here we introduced our dream of Steward Ownership: which meant — for them — lower returns and fewer voting rights in the company.
The good news was that at least half of the shareholders thought it was genuinely a good idea. As one of our impact investors, put it: "In this case, limiting financial returns actually enables greater impact.”
The impact-oriented shareholders bought out the more profit-driven ones, allowing us to move forward.
Step 3: The legal work
Our shareholders became cumulative preferent shareholders, with limited returns and no voting rights. We created a foundation that has all the voting rights. And we set up a team council, for our team to have a say in all fundamental decisions.
In January 2023, we officially made the switch to Steward Ownership.
Steward Ownership has helped us in finding the right growthrate. We grew 20-50% per year towards 6 million in revenue this year. Not external shareholders, but our own team determined our growth.
Steward Ownership allowed us to be as activist and impactful as we wanted to be. No cutting corners, no trade offs. There are no conflicts of interest in our board. Sprinklr and our mission are always our number one priority. Our structure greatly contributes to our team’s strong commitment. Staff resignations are extremely rare, vacancies are easily filled. And there is a waiting list for working in our warehouse.
This all made Sprinklr financially more resilient. We made a healthy profit for the last 5 years to such an extent that we were able to reach another great milestone last February.
Extra podium: Groots in de krant!
Op zaterdag stonden we met een prachtige pagina én fantastische foto in het Financieel Dagblad! Hier lees je het artikel terug (achter een betaalmuur).
Geschreven door
Lyke de Wit
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