Why would universities hire me to teach such courses?

Having experience both in Entrepreneurship and Teaching is something I do not find often at universities. Mostly I hear about Entrepreneurship courses being taught by teachers lacking hands-on entrepreneurial experiences. 

At the age of 12, together with a elementary school friend of mine, we handed out leaflets in our neighbourhood offering our services to wash cars. During my first year of University I was part of the company Share-a-T, which sold college sweaters to fellow students. The year after, following my experiences and performance, I got to guide two new first year classes as a Business Advisor. Many similar experiences would follow.

My most remarkable experience as an Entrepreneur is the company SurfaWhile, which I co-founded and ran for 8 years (2015-2023). This generally also serves as the leading storyline when teaching about entrepreneurship. 

A couple of years after graduating I got to do my first guest lecture. The university where I studied invited me in 2017 to hold a talk, combining the topics of experiences as a former student as well as the motivational part of the lessons I’ve learned. In front of 800 students about to embark on the 4-year journey called International Business and Management Studies, I shared my most important memories. The overall topic of those 25 minutes was: ‘what running 2% harder (than required) had given me during my studies – and after’. A talk I’m still proud of.

During the years that followed, I have been doing more of these talks, both within the Netherlands as well as abroad. After having travel to the city of Córdoba (South of Spain) as well as Medellín (Colombia), I knew I was ready for a next step.