Joanna and Marina are co-founders of The Bake Room, a studio in Amsterdam where teams combine business strategy sessions with hands-on bread baking.

In episode 5 of StartingUP, we sit down with the two founders to talk about how 15 years of friendship turned into a business partnership, and how a garden conversation about exhausting corporate strategy offsites turned into an experiment with flour, water, and a LinkedIn post. From there we get into why they tested the concept for free before ever running an ad, why "no drama" is one of their core operating rules as co-founders, and what it actually takes to build trust fast enough to stop discussing every decision together.

No polished founder story, no gatekeeping. Just how two founders turned a corporate burnout into a business built on baking bread and breaking down business problems together.

▶ About The Bake Room A studio in Amsterdam where teams combine hands-on bread baking with business strategy sessions, offered in three tiers: Meet, Bake, and Rise. Site: https://www.thebakeroom.nl/

▶ About StartingUP The founder podcast with no gatekeeping, made at Startup Village, Amsterdam Science Park. Real founder problems and what it actually takes to solve them early.

#StartingUP #TheBakeRoom #Founders #TeamBuilding #founderpodcast #StartupVillage #AmsterdamSciencePark

Mourice Schuurmans is founder of Obsessless, a platform helping people with obsessive-compulsive disorder get early intervention while the current healthcare system can't reach them fast enough.

In episode 4 of StartingUP, we sit down with Mourice to talk about turning his own years-long struggle with OCD into a business built to close the gap he couldn't find help in himself. His starting point is simple: most people still think OCD is about tidiness, when it's actually about intrusive thoughts and the compulsions people use to quiet them. From there we get into why he built in public on Instagram before he had a product, why direct-to-consumer growth is brutal but validates demand faster than B2B ever could, and what founding on top of your own diagnosis really costs you.

No polished founder story, no gatekeeping. Just how one founder turned what nearly broke him into something that helps others carry it too.

▶ About Obsessless A platform for early intervention in obsessive-compulsive disorder, built to reach people the current mental health system can't get to in time. Site: https://www.obsessless.com/

▶ About StartingUP The founder podcast with no gatekeeping, made at Startup Village, Amsterdam Science Park. Real founder problems and what it actually takes to solve them early.

#StartingUP #Obsessless #OCD #MentalHealthStartup #founderpodcast #StartupVillage #AmsterdamSciencePark

Quint Wiersema is CEO and co-founder of Speaklee, the AI-driven speech assistant helping children with language and speech disorders practice between sessions with their speech therapist.

In episode 3 of StartingUP, we sit down with Quint to talk about how Speaklee started, why it wasn't built to replace speech therapists but to support both them and the families waiting on them, and how a Dutch speech-therapy waiting list problem turned into a startup. From there we get into why validating your idea early matters more than perfecting your product, why you should never be proud of your MVP, and what it's really like sitting across the table from an investor for the first time.

No polished founder story, no gatekeeping. Just how one founder learned to build, pitch, and jump before he was ready.

▶ About Speaklee An AI-driven speech assistant supporting children with language and speech disorders, and the speech therapists who treat them, built to shorten the wait for the practice these children need. Site: https://speaklybee.com/

▶ About StartingUP The founder podcast with no gatekeeping, made at Startup Village, Amsterdam Science Park. Real founder problems and what it actually takes to solve them early.

#StartingUP #Speaklee #QuintWiersema #AIforKids #SpeechTherapy #founderpodcast #StartupVillage #AmsterdamSciencePark