Valentine who?
Valentijn Rensing is indeed not a very well-known name. When you think of Youfone, most people will probably think of Ruben Nicolai, who in the commercials acted as Marcelino Wunderlich, a schlager singer with a bold German accent. “Youfone is quality… Just like Marcelino!”
Valentijn Rensing (42) is the one who founded Youfone fifteen years ago. At the time, he was the owner of a marketing agency and then set his sights on the telephony market. The major providers made their subscriptions far too complicated, he thought. Price fighter Youfone did it completely differently. Simple contracts, without too many frills.
And? A big success?
Well no. After only two years, Rensing had to file for bankruptcy. He made “all the mistakes you can make as a start-up,” he later said against trade site De Ondernemer. “Too high IT costs, no grip on debtors, negative margins, too large an organization and ignorance; I entered a business of which I had little technical knowledge.” Lawsuits, problems with creditors, Rensing said, “all the misery passed by.” Still, the entrepreneur refused to give up. A day after the bankruptcy, he bought the company back from the trustee, together with his current business partner Theo de Rooij, who is also involved in the Nederlandse Energie Maatschappij.
Let me guess: the bankruptcy is the best thing that ever happened to Valentijn Rensing?
Indeed. That’s exactly what he said years later – just like every other entrepreneur who has ever gone bankrupt. In the aforementioned interview in De Ondernemer he said: “Actually, every entrepreneur should experience this once, no Nyenrode can compete with bankruptcy.”
He also learned some entrepreneurial lessons, including: dare to go deep to achieve something. Believe in your own abilities. And: watch the pennies.
Well, that was in 2010. So if we fast forward, we see a story with a happy ending?
Of course. Last week it was announced that KPN, with a turnover of 5.3 billion euros in 2022, a giant in the telecom market, is taking over Youfone. This gives the listed KPN an additional 540,000 customers in one fell swoop. And the owners of Youfone have been richly rewarded for this: they are said to receive around 200 million euros. According to business magazine Quote the division of the shares is as follows: Theo de Rooij would own 50 percent, Valentijn Rensing 35 percent and Marcel Penning (who once started as an intern at Youfone and is now the technical man) 15 percent.
Is Rensing now taking early retirement?
For the time being, he will remain as director of Youfone, he reported to Quote last week. He will continue to manage the Belgian branch of Youfone; it was not taken over by KPN. And although he already celebrated the takeover “with a modest glass of champagne” last week, the deal is not yet final. KPN still needs to get permission from the competition regulators. Nevertheless, Rensing – who will soon be able to add roughly 70 million to his bank account – already calls himself “a happy person”.
In the absence of columnist Marike Stellinga, who is on writing leave, NRC chooses a person of the week every Saturday.
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper of June 24, 2023.