Who are you?
Sary: ‘We are the firm of Platzak (Flat Broke), a project group consisting of second-year students in the Trade Management program, focused on Asia. In September, we had to start an import company and import a product from Asia.’

And what made you choose this bag?
Lorenzo: ‘We conducted a trend analysis for three products – for wooden sunglasses and wooden watches as well. The flat bag emerged as the best. After that, we conducted market research and interviewed 220 people about the bag.’

220; were they all fellow students?
Sary: ‘No, not just classmates; children, mothers of children, and hipsters as well.’

Hipsters?
Lorenzo (sporting a hip beard, ed.): ‘Yes, I have a lot of hipster friends who, for example, do something creative at the Willem de Kooning Academy. They were pretty enthusiastic about the bags. But for us, the decisive factor was that the bags aren’t being sold anywhere yet.’

How did you come by the bags?
Sjors: ‘I simply combed all kinds of great sites on the internet and found these bags. It’s a bag that comes to life; it seems like something was photoshopped onto your back.’
Lorenzo: ‘It gives people food for thought, and it allows you to really stand out.’

What about the importing, was that an easy thing to do?
Sjors: ‘That’s a matter of finding contacts in China, but we sent as many as forty emails before we received a sample. And then another twenty emails before it was clarified at what price we could buy them.’

But you did it…
Sary: ‘Yes, and it was nice that we didn’t have to order one hundred bags that were all the same; we have a small assortment now – 77 bags in all.’

How did you pay for the purchase?
Lorenzo: ‘We have fifteen investors, mostly consisting of our friends and family. And we invested 40 euros each; there’s eight of us.’

How are sales going?
Sjors: ‘Fifteen of them have now been sold.’

And what’s the next step for your company?
Lorenzo: ‘We have until March 27^th to sell the bags. After that, we have to abandon the company again, pay back the investors, and write an annual report.’

But if it becomes a success, you might want to proceed with the bags…
Sary: ‘Yes. We’re allowed to do so, we can start up the company again afterwards. There are a few students within our group who want to proceed with it.’
Lorenzo: ‘The question is, however, how you’re going to invest. And at that moment, we will all be preparing for our internship abroad. So we’re focusing on the short term first!’

Jos van Nierop

This article was originally published in Dutch on February 2, 2015.