#0 Introduction

For episode 29 of the Bao Podcast, we have another dual-guest episode for you, featuring Michael Lefeber and Ken Spranghers, co-founders of KOZO. 

Kozo designs and builds spaces that adapt to the people who buy them. Whenever something changes in their life, their house can change with them. Kozo’s innovative construction method ensures that you can choose to adapt your home. A small starter home can grow into a fully-fledged family home and then even evolve into a care home. On top of this, their unique demountable connection system enables an easier way to recycle the different elements at the end of their life cycle.

Show notes: 

Kozo  

David Gilmour 

Albert Einstein

Lode Janssens: living in a balloon 

Matthew Walker - Why We Sleep     

Get in contact with Kozo: info@kozo.co

Time stamps: 

0:00 Intro

1:42 Where does Kozo originate from? 

13:15 Switching from event to construction

26:40 The start & Kozo concept

41:00 Biggest learnings

43:00 Outro

Episode 28 of the Bao Podcast marks a special occasion as we host our first-ever dual-guest episode featuring Peter Bertels, CTO, and Wim Pieters, CEO of CIRCL. 

CIRCL is reshaping the housing landscape with fixed-price, future-oriented single-family homes. Their unique approach integrates circularity and digitalization throughout the construction process. From digital design to a remarkable six-week construction period post-permit approval, CIRCL is at the forefront of efficiency and sustainability in the industry.

Show notes: 

Circl

Henry van de Velde Award Circl 

Alan Turing

The Imitation Game

Rework (book)

Valve: Handbook for new employees 

Time stamps: 

0:00 Intro

1:50 The start and activities of Circl 

17:25 Biggest challenge

18:45 Where does the interest in construction come from? 

26:40 Where does the circularity of Circl comes in play?

30:50 Pricing

35:40 Where do you see the construction market evolving? 

41:00 Outro

For episode 27 of the Bao Podcast, we invite Regina Zirion. Regina is Head of Sales at Cutr. Regina was born and raised in Mexico, she studied and worked there until she moved to Amsterdam in 2018. She worked for Uber from 2016, first in Mexico-City and from 2018 onwards in Amsterdam until she left the company in 2021 to join Cutr. 

Cutr is an Amsterdam-based company that was founded in 2021. At Cutr, experts from two worlds come together: software engineering and woodworking. As a team, they work on the latest technology to make custom woodworking faster, easier and cheaper. People can upload their designs on the Cutr website and will receive an offer in a maximum of 12 hours.

Show notes:

Cutr

Uber

Two-sided marketplace 

Oprah Winfrey

Billionaire Eric Wittouck steps out of WeightWatchers 

SOMM

Counterfeit wine scandal

Everyday Dharma by Suneel Gupta 

Contact Regina 

Time stamps: 

0:00 Intro

1:45 The start and idea of Cutr

19:00 How did experience at Uber influence Cutr?

21:45 Two-sided marketplace: demand vs supply

24:45 Environmental benefits and ambitions of Cutr

29:40 Rapid growth of Cutr

33:00 HR at Cutr

37:15 Investors

44:15 How far does the service of Cutr go? 

51:50 Outro

For episode 26, we invite Patrick Nijssen. Patrick is Head of Growth Benelux at NORNORM. NORNORM is a Danish company that was founded in 2020 by former IKEA manager Anders Jespen as well as investor and Skype co-creator Jonas Kjellberg. With 10 million tonnes of office furniture ending up in landfills every year in Europe alone, the founders aim to apply the circular economy model to office furniture by having companies subscribe to furniture instead of buying it. The company looks to create a fully recyclable solution for workplaces and reduce some of the burden on the planet caused by office furniture.

Show notes: 

Get in contact with Patrick: patrick.nijssen@nornorm.com

NORNORM

IKEA-backed NORNORM bags €110M to bring the circular economy to workspaces

Andre Agassi – OPEN book

Untold: Breaking Point series 

Reed Hastings & Erin Meyer – No Rules Rules book 

Bao Podcast on YouTube

Time stamps: 

0:00 Intro

1:50 the start and idea of NORNORM

14:10 Pricing 

15:35 Scaling with €100M of funding

20:20 How do they get their furniture?

23:55 Interest from Ikea?

27:00 Changing the narrative & Belgian culture

32:30 Other markets? 

33:55 Starting during COVID & impact

41:00 Dream future for NORNORM

43:15 Outro

For our anniversary episode, number 25, we do a part 2 with one of our guests for the first time ever. He was our very first guest and now he's back: Idriss Goossens! Idriss has not stood still since the last episode, 2 and a half years ago. Today he's not only co-founder of PropTech Lab Belgium, but  he also founded LuxPropTech, Relevation and RecAp, this last one is a joint venture between PropTech Lab and developer Revive. 

This may be a lot for you to take in, but the most important thing is to know that the main focus of these companies is to connect and accelerate companies (start-ups and investors) in the real estate sector. And we certainly dive deeper in it this episode!

Show notes: 
Bao Podcast on YouTube

Bao Podcast on Spotify 

Podcast on Apple

PropTechLab

LuxPropTech

Relevation

RecAp

Hownvestor

RecAp Summer Summit: Real Estate, Urban Resilience, ESGs 

Margot Machol Bisnow - Raising an entrepreneur

Being Well’s Book Recommendations on Blinkist

Time stamps: 

0:00 Intro

1:50 Changes in the last 2 years

9:20 Switch from buying to renting

14:30 Things that stayed after Covid

19:20 New businesses

31:50 Why not starting a construction company yourself with all this knowledge? 

38:50 Outro

For episode 24 of the Bao Podcast, we welcome Minne Warmenbol. Minne is a master in Architecture and co-founded BUURMAN 3 years ago.

BUURMAN Antwerp is a circular construction market where reused building materials from the region are collected, processed and offered. In this way, they offer a logical and local alternative to burning or low-grade recycling of good materials. The materials come from all kinds of different parties - from museums to demolition companies - that are unable to repurpose them within their organisations. A collaboration with Buurman solves a waste problem and a sustainability issue for them at the same time. Apart from used material, they also repurpose uprooted urban trees. These tree trunks are processed into usable wooden planks, instead of being shredded in the regular, low-grade way.

Show notes: 

Buurman Antwerpen

‘Gerooide bomen van Noordkasteel krijgen tweede leven als meubelstuk’ 

John Muir

Orin Hardy & Maria Farrugia: Bamboo U 

John Muir: books

Time stamps: 

0:00Intro 

3:00The start of Buurman 

13:00 Where does the material come from? 

17:00 Growth of Buurman 

24:00 Biggest learnings 

36:30 Sustainability vs. Profitability 

40:30 Using the architectural experience in Buurman 

43:30 Buurman within 10 years 

48:10 Outro

For episode 23 of the Bao Podcast, we welcome Simon Maillet. Simon is the Group Sustainability Officer of Cordeel Group. He’s originally from Germany and today lives in Belgium since almost 5 years. He did an apprenticeship as an industrial clerk and later studied economics part-time. He is now active at Cordeel for almost one year.

The Cordeel Group, a leading European construction company based in Belgium, offers comprehensive services for the entire construction process. It consists of several highly specialised companies that collectively provide expertise in all aspects of construction, from design and technical support to completion and maintenance. Essentially, Cordeel Group is more than just a construction company, as it provides a one-stop solution for all construction needs.

Show notes: 

Cordeel 

The business units of Cordeel 

The Minimalists 

Marie Kondo

Steve Harris 

Cal Newport – 'Deep Work' book

Time stamps: 

0:00 Intro

2:00 About Cordeel

6:25 Simon’s interest in construction

12:30 Small margins in construction

18:00 Being the sustainability officer of Cordeel

34:45 Trade-off between sustainability and profitability

40:05 Passion for sustainability

47:00 Lessons learned at Cordeel

49:45 Housing market

56:30 Outro

For episode 22 of the Bao Podcast, we welcome Ismaël Ben-Al-Lal. Ismaël is a visionary entrepreneur and innovator who made a name for himself in the world of renewable energy. After he finished his studies at Groep T at the University  of Leuven, Ismaël went on to found his own company, Futech, in 2008. Later on he started another company named iLumen. Both companies work around sustainable energy. 

In addition to this, he’s an investor and consultant. This way he can share his expertise and insights on sustainable energy and the importance of entrepreneurship in driving positive change.

Show notes: 

World Solar Challenge 

Lightyear 

Formula Zero 

STEM 

Climate-KIC

Futech 

iLumen 

Podcast Rutger Bregman (De Rudi & Freddie Show) 

U2P Group

Frederic Laloux – Reinventing Organizations

Time stamps: 

0:00 Intro

1:30 World Solar Challenge and other school projects

21:15 First company (Futech)

35:00 Dropping energy prices in the future

45:00 Second company (iLumen)

48:25 U2P Group

53:00 Outro

Lieven is CEO of Lito. He and his team managed to develop the ‘Litobox’: the Litobox combines a heat pump, solar water heater, PV system, battery storage, rainwater filtering, ventilation, electrical equipment and internet network in one unit. All this on 3 square metres and placed on site in less than an hour! We at Bao Living look with admiration at this innovative product and I am happy to talk to Lieven about it. 

Show notes: 

Lito

Vlaio 

Flaminio Bertoni 

Citroën DS 

Ulrich Libbrecht – In arren moede 

Time stamps: 

0:00 Intro

1:35 Why Lito was founded 

11:00 What makes Lito more sustainable than the traditional way? 

19:50 The start and scaling of Lito

32:00 Learnings of scaling

42:10 The future of Lito

51:40 Outro

Filip is the founder of Skilpod. This is a company that builds houses using a prefab system. All parts of the houses are made in the factory, and set on site in an incredibly quick way. With this, Skilpod wants to disrupt the traditional construction industry where the duration of a project takes a huge amount of time. And all this without compromising on quality!

Show notes: 

Skilpod 

Skilpod in the newspaper 

Katerra 

The Boring Company 

Mark Manson – The subtle art of not giving a f*ck 

Time stamps:

0:00 Intro

2:30 Start of Skilpod

14:30 Key learnings

19:30 Choices when you build with Skilpod

29:30 Future 

37:45 Filip’s role in Skilpod

39:20 Business in China

43:00 Ultimate goal with Skilpod

45:35 What Filip would change about the construction industry

47:30 Living as a service model

49:25 Outro