She also talks candidly about the birth of her premature child, the sale of her companies and her future plans.
Manon van Essen (35): self-made millionaire, jury member of Dragon’s Den, Venture Capitalist and mother of two little men. Quite a nice track record, if we say so ourselves. After the entrepreneur sold her healthy pizza empire called Magioni, she has not been sitting still. In conversation with Elegance, she talks candidly about her career.
Study
“During my HBO communications course, I graduated at my own company. A software that allows you to recognize handwriting and then digitize it for online photo albums and cards. This was my very first business. I eventually made an app with it and it became a top 10 in twenty countries. Even in India!”
Pizza empire Magioni
“I had already sold several companies, but had not yet really found my passion. Until I was sitting in the pub with my friends and one friend of mine said: ‘You know, every woman wants to lose weight, but also wants to eat unhealthy food. Why isn’t there something like healthy pizza?’, and that’s how Magioni was born.”
Sales
“I started as a pizza maker and ran the company until we were selling 20,000 pizzas a day. The right moment came to me when we received two great offers in a short time. My boyfriend and I are both entrepreneurs, and this opportunity allowed us to move from 40 m² to our dream house in one fell swoop. This way we would never have to worry again about whether we would make ends meet.”
The birth of her premature child
“The impact of this was terrible. I wouldn’t wish this on anyone. The question was always whether Joah would make it and if so, how. We were in the hospital for three months without anyone being allowed to see Joah. With 16 others in the room. Everyone with their own sadness. I got through that time well, but only now – two years later – do I notice how bad and intense it actually was.”
Motivation
“I wanted to set up a company where I could work from my laptop. Joah needed a lot of care in the beginning and I wanted to be with him. The idea of an e-commerce company seemed like the ideal job to me to also create freedom. In the past, work was the most important thing. Now of course these are the kids. With Vitamines.com I have the freedom to combine both.”
Keep all the balls up
“I’m pretty good at saying no. So for my work I don’t really like socially desirable behavior. I do what is necessary, work hard for this. But you won’t see me at networking events anytime soon. I prefer to spend that time with my kids. It is important that I am clear about what I do not want to give up. That means a few moments a day with the kids. Then I’m always there.”
Strength vs weakness
“My strength is that I see things before they become reality. That’s the only reason why I can sometimes go all-in. Because I believe so much that what I want to achieve will happen. Others call that reckless. My weakness is that when my mind is very busy, I sometimes become paralyzed and literally can no longer perform the smallest tasks. Creating a simple home schedule or making an appointment with the doctor can take me weeks.”
Highlights
“The sale of my company and sales in 9 European countries. But also starting as a pizza baker and now again with my new company vitamins.com; the new Vitamin platform on which strong advice, a wide range and fast service come together. I just really enjoy experiencing the whole journey of entrepreneurship.”
To dream
“Privately, I would like to take a big trip with the family. This, while I work remotely. I would also really like to become a major player in the market with Vitamines.com. But in a way so that I don’t have to give up my private life. So I hope that we will become a scalable laptop company with many satisfied customers and an innovative range that makes us truly different from the current competition.”
Advice
“People often don’t have the vision you have. Are you aware of that! If you want to achieve something, you will also have to accept that others do not yet see the image you already have of what you want. Strangely enough, the advice not to do it is often attractive. Because it’s scary. But having and keeping your end goal in mind makes it easier to bridge the period between start and end goal. This is because you simply know why you are doing it.”
Text & image: Manon van Essen
