Jelmer de Jong

Just a few months ago, I wrote an enthusiastic blog post about the company for which I work — eFresh.com. At the time, I was writing about all that we had accomplished over the last few years and our goals for the future. Unfortunately, the day before Christmas, both the daughter company, GET NV, and the holding company, GET Holding NV, filed for bankruptcy. This was much unexpected and really not according to our plans for the coming year.

Last week, the Dutch court officially declared GET NV and GET Holding NV bankrupt. After a few weeks of ambiguity, it was good the have it officially closed and ended. Obviously, however, this was a very abrupt end and one not foreseen for the team and the members and partners of eFresh.com.

I spent two and a half years at GET NV, most of this time working on the core service of eFresh.com. These two and half years were filled with challenges, a great deal of fun and hard work, during which I learned from those with whom I worked and attained both personal and professional growth.

But now it is time for something new.

I started at Global E-Trading (GET) NV more than two year ago, which is the company behind eFresh.com, joining a small startup company with a team of not more than 12 people. Today, after the acquisition of more than 15 different companies and web portals, eFresh.com consists of a team of 75 people, located in six different countries, in seven different offices and in five different time zones. As a result, our ‘baby company’ becomes rather more difficult to handle as an adolescent. What first started as a “let’s get in the meeting room for pizza and get our hands dirty” kind of development is no more. We’re talking about business processes, requirements management, shareholder meetings, management reports, VP levels and executive meetings. With size comes the more difficult need to structure and manage. Do I like it? Yes! It is a great ongoing experience and challenge.

What have we done?

At the end of 2007 we acquired the domain name eFresh.com: a strong brand name, short and concise.

In January of this year we were very happy to announce the fact that we raised 4.25 million Euro in funding from an investment round in which Rabobank also participated.

In May, we launched our new look and feel with the move from our product category portals to one big portal — or actually 1,000,000 portals. Internally we called this project ‘One-One Million.’ Why? This one big portal should be a personalised portal for each and every one of our members. All our members should have the feeling that “this is my personal cockpit.”

In July we launched the ‘Storefront’: the solution for producers of fresh products to successfully promote their company and goods. At this moment, just two months later, 38% of our member base has already created and published their own mini-websites!

At the beginning of this month, eFresh.com attended, for the second time, the Horti Fair, one of the largest horticulture tradeshows in the world. Last year we were the unknown company at the back of Hall 7. This year we were immediately recognized. Members came over to meet us and competitors stopped by to learn more about our strategy; some of them even called us ‘the enemy.’ I think we’re getting there!

What is next?

At this moment, eFresh.com is the biggest online sourcing platform (dating site) for the fresh produce industry. And our ERP system (Match-Online) is one of the fastest growing ERP solutions for Dutch flower traders and growers. Our goal for 2010 is to become the new platform for direct trade, as well, with a strong focus on the horticulture sector. In addition to this, we will expand our payment solutions to ensure secure and speedy online transactions.

And just maybe, after another year or so, the stock market will be ready for IPOs again?

I will keep you posted.

Update (25/01/2010): no more eFresh.com.