In this blog post, we will explore SitePodium’s founders’ story which took shape after two mates shared a beer on a Friday evening leading to a chain of events that now helps share messages to thousands of people impacted by construction projects every day.
On June 1, 2023, the founders of de BouwApp and the SitePodium app, Paul Frankenhuizen and Mark van der Kooi celebrated their 10-year anniversary since inception in their hometown of Leusden, Netherlands.
‘The Construction app’
The idea for ‘the Construction App’ or ‘de BouwApp‘ in Dutch, was brought to light when both founders, who were colleagues at the time, were experiencing similar challenges with communication breakdowns on their personal home renovation projects.
After a boozy Friday night brainstorming solutions, the duo agreed to keep the momentum going and make an appointment with their local Chamber of Commerce the following Monday. This was the beginning of the de BouwApp’s – and subsequently its international version, SitePodium’s – adventure.
De BouwApp launched in the Netherlands in 2013 and currently has over 300 clients hosting 900+ projects with more than 600 000 downloads. It has positively disrupted the Dutch construction market by utilising push notifications to broadcast project updates. This has reduced public and private sector clients’ dependence on letterbox drops and EDM marketing whilst simultaneously increasing the project’s reach with impacted residents, visitors and community members.
Going Abroad
Five years after its launch, Paul and Mark realised that there were finite clients in the Netherlands and wanted to share their insights and expand into English-speaking countries such as the United Kingdom and Australian markets.
It would be safe to say that any business owner can relate to the resistance that comes up when you start one business, let alone two! Paul and Mark are the first to say that running both companies didn’t happen straight away and took an incredible amount of determination. Their passion for helping the industry mature by involving communities in the construction process continues to motivate them today.
