Interview with Michel Verschuere – Eco Quest
Today I talked to Michel Verschuere (Belgium, 23/12/1975), Managing Director of Eco-Quest bvba. Eco Quest BVBA is an import, export and marketing company with fields of activity in renewable energy and energy efficiency. The main product lines are photovoltaic (PV-) equipment, heat pumps, small-scale wind turbines and LED lighting fixtures for general lighting applications.
What was the reason you decided to startup your own company? Global warming is a fact of life for present generations and greenhouse gas emissions at its cause are deeply embedded into our everyday life. Even the simplest of human actions imply increased emissions which, combined with ever increasing global population numbers, imposes an aggregate environmental impact than can no longer be ignored nor left unmanaged.
The vision behind the creation of Eco Quest was the creators’ conviction that equal standards of living can nowadays be reached using new technologies, often referred to as ‘green tech’, that impose a lesser carbon footprint onto the environment. The quest for ever more efficient green technologies is at the core of Eco Quest’s business strategy and it’s marketing towards an ever widening customer base its goal.
What were the main obstacles you encountered launching your idea/company?As with every startup, Eco Quest faced the problem of assembling a sound product base and devising the right marketing strategy after the target customer groups had been identified. Specifically on the PV side of our activities, selecting the right quality of material and eventually the proper partnership choice was paramount to our later success. The process of selecting the right product range, whatever the technology, is a long and costly one, especially from the point of view of a startup.
What innovation your company is offering to the customers, what is the added value of your company?Our customers benefit from the guaranteed high quality standards for all our products, throughout our activity range. The fact that we have direct in-house experience with the applications of our PV equipment and LED lighting technology is a strong plus when offering customer advisory. We are convinced that the quality standard of our after-sales service is the main reason why competitors are unable to unlock our most trusted customers and we believe that the trusted relation with our dealers is an asset, stronger than any clause in a standard resellers’ agreement.
What are, in your opinion, the success keys of your startup?The driving force behind the success of Eco Quest is the simple clarity of one central idea: Energy efficiency for the masses. In all we do, we try and combine operational cost efficiency with product quality for our green tech products, so that the ‘Eco’ mark can both trigger reference to ‘Ecological’ as well as ‘Economical’ customer value.
What would you like to see the government will do to push innovation and young entrepreneurs?Young entrepreneurs always face the financing question for their project or idea. The government’s role consists in defining the level playing field towards young entrepreneurs. It is to the government to stimulate development of for instance green technology sectors, either through grants, project competitions or tax rebates because there is strong popular support for it. The government should however not directly intervene in the everyday management of startups but rather leave the decision to invest or support a viable and innovative idea to a panel of independent advisors or experts stemming from a broad range of businesses or academic institutions.
Contact Michel Verschuere: www.eco-quest.be
Frederik Van Lierde has more then 10 years experience in startup business.
Read his blog to find out more. Http://FrederikVanLierde.wordpress.com
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