The intention

In 1999 Bitmagic started, one of the most ambitious Dutch internet companies. Michiel Frackers took office as director. Frackers: “I thought Bitmagic was a great idea. I felt like starting something with a small business, of such 30 until 40 employees. We had to aim for a market value of one billion”.

Michiel Frackers became known for setting up Planet Internet. Frackers started in 1995 a business to have a job. He was, just like some friends, graduated as a communication scientist and unemployed during the recession. Planet Internet quickly grew into a very successful internet provider.

The approach

Company, that has received a few million guilders in seed capital, made funny videos and cartoons. The intention was that they would eventually be viewed by millions of internet users every day. The large number of users would provide enough advertising revenue to make BitMagic profitable.

The result

In the end, it failed to make Bitmagic such a success. Frackers: “All our advertisers were internet companies, of course they all went bankrupt after the bubble. So eventually we do too.”
Michiel Frackers: ” I should have done nothing for a year then, anyway. I never do market research myself. I have such a general, rancid taste, so what i like, is liked by others too. And Bitmagic I thought was a nice idea. I felt like starting something with a small business, of such 30 until 40 employees. We had to aim for a market value of a billion. People thought I was crazy. But I was just downscaling: I came from Planet Internet! That company was now worth a lot.”

The lessons

“The biggest mistake we made at Bitmagic was thinking from the product. I wouldn't do that again. Now I am much more focused on sales. You only go bankrupt if your costs are higher than your income. Bitmagic should have been introduced on a much larger scale, but I didn't feel like it at all. I wanted to start small.”

Further:
After he went down hard with Bitmagic, Frackers got great offers from the US. “For example, to do the European market for Google as managing director Europe. I got zero offers from the Netherlands. In the US it was said: “Good! Now you’ve a little blood on the nose…” The guys who've been through the peaks and the valleys, are the best. Everyone says you learn more from your failures than from your successes, that's my personal experience too. But in the Netherlands we don't seem to really mean that.”

Sources: Column “Good! Now you’ve a little blood on your nose” Dialogues, French Nauta, Emerge.

Author: editors IvBM

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