Company: Duurzaam Investeren

Mar 2024 - Feb 2026

https://www.duurzaaminvesteren.nl

Situation

DuurzaamInvesteren is a Crowd Investment Platform for sustainable energy projects. The business was in bad weather when Stephan joined due to unrealistic expectations and significant budget overruns. Much of the allocated budget to complete the project had been spent.

Collaboration between business units was therefore hard and the situation was escalating.

Tasks

Stephan joined as CTO to improve the IT business unit and take over from his predecessor as soon as possible, ensuring continuation and prepare for acquisition.

Making sure DuurzaamInvesteren remains compliant.

Actions

Stephan learned the system in a matter of weeks and delivered a plan of action going forward in close collaboration with all stakeholders. The development team was formed with permanent staff, making sure the knowledge is retained within the company.

The short term roadmap increased transparency via data, clear accountability and sprint reviews. This did however show how unrealistic previous expectations have been and resulted in various shifts in priorities, this time driven by business outcomes.

Previously set expectations unfortunately had already locked in extremely short and hard deadlines. Quality suffered, but Stephan made sure this was quantified and openly discussed in the Management Team meetings. Stephan managed to release the product without business disruption.

Meanwhile, DuurzaamInvesteren shareholders were excited to execute their exit strategy. Stephan worked closely with the CEO to make this a reality by providing his input and data.

Stephan was responsible for all IT aspects of the business, including Security and Compliance. In particular, timely and accurate reporting to AFM, DNB and the EU (DORA specifically).

Results

The result was a significant increase in transparency. A quote from the CFO: "I can finally see where we are heading and what the invoices are for".

Costs are significantly reduced, development is brought in house and knowledge is maintained.

DuurzaamInvesteren has been successfully acquired.

Reflections

The deadlines faced were extreme. No business could be performed while development wasn't completed. Even though the deadline was met, it was obvious that quality had suffered and impacted all delivery for a very long time.