Starter Story Billy Kuper
Billy (31) valt op. Hij draagt een zonnebril van Ermenegoldo Zegna, een fuchsia-kleurig pak met daaronder een rode trui. Daaroverheen een lange, wollen Burberry jas. ‘Gevonden op Vinted,’ zegt hij stralend. Bijna al zijn kleren koopt hij tweedehands. Het zijn merkkleren van goede kwaliteit. Sinds zijn tienertijd is Billy gepassioneerd over mode. Als hij op een ochtend voor zijn kledingkast staat en roept dat hij niets heeft om aan te trekken, besluit hij zijn passie – mode – en interesse – artificiële intelligentie – te combineren. Hij start zijn onderneming Closist en ontwikkelt een applicatie die gericht is op het toegankelijker, leuker en duurzamer maken van mode. Niet door recycling te promoten, maar ‘reduce and reuse’. Closist biedt sinds zomer 2024 een platform aan waarop gebruikers een gepersonaliseerd stylingadvies kunnen ontvangen.
Starter Story Nathalie Tomasoa
She was first ushered into the kitchen when she was six years old. Now Nathalie Tomasoa (47) has her own kitchen in her own warehouse. Her career was not a linear path; after studying Leisure Studies, she worked in logistics for a long time. That experience comes in handy now, as many things have to come together efficiently without compromising the quality of the food she prepares. The StartersCentrum was a logical stop on the road to self-employment.
Starter Story Roan Funcken
Since January 1, 2025, Roan Funcken (35) has owned the menswear store where he had his own wedding suit custom-made years ago. If anyone had told him back then that he would one day take over and run MILL Tailoring in the heart of Valkenburg, he would have thought he was crazy. Roan is making a remarkable career change: from chemical analyst to tailor-made suit wizard. He seems to be cut out for the fashion industry and entrepreneurship, for which he also receives tailoring advice from the StartersCentrum Limburg.
Starter Story Carla Weekers
Carla Weekers (46), a specialist in lifestyle and hormone balance, sees lifestyle as a healing art, or even more so, as the art of living. She aims to bridge the gap between the medical world, medicine, and lifestyle. "Listen to your body when it starts to whisper, before it starts to scream," Carla urges.
Starter Story Cas Wolters
Every private baking event is sold out, and the baking workshops are also doing well commercially. Cas Wolters (30), a household name and trendsetter, is a real calorie bomb. For five years now, he's been alternating between the baker's hat, the entrepreneur's hat, and the teacher's cap. What's his recipe for staying fresh and fruity? And how's his relationship with StartersCentrum Limburg going?
Starter Story Kimberly Westerop
Kimberly Westerop (24) always wanted her own dance school. Six months after completing her dance training at VISTA College (2022), she started AllStarsMovement. The two classes quickly grew to five. Starterscentrum Limburg provides practical support to the driven part-time entrepreneur during her initial phase. She teaches four days a week. She also works 20 hours at after-school care, gives dance workshops, and occasionally helps out her business friends by selling cotton candy and doughnuts. Kimberly is bursting with energy; she's a busy bee with "little free time in my schedule."
Starter Story Rogier Nilwik
Designing and making clothes is in Rogier Nilwik's (38) genes. The Nilwik family line has included tailors for 200 years. His father was a fashion designer, his mother a seamstress, now it is up to him to showcase his fashion talent and skills. Since 2024, Rogier combines his love for clothes with his love for history in his own stylish and unique men's clothing brand.‘
Starter Story Michiel van Engen
Can I start doing what I like and trust that we will make it? It was with this question that Michiel van Engen (35) came to advisor Marion Schepers of the Starterscentrum Limburg. Together with his wife and three small daughters, this inspired, authentic man, with a love of nature, lives in the southern Limburg village of Scheulder.
StartersVerhaal Jeroen de Jong
When Jeroen de Jong (54) knocks on the door of Starterscentrum Limburg, he does not need much more. He has moulded his strong social commitment into a quality concept, made that concept concrete in a business plan, found financing and a top location for it, invested in (brand) marketing and tapped into his network to make connections
StartersVerhaal Azad Mohamad
As an experienced tailor, finding work that offers satisfaction and sufficient income was not easy. That is why Azad Mohamad (43) has had his own sewing workshop - PIYAL - in the heart of Kerkrade since 1 November 2024. The help he received from the Starterscentrum Limburg made all the difference; he says he will never forget the name of advisor Anita Lussenburg.