Interview with Joris Pals from Vin Voyeur

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Throughout the ten years since Seats2meet started its operations, lots of people came and gone. Today we publish an interview with Joris, a former employee that worked through the Utrecht CS location and now, as he said, evolved into an entrepreneur. Just like a Pokemon!

Hi Joris, could you tell us a little bit about yourself?

Hi Seats2Meet community, my name is Joris, I live in Amsterdam, am a shy fellow so thanks for having me through this written channel. Professionally I like to see myself as a strategic designer and entrepreneur. Strategic design is the process of researching a problem and design a solution including a viable business around it through the process of design thinking. I like this iterative and applied way of conducting innovation. I do it on my own products but also as a freelancer.

You worked for S2M for a while, what did you use to do here?

It was my student job, worked as floor worker. Prepping lunch and cleaning meeting rooms. The work wasn’t too complicated. A cool thing is that you meet lots of great entrepreneurial and autonomous people, that kept me coming back for a while.

And now you are an entrepreneur! How was that transition?

More an evolution, like a Pokemon. I have always known that I want to develop my own products and concepts, that’s why I studied innovation. Last year I launched my first company named Savvy, it was the first healthy sports drink of the Netherlands. I was surprised that however most people exercise sports for health benefits, sports drinks are just sugar water. Savvy was a cold-pressed fruit and veggie juice with whey protein, free from conservatives and heating. It contained the actual nutrients you need when your body is recovering from exercise. I sold the company to a distributor who loved the concept and the brand and will scale it from next week on, that’s when it gets relaunched.  

The product you just launched, Vin Voyeur, is a game for people who want to know more about wine while getting drunk. Can you explain us the rules?

Haha, you make it sound like a drinking game. It’s a wine-game, let me nuance it a bit. Vin Voyeur is an exciting social game experience immersing you in the world of wine. Fun is as important as the intriguing lessons about wine. Gamification let you be the curious Voyeur who dares to seek reference to the logic that makes wine sexy. Games are quizzes, experiments, and assignments where your senses and consciousness are challenged in a fun way.

And how did you come up with this brilliant idea?

I was looking for a way to learn relevant wine knowledge that allows me to make choices at the shop or at restaurants but was very frustrated with the available solutions which are boring and time-consuming. So the challenge was to find a way to make learning about wine fun, less time consuming: in not more than one daypart and above all the knowledge should be applicable. The essence of enjoying wine is the presence nice people in a good atmosphere, good vibes… So, it makes sense to make a social drink setting the starting point of our game design. This is why for this game you invite your best friends to play with you. For inspiration for the graphical design of edgy festival decors. gamification will seduce you to participate actively and actually remember stuff despite the alcohol consumption.

With how many people can you play Vin Voyeur?

3 is a crowd, but you can play with up to 8. With over eight it becomes hard to centralize the attention.  

You launched a crowdfunding campaign. How can people support? And what are the rewards?

True, At crowdfunding platform Crowdaboutnow we run a pre-sales campaign. Buying now rewards you with an early bird deal. For those who are looking for a Christmas present or  Christmas relation gift, this is the chance to be very original and we have a special offer. The Crowdfunding allows us to validate the market for the product since it’s completely new in its category. Besides the production of the game in the quantity of our first batch is expensive so pre-sales allow us to make these expenses without spreading equity.    

In your opinion, what is a wine that everyone should try at least once?

For a year I’m paying attention to what I drink. What I experience is that understanding the logic how a wine obtained its specific taste is what enriches the experience. I encourage everyone to be more conscious and chose quality over quantity. We provide a selection of great affordable wines with the game and added a short explanation about the journey of its taste. It all relates to what you can experience when drinking. This is what brings the wine to life. In my opinion, people should try these.

Jori questions

Weird question

You decide to become a supervillain. How would you conquer the world?

LOL..

I will drive all the manure surplus into 500 abundant ships and drive them into the Nile in Egypt. After cruising upstream for a bit and a while I will take a shuffle and create a river branch that leads into the desert. We drive our boats down that branch and while doing so we start ditching the manure to fertilize the soil. The rainforest that will exist will give shelter to my army. How we conquer the world afterward? life in the ever-expanding rainforest let us realize that conquering the world was just a brain-fart, Hakuna Matata. 

Profound question

If you could destroy one thing for good, what would that thing be? What does this accomplish?

The dogma that growth is the synonym of progress. This will lead to a society where fake scarcity makes a place for an abundant mentality. Monnik, a scenario developers duo in Amsterdam pitched the idea and I love it.  

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