Founder Interview
How One Shoe Grew to About $2.5M in Revenue by 2012 and Built a 45-Person Digital Agency (Interview with Founder and CEO Michel van Velde)
- Interview Date
- May 4, 2021
- Interviewee
- Michel van VeldeFounder and CEO
Company Metrics at Interview Time
Revenue (first year) (2006)
About $200K to $300K
Revenue (2012)
About $2.5M
Customers served (2020)
50
Team size (2020)
45
Engineers (2021)
25
Historical Snapshot
These numbers were reported by Michel van Velde during the interview recorded in May 2021 and are a historical snapshot, not current figures. See One Shoe’s current numbers.
Key Takeaways
- 01One Shoe launched in 2006 with two secondhand laptops and no outside investors
- 02First-year revenue was approximately $200K to $300K, sourced from founder network connections
- 03Revenue grew to approximately $400K to $500K in 2007
- 04Revenue was about $2.5M in 2012, the year One Shoe ranked number 25 among the fastest-growing companies in the Netherlands
- 05Growth between 2012 and the sale averaged roughly 10 to 20 percent per year
- 06The agency specialized in pharmaceutical and healthcare clients, which drove significant work during COVID
- 07One Shoe served 50 customers in 2020 and projected approximately 65 for 2021
- 08The team grew from 25 people in 2012 to 45 at the time of the sale
- 09Per-project fees ran from about $150K to over $1M, depending on the project
- 10Michel first called the valuation basis a mixture, then said the Intracto Group applied its multiple to profit; no multiple or price was disclosed
Company Metrics at Time of Interview
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue (2006) | About $200K to $300K | Founder interview, May 2021 |
| Revenue (2007) | About $400K to $500K | Founder interview, May 2021 |
| Revenue (2012) | About $2.5M | Founder interview, May 2021 |
| Team size (2012) | 25 | Founder interview, May 2021 |
| Team size (2020) | 45 | Founder interview, May 2021 |
| Customers served (2020) | 50 | Founder interview, May 2021 |
| Engineers (2021) | 25 | Founder interview, May 2021 |
| Average annual revenue growth (2012 to 2020) | 10 to 20% | Founder interview, May 2021 |
| Per-project fee range (2021) | About $150K to over $1M per project | Founder interview, May 2021 |
| Fastest-growing company rank (Netherlands) (2012) | Number 25 | Founder interview, May 2021 |
Growth Breakdown
Revenue
One Shoe launched in 2006 with first-year revenue of approximately $200K to $300K, growing to about $400K to $500K in 2007. By 2012, the agency had reached about $2.5M in revenue, driven largely by open-source Drupal development and earned media around the platform. After 2012, growth moderated to roughly 10 to 20 percent per year as the agency scaled past 25 people.
Customers
One Shoe served approximately 50 customers in 2020, spanning project work, website maintenance, hosting, campaigns, and UX and design. The agency projected growth to approximately 65 customers in 2021, with increasing demand from the B2B sector for client portals.
Team
The team stood at 25 people in 2012 when One Shoe won its fastest-growing company award. It grew to 45 by the time of the sale to Intracto Group in 2020, with 25 of those 45 being engineers focused on custom web and mobile development.
Funding and Exit
One Shoe was built entirely without outside investors, starting from zero capital. The company was acquired by the Intracto Group, with the deal valued on a profit multiple. At the time of the interview, Michel van Velde was still building One Shoe inside the larger group, which had over 1,500 employees.
Growth Strategy
Founder Brand and Earned Media
Michel van Velde created a lot of free publicity around Drupal, the open-source framework One Shoe built its websites with, and it put the agency in the news. This earned media strategy brought in a significant volume of inbound work, particularly from the pharmaceutical and educational sectors.
Niche Specialization in Pharma and Healthcare
By focusing on pharmaceutical and healthcare clients, One Shoe built specific knowledge of those industries. That specialization paid off during COVID: in 2020 so much pharmaceutical and healthcare work came in that the agency grew massively.
LinkedIn and Personal Network
Michel credited LinkedIn as his primary business development tool, using it to build connections and generate leads throughout the agency's growth. His first client was a guest at a party at home on the evening he registered the company, and close friends in his network who worked at large brands gave him his next opportunities.
Open-Source Technology Leadership
One Shoe was a well-known player in open-source web development by the time the 2008 financial crisis hit. When the crisis pushed clients toward open-source solutions, One Shoe was already well positioned to capture that demand.
Integrated Agency Model
From the outset, Michel built One Shoe to cover the full customer journey, combining brand strategy, digital strategy, campaign execution, and large-scale platform development under one roof. At the time, he said, there were internet agencies, branding agencies and advertising agencies, but he wanted one agency that served every touch point.
Best Quotes
“I started with two secondhand laptops. I registered myself at the trade register and that evening, my wife gave a party at home and she said, okay, Mike, it is really interesting that you have a company, but do not give your business cards to every people, to all my friends.”
“Revenue in first year was about $200K to $300K.”
“In 2012, I decided to join a competition for the fastest growing company The Netherlands and in Europe, and we became number 25 in terms of fastest growing companies in The Netherlands.”
“Even last year during COVID, we grew massively as an agency. You know, there was so much work being thrown at us because we have a specific knowledge from the pharmaceutical and healthcare industry, you know, and that's where a lot of work was thrown at us.”
“I grew the agency organically and I was not able to offer both like PHP, .NET, Java, multiple content management systems, high end. We do a lot of campaigns for example, but we are not serving every single market.”
“I started with zero money, no investors whatsoever.”
“For me personally, it's LinkedIn because that's how I get my business, you know, by by creating a lot of connections and everything, by running the business.”
What Happened Next
This interview captures One Shoe at a point in time in May 2021, when the agency, sold to the Intracto Group the year before, was operating as part of a larger organization. The figures discussed reflect the agency's trajectory from its 2006 founding through the sale. Visit the One Shoe company profile on GetLatka for the most current available data.
View One Shoe’s current profile and metricsFull Transcript
Chapters
- 0:00Introduction and Business Overview
- 0:20Consulting vs. SaaS Model
- 0:37What One Shoe Does for Clients
- 1:05Launch Year and First Client Story
- 2:10First-Year Revenue and Early Growth
- 4:232012 Growth Award and Drupal Strategy
- 6:50Customer Count and 2021 Projections
- 7:53Growth from 2012 to the Sale
- 8:52Why He Sold: Building an Integrated Agency Organically
- 9:55How the Intracto Acquisition Came About
- 10:33Agency Valuation and Profit Multiple
- 11:47Why Joining a Larger Group Made Sense
- 12:41Famous Five: Books, Founders, and Tools
Introduction and Business Overview
Nathan Latka
00:00Hello, everyone. My guest today is Michel van Velde. He's the founder, CEO, and brand strategist of creative and digital agency One Shoe. He's got over twenty years of comprehensive leadership and consultancy experience with multi side, multicultural global organizations, including pharmaceuticals, consumer health care, and FMCG. Nacho, are ready to take us to the top?
Michel van Velde
00:18>> Yeah, absolutely. So just to be
Consulting vs. SaaS Model
Nathan Latka
00:20clear, this is a consulting play or is there a SaaS component or software component to this as well?
Michel van Velde
00:26>> Sorry, this is a consulting business.
Nathan Latka
00:29Pure consulting business. Again Pure consulting. Yeah. And so what are you helping most of your biggest customers? What are you doing for them?
What One Shoe Does for Clients
Michel van Velde
00:37>> Well, fourteen years ago, fifteen years ago, I started the agency called One Shoe to offer an integrated experience starting from brand strategy and then directed to digital strategy, and then translated into either campaigns or building large scale websites, platforms, basically a complete digital experience. So I built basically an integrated agency for our clients.
Launch Year and First Client Story
Nathan Latka
01:05What year did you launch?
Michel van Velde
01:07>> 2006.
Nathan Latka
01:092006. Those first year of age is always really difficult. Do you remember what sales were that first year?
Michel van Velde
01:14>> Oh, it was pretty easy actually. Yeah. The funny thing was I started with two secondhand laptops. I registered myself at the trade register and that evening, my wife gave a party at home and she said, okay, Mike, it is really interesting that you have a company, but do not give your business cards to every people, to all my friends. Please don't do so. So the first person that comes in starts telling me a story that he
01:42>> just started a company and that he needed a website and basically a brand strategy, everything. So and that's where I basically got my first client, and then I approached several of my well, basically my closest friends in my network who worked at large brands and well, they believed my story and they gave me my first opportunities.
First-Year Revenue and Early Growth
Nathan Latka
02:10So how much revenue in that first year in 2006?
Michel van Velde
02:14>> Revenue in first year was about $200K to $300K.
Nathan Latka
02:18It's a good start for an agency. Now fast forward to today, how many folks are on the agency? How many team members?
Michel van Velde
02:25>> Well, the interesting bit is, you know, I sold my company last year to the Intracto
Nathan Latka
02:31Which company? One Shoe?
Michel van Velde
02:33>> I sold One Shoe to the Intracto Group, and I basically built the company up until 45 people, and now my company has become part of the Intracto Group, and we now have over 1,500 employees.
Nathan Latka
02:50How many are just in your group though, all 1,500? 45.
02:5545. Okay, got it. 45 people and how many of them are engineers?
03:0125.
03:02Okay, so heavy engineering then?
Michel van Velde
03:04>> Definitely heavy engineering, yeah.
Nathan Latka
03:06Yeah. They are writing custom code for websites, mobile apps, things like that?
Michel van Velde
03:09>> Yeah, yeah, definitely, yeah. That change came basically in 2008 when basically the crisis, the financial crisis hit us. Everybody moved to open source web development, and we were already a well known player with regards to open source web development, so that's where I basically drew the majority of our clients in web.
Nathan Latka
03:33So and just to figure out, what is like the number one product you delivering for customers? Is it new websites or mobile apps or something else?
Michel van Velde
03:41>> Yeah, large scale platforms, websites and mobile apps.
Nathan Latka
03:45Yeah, majority DHL, big enterprise customers?
Michel van Velde
03:48>> Big, large international clients. Yeah.
Nathan Latka
03:51What is your average sort of per project fee? You say this is probably in the hundreds of thousands, right? Yeah.
Michel van Velde
03:57>> Yeah. So between a 150 to $67.08, over a million plus, yeah, depends. Yeah.
Nathan Latka
04:06Okay. Got it. That makes sense. And in any given year, how many customer like, so let's go from year one to year two, right? In 2006, you did a couple of projects, $300K. What did do in 2007?
Michel van Velde
04:17>> 2007, we grew up until I think it was about 400,000 to 500,000,
2012 Growth Award and Drupal Strategy
Michel van Velde
04:23>> and in 2008 when the financial crisis hit us, that's when we started growing rapidly, and I mean very rapid. In 2012, I decided to join a competition for the fastest growing company The Netherlands and in Europe, and we became number 25 in terms of fastest growing companies in The Netherlands.
Nathan Latka
04:47So what did you do in 2012?
Michel van Velde
04:49>> Well, the thing was open source at the time was a major draw for us.
04:55>> We used Drupal which is an open source content management framework to build websites with, and now it's a digital experience platform. At the time, it was a content management framework,
05:06>> and it got a lot of attention in the news because I was playing the news, I was creating a lot of free publicity around Drupal, and that brought in a ton of work, and I mean a ton of work, yeah, specifically from the pharmaceutical industry and educational industry, that's where a lot of our profit came from.
Nathan Latka
05:27So I'm trying to calculate your growth rate, so from 500K in 2007 to what's June 2012?
Michel van Velde
05:33>> I think the I won the award, I think that it was about 200 to 300% growth, yeah.
Nathan Latka
05:38From what though?
Michel van Velde
05:40>> So are we talking a 10,000,000 revenue?
Nathan Latka
05:43No, no, That's in from 2009 to 2012.
Michel van Velde
05:46>> That's yeah.
Nathan Latka
05:47Okay. I don't know what revenue was in 2009, so I can't calculate what 200% growth is.
Michel van Velde
05:52>> Yeah. Yeah. I I I don't know the the figures from 2009 out of my head.
Nathan Latka
05:56What what what was I'm just trying to get when you won the award. What was the number? Do you know what the revenue was when you won the award?
Michel van Velde
06:02>> I don't know if I had
Nathan Latka
06:04Did you know a range?
Michel van Velde
06:05>> I think it was about 2.5, I think.
Nathan Latka
06:102,500,000, something like that.
Michel van Velde
06:11>> Yeah. Okay. And
Nathan Latka
06:13then how long were you able to ride sort of a Drupal sort of press? Did that wear off over time or did you keep growing above 2,500,000?
Michel van Velde
06:21>> Yeah, just growing, growing rapidly, yeah. It's been growing ever since, you know, and even last year during COVID, we grew massively as an agency. You know, there was so much work being thrown at us because we have a specific knowledge from the pharmaceutical and healthcare industry, you know, and that's where a lot of work was thrown at us.
Nathan Latka
06:44I see. They need you to be HIPAA compliant, like you just know something about the niche where that's why they are hiring you.
Michel van Velde
06:49>> Yeah, yeah, definitely.
Customer Count and 2021 Projections
Nathan Latka
06:50Now how many customers did you do a project for last year?
Michel van Velde
06:55>> About fifty, fifty customers. Yeah.
Nathan Latka
06:57How many?
Michel van Velde
06:58>> That also includes not only projects, but also maintenance, you know, maintenance of large scale websites, hosting that kind of stuff. Campaigns, UX and design.
Nathan Latka
07:11So 50 last year, how many customers do you think you'll service this year, projects?
Michel van Velde
07:17>> I think we'll we'll grow. Projects, you mean? About about 65, I think. Yeah. We're growing. Yeah.
Nathan Latka
07:24Got it. So you're continuing to bring on more pharmaceutical clients, more in this space, so they're about 65?
Michel van Velde
07:29>> Well, we see a massive growth in B2B because it was not only Drupal that we're doing. We do a lot of front end development as well with the latest JavaScript frameworks, and so there's a lot of work coming from the B2B sector as well. They want client portals to serve their clients, specifically in this COVID era. Everyone is looking for client portals.
Growth from 2012 to the Sale
Nathan Latka
07:53Yeah. That's a big decision to sell, so I want to dive into your sort of, as a founder, your mental state, why you decided to make that decision. But first, let's bridge the gap between the award in 2012 and when you chose to sell. Do you remember about how much you grew between those periods, 2012 to last year?
Michel van Velde
08:08>> Yeah. The 2012 to now, that was quite difficult actually, because at the time in 2012, I think we were about 25 people, and growing past 25 is really difficult as an agency. That's where the first hurdles come in, and then, you know, when we passed 30, then we made a rapid growth until 45 and that's where we basically ended up and then we got an offer to sell the company.
Nathan Latka
08:32But that's team growth. In terms of revenue growth, did you continue to see like 200, 300, 400% year over No.
Michel van Velde
08:39>> No. No. No. No. No. It's it's it's slowed down. Yeah.
Nathan Latka
08:42So on a percentage basis, how much did you grow the business between 2012? I think
Michel van Velde
08:46>> I think about, you know, between ten, fifteen, 20% growth.
Nathan Latka
08:49Yeah. Per per year?
Michel van Velde
08:51>> Yeah. Yeah.
Why He Sold: Building an Integrated Agency Organically
Nathan Latka
08:52Got it. And why make the decision to sell?
Michel van Velde
08:56>> Well, when I started the agency, I believed in an integrated experience I found it weird at the time there were Internet agencies and there were like branding agencies and there were advertising agencies, but if you in 2006, I was already thinking about the customer journey, you know, and nobody understood me at the time, you know, what a customer journey was, and I decided, okay, if you want to do it properly, you need one single agency that
09:25>> serves all touch points, and so I started building the company organically because I started with zero money, no investors whatsoever.
Nathan Latka
09:35You've got a whole thing.
Michel van Velde
09:37>> Yeah, so I built a company myself, two second hand laptops, this one I started with at a kitchen table at home, like, okay, I want to be a top agency in Europe, you know, and I want to win a lot of awards and want to be recognized for the work that we do. So
How the Intracto Acquisition Came About
Michel van Velde
09:55>> I think by the end of twenty nineteen, we got approached by the Intracto Group who has a buy and build strategy, and so I gave representation about my vision on the market, about creating an integrated experience, and then the founder, Peter Janssen, he was looking at me gosh, this is a good story, and then he gave his presentation which was exactly the same, but only from a buy and build strategy and not I did it organically,
10:27>> and he had a buy and build strategy. So that's why he was really interested in our proposition.
Agency Valuation and Profit Multiple
Nathan Latka
10:33Value, mean, look, if you're growing 20% year over year since 2012 and you're $2,500,000 that would put you at somewhere, I'm making this up around $4,000,000 in revenue when you sold last year. Valuing agencies are always tricky. Sometimes it's Okay,
Michel van Velde
10:48>> great. Not by, I mean, maybe $5,000,000 not by a ton, right?
Nathan Latka
10:51Yeah. Okay. How do you value an agency? Is it off pure bottom line cash flow multiple, or can you convince them to pay a top line revenue multiple?
Michel van Velde
10:59>> It's a mixture. You know, there's always negotiation going on, but we got a good multiplier.
Nathan Latka
11:09But there's a lot of agents listening right now, which is why I asked. Were you able to tie it to bottom line profit or top line revenue?
Michel van Velde
11:16>> It a mixture. So it was
Nathan Latka
11:20You only multiply one thing. So were they multiplying the multiple against, top line or profit?
Michel van Velde
11:27>> Profit.
Nathan Latka
11:28Okay. Got it. Got it. Yeah.
Michel van Velde
11:30>> Got it.
11:30>> Yeah. They would maybe give you a higher multiple if they saw your top line growth was higher or lower is what you're saying?
Nathan Latka
11:36Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. Okay.
Michel van Velde
11:38>> So and and was this mean, you've been doing this for, I guess, what, twelve years, thirteen years at that point?
Nathan Latka
11:43I mean, that's it's a big decision to work for somebody else.
Why Joining a Larger Group Made Sense
Michel van Velde
11:47>> I know, I know. Well, the interesting bit is, you know, I grew the agency organically and I was not able to offer both like PHP, .NET, Java, multiple content management systems, high end. We do a lot of campaigns for example, but we are not serving every single market,
12:13>> so we'd be focusing on fast mover consumer goods and the healthcare industry and so several verticals, but
12:24>> becoming part of the Intracto Group gave me the possibility to serve all markets with all kinds of technology and serving
12:34>> all clients from low end to high end global clients.
Famous Five: Books, Founders, and Tools
Nathan Latka
12:41Makes a lot of sense, very good. Let's wrap up here with the Famous Five, Mike. Number one, favorite business book.
Michel van Velde
12:47>> Favorite business book. Well, the interesting bit is it's not a business book. It's a book which I advise to every single entrepreneur. It's called I am Okay, You're Okay,
13:00>> and it's a book about transactional analysis on how to communicate effectively. That's been serving me a lot in terms of negotiation, but also internally with my colleagues.
Nathan Latka
13:12Number two, is there a founder you are following or studying currently?
Michel van Velde
13:16>> Well, I've always been a fan, a great fan of Richard Branson, you know, because he is very adventurous. I am adventurous myself. I drove from Amsterdam to Beijing, China once in my life. I set up on an expedition myself while he flew across the Atlantic in the balloon. So there a couple of similarities, but he did it on a larger scale than I did.
Nathan Latka
13:39And hopefully you didn't have any kind of crash landing.
Michel van Velde
13:42>> No, I didn't have a crash landing, no.
Nathan Latka
13:44Number three, what's your favorite online tool for building the agency?
Michel van Velde
13:48>> My favorite tool?
Nathan Latka
13:49Online tool, yep.
Michel van Velde
13:50>> Online tool,
13:52>> well, for me personally, it's LinkedIn because that's how I get my business, you know, by by creating a lot of connections and everything, by running the business.
14:04>> I don't know, there there there's there's multiple I'm just a great fan of Google actually.
14:09>> LinkedIn is great.
Nathan Latka
14:10Number four, how many hours of sleep do you get every night?
Michel van Velde
14:12>> I'm a good sleeper.
14:14>> Eight hours.
Nathan Latka
14:15That's good. And what's your situation, Mike? Married, single kids?
Michel van Velde
14:18>> I'm married. Yeah.
Nathan Latka
14:19How many kids?
Michel van Velde
14:20>> Two kids. Two kids.
Nathan Latka
14:21How are you?
Michel van Velde
14:22>> Lovely married. Lovely kids. Yeah.
Nathan Latka
14:24How are you?
Michel van Velde
14:26>> How old I am? You, yeah. Yeah, 48.
Nathan Latka
14:29Last question, what's something you wish you knew when you were 20?
Michel van Velde
14:34>> Something I wanted to know before when I was 20, that entrepreneur being an entrepreneur is just awesome. You know, I would have started earlier, you know, that's but you know, having read that book as I was telling you about, you know, I'm okay, you're okay, I would have, you know, if I would have had that book, you know, life would have been a hell of a lot easier, especially in the early days of entrepreneuring.
Nathan Latka
14:57One Shoe launched in 2006 to $300,000 in revenue and grew to $2,500,000 in revenue in 2012, riding the popularity of Drupal, which they help build websites and applications for. They specialized in a niche, which was pharmaceuticals and sort of healthcare, now scaling nicely. They ended up selling the company to agency last year when they were flirting with, call that, $5,000,000 run rate. Mike is now happy building the company inside the parent company that did the acquisition. They've
15:20got 65 customers they'll serve this year and a team of 45 building fast. Mike, thanks for taking us to the top.
Michel van Velde
15:26>> Absolutely. Thank you very much.
Nathan Latka
15:29One more thing before you go. We have a brand new show every Thursday at 1PM Central. It's called Shark Tank for SaaS. We call it deal or bust. One founder comes on, three hungry buyers, they try and do a deal live and the founder shares back end dashboards, their expenses, their revenue, ARPU, CAC, LTV, you name it, they share it. And the buyers try and make a deal live. It is fun to watch every Thursday, 1PM
15:53central. Additionally, remember these recorded founder interviews go live. We release them here on YouTube every day at 2PM central. To make sure you don't miss any of that, make sure you click the subscribe button below here on YouTube, the big red button, and then click the little bell notification to make sure you get notifications when we do go live. I wouldn't want you to miss breaking news in the SaaS world, whether it's an acquisition, a big
16:14fundraise, a big sale, a big profitability statement, or something else. I don't want you to miss it. Additionally, if you wanna take this conversation deeper and further, we have by far the largest private Slack community for B2B SaaS founders. You wanna get in there. We've probably talked about your tool if you're running a company or your firm if you're investing. You can go in there and quickly search and see what people are saying. Sign up for
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