My Journey with Collaboration Started Before I Knew It

I started my career in 2009 as an intern at Unilever. It was my first real exposure to how the corporate world works—structured chaos, shared energy, and the kind of team spirit that doesn’t just motivate you, it stays with you. That experience left such a mark on me that the moment I finished university in late 2012, I went straight back.

My first full-time role was as Assistant Brand Manager on one of the hair care brands—which, ironically, was around the same time I was already going bald. How do you lead a brand you don’t personally use? That’s when I learned what real collaboration meant. I had to immerse myself completely: working with hairdressers, scientists, consumers, insight teams, supply chain leads—you name it. I had to understand what a “good hair day” actually means, and how something so emotional connects to purchase behavior, brand love, and habit formation.

It wasn’t a checklist. It was a lived experience—my first real taste of collaborating across disciplines, companies, and people to shape campaigns and R&D that actually meant something to the end user.

Later, while working at Unilever’s global HQ in Rotterdam, I saw collaboration at an entirely different scale. I witnessed firsthand how it could make brands fly. Rexona’s partnerships with Williams Racing and the UEFA Champions League weren’t just sponsorships—they were strategic collaborations aligning product, message, and audience insight with razor-sharp precision. Watching that come to life globally changed how I viewed brand-building forever.

In my last role at Unilever, I led e-commerce at a time when many companies didn’t even have an e-commerce team. It was a blank canvas. We had to build the space and prove its value. And that only happened because everyone collaborated: platforms, startups, retailers, internal teams. Some brought proof of concept, others pure energy, but together we built momentum where nothing existed before.
I learned that when people unite around a cause, a problem, or even a shared belief, incredible things happen.

From Corporate Lessons to Startup Reality

That spirit carried into Boost. From day one, collaboration was at the center of how we worked. But unlike the corporate world, in the early days of a startup you wear every hat—because you have no choice. You sell, design, execute, clean up, and pitch again. It teaches you speed, grit, control. But eventually, that approach becomes a ceiling.
I had to unlearn the reflex of trying to own everything. Sustainable growth doesn’t come from being a superhero. It comes from building systems of interdependence—knowing when to step aside and let someone better at it take over.

We Didn’t Build Boost Alone 

At Boost, we set out to digitize the traditional trade landscape and make ordering radically simple for retailers—using nothing more than WhatsApp. That meant transforming how manufacturers, distributors, and retailers interact, without adding complexity to their day-to-day. 

We quickly realized: this couldn’t be built in isolation.

The challenge wasn’t just tech. It spanned last-mile logistics, salesforce adaptation, pricing conflicts, incentive schemes, and trust-building with thousands of small shop owners. No single player could solve all of that alone—not us, not our partners, not even the brands. 

So we co-built. We learned from field reps. We ran pilots with distributors. We listened to kiosk owners explain why they wouldn’t use something—even if it was “better.” And we didn’t just gather feedback—we iterated with it.

That process was—and still is—uncomfortable. But that’s where real collaboration lives.

The Messy Middle 

Collaboration isn’t a buzzword. It’s not a LinkedIn handshake photo or a shiny co-branded deck. It happens in the messy middle—in strategy rooms where no one has the full answer, in WhatsApp groups with ground teams troubleshooting in real time, in field visits where the problem is different than what the data said, and in late-night calls where someone says: “This won’t work unless we rethink the model.”

The picture comes later—after disagreements, pivots, and decisions that put customer value ahead of ego. And when it works, it doesn’t just add value—it compounds it.

What I’ve Learned the Hard Way

I’ve seen companies dissolve because founders insisted on doing it all themselves. I’ve also seen collaborations fail because there was no shared goal or alignment. Collaboration without clarity wastes energy. 

It’s not the same as partnership. You don’t need an official alliance to collaborate. You can collaborate around a pilot, an idea, an insight, or a challenge—but you must be clear on why you’re doing it. And the goal should always be to create better value for the end customer.

Collaboration as a Growth Engine 

Some of our most important breakthroughs at Boost didn’t come from internal brainstorming. They came from a rep explaining why a shop owner wouldn’t trust a new ordering method. From a distributor pointing out how a small friction point could ripple across the supply chain. From a retailer asking: “Why can’t this be simpler?”

In fast-changing markets, speed without alignment is a trap. Sustainable growth comes from syncing with the real needs of your ecosystem.

No One Wins Alone

The instinct to go it alone is strong—especially when resources are tight. But the moments we’ve grown fastest at Boost weren’t when we moved faster alone. They were when we moved better together—with manufacturers, with distributors, with customers, and with each other. Your next breakthrough probably won’t come from internal acceleration. It’ll come from external alignment.

Final Thought 

Startups are told to optimize for product-market fit. But in markets like ours, ecosystem fit is just as important. The best product in the world won’t matter if no one trusts it, supports it, or wants to use it with you.

Collaboration is how you earn that trust. It’s how you stay adaptive, relevant, and impactful. When done right, it’s not just how you grow—it’s how you endure.