Founder Talks - Game On 2025, with Kees Zorge

What happens when a hospitality tech startup from a small Dutch town decides to go global on its own terms?

In this special Founder Talks episode, Omniboost CEO Kees Zorge sits down with COO and podcast host Rob Napoli to unpack what it really takes to scale a people-first, partner-driven SaaS company in the hospitality industry. From redefining what it means to “fail fast” to the power of servant leadership and purposeful travel, this is a no-fluff conversation on building global tech with heart, grit, and a whole lot of integrations.

🧩 Topics Covered
- The “Second Violin” mindset: Why Omniboost plays behind the scenes to help partners shine
- Building trust through consultative SaaS: Listening, adapting, iterating
- Growing a global team without losing your culture
- What 8,000+ daily integrations teach you about system unification
- AI with accountability: Why data hygiene is the real frontier
- Why hospitality founders still need to shake hands

Whether you're scaling a SaaS startup, leading tech transformation, or unifying hotel systems across continents—this one’s for you.

📢 Like, subscribe, and drop a comment to share how you’re tackling data silos in hospitality.

Learn more: https://www.omniboost.io
Read the feature: Omniboost: The Team Behind Every Touchdown → https://omniboost.io/media/omniboost-the-team-behind-every-touchdown

Timestamps
00:00 Welcome to Hospitable with Rob Napoli
01:10 First Company-Wide Town Hall: Emotions & Pride
04:48 Servant Leadership at Scale
06:32 Interns Speak Up—Keeping Culture Intact
08:54 Preserving DNA Across 85 Countries
11:25 Partnership as a Behavioral Trait
14:05 Consultative SaaS Explained
16:35 Active Listening & Solving the Real Ask
18:06 8,000+ Daily Integrations: Platform Stats
20:00 Fail Fast, Learn Faster—US vs EU Mindset
24:57 Founder Travel Philosophy
29:40 Letting Employees Grow (and Err)
34:00 AI Hype vs Data Purification Reality
37:12 Crafting the Narrative: Second Violin & Unification
45:00 The Edgers Mindset & Final Thoughts

Connect
Kees Zorge: https://www.linkedin.com/in/keeszorge/
Omniboost: https://omniboost.io/
Rob Napoli: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robnap/
Rob Napoli: https://www.robnapoli.com/

Show Produced by: Niranjan Deshpande (Nick), Broken Frames Studio, www.brokenframesstudio.com

#HospitalityTech #DataUnification #SaaSFounders #StartupCulture #Omniboost #HotelTechnology #ServantLeadership #ConsultativeSaaS #HospitalityInnovation #TechPodcast #FounderTalk #GlobalStartup #APIAutomation #PMSIntegration #TheEdgersMindset

Creators and Guests

Host

Rob Napoli

Rob is the Global Head of Brand at Omniboost and US Commercial Lead. He is passionate about sports, travel, and where to find the best whiskey bar in Manhattan.

Guest

Kees Zorge

Kees is the Founder and CEO of Omniboost where he believes in giving humans time back to be creative through automation. He is a servant-leader who loves to create and think outside of the box.

What is Hospitable?

Hospitable is a podcast that discusses how to make hospitality MORE human through technology.

Hospitable focuses on discussing the leading challenges facing the hospitality industry and to explore the latest trends, technologies, and best practices that are shaping the industry. Each episode features interviews with hoteliers, restaurateurs, chefs, industry analysts, and other experts who share their insights and experiences on topics such as customer experience, sustainability, innovation, staffing, and more.

Hosted by Rob Napoli

00:00:00:04 - 00:00:01:23
Rob Napoli
It is nice and spacious.

00:00:02:00 - 00:00:03:13
Kees Zorge
For New York standards it is

00:00:03:16 - 00:00:09:03
Rob Napoli
We are recording this in the end of Q1 and it's the first time everyone got together. What was that feeling like as a founder?

00:00:09:06 - 00:00:17:14
Kees Zorge
Yeah, a bit of a feeling like, whoa. A big responsibility. A lot of people depending on us as a leadership.

00:00:17:16 - 00:00:23:07
Rob Napoli
Everyone can have a say and everyone can speak up. How do we work together cross-functionally internally as well?

00:00:23:13 - 00:00:42:12
Kees Zorge
What we set out to build is a partnership, and it's so much more than a word. Let's be honest, we're in the hospitality industry. That means being hospitable. I think one of the biggest learning is communication. We were the ones who were willing to pick up the challenge and come up with a solution. If the orchestra goes out of sync, we get them back in.

00:00:42:16 - 00:00:47:20
Kees Zorge
We talked about the Edgers from Brady is what's your take on this?

00:00:47:22 - 00:00:54:16
Rob Napoli
By the time this drops, there's going to be an article, written by you called The Edgers. Do you want to be the dude?

00:00:54:18 - 00:00:55:17
Kees Zorge
Yeah the man

00:00:55:23 - 00:01:19:00
Rob Napoli
Yeah. You don't always have to be. When you know, the goal is not to be the one and you're coming in to do your job. You take pride in the work that you do, and the whole team is bought into that. That's when magic happens. You see the game at a different level and things flow so beautifully.

00:01:19:02 - 00:01:21:06
Rob Napoli
It is nice and spacious.

00:01:21:08 - 00:01:22:20
Kees Zorge
For New York standards it is

00:01:22:20 - 00:01:25:18
Rob Napoli
True could do with some windows and some.

00:01:25:19 - 00:01:28:06
Kees Zorge
Yeah so good

00:01:28:08 - 00:01:31:02
Rob Napoli
You know yeah. There was that corner office, you know.

00:01:31:06 - 00:01:32:20
Kees Zorge
Oh there's ways.

00:01:32:22 - 00:01:34:11
Rob Napoli
Yeah. Or something.

00:01:34:13 - 00:01:36:10
Kees Zorge
Let's grow.

00:01:36:12 - 00:01:38:05
Rob Napoli
Working on it.

00:01:38:07 - 00:01:45:10
Kees Zorge
Oh coffee good idea

00:01:45:12 - 00:01:45:23
Kees Zorge
Cheers.

00:01:45:24 - 00:01:52:24
Rob Napoli
Cheers the coffee here is not bad for our co-working space.

00:01:53:01 - 00:01:56:12
Kees Zorge
A lot of things in this office are not bad for co-working space.

00:01:56:14 - 00:02:02:17
Rob Napoli
You like that little pretty background we got with the plushies you should go like I do.

00:02:02:19 - 00:02:12:15
Kees Zorge
What's also quite clear as the boost, but and most importantly, my nickname Robbie loves me.

00:02:12:17 - 00:02:16:20
Rob Napoli
Or that's where I'm from both work however you want to take that Kees

00:02:17:00 - 00:02:17:11
Kees Zorge
You know me.

00:02:17:14 - 00:02:42:19
Rob Napoli
And, you know, awesome. Well, wanted to sit down, and we haven't done a founder chat in a while. So I thought it'd be fun. Since we have you in New York City for a short time. To chat a little bit, because we've done a lot of cool things. So we're recording this is the end of Q1, just about the end of Q1, and we've been putting a lot of cool things in place, most notably, for the first time ever.

00:02:42:21 - 00:02:49:20
Rob Napoli
Omniboost had all of his employee from all over the world in a single place for our town hall, our islands.

00:02:49:22 - 00:02:56:02
Kees Zorge
And it's a pretty city of Middleborough for all of you. That that know the place. Netherlands.

00:02:56:04 - 00:03:11:24
Rob Napoli
With that we got to host one of our clients. Van der Valk Yes. Which was an awesome location. So tell me a little about, you know, we've been around you. Have you been around the company since 2017? I've been around for the last five. Really involved in the last two and it's the first time everyone got together.

00:03:11:24 - 00:03:24:15
Rob Napoli
What was that feeling like as the founder finally getting to see this happen and come together what was that like for you, was the experience like, how did it make you feel, seeing the whole team and now that we're at frickin 50 people already?

00:03:24:21 - 00:03:48:00
Kees Zorge
Yeah. Initially proud. So doing the opening and actually seeing all the team members there from all, across the globe, it's first time that we did this one. So also coming to the opportunity where we could actually afford flying the team members in and basically setting pace. We were quite late and we were setting pace for 2025, but that's Omniboost

00:03:48:00 - 00:04:37:02
Kees Zorge
We're always going against the grain, simultaneously. Also, yeah, a bit of a feeling like, whoa, that's a big responsibility. A lot of people depending on us, there's a leadership doing the correct things. That's like what we always say is servant leadership and making sure that everything is up and running and correct. People, taking a leap of faith for the startup, going to, let's call it a it to scale up, but primarily love, pride and still the feeling, that we shared on a couple of occasions that, were just really getting started.

00:04:37:05 - 00:05:11:02
Kees Zorge
I think what we've done over the last couple of years where the vision was, let's make sure that this tech is there. Yeah. And that's also, yeah, one of the things with the outside world we're dealing with, let's be honest with investors, is, sharing that strategy. We're very lucky with our investors understanding what we're doing, setting the pace, but also come to the conclusion right now is that it's safe to say, tech will always be evolving, but we've done some decent groundwork.

00:05:11:02 - 00:05:30:04
Kees Zorge
And that's finally what we're seeing also from the engagement and the sales perspective is what we set out to do is basically never to be forced to come with a no doesn't necessarily have to be the 100%. Where we can actually make shit happen are a lot of pride.

00:05:30:09 - 00:05:45:04
Rob Napoli
Yeah awesome. Well, I think for everyone there, the feeling that just being and seeing the team because you, you know, we're always on team calls, we're always jumping in on a huddle and you know, we have the headquarters in Terneuzen where we have.

00:05:45:06 - 00:05:46:24
Kees Zorge
Terneuzen yeah

00:05:47:01 - 00:06:01:06
Rob Napoli
We have, you know, a majority of people who get to work with each other and see each other and, you know, obviously some of the leaders, you know, fly in on a regular basis. We have the satellite office, the team on track to come down. But just to have everybody there, the energy was, is quite palpable. Yeah.

00:06:01:07 - 00:06:32:05
Rob Napoli
And that was something that I really enjoyed, getting to meet and hug some people that you've seen on teams a thousand times over the years, to kind of see them in person and vibe out and then, you know, we had, all of the leadership had a chance to get up and, share their vision for 2025 and beyond, which is great, but also a lot of great feedback and engagement from the teams, even, you know, intern stepping up and asking questions and the kind of fostering that that openness across the organization.

00:06:32:05 - 00:06:34:24
Rob Napoli
It's hard to do when you grow, but when you're hitting 50 people.

00:06:35:01 - 00:06:59:19
Kees Zorge
There was actually the cool part is scoot that you mentioned this, seeing the, the interns feeling so freaking comfortable and having the safety to stand up and ask questions, even what we shared about core purpose. Why are we here that even interns were like, yeah, it might be a bit lengthy and can you explain what's really cool

00:06:59:23 - 00:07:20:18
Rob Napoli
Yeah, I thought so too and it just to be able to be in a place where we fostered a bit of that culture where everyone can have a say and everyone can speak up and feel comfortable and, you know, we make, conscious decision to not make things anonymous to you know, have pride in asking a question, having their pride and giving feedback.

00:07:20:20 - 00:07:33:07
Rob Napoli
Sometimes the feedback isn't always easy. It's not always good, but the fact that there is pride to share that was something that was highlighted to me is, is something that was really awesome to see the people step up.

00:07:33:09 - 00:08:06:19
Kees Zorge
Yeah correct also proper moments to be mindful is that we're never gonna lose that culture, that DNA. That's if you talk about like what kind of feeling did it give you because let's be honest, we grew significantly in 2024 added a lot of complexity in the organization. That's how people on an on boarding process like with every startup scale up there's some work to be done.

00:08:06:21 - 00:08:16:02
Kees Zorge
So where you need to be careful and mindful is that you're never gonna lose that DNA. Why did you set out becoming the company that you are?

00:08:16:04 - 00:08:35:08
Rob Napoli
Yeah and that's really it's something that every company struggles with, right. Because the company you are at two people to 10 to 20 to 50 to 100 will always change and the culture will change with that. But the DNA, and the way that the company, what we do well and what we are and who we are continues to evolve.

00:08:35:09 - 00:08:54:06
Rob Napoli
We never lose that the core DNA and that's something that is not easy to do as a founder, as a leadership, as a company and it's something that I think was really cool to see that we've continued to evolve that and we'll continue to evolve that as we go from 50 to 100 in the next coming months.

00:08:54:08 - 00:08:56:08
Rob Napoli
Yeah, hopefully eight months now.

00:08:56:08 - 00:09:21:10
Kees Zorge
But it also, came to mind some, Mike and I, for instance, did devise a program when we initially set out and, we always had a tagline, world fricking domination bit aggressive internally and still important. But like we said, we're a platform that enables the others. So also dare without being soft, do have a willingness to serve.

00:09:21:12 - 00:09:50:03
Kees Zorge
But Mike and I question or asked with guys who made or setup unicorns and the likes and how to keep control over how of an organization and that's where usually there's foreign disclaiming there's like control. The fuck are you talking about control. That's negative your culture, your DNA, that's very important also let's reflect on the conversation that we had over beers yesterday.

00:09:50:05 - 00:10:11:14
Kees Zorge
It's well, I like is a typical US type of approach. But we're also we're European based company. Yeah. So there is a culture gap. You need to be okay with the culture gap. We need to understand each other thing, the big thing, what we spoke about and what we also addressed during the time now is cultural differences.

00:10:11:16 - 00:10:20:00
Kees Zorge
Yes. Being, true to yourself? Yes. Ego? No

00:10:20:02 - 00:10:28:00
Rob Napoli
Absolutely and I think it's interesting because we talk about that at a personal level, like we did over beers and that not only.

00:10:28:02 - 00:10:29:17
Kees Zorge
Opens up the conversation more clearly.

00:10:29:21 - 00:10:52:00
Rob Napoli
It's very much does. Right. But we talk about it at the base level in terms of the way we speak and work with internal teams, but it also translate we have customers in 85 countries and so understanding that internally allows us to understand that externally and provide different levels of support to different countries and regions and, adapt our level of how we communicate.

00:10:52:02 - 00:11:25:08
Rob Napoli
And I think that's something that will continue to evolve and grow and it's amazing that we continue to have those conversations around communication, around cultural differences, around how do we continue to scale as a global company and different markets. We look at Europe the way look at, North America, the way we look at Latin South America, the way we look at the Middle East all the way up to apex, understanding those things and making sure that we address those internally and externally is going to be key to success, as we pride ourselves on our ability to onboard and support where the glue where we're in the middle right.

00:11:25:08 - 00:11:27:14
Kees Zorge
Yes what we learned yesterday, yeah.

00:11:27:16 - 00:11:53:11
Rob Napoli
We are and we learn that not only through what we know, but through our customers, our partners telling us this because so many times, being in the middle of being the platform that enables questions get direct to us and we have to be able to maneuver conversations and troubleshoot quickly. That's something that we continue to evolve and learn, but it's something that opens up so much of the on the conversation around how do we work together across cross-functional internally as well?

00:11:53:16 - 00:12:23:17
Kees Zorge
That's what we discussed. It's not only internal, but it's definitely also focused on external. But that's the through tied back to our culture, our DNA shouldn't be that big of a difference for us, whether we're going direct on an enterprise type of deal, work for a big chain, big management company, or have amazing partners. What we establish, what we set out to, to build as a partnership.

00:12:23:19 - 00:12:25:19
Kees Zorge
And it's so much more than a word.

00:12:25:21 - 00:12:26:16
Rob Napoli
Yes.

00:12:26:18 - 00:12:44:05
Kees Zorge
It's a behavioral trait and that's what I love most about every single individual within our organization is we are here to that principle and that's that makes me, as a founder, tremendously proud. Yeah. In what we're doing.

00:12:44:10 - 00:12:52:16
Rob Napoli
Yeah I think it's easy to use partnership just like with everything else a buzzword. But what you truly develop partnership. So that's where, you know, even looking at.

00:12:52:16 - 00:12:53:02
Kees Zorge
Cheers

00:12:53:08 - 00:13:22:12
Rob Napoli
Our market, the way that we go to market, working with partners, starting with channel partners, growing into direct relationships and driving direct conversations with not only partners, but we're looking at hotel chains and management companies and, restaurant groups that partnership to where it is more than just, hey, we're selling you a service, we're selling you all these things, and we're consulting with you to bring that across the line and really be your partner, because this is not something that's you just going to have for years now.

00:13:22:13 - 00:13:38:07
Rob Napoli
You're going to have hopefully for the length of the operations because we'll continue to improve, we'll continue to grow our integrations, our connectivity, our platform to providing more value, even more service and that's why we look at partnerships deeper than the word partner.

00:13:38:09 - 00:14:05:16
Kees Zorge
That's why we also state it's consultative sense. Yes we're there to provide products, service. But it's also part of where we actually listen is we understand that sometimes a question for a specific product or a solution or whatever, it's not a real question. If we really want to be selling just a product, I would have founded an e-commerce platform and started selling products.

00:14:05:18 - 00:14:33:11
Kees Zorge
But that's not what we want to do. We want to again, and let's be honest, we're in the hospitality industry. That means being hospitable. Like to book the fan, shared with us unreasonable hospitality. That's those are the things that really resonates with me as a founder and what I also see with my, let's call it the management team and every single team member out there.

00:14:33:13 - 00:15:02:01
Kees Zorge
And that's what we do, will be the biggest learning that we need to do is not overdo it. So it's not about, we shouldn't be, I think the word victim, that's my lack of proper english, language. That's something that's where we should be staying true to ourselves and let's be honest, the product that we've put out there is fricking quite unique.

00:15:02:03 - 00:15:06:21
Rob Napoli
Very much so. So we talk about the product, the uniqueness, and we talk about consultative sounds to.

00:15:06:22 - 00:15:09:05
Kees Zorge
You need to buy the wireless

00:15:09:07 - 00:15:12:21
Rob Napoli
I know but tactile. I'm tactile.

00:15:13:00 - 00:15:15:22
Kees Zorge
If I don't like our video

00:15:15:24 - 00:15:36:06
Rob Napoli
Neither do I. So when we talk about the unique product, we talk about consultative SAS. I think that's an interesting piece. Like what does that actually mean? And when you look at the product we create hospitality. When we do integrations pointing more than we do connectivity, we are full out unification, we eliminate data silos. Right. But when we look.

00:15:36:06 - 00:15:37:24
Kees Zorge
Buzzword, buzzword.

00:15:38:01 - 00:15:59:02
Rob Napoli
Exactly but we look at the the process, it all ends up in accounting and hospitality accounting is it's very unique. And we talk about consultative SAS and we know that the product is 85% out of the box, but that 15% that is it needs to be flexible. Yeah. And so when we when you started out and we're building that and it's we've created the culture on that.

00:15:59:04 - 00:16:16:20
Rob Napoli
How have you adapted your philosophy around what it means to consult? This is where we listen. This is where we actually make a difference. Person out of the box product in the marketplace. When was that key learning for you, or where was that kind of light bulb? Where we really need to be consultative and do things a little bit.

00:16:16:23 - 00:16:24:13
Rob Napoli
You know, we always talk about Omniboost goes against the grain, and that's part of our DNA. Yeah. When was that clear to you? Is that in the first project, was that down the line?

00:16:24:15 - 00:17:03:24
Kees Zorge
I think it's always been part of my own DNA, my own approach. So that was definitely something that I wanted to, engrain or establish within the company itself. Like what you use the word listening because, when you do a lot of talking, you don't hear, and, we're we, in my opinion, actually, excel is we're quite well-equipped in active listening to truly understand what's going on, have the confidence to go into a conversation with either a partner or, a chain or whatever.

00:17:03:24 - 00:17:31:11
Kees Zorge
Like, guys, we can do this. But in our opinion, the real ask is this. Or if we're going to do ABC in the end of the day, you want to move towards X, Y, and Z, but that has always been part of, of the company. That's why I try to, to really be explicit with, the post about being proud of playing a second violin.

00:17:31:13 - 00:18:05:23
Kees Zorge
You still need to have two skill sets, whether you're a bass player or a violin player or whatever. But I enjoy behind the curtains. It's more or less dictating the rhythm. Okay, the beautiful thing I can't sing, so I will never be a lead singer in events, but to be part and dictating is not the proper words. Enabling a proper flow that is something that makes me so tremendously proud of what we've done.

00:18:06:04 - 00:18:16:09
Kees Zorge
If you take a look at the numbers, we're doing more than 8000 integrations on the platform on a daily basis. We've grown towards how many countries.

00:18:16:11 - 00:18:18:02
Rob Napoli
85 countries.

00:18:18:04 - 00:18:48:16
Kees Zorge
Within a very and with the time for it, because we also while when we started Omniboost there wasn't a different type of idea. So we pivoted only the last couple of years, we actually went full on and I started setting the platform as it is and let's be honest, we've got a lot of challenges. We're also facing with a lot of issues, but it's the willingness to, also take the one head on and be open.

00:18:48:18 - 00:19:13:21
Kees Zorge
Explorer on the stands. Look at what we've done here and the stats. Still remember, when we get the belgian thing, it's like, yeah, you need to go big or go home being Dutch so as I was like I will go on going to take it step by step by step. It actually needs you to do that. That's why I'm leading the USA so much.

00:19:13:23 - 00:19:29:23
Kees Zorge
Because failure here is an option and you don't need to be shamed if you make a mistake, just as long as you're willing to have the strength and the guts to stand up, that's done and go at it again.

00:19:30:03 - 00:19:34:15
Rob Napoli
Exactly. I mean, you fail fast you learn it fast. Yeah. Right. And I think that.

00:19:34:17 - 00:19:35:24
Kees Zorge
Also one of the core thing

00:19:36:01 - 00:20:01:22
Rob Napoli
Yeah, I think that's enough. As we continue to grow in this age of, creativity and things like ChatGPT, where we have access to answer questions based around either Google or the internet, Google search is now chatgpt we're always looking for perfection, and perfection is the enemy of good, right? And so you need to go ahead and not be afraid to fail and evolve, iterate and and develop.

00:20:01:22 - 00:20:24:01
Rob Napoli
I think that something that we've built and instilled very well with looking at things like a full revenue push, for example, privacy business, it's taken a lot longer to get that out the door. We had a solution. It worked kind of and then we had to rebuild and rebuild it to the fact where we rebuilt the whole flow on our platform completely independent of the systems that they we can remove limitations.

00:20:24:03 - 00:20:45:23
Rob Napoli
But that happened over time. And they have it because we've had amazing in customers and hoteliers and tiny departments who are willing to give radical, candid feedback, and work with us to develop it in a way that makes sense and is also usable and it's amazing because we could have said, hey, this is impossible and so this is possible how we get it to be possible.

00:20:46:00 - 00:21:17:03
Kees Zorge
Yeah and also, let's be very frank about this one, because we saw a strategic opportunity. So from a business perspective it also made sense I think one of the biggest learnings, about this whole push and that's about to be shared during the tunnel is communication part. So we were the ones who were willing to pick up the challenge, come up with a solution.

00:21:17:05 - 00:21:40:09
Kees Zorge
And that's all solutions took us a bit longer to lean and be expected. It's better to be, but we're still the ones who are putting in the solution together. And that's why we need to learn like, okay. And, if we reflect back, I'm going to start the violin. If the orchestra arm goes out of sync, we get them back in.

00:21:40:11 - 00:22:01:00
Kees Zorge
And that's the same level that we need to deal with the communication part, because without these etc., be more expressive like yeah guys we're creating a solution both with companies using a very small company to come up with a solution that open source them for them, or we need to be.

00:22:01:02 - 00:22:13:24
Kees Zorge
More communicative about those type of things like hey guys, we are a solution. So this is like on the air and was live of an in the maybe we might actually be able to years.

00:22:14:01 - 00:22:35:13
Rob Napoli
I mean I think it could be aired and it's something that I think is important is in our desire to play recording, enabling what we want is to serve and our desire of the no ego thing. We sometimes forget to celebrate and highlight where the things that we are providing solutions to because we listen. And that's part going back to the consulting SAS.

00:22:35:13 - 00:22:51:18
Rob Napoli
And we look at this whole thing at times you know, we do need to remind ourselves that take a step back. Applauded, be proud of it but also now they got some of the work. We gotta roll it out. We've got to iterate. It's going to continue to change functionality really we need to grow as we learn.

00:22:51:18 - 00:23:09:18
Rob Napoli
I think that's something that we were so not forget to do to ourselves and something I do want to highlight is we continue to look at 2025 and beyond that's, you know, highlighting the things that we do extremely well. The socials that may come up because that opens up broader opportunities not only for us and our partners, but for the industry as a whole to go proven.

00:23:09:18 - 00:23:30:14
Rob Napoli
We know hospitality is an industry built on human interaction, but there's so much tap that enables it where it's almost too technical at times and everything works in silos and you got to go back to in the day when you're in hospitality and you're at a hotel, you're at a restaurant, you're going for an experience, you want that experience, and everything has to work in concert with each other to give you a full on experience.

00:23:30:20 - 00:23:52:13
Kees Zorge
Yeah. That's part connectivity is must simultaneous to be for the end user as occurs so will be and I need to tell you about what we set out to do this. All we do is make sure that the end user again the chain or whatever, doesn't necessarily have to become a tech company or a couple of companies are there.

00:23:52:14 - 00:24:30:04
Kees Zorge
But we've seen during, in Portugal, for instance, which made go like woah. But they are capable investing millions and billions doing they'll sign your top sponsors that a lot of our customers can't do. But we're offering the similar solution low cost, far away. So that helps. That's what I meant with, like, if we come up with a solution, we think we should be able to learn more about the communication parts towards the end users like hey guys Hold your horses we're fixing this.

00:24:30:06 - 00:24:57:22
Rob Napoli
100% percent now. So as a founder, last year you did a lot of traveling. This year it's already and in Q1 you've traveled quite a bit all over. What is the value of you showing up and being present at events and meetings with customers and clients and partners and why do you put so much pride in you know, being at the forefront and really being out on the road to see everybody as the founder and CEO of the company?

00:24:57:24 - 00:25:35:04
Kees Zorge
Yeah. So it's not so much about pride. It's more now as a founder and CEO, you represent the company. So I actually want to show commitment. Be there, have the conversation to understand what's so what's truly going on. Be present, abide with, quarterly business review again, the word show the commitment being there and what's very important for me is actually to pick up on the chain on the things that are not spoken or unspoken.

00:25:35:04 - 00:26:09:10
Kees Zorge
So for me, nonverbal communication is, not only for me, obviously, that's like 80% of the conversation. So let's take an example. If someone is telling me, yeah, Kees we're most definitely ain't going to do a deal with you. That's like where I'm like, okay, so this might need some additional work where as someone who's very explicit but also comes up with like counterpoints or whatever, but shows the enthusiasm and the openness you immediately pick up on, like, okay, this is going to work together.

00:26:09:12 - 00:26:30:22
Kees Zorge
This is a partnership. So that's why I do as much traveling as I do and from a self centric perspective, being on a flight is one of the very rare moments that I can catch up on the book and the things that I really want to do and, yeah, focus on that.

00:26:30:24 - 00:26:48:15
Rob Napoli
Yeah I think it's important for you being out and about and really shows just coming in, and it's something that I think a lot of people want to do and it's easy, to talk about. But showing up, being there or being out on the road is it's not as easy as glamorous as people think it is to know.

00:26:48:16 - 00:26:50:08
Rob Napoli
You go to a lot of cool places, but.

00:26:50:10 - 00:27:18:06
Kees Zorge
In the beginning it was at the beginning it was like, oh, got to travel. I really think the most important part, is your family, your spouse, your children. Be really aligned with them. Why you're doing this, what the commitment is and without their help and supports, you will. Yeah. We're still recording you will never be able to do this.

00:27:18:08 - 00:27:29:11
Rob Napoli
Yeah and it also helps that, you know, your girls love to travel, that they get to, reap the benefits at times and joining and, the, status, on trips.

00:27:29:13 - 00:27:54:18
Kees Zorge
Yeah. It's not, again, it's not status, but I think I, it's more personal. If I need to do one thing as a parent is, make them world citizens, prep them for debts. It's not about money. Money they can earn by themselves, but setting the stage, making them comfortable with being a global citizen is essentially the thing that I.

00:27:54:20 - 00:28:06:10
Kees Zorge
As for me personally, as a parent, what I set out to do, that's something that's yeah, something that I want them to experience and be out there.

00:28:06:12 - 00:28:23:10
Rob Napoli
Yeah. I think that's really important and, you know, to see that firsthand for them, but also taking that that same kind of commitment to the company of we are a global company and or a company of the world, the globe and the our employees need to understand, you know, we talking about a lot earlier about culture, right? Yeah.

00:28:23:15 - 00:28:41:08
Rob Napoli
Companies are employees understand what it means to work in a market and work with all different types of people and be able to support them and provide the level of unreasonable hospitality that we they expect and we want to give and so I think that that is I ask that question because really interesting.

00:28:41:08 - 00:28:44:08
Rob Napoli
And it's something that's part of the DNA. We've talked about the DNA.

00:28:44:10 - 00:28:45:10
Kees Zorge
Personal growth.

00:28:45:15 - 00:29:07:24
Rob Napoli
Yeah. I mean it's an it's hard to do as you continue to grow in scale and, you know, get bigger, you know, more people become the more complex it is. But then the day when you stick to that DNA and create the culture, as we talked about, it's something that sticks is something that we I don't think we're ever going to let lose sight of right and I think that's really impactful.

00:29:08:01 - 00:29:40:14
Kees Zorge
Great guided that the big challenge is, with the company growing, actually getting into more like departments and the likes that we need, we need to make sensible choices. But then think for every individual within the company there is an opportunity to grow. There is an opportunity to travel. There's an opportunity to learn. I think the most important thing, what we as leaders of this company need to do is let people grow.

00:29:40:16 - 00:29:58:20
Rob Napoli
And own you, let people grow. That also means letting them make mistakes. Of course, sometimes hard for our company to do. But we talked earlier, you know, fail fast, learn faster and that ideation of we're going to learn, we're going to put things out, we're going to grow, we're going to iterate. It's something that you have to allow to happen from an employee level.

00:29:58:23 - 00:30:21:13
Rob Napoli
Yeah. And provide opportunities for growth. And that's something that I think is super, super important and one thing I do think we do pretty well, we obviously have room to grow and get better with our own internal processes. But it's something that I do see and believe that we will continue to, do well and open up opportunities for people to work in a company, even out of a small town Terneuzen

00:30:21:13 - 00:30:29:00
Rob Napoli
And with the world and that's something that I think is so amazing for our teams.

00:30:29:02 - 00:30:31:06
Kees Zorge
I totally agree. Yeah.

00:30:31:08 - 00:30:38:21
Rob Napoli
So when you think about the next stage, when we talk about Omniboost going into the second half of the year and driving stuff for it, oh wow.

00:30:38:23 - 00:30:42:11
Kees Zorge
Right. Q1 just ended. So we've got three quarters. Okay.

00:30:42:17 - 00:30:46:16
Rob Napoli
I'm taking to account the rest of 2025

00:30:46:18 - 00:30:47:13
Kees Zorge
Okay.

00:30:47:15 - 00:31:00:08
Rob Napoli
What are you most excited for? One of the things that you are as the founder CEO, that you're really looking forward to, like, I cannot wait for X to happen. I can't wait for this, these things to start playing out.

00:31:00:10 - 00:31:42:01
Kees Zorge
A lot of things. What you actually mentioned is being a startup out of the city, out of the nation, out of a very small provincial town is, not being, in Amsterdam or whatever, but seeing our organization to develop, and grow where we are being certified with some big fucking logos. Won't do any name dropping here, but it's definitely worthwhile keeping us very close and understand what we're doing.

00:31:42:03 - 00:32:05:20
Kees Zorge
There's some big plays coming up. I didn't feel free, which, it's like I like to challenge. So that's, it's me being out there and to. Yes, evolve the stack even further. That's, I think that's the thing that I'm looking forward to most.

00:32:05:22 - 00:32:29:10
Rob Napoli
Yeah. I think it's gonna be exciting with some of the stuff that we've got going on, not just from the connectivity layer, but from the unification layer as we look at bringing in more functionality. I still we have an episode with Michel Meeuwse, the best kept secret with our data insights and some of the stuff that we're, we're building out with that team and capabilities from data warehouse all the way through visualization, there's just so much more.

00:32:29:10 - 00:32:48:15
Rob Napoli
An untapped potential in what unification means for hospitality that's what I'm excited about. We were just at a few conferences, and there are so much talk about AI and ML, and a lot of people are working with it, but it's a buzzword and when you look at it, it's basic automation. It's not really leveraging. It's maybe leveraging a tool here or there.

00:32:48:17 - 00:33:03:11
Rob Napoli
And I think that we're still on the cusp of seeing what I can really do within the systems of hospitality and it's something that I think is gonna be really fun to, to see play out. But it's just kind of fun to walk into these conferences and you hear them talk about it, but you know that they're not really talking about AI.

00:33:03:11 - 00:33:21:15
Rob Napoli
It's using the buzzword and they're kind of bullshitting and not really getting into the deep, the deeps on it. And it's something that I know we've built a layer around automation. And the next level is taking that with AI, with ML and really starting to do predictive stuff, but that that's still a ways off. That still takes time, takes energy, takes effort.

00:33:21:15 - 00:33:35:10
Rob Napoli
But it's something that I'm excited for as we continue to evolve our products down the line to do really cool things. However, that's going to look and feel as we iterate and grow is something that excites me as well, in terms of just what we can do from a functionality standpoint.

00:33:35:12 - 00:34:07:00
Kees Zorge
Yeah, kind of what you were sharing about the AI part, and it's quite obvious that everybody needs to, needs to be part of that gameplay because AI's here. Yeah. AI is going to expand evolve. It's going to do that one in freaking fast. Being the biggest fan, of AI I am a bit doubtful from a technical perspective gets me super excited, from, let's say, impacts on humankind.

00:34:07:00 - 00:34:33:08
Kees Zorge
It's a bit vague, but it's also something that we need to be mindful of. So that's a cool thing about hospitality. It's human interaction. I also agree with you from their perspective, if you don't do a proper data purification or, curation, it shouldn't inside out. So you're going to feed the models with, incorrect data.

00:34:33:09 - 00:34:39:21
Kees Zorge
Sorry. Yeah, that's bound to end up in the future. Again, solid business goes for us.

00:34:39:23 - 00:35:01:23
Rob Napoli
Absolutely and the kind of the last question I'll ask, because I know you got a jump on another plane here soon, but what are you thinking about Omniboost. Who we are and where we're going, what are the things that come to mind, what are a few words that come to your mind when you think about the next chapter of Omniboost?

00:35:02:00 - 00:35:42:23
Kees Zorge
Excitement obviously growth, new perspectives, new insights, bigger place, a lot of learnings also internally. But Rob, you're always asking the questions. Yeah. So I'm actually quite curious about, your journey. So you're our chief commercial officer. You're dealing with a lot of things. That's quite a big, responsibility on your shoulders as well, doing the growth. So what are your insights, your takeaways, your learnings?

00:35:43:00 - 00:35:57:18
Rob Napoli
It's a great question. There's quite a few things. I think one key learning, especially in the last I'd say 6 to 9 months, is when we talk about unification and connectivity, understanding what that means.

00:35:57:19 - 00:35:58:04
Kees Zorge
Yeah.

00:35:58:04 - 00:36:24:15
Rob Napoli
And the especially from the market's perspective and really highlighting and showing, what we could do from a connectivity layer first, unification layer second and I know we talk about connectivity and unification as buzzwords, but really understanding connectivity being your automation of an output right PMS to accounting. Once you have connectivity, then the unification can really start to happen because you can feed other systems.

00:36:24:15 - 00:36:50:01
Rob Napoli
And that's where we have this insights play, right and feeding a warehouse where you can add levels of, visualization, levels of reporting, levels of additional data that, when collected properly through connectivity, can be used for so much more. Yeah. And everybody wants a data warehouse data like everyone wants to have data and they want to use it, but no one really knows where to start.

00:36:50:01 - 00:37:12:01
Rob Napoli
And the key learning is we have a unique position in the market and a unique skill set where we can actually educate. As goes back to the consultative stuff, we can educate what connectivity means and why connectivity matters first and then what unification means alongside of it, and bringing that picture full cycle where we can actually work with a partner to provide step by step into that.

00:37:12:03 - 00:37:30:19
Rob Napoli
And everybody wants it, but no one really knows how to get it. And they can connect systems and this and that. But when you really understand what connectivity is as a hotelier is a big management company or as an individual restaurant, it opens the door to so much more and that's something that I don't think we've done a great job.

00:37:30:21 - 00:37:54:17
Rob Napoli
We're doing great. We're working on it doing a job is educating that is sharing all this. You talk about learnings and you just highlight all these learnings that we're going to continue to have. We've had so many learnings through this journey that we need to continue to share, and that's what opens up so many amazing things. That to me is what I think the biggest thing that I've learned and something that I want to continue to highlight and drive forward as we work with amazing partners and our vendor network.

00:37:54:22 - 00:38:13:22
Rob Napoli
I wouldn't call it vendors, I call them partners and our channel partnerships and our direct customers with the big hotel chains and management companies, we've got some amazing we have anything from a single hotel to hotel groups of seven, 20, 30, 100, 200 plus and every one of them have a different, unique challenge. But they all struggle.

00:38:13:22 - 00:38:22:21
Rob Napoli
Basic connectivity and then unification. Yeah, highlighting that is something that we need to continue to do and leverage our experience.

00:38:22:23 - 00:38:49:02
Kees Zorge
Taking the subject and bit further, you're also responsible for our marketing, setting the right narrative. So what's your biggest challenge there? Because let's use the example what we learned in Portugal, like the traditional companies are calling us like an enterprise service bus, which that's language for lingual, a lingo that we never use. Yeah

00:38:49:06 - 00:39:10:01
Kees Zorge
Can you explain to the audience like what's your challenge there. Because we are a company, we are a bit of, well, we like to be a bit of a rebel, like go against the grain. But how does that also tie into more like traditional or focus points, the message that we really want to bring across.

00:39:10:03 - 00:39:39:23
Rob Napoli
Yeah, I think part of the challenge and the front end was the fact that we do so many things, over 330 plus software combinations right now, we have over 3000 hotels on our platform, and I think around 2500 restaurants using our platform every day. So there's a lot that we could talk about and cover and what I think we at ten times, you are looking at the middleware, which is kind of it's all about the platform.

00:39:39:23 - 00:39:40:14
Kees Zorge
Platform.

00:39:40:16 - 00:40:01:00
Rob Napoli
Much more out of that. You know, we heard enterprise service and buzz. Yeah. So. Well, but I think the challenge has been is where do we start and where do we highlight and so what we did and we talked about changing the narrative that's this year is really finding, finding that that narrative in that brand voice.

00:40:01:02 - 00:40:24:19
Rob Napoli
And there's kind of three key themes that we came up with one second violin which resonates so while we talked about earlier, I like to use the bass guitar because I used to have the long hair, right versus the violin. But either way that, you know, being that that second violin and really establishing an enabling rhythm, another one is consulting SAS that's I think that's what we do really well.

00:40:24:19 - 00:40:29:06
Rob Napoli
And highlighting that from our messaging standpoint and talking about the solutions that we do provide.

00:40:29:08 - 00:40:30:06
Kees Zorge

00:40:30:08 - 00:40:54:21
Rob Napoli
And what's the last one? The Lord of the Lord of the rings reference the one unification platform to enable them all right. And we know that we do a lot of things around unification. We enable a lot of things. Where do we start, where do we share in the ecosystem of what we could do?

00:40:54:21 - 00:41:14:19
Rob Napoli
And I think that's something we're really working on creating the content and the stories and the narrative around those three key pillars allows us to get really tactical with what we want to discuss, what we want to share. We have the podcast for a reason that's long. That's something that we can do and it's more of the full industry play.

00:41:14:19 - 00:41:32:15
Rob Napoli
And then we have the micro content and this is what we need to get really good at telling our story with within the amazing solutions that we provide and the way that we open up, market opportunity not just for ourselves, but for our partners, opening up something like 60 plus million for a partner and then telling those stories.

00:41:32:21 - 00:41:33:08
Kees Zorge
Yeah

00:41:33:09 - 00:41:54:22
Rob Napoli
Highlighting those stories and leveraging our customers and our partners with great testimonials and conversations and opening those, those veins of really getting good and it's really easy to create all this stuff long form, but creating it as micro content, we know that, you only have eight seconds to capture attention. So creating that micro content, how do you tell that story and all these things

00:41:54:24 - 00:42:07:18
Rob Napoli
Yeah, in a short in a short clip and that's something that we are really working on focusing on this year and short burst really getting tactical about what we do, the solutions to providing our story and tying it to those three key pillars.

00:42:07:20 - 00:42:37:17
Kees Zorge
Okay, cool. That's kind of a challenge. Also last question is, being the American football player that you are being the coach, the player actually, you played quite, high yourself. Thanks for this, because you definitely hooked me up to the game and I became, you know, like a huge friends started being subscribing on Dazn doesn't desert, Dazn following everything.

00:42:37:19 - 00:42:50:20
Kees Zorge
We talked about The Edgers from Brady. That really resonated with me is what's your take on this being the team player and actually having done played a real game. Yeah.

00:42:50:22 - 00:43:08:12
Rob Napoli
This is a this is an interesting one and for those that are out there, by the time this drops, there's going to be an article, written by you, called The Edgers definitely go check out the blog. It's really interesting. I absolutely love it. And I think it's really easy for everyone in today's day and age.

00:43:08:12 - 00:43:16:07
Rob Napoli
Like you talk about being lead center. You want to be the quarterback. You want to be the receiver, catches all the touchdowns. You want to be the the dude

00:43:16:08 - 00:43:16:24
Kees Zorge
Yeah the man.

00:43:16:24 - 00:43:21:09
Rob Napoli
Yeah or do that or the one however you want to want to highlight it.

00:43:21:09 - 00:43:23:18
Kees Zorge
Oh, yeah sure it's

00:43:23:20 - 00:43:42:03
Rob Napoli
No, I think it's important that you don't always have to be. And if you remove the fact that you have to be the known versus how do I make an impact? And, you know, I always like to look at as if we, we use the second violin and a position on the field on an American football field.

00:43:42:03 - 00:43:58:17
Rob Napoli
That'd be the center. Yeah. The center snaps the ball. They lead the line of scrimmage and it's their job to establish the rhythm of the game and that's why it resonates so much with me. Is that I play an offensive defensive line. Offensive line what we call it was always the dirty work because you're the lunch pail crew.

00:43:58:17 - 00:44:16:20
Rob Napoli
You know, that's why I use chop wood, carry water, all gas. Yeah. You know, as our as our commercial motto is right is that it's about showing up and I think the Edgers in that mentality is showing up every day knowing that you got to put in the work and some days are good days. Some days are bad days.

00:44:17:01 - 00:44:36:06
Rob Napoli
But every day is a chance to make an impact, whether that's one check off your checklist or 20 and when you know that the goal is not to be the one and you're coming in to do your job, and you take pride in the work that you do, and that whole team is bought into that. That's when magic happens.

00:44:36:06 - 00:44:41:14
Rob Napoli
That's when the game, you see the game at a different level and things flow so beautifully.

00:44:41:20 - 00:45:10:17
Kees Zorge
That's actually what you saw happening right. With the Patriots, they were dominating the game and at some point losing started losing and I love the analogy of The Edgers and they take it to the into a business perspective because you need to change. They were being so confident in winning that losing actually was like, what the f is happening here?

00:45:10:19 - 00:45:23:08
Kees Zorge
And then showing up doing the extra work, holding each other accountable, not in a negative way, but all in the essence to grow towards the team, play again and then start winning again. That's like proper evolution.

00:45:23:10 - 00:45:34:17
Rob Napoli
Absolutely and it's something that it's easy to forget when things are going well, what it's like when things aren't going well and when things aren't going well, it's easy to.

00:45:34:17 - 00:45:36:21
Kees Zorge
Those are the pivotal moments, right?

00:45:36:24 - 00:45:37:14
Rob Napoli
Absolutely.

00:45:37:19 - 00:45:39:10
Kees Zorge
Or the critical moments. Not a pivotal

00:45:39:10 - 00:45:40:06
Rob Napoli
Pivotal yeah.

00:45:40:08 - 00:45:55:18
Rob Napoli
Pivotal, critical or pivotal or both. It's really easy to have a lowest me mentality and to feel down about it and what the Patriots did in that era and I know that I don't love talking about the Patriots, and I know that you brought this up for that reason.

00:45:55:18 - 00:45:57:20
Kees Zorge
Yes, I did,

00:45:57:22 - 00:46:01:15
Rob Napoli
But what you see is that collective willingness to everyone to buy in.

00:46:01:16 - 00:46:02:05
Kees Zorge
Yeah.

00:46:02:07 - 00:46:21:01
Rob Napoli
And as a company grows, we see this happen all the time. You get excited about the company, but sometimes you don't always know or feel bought in. And it's important to find those moments and cultivate the pyin and that's why I love that we did the all hands. That was something that you could feel the palpable energy of people buying.

00:46:21:01 - 00:46:37:22
Rob Napoli
And again, that people weren't not bought in. But you could feel that, that that energy of a common thread, a common mission and that's something that is we can look at the challenge with the marketing, and we look at all the things that we're doing and changing the narrative. That's the what I've kind of deemed the commercial team this year.

00:46:37:22 - 00:46:51:06
Rob Napoli
When we talk about sales, marketing and brand changing the narrative, highlighting what we do well, not doing it from a place of ego and being like, look at what Rob Napoli did, but look at what Omniboost does not look at what Kees Zorge is doing is what is the

00:46:51:08 - 00:47:10:16
Rob Napoli
Zorge what is the Omniboost is a team doing and that to me is so exciting and that's where we're building around and continue to establish and this is the idea of establishing rhythm and we can take it back. See, this is why we choose these core themes. Right and we take it back to establish rhythm.

00:47:10:18 - 00:47:24:12
Rob Napoli
How can we establish rhythm externally if we don't establish rhythm internally and it's a chain reaction. And so that's where I see all these things kind of playing in and why we're putting so much effort in it is a challenge. It's a challenge because there's so much we need to do.

00:47:24:12 - 00:47:26:20
Kees Zorge
It's also fun isn't it?

00:47:26:22 - 00:47:42:09
Rob Napoli
I mean I love the challenge in the chaos, you know, bet against me and watch what happens and, you know, I think that's the we talk about Omniboost going against the grain. That's always been kind of the a little bit of our, you can call it our ego a little bit.

00:47:42:11 - 00:47:45:15
Kees Zorge
In a positive way ethos. I think even ethos is better.

00:47:45:17 - 00:47:50:05
Rob Napoli
Bet against us and see what happens. We may mess up a time or two.

00:47:50:07 - 00:47:51:02
Kees Zorge
We will.

00:47:51:04 - 00:47:57:19
Rob Napoli
I mean, we're going to as it's proven and that's life. But we're always going to come back with learning.

00:47:57:21 - 00:48:00:18
Kees Zorge
We learn, we adapt and come up with a solution.

00:48:00:18 - 00:48:19:04
Rob Napoli
Yeah and so for me it's hand in hand and it's there. It's an exciting piece of what we have in 2025 is a tiny piece of what we have with Omniboost of what we've built and I always talk about Omniboost who we are and who we will be are two different things. But in between there's always me a connected thread of our DNA.

00:48:19:06 - 00:48:34:19
Rob Napoli
And that's why it's really important and impactful to share these stories and highlight them and talk about them in different ways. It's easy to talk about it in a tech aligned view and buzzword after buzzword, but you got to come at it from different ways. The second violin, the Edgers the this, these things allow us to.

00:48:34:20 - 00:49:00:17
Kees Zorge
That's also why we're sometimes struggling with the buzzwords and the name dropping because it's not us. It does serve a purpose, by the way, because it helps us being recognized as a valuable partner and what we also saw happening, 24 was a good year for us and not a lot of startups due to similar type of growth rates that that we're showing.

00:49:00:19 - 00:49:20:12
Kees Zorge
But also we also need to be frank, we set out to do more. That's why I asked you about the Edgers is like what I like most seeing from the team is actually going to the gym, do the additional work, grow together as a team, and then 2025 fuck yeah game on.

00:49:20:17 - 00:49:43:23
Rob Napoli
Absolutely and that's the beauty, right? Innovation comes from everywhere and everyone and we start that conversation of how interns feel they need to step up and share and when you create that culture and that mentality and that effort level across the board, that accountability, good things are going to happen and it makes us even more excited for what 2025 is going to bring, and just even more excited to show up each and every day.

00:49:44:03 - 00:49:45:10
Kees Zorge
Stay tuned

00:49:45:12 - 00:50:03:01
Rob Napoli
Yeah, absolutely. We have a lot more coming. You know, appreciate you for jumping in. I know that we've been wanting to do more founder talks and just talk behind the scenes. I think it's really important and for those out there listening for y'all to understand a little bit of who we are, we you know, yes, we we're a rocket ship and we're, we're growing and doing all these cool things.

00:50:03:01 - 00:50:23:03
Rob Napoli
But it's not without its challenges. It's not with outlearning and journaling and we want to be able to highlight that, to you’ll understand who we are, what we're doing and why we continue to love being the glue in this space and enabling all the systems to create a better hospitality. Until next episode see you soon

00:50:23:03 - 00:50:25:13
Kees Zorge
This is Rob Napoli signing off