Fairtalks #2: Bas van Abel on founding a startup to disrupt an entire industry
It all began with Waag Society, part of Amsterdam’s innovation cluster. The Waag is an iconic 15th-century building. Part of the original city wall, it has been a weighing house, a museum and a surgical theater where Rembrandt painted The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp in 1632.
Today, in keeping with its history, it is now home to Waag Society, a foundation that fosters innovation in technology, art and culture. Bas van Abel was the society’s creative director. He headed the Open Design Lab and launched Fablab, both of which help people to better understand and create products.
Fairphone’s origin story can be traced back to this innovative environment. “We started looking at conflict minerals, those related to the war in Congo. We felt that if we wanted to create awareness all the way to the consumer, then we have to be part of that system. So, we said, ‘Let’s make a phone,’” explains Bas. “We said, ‘If we sell 5,000 of these phones, we’d do it.’”
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Years later, Bas can look back on an unimaginable journey: Our podcast host Miquel sat down with Fairphone’s founder and all-round sustainable firestarter to really dive deep into the origins of what started out as an awareness campaign, turned into a movement and eventually became a social enterprise. Bas shares his unique perspective from behind the scenes of a growing social enterprise, as they discuss how it went from its humble beginnings to the Fairphone 3.
« One of the first executive decisions I had to make, was to bribe the minister of communication of the DRC. »
There is too much in this podcast to unpack in a few sentences, but as I sat in our little recording studio in the office, listening in on two of the people that dreamt up this initiative and went against all odds to grow it into what Fairphone has become today – I couldn’t help but feel proud. We’ve come along way together and you, our community, play a huge part in that. We really see a lot of potential for taking this podcast format further than our office. As we dig deeper, we’ll include you each step of the way. So now is your chance to let us know what your burning questions are and where you would like to see this podcast go in the next few episodes.
Let’s discuss in the comments below. And don’t hold back – Bas wouldn’t either.
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27 more replies
Maybe there should be a transcription of the podcast published as well for the people with hearing disability.
I Covered many of the topics discussed in this show with Bas, Bibi and Michael back in the day (2011) on my podcast. Unfortunately content gets buried and forgotten as time goes on. If one were interested… here come links to each of those shows.
http://citizenreporter.org/2011/08/ctrp387-connecting-electronics-and-conflict-minerals/
http://citizenreporter.org/2011/08/ctrp386-tracing-the-strategic-minerals-route-in-congo/
PS – Sound engineer: Boost the gain level of the show please.
Great suggestion BertG, I’ll get on that right away!
I’ll be sure to give the episode a listen - and you’re spot on: We wanted to take a moment at the beginning of the year and give Bas the space to retell the story for everyone who’s new to the community. I’m glad there are so many takes on unearthing this story and it would really be a shame, if podcasts like yours stay buried.
And of course, thanks again for the sound engineering tips - we’ll get on that as well and grow our skills from episode to episode. I hope you can hear, that we took your input from the first episode to heart?
Cheers for the great feedback.
Best,
Jan
I’m fully aware how much work that transcription work would be, but nevertheless I want to second Bert’s suggestion wholeheartedly. To not beat around the bush, the likelihood that I’ll read an interview transcription is several times higher than listening to an 80 minute audio recording in a language that I understand but still requires 100% permanent focus. Simply put: Reading is so much easier here than listening. But again, I know how tough a job transcribing is, so if it would happen I’d regard it as a little miracle.
P.S.: Oh, and I am not even hard of hearing.
Hi Urs, thanks for chiming in. That’s a surprising insight, I would have thought that most people prefer listening over reading - especially when it comes to more in-depth stories.
But point taken!
I will try and wrap my head around a way to make this miracle happen for the next one Hard of hearing or not, I’ll do my best to make our content as accessible and inclusive as possible. Really appreciate the suggestions here!
I can second what Urs posted.
With a text, you can print it and read it everywhere, you can easily skip parts or read for gist.
To me that is harder done listening to an audio-tape.
Very interesting Podcast.
Especially for people who want to start a new business.
I would like to hear more about Problems you were facing, but would require a new Team/Company. For example I think Urban mining and Recycling is important to tackle but can’t be handled by Fairphone on a big scale.
Would be interesting which new companies are needed in circular economies. And how Recycling can be improved ( Third world "Recycling"of e-waste. You made a gold study in that.
@Blaffi I’d be intersted to listen to the podcast, but not on Spotify or Soundcloud. Would you have a good’ol RSS feed we could work with?
I very much agree that a podcast should be available via RSS to deserve the name. Especially in times when Spotify is trying to change that norm.
Meanwhile, there are workarounds: Fairphone Podcast