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              Construction of badger tunnel underway in Molkwerum

              Pride and passion: football in the northern Netherlands

              Police detain underage fan after FC Groningen player is punched in Eredivisie game

              Watch: The New Energy Coalition is on a mission to improve our world

              Watch: The New Energy Coalition is on a mission to improve our world

              Who are the BBB? The BoerBurgerBeweging explained

              voting_ballot

              Unofficial election results are in, and it could be a nightmare come true for ruling coalition

              Groningen filmmaker wins Noordsterren prize at IFA 2023 with “Jäger”

              Groningen filmmaker wins Noordsterren prize at IFA 2023 with “Jäger”

              The Northern Times working together with TopDutch

              The Northern Times working together with TopDutch

              E Thomassen a Theussinklaan

              Drenthe makes it official — you can’t smoke or vape at bus stops

              Paddepoel hosting free kids event Saturday

              Trending Tags

              • Lifestyle
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                • What's happening
                Groningen welcomes Qatar 2022 with cheer and criticism

                Groningen welcomes Qatar 2022 with cheer and criticism

                The anti Zwarte Piet protest in Emmen

                Emmen: Four people still detained after anti Zwarte Piet protest

                The inside of Forum Groningen

                “Let’s Gro” opens a discussion on the future of Groningen

                What about food in student city Groningen?

                Where to get knockout fries in the northern provinces

                Ukraine Food opens in Groningen

                Ukraine Food opens in Groningen

                Buses will no longer travel through the Grote Markt in Groningen

                Buses will no longer travel through the Grote Markt in Groningen

                “Tall Ships” Race coming to Friesland this week

                “Tall Ships” Race coming to Friesland this week

                Noorderzon festival returning to Groningen in August

                Noorderzon festival returning to Groningen in August

                Plans for extensive Kardinge residential expansion revealed

                Plans for extensive Kardinge residential expansion revealed

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                • Culture
                  • All
                  • Dutch history
                  • Typical Dutch
                  Luna: Leeuwarden light festival and young artists’ exhibition winding down this weekend

                  Luna: Leeuwarden light festival and young artists’ exhibition winding down this weekend

                  Groningen cultural center Usva

                  Groningen makes international headlines for all the wrong reasons

                  International Welcome Centre North

                  International Welcome Centre North

                  A woman.

                  Groninger photographer Courtney Bonneau launches new exhibition in Lebanon

                  Eurosonic Noorderslag

                  Eurosonic Noorderslag

                  Ending the Year with a Bang!

                  Ending the Year with a Bang!

                  It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas

                  It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas

                  A devastating defeat; an unexpected victory

                  A devastating defeat; an unexpected victory

                  Sinterklaas is Here!

                  Sinterklaas is Here!

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                    International Welcome Centre North

                    International Welcome Centre North

                    The cold of the North is compensated by the warmth of its people – Ocean Grazer engineer

                    The cold of the North is compensated by the warmth of its people – Ocean Grazer engineer

                    Watch: A workplace that sells itself – CTO on working at Ocean Grazer

                    Watch: A workplace that sells itself – CTO on working at Ocean Grazer

                    It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas

                    It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas

                    People protesting on a street in Groningen.

                    Former Sugar Homes residents protest for return of withheld deposit

                    I’m not Black; I’m African

                    I’m not Black; I’m African

                    A letter from the Editor – Internationals from 120 countries: Welcome to Groningen, Leeuwarden, Assen and Emmen!

                    MPs call for cap on foreign student numbers in order to ensure ‘accessibility’

                    Watch: I’m 100% positive about my Groningen internship – Hanze international student

                    Watch: I’m 100% positive about my Groningen internship – Hanze international student

                    Common cold becoming too common

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                      Watch: The New Energy Coalition is on a mission to improve our world

                      The cold of the North is compensated by the warmth of its people – Ocean Grazer engineer

                      The cold of the North is compensated by the warmth of its people – Ocean Grazer engineer

                      Watch: A workplace that sells itself – CTO on working at Ocean Grazer

                      Watch: A workplace that sells itself – CTO on working at Ocean Grazer

                      Watch: We’re hiring internationals to help us with foreign clients – ACS Buildings CEO

                      Watch: We’re hiring internationals to help us with foreign clients – ACS Buildings CEO

                      Small but mighty: TECNED is looking for internationals to help it grow

                      Small but mighty: TECNED is looking for internationals to help it grow

                      Talk on International Growth by local founders to take place on the 21st of June

                      Talk on International Growth by local founders to take place on the 21st of June

                      Groningen to host its first sustainable business day

                      Groningen to host its first sustainable business day

                      Companies in Dutch energy sector seek next cohort of young leaders

                      Companies in Dutch energy sector seek next cohort of young leaders

                      Annual Beta Business Days event a success

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                      Home Opportunities

                      More than a start-up: Chordify helps people play their favourite songs

                      The Northern Times by The Northern Times
                      June 6, 2019
                      in business, Opportunities
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                      More than a start-up: Chordify helps people play their favourite songs

                      The Chordify Team Photo by Lex Vesseur

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                      What does it mean to make it in the north? This is part of a series of portraits of local people, organisations, and companies working to further internationalise Groningen, Friesland, and Drenthe. This time we spoke to Gijs Bekenkamp, CMO and co-founder of Chordify, a young and fast-growing company that turns songs into playable chords, so you can play along too.

                      By Erin Goedhart-Stallings

                      Gijs Bekenkamp greets me in Chordify’s colourful new open-plan office near the Oosterpoort, which has musical instruments on the tables and a young team of product designers and market developers working to improve their signature app. The company he co-founded, Chordify, is an e-learning platform based on a simple idea: it transforms music into chords so musicians can play along with their favourite songs. Behind that simplicity is some impressive technology based on deep neural networks that are trained to recognise chords and track beats.

                      ‘The idea originated from the mind of Bas de Haas, one of the founders of Chordify’, Gijs explains. ‘He wrote his doctoral thesis on informatics and a chapter was about automatic chord extraction. One day, seven years ago, he came to my place and started talking about this idea he’d had, and he wondered whether I was interested in building a platform for it. I was enthusiastic and a few other guys were as well, so we just started building. Within a couple of months, we had a prototype that we launched in beta. At first, it was just a fun side project.’

                      ‘We officially launched the service in January 2013, during Eurosonic Noorderslag, the music festival here in Groningen. And that was also when we realised that we had something more than just a fun project. The first day, we already had a thousand people visit our website. We didn’t do any marketing: nothing to create brand awareness. There was actually just quite a lot of demand for this type of product.’

                      The founders were living in Utrecht and Groningen, so they established offices in both cities. Gijs started and continues to work in the North. ‘It’s a bit of a cliché, but Groningen is thriving with talent. There are so many educational institutions here, and such a large portion of Groningen consists of students or recent graduates. It’s not always easy to find the right fit for our company, but it’s easier to find quality staff here, compared to elsewhere in the country.’

                      Chordify now has approximately 25 employees across the two cities, plus one customer service representative in Austin, Texas. Most of their employees are Dutch, but that is evolving. ‘We have just one non-Dutch-speaking person in the Groningen office, a woman from Germany. But a lot of English is spoken in this office nonetheless. In Utrecht, English is the main language for the office. There are four or five non-Dutch employees there, all from different regions. We try to stick to English in all our written communication as well.’

                      Gijs has watched the start-up scene grow in the region, while chafing a bit at the label. ‘There’s a lot of hype around “start-ups”, but people should just focus on building a good business.’ He also has some thoughts for investors in the north of the Netherlands. ‘Create your own boundaries of what you’re willing to risk, weighed against how much control you wish to exert on a company- and make sure to commit to the consequences of your decision! Generally speaking, it seems that investors in the North are risk-averse but would also like to control a large portion of the company they invest in, and this balance should be re-assessed.’

                      Gijs also has some advice for budding entrepreneurs: ‘Create more focus faster. Make sure that everyone is working on the same project and putting all of their effort into it from the beginning. For Chordify, all of the founders had their own projects or companies when we started, and it took us quite a while to take the leap and completely focus on this project alone. When the company got the attention it deserves, we grew much faster.’

                      He also emphasised the importance of formalising agreements amongst partners. ‘Make sure everything is on paper, so all of the founders understand what they are getting into. One of our founders left after three years, and we were lucky that we got along and could come to a solution regarding his exit. But not having things written down is a classic example of how things can go wrong with a new business. It’s quite simple and doesn’t necessarily need to take a lot of time; just do it.’

                      Chordify is still growing fast. Gijs ends our discussion with a message to readers: ‘We’re hiring in both of our offices! Check our website and Make it in the North to see the vacancies.’

                      Erin Goedhart-Stallings is a writer and editor who works on Make it in the North with the International Welcome Center North (IWCN). For more information about Make it in the North, just visit www.makeitinthenorth.nl

                      Tags: businesschordifyInterviewMake it in the Northmusicstart up
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                      NorthernTimes.nl is an English-language news site for internationals and anyone interested in news and activities in the three northern Dutch provinces of Groningen, Friesland and Drenthe. The website provides daily coverage and summaries of local news in the north, as well as human interest stories, backgrounds and a regional events calendar. The Northern Times is an initiative of the International Welcome Center North in cooperation with Persbureau Tammeling BV, which owns and operates the website.

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