Their serviced telecom technology celebrates its 13th year existence this year, but it was only rebranded to Talksome last year. They recently received the keys to their new office, which they needed to fit their expanding team at the HSD Campus.
We introduce you to Daphne Wolf, Talksomes’ CEO of 4 years and contented member of the HSD Campus community ever since. After a career in tech and telecom, Daphne took over the CEO role in 2018. “From the beginning, we have grown the company organically, without any external cash injections, towards the 14-person team it is today” says Daphne. “Organic growth has its challenges, especially in the preparation for business growth. But it has also allowed for a gradual and solid growth of our team and it gives us the independence to make decisions that truly fit our purpose” she explains.
With a stable market share in the Netherlands and market leadership in its primary market of general practitioners’ centres, Talksome’s main source of business growth is in retaining and increasing the size of its current accounts. In addition, the company is preparing for international expansion. They already have an initial presence in Belgium which they will build out and have their eye on Germany as the next growth market.
Cybersecurity in the DNA
“As a provider of telecom solutions to privacy-sensitive industries such as the healthcare industry, security is a fundamental requirement in Talksome’s products” says Daphne. Being part of the cybersecurity community is just one of the signals that Talksome is serious about privacy and (cyber)security. Other measures Talksome has in place to safeguard the highest possible safety standards is engineering cybersecurity into the products from the beginning and hosting the platform solutions and data in the Netherlands.
Leveraging the cybersecurity community
“I am a strong believer in the value of community and collaboration and I welcome other professionals from the HSD community to get in touch with me or my team”, says Daphne. “If they have ideas for collaboration, if they would like advice or just to discuss topics like growing your business organically, we are happy to give tips from our experience,” she elaborates. Other topics Talksome’s team has experience and expertise in are optimising development processes or more specifically about various programming languages, user experience design and marketing.
Just like many other companies at the HSD Campus, attracting the right talent is a major challenge for Talksomes’ growth. Daphne proposes to explore the feasibility of taking a collective approach: “Just like most software companies, we are dealing with peaks and valleys in our engineering work-load. I think it would be interesting to explore if we could create a shared talent pool with good developers that we can trust, that can join our respective teams when necessary.” Of course clear agreements between companies are a prerequisite to make this possible, but this is surely attainable. “Together, we are more likely to come up with a solution than individually”, Daphne concludes.
You can find the Talksome team on the 6th floor at the end of the corridor to the right. The team is complete on Tuesdays and Thursdays (including the HSD Campus borrels!). You may have seen them gather once a month for their Talksome sessions, which include dinner and a subject-matter presentation by one of the members of the Talksome team. Don’t be shy to ask to join in on a session if it is of interest to you. Of course if competitive information is shared it is for employees only, but often more generic topics are discussed that allow outside visitors to join in on.
Make sure to compliment Daphne and the Talksome team with the growth of their business if you see them at the HSD Campus!
