Thomas, to get straight to the point: what is AnyWare's core business?
In short, we monitor. In the railway sector. But also in other fields, such as infrastructure and industry. Cooling systems and air ventilation systems in a factory, for example. Using wireless, energy-efficient devices, our platform and applications can monitor and manage our customers' plant and equipment. No matter where they are. 
AnyWare is a spin-off of Dual Inventive from Oisterwijk that supplies innovative and wireless-technology products to ensure that people can work safely on the tracks. The idea was born five years ago: If we know a lot more about what is happening on the tracks, sometimes we won't even need to go on the tracks any more. That's what we started working towards. But before long, parties from outside the railway industry also started showing interest. Hence our broader approach. 

What is your dot on the horizon?
In the sectors in which we currently operate, there are fewer and fewer people with highly specialised knowledge. The ageing population is a problem. The kind of employees who see or feel something vibrate and know immediately how to fix it are becoming few and far between. So it is important to digitise the simplest tasks. This is already happening on the tracks; our customers set up a trigger that shows possible causes and solutions for a problem. For example, if we see that a door is open somewhere, we immediately send someone there. But it doesn't necessarily have to be someone technical. The same applies to healthcare, for example. There is a shortage of people there, too. And so we want to digitise the simplest tasks – the monitoring tasks – in this sector, too. If someone has not been to the toilet by 12.00 noon, there may be something wrong. The same applies if someone has not taken their medicine at a certain time. By deploying healthcare and personnel more effectively, we want people to live at home for longer. We can access this information from new and/or existing devices or sources. We are not focusing on the sensors but rather on the platform that brings all the data together and does something with it.

Motivated by ambition? Idealism? Or passion?
My colleague and I came from a huge company that employed 130,000 people. There we saw many user cases worldwide. Out of idealism, we designed our own generic system. With each step we took, we were thinking: not only does the garage owner on the corner have to be able to use it, but also a company like ProRail. And everything in between. The system turned out to be so generic that people told us they could also apply it on a one-to-one basis in their own field of work. That is where the desire to serve other markets began. Healthcare, for example. We don't know whether the same amount of sales can actually be achieved in that area. But we do have a certain idealism in that direction. We want to advance healthcare. 

How are you connected to MindLabs?
We are a junior partner of MindLabs. We always work with partners who have domain knowledge. People must first apply their knowledge to our system, and only then does it become useful for a particular domain. Hence the search for partners with domain knowledge. And also to see if our system fits in or which adjustments might make it fit. MindLabs is a great vehicle for this. 
We also want to discover how healthcare can benefit from our technology. And there are several healthcare parties connected with the ecosystem. MindLabs is also open-minded, and its members are genuinely open to cooperation and help.

And how long have you been in the family?
We signed in February. We are currently holding initial discussions with other MindLabs parties.

What do you consider to be the holy grail in such cooperation?
With AnyWare, we are mainly looking for: sustainable open discussions for exchanging information with each other. With people who are open to new technology. To see how we can click our technological building blocks together to quickly add value.

And how does it benefit you in the meantime?
Even now, the partnership is providing us with information and many new, interesting connections.