J
Jose C. Thompson Guiza
CTO · Beyond Bounds
Media /Nectora Conversations
Nectora Conversations
Help José Find a Job: Immigrant Founder Fighting to Stay in the Netherlands
Interview, ask to the audience
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Interview, ask to the audience
JOSÉ NEEDS A JOB. Jose C. Thompson Guiza is one of the co-founders of Beyond Bounds, an early-stage company with real potential. They create sustainable 3D-printed furniture with elegant design, attention to detail, and a clear vision for the future of manufacturing. The company started as a university spin-off after winning a pitch competition, later ran a successful Kickstarter campaign, and is currently supported by Demonstrator Lab Amsterdam. But there is a problem. Unfortunately, Beyond Bounds did not reach one of the KPIs required for Jose to continue staying in the Netherlands under the Startup Visa. And that would be a loss. José is not just “looking for a job.” He is a founder, CTO, product designer, mechanical engineer, and one of the most hardworking people I have interviewed. While studying, he was working seven days a week, learning Dutch, serving as president of his master’s programme, and building a company with Dutch co-founders. This is one of those cases where rules and policies do not fully capture the effort, adaptation, and talent of an immigrant founder. And this is also one of the reasons Conectora exists: To give visibility to people who deserve to be seen. With this video, you can hear Jose’s story, understand his background, and hopefully help him find the right opportunity in time. He is looking for opportunities in the Netherlands where his background in product, engineering, startups, technical sales, business development, or operations can be valuable. If you know a company hiring and able to sponsor, please reach out, comment, share, or tag someone who can help. I believe LinkedIn can do something about this. Let’s help José stay, build, and keep contributing. / jose-c-thompson https://www.josethompson.com
About the guest
Recorded at
Amsterdam, Netherlands →▸ Read the transcript
It was my hobby 3D printing. I always found that manufacturing through 3D printing is really nice since you can really uh create objects uh with the material that they really need. We won a pitch competition which uh made us think you know what we could either just go to classes and kind of go through the curriculum and finish the masters. We can make it a really practical masters with a business. Yeah, you might like the product that you design, but what will the world think about it? Managing that uh conversation in order to make a product that can be then sold uh to everybody in different parts of the world is a really nice uh challenge to to tackle. Took over this challenge of beyond bounds. creating a company in the Netherlands coming from a different country from Mexico is uh the government will end my my visa and with that I have to find a job to that offers me sponsorship in order to stay in the country. The start of visa that the Dutch government gives you is one year and that one year expires in August. If you have a job you have to dedicate that 100%. I was working seven days a week and set on an objective. And it wasn't until the the math uh and the timeline were just not gonna work out that I decided, you know what, I have to have a conversation with my co-founders. I would say uh product management or uh product development are two roles that I think I am really qualified for. pitching a product to people that have no understanding of a technology like it's 3D printing there's so many misconceptions about the technology that it looks plasticky that uh can you develop a final product with this technology you came here as an immigrant you also became president of the entrepreneurship master right >> yeah then you integrated with the language and then you built a business >> I'm looking for uh an opportunity here to continue working in the Netherlands um either in sales roles uh technical aspects uh product management product development I think I'm a really capable guy that can uh connect people together and leverage uh the best qualities of different peoples in the team and uh yeah really happy to to set things off in a company that can see me work for the next five plus years. So give me a call Hello. >> Hello. Pleasure. >> So tell us, Jose, what's uh what do you do? >> So I'm a mechanical engineer. Uh I specialize I guess in uh product design, but as a founder of a 3D printing design studio, that involves much more. Uh it goes from ideation of a product to really bringing that product uh into manufacturing and then uh troubleshooting that design for scalability, printing it and then uh assembling it, checking quality, uh looking at leads and then of course uh sending it out to customers. So uh it just comes with the title of entrepreneurship. I guess uh it's a little bit of a jack of all trades, but uh never trying to lower quality for for speed. You really want to look at everything like that. And that's a little bit in a fast way what I do. >> What's the origin of uh beyond bounds? >> Uh Unbounds is a company that we came up a concept. It was my hobby 3D printing. Uh I always found that manufacturing through tree printing is really nice since you can really uh create objects uh with the material that they really need. I always say that if you picture a block of wood and you want to make a chair out of that, you have to chisel away everything until you end up with a chair. Uh when you 3D print, it's kind of the opposite. you kind of just create it at that final shape with of course some a little bit of waste material but practically speaking it's much less material that reducing that full block of wood especially in the industry of furniture there's I think a lot of uh fast furniture uh you could think think that as fast fashion uh stuff that is made uh to see suit the needs rather quickly of people and then um discarding that to decide. So I think 3D printing uses materials that can be recycled so there can be a second life to those materials and uh furniture because I thought it was um it takes time to make good furniture. So 3D printing kind of also takes some time and it's nice in that sense that the industries overlap in that. >> Which kind of materials does BS recover? Yeah. So we use PLA uh ABS or ABS we try to use much less but PG um wood furniture wood uh filament sorry with up to uh 30 to 40% recycled wood that is like wood dust uh we use um PG material that you can see in plastic bottles for instance >> and PLA is um material that is biodegradable biodegradable under the right circumstances. So, uh it really depends on weather and stuff, but it also lends itself to to kind of be um used in a more prototyping fashion for per se. >> Okay. How was the journey of uh Beyond Bounce? >> Well, Beyond Bounce, it was an interesting journey started in the in the classroom in the entrepreneurship masters. Uh and there we won a pitch competition which uh made us think you know what we could either uh just go to classes and kind of go through the curriculum and finish the masters we can make it a really practical masters with a business and we kept that idea going uh and that went until after we graduated also we uh register in the cafa in the Netherlands making it an official business and and yeah it has been one story, one challenge after another and I could probably talk about that for a day. >> Which kind of milestones have you reached with Beyond Boss? I assume from a university project you started winning pitch competitions. >> Yeah. >> Which other milestones did you achieve? Uh I think from a product designer perspective uh coming to a final design and freezing that design that uh suits all the uh aesthetics of the other co-founders was a really interesting milestone because it meant that we had an MVP something that we could show out to people and not just uh do a pitch presentation with a PowerPoint, right? uh but rather actually uh give to uh audiences something tangible uh something that you could always see how people reacted to like oh is this 3D printed that was really nice uh kind of lesson and milestone and then putting that into practice with a Kickstarter uh campaign uh taking that out to the world basically and yeah you might like the product that you design but what will the world think about it and having around uh almost 160 orders around there uh that we had to make into reality as well. Uh well that was a big milestone and and fulfilling those orders as well as you can imagine but yeah it has been um now that I see it like this it might sound pretty uh uh easy now that I look at it but in reality the many challenges that went into getting each of those is uh also uh could talk about that for a day. >> What was your role in the whole company? >> In the company I was the CTO. So basically I looked at uh the 3D uh model cats uh making them in the studio. Then also I have an affinity for photography and also I guess that it's in like that product placement kind of aesthetic. So I also helped uh with that. I talk to the designers because we work with designers from across the world and they might have a really creative way of looking at lamp per se but then editing that lamp into something that can be scalable that is something that I also had to deal with uh and that uh was always an interesting conversation. You always want to be respectful of others ideas, especially with artists. But being managing that uh conversation in order to make a product that can be then sold uh to everybody in different parts of the world is a really nice uh challenge to to tackle. >> Okay. And well, we are here for a reason. You have a big challenge coming up. >> Yes. >> Can you tell us a bit more about that challenge? >> Yes, of course. I uh took over this challenge of beyond bounds creating a company in the Netherlands coming from a different country from Mexico and that is also has u more challenges than the ones that are just starting your own business. You're dealing with a different language. You're dealing with um just a different market and how people react to to pitching a product. uh but also with the uh constraints that the government places on you as an immigrant. It's not that they are a surprise. you know what you're signing uh yourself to and the challenges that you have to to overcome and I couldn't happily say that I overcome all of them but one uh to a certain degree and that is one that is just the amount of money that you have to make with your company uh in order for the government to say that your business is good for the future and you can u keep on working on it. I have co Dutch co-founders. So uh I am happy that the company will continue. uh but at the moment it has to continue without me is uh the government will end my my visa and with that I have to find a job to that offers me sponsorship in order to stay in the country which uh it's something that I want to do and yeah it's a different new uh set of uh of challenges that I have to overcome and uh I'm facing them with a smile and optimism >> which is the timeline that you have for this >> the start sort of visa that the Dutch government gives you is one year and that one year expires in August. So I have until August in order to to find something that doesn't mess with my with my uh legal uh business kind of permit. >> You were uh working at Von Box. why you didn't found a job or you didn't get it. >> Uh I was fully invested in the in the business trying to um tackle all those bullet points that the government sets for you in order to stay. So of course I was busy doing that. Uh if you believe in something, you have to give it your all. And besides that, I was working two part-time jobs. Uh these ones are uh just your basic like hurka like a bartending uh in the weekends and also at uh selling u kitchens through two-hour appointments which also developed a lot of my Dutch but uh yeah I was working seven days a week and set on an objective and it wasn't until the the math uh and the timeline were just not going to work out that I decided you know what I have to have a conversation with my co-founders uh they knew to a certain extent the the situation but when we sat down and looked at it we all agreed that if we I would like to stay and they would like me to stay then we have to take a certain pivot to things >> just out of curiosity how many more products would you have to sell or pilots in order to >> Yeah it's the the government sets a a limit of I think like €1,600 per per month as a salary, but we are three co-founders and it's um it's uh the the government does look at the finances of that. So you have to make sure you achieve that and we I would say we are in track to to make that. is just at the current pace it requires more time that what the one year that I have received and although that is a shame it's the reality of things and yeah you just have to deal with certainties and optimism can take you to a certain distance right you have to look at the math as well >> so on top of that like so you took the risk >> and on top of that you also know that you are integrated here in this country >> so So it's a shame that you cannot uh stay and continue taking the risk, right? >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Same problem. >> But we have to look at the optimistic one. >> Yeah. 100%. 100%. Yeah. It's just uh that optimism has shifted into uh different challenges that I have to to face. >> How do you see the job market right now in the Netherlands? >> I think that it's a interesting question. I think um it requires a different uh mentality uh uh and really different approach that perhaps it was required uh 10 15 years in the past. I think right now it's really a numbers game and you have to really understand what do you want but at the same time not be afraid to to send your your um applications out there in creative ways. And what what do I mean by that is that yeah you can look at their traditional methods uh nowadays like LinkedIn uh or going to the website for applications but I think the what really gets the the chains moving is uh reaching out to people um people that you have encountered for me in the masters uh throughout my stay here people that I have um served while being a bartender and hey do you remember me and kind of just in people in my internship ship and really uh leveraging those those connections that you have made and if you have made those connections in a truly human way and uh with good faith I think that really uh makes people remember you in a good light and makes people just have you in their mind. So perhaps somebody then uh sends uh I know this person maybe you can talk to him and they getting that first conversation I think is the most important thing about the job market right now. It's uh if not you're everything's digital so you have to find that human element. >> If you will find a job how would you compenate it with the startup will you still be a founder or >> well I would I would um how can I answer that if you have a job you have to dedicate that 100%. uh what you do in your free time is your free time. But I think that uh the challenge at hand is um pro hitting your your your KPIs, hitting your objectives, uh establishing a good relationship with your co- uh workers, with your manager and then what you do in your in your free time then is up to you. But also a job might demand that in your free time you develop skills or certifications that will see you develop in that field. So you have to uh put things into perspective uh put them in a scale and see how you can uh navigate that. But uh I really think that it's never good to burn bridges. I think it's always good to keep those uh people that you have uh worked with in a conversation kind of setting. So yeah, I think it goes from a case to case basis. >> Which kind of jobs do you think based on your skills will you be excel in? >> Yeah. Um I would say uh product management or product development are two roles that I think I am really qualified for. But uh also I have found that in the last year and a half um pitching a product to people that have no understanding of a technology like it's 3D printing there's so many misconceptions about the technology that it looks plasticky that uh can you develop a final product with this technology uh and then being able to communicate that the reality of things and then seeing the light spark in their eyes I find is really interesting and what I go by that is that for instance sales roles as a uh technology um sales representative or SDR roles are really something uh that I find really appealing at the moment as well. Yeah. And any lesson for the viewers based on the whole journey you came here as an immigrant you also became president of the entrepreneurship master right? >> Yeah. >> Then you integrated with the language and then you built a business. So from the whole story any >> yeah I think uh if I can leave people with something is that it's always important to be yourself but at the same time to present yourselves to others that might sound simple but in reality if you uh talk to people even if they might uh have um I don't know here in the Netherlands sometimes people have uh really old groups groups of friends that are go that everybody's is Dutch. Make yourself be heard by them. Introduce yourself. Offer part of your culture at the same time as you're embracing theirs. And there's a a moment that people uh will be like, "This guy's too stubborn not to have a conversation with." And you'll be surprised the amount of friends that you can generate from putting yourself in that in those situations. Uh not with just uh co-workers but with your manager but with the president of the university with uh the president of uh certain thing that you find uh interesting. I don't know really is about just putting yourself out there in the circles that you want to be uh heard by. >> Okay. So, well, last question is always any connection that you would like to get. I think it's pretty clear, but if you you can have the camera if you want. And >> so guys, well, they asked for a connection question. >> Okay. >> Well, uh I'm looking for an opportunity here to continue working in the Netherlands. Um either in sales roles, uh technical aspects, uh product management, product development. I think I'm a really capable guy that can uh connect people together and leverage uh the best qualities of different people's in the team and uh yeah really happy to to set things off in a company that can see me work for the next five plus years. So give me a
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