Sagen De Jonge at the INKISH NON-EVENT 2019 · Copenhagen
INKISH hosted for the first time ever our NON-EVENT. The Non-event is celebrating the people that have been in front of the camera, or been supporting INKISH during the past years. This is a new recurring event, and the idea is to give space for the people we have featured to connect in a new way. We invited 150 people, and 32 decided to join us. Our guests came from Japan, Canada, USA, UK, Belgium, Sweden, and Denmark – and we are confident that next year, even more, will come.
We asked most of our participants to talk LIVE during the dinner – and here is Sagen De Jonge from Canada. Sagen De Jonge is one of the two owners of Tilia Labs, one of our favourite companies to cover on INKISH. Tilia Labs have reached star-recognition for their Phoenix imposition/planning software, and we were so happy when Sagen De Jonge and Scott More announced to come to our Non-Event.
Enjoy!
Sagen, it is true that when we met, I think we clicked.
Definitely.
I think we have deep respect for each other’s work, which is always a good starting point when you get to know people, of course. I appreciate that you and Scott take the time to get here to Copenhagen for our Non-event.
It’s a great event. Yeah.
We just spoke to Diego. He was the one that brought us together, because he’s invested in both in [Focus Switch 00:00:00:36] as well as until last, Phoenix, right?
Yep.
We don’t want to talk about Phoenix today, but Phoenix is an imposition too, that is really all the things that he talks about automating and creating his business more valuable. That is due to your software. When you develop software, because when I meet you and Scott at hotels and exhibitions and Airbnbs, you are always working on new things. You’re always developing.
Yeah.
How do you get the ideas? What is the challenges that you see from a developer’s perspective in relation to what is important to a printer?
Yeah, well, the ideas, they come from a bunch of different places. Sometimes we run out of ideas.
Really?
But, well, we have a huge backlog of things we need to do. But sometimes if we’re trying to approach a problem, we run out of ideas. And then you wake up the next morning and something comes to you. But you know-
Are you married?
What’s that?
And you’re married?
I am, yeah.
Just because you see, you wake up in the morning, and then you have a bunch of ideas for automation. It’s just like, yeah, okay.
That happens a lot. But the other thing-
I’m sorry, you know it’s just kidding. Yeah, sorry.
Of course, you know, we’re grateful for customers like Diego, because they drive us and give us a lot of ideas.
And I think the Bernard group is an example of somebody who’s really driving it to its fullest extent, right?
Yeah, yeah. They really do. They’re pushing the boundary and we’re lucky to have a number of customers like that, that really use it to its full extent and also give us feedback on things they want to do, that’s no one’s doing yet. And so there’s always, there’s no end. There’s, yeah.
It must also give you a lot of pride to see that when you and Scott started this, I mean, you as a company has developed a lot more people now, but you have got more and more recognition in the market. And also because of the storytelling that you’re, where you’re using, Diego as an example. I mean that really showcases the value of automation and workflow, right?
Yeah, no, it’s a great feeling. It’s really, those are actually the best-
Aren’t you proud? I mean, you must be proud like hell.
We are, we’re super proud. Some of the things that we’re most proud of is when we go into a supermarket, and we know, that was printed using our software. That’s a really, because usually it’s so abstract-
Does that end in a preference purchase, when you buy your, this label is made with the Phoenix, or?
It probably would, but I don’t know enough of them, which one it is. But yeah, if I knew, probably.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And one of the things that I’ve been both writing and talking about when we talk about [Tilley Labs 00:03:02], I think that you are an interesting company because you are a new breach, in the sense that you are based out of Toronto. Scott is from Tokyo, Fiona’s from London, George is from?
Cincinnati.
And you’ve got more people.
Tyler is in Greenville, yeah, people are-
But you are able to actually make a global company with distributed work, right?
Yeah. It’s hard sometimes, but I was even just thinking about that tonight. That’s one of the reasons whenever we meet, you see us working. Because when we do meet that’s an opportunity of face to face time that we don’t get that much of, so we try and make use of it.
And you don’t chit chat when you’re working, right?
We probably spend too much time doing that.
Today you have been, you had your little walk to the old Copenhagen.
Yeah.
Did you talk tourist attractions or workflow?
A little of both. Probably more workflow than, yeah. We are you usually talking shop.
What do you think of Copenhagen so far?
It’s a great city. Definitely. I’ve loved the walks here, and this area here with the ocean, it’s beautiful. It’s like you said, the water is really crystal clear here.
Yeah. And how do you think of our Non-event?
Of what?
Our Non-event, what’d you think of it?
Yeah, I think it’s great. It’s been, we’re meeting a bunch of new people, and it’s people that are passionate like us, so, yeah.
Yeah.
Very.
And your expectations for 2020 short, what do you have? Do you have new updates and new software? What do you have?
We do.
What to expect?
We do, but we’re not announcing that until Drupa, so we’re going to announce-
So you’re not telling us now?
Not yet. Not yet. But it’ll be exciting, new products-
Everybody says that when they say that, I can tell you, but I can’t tell you, but it will be exciting.
I believe it will.
You believe it? Fair enough.
But yeah, and other than that, the business keeps growing, so we doubled. We actually did double again.
Really?
And we’re thinking we probably can do that next year, too. So we’ll see how long we can keep that going.
And is that just people are really starting to understand the value of your products?
Yeah, I think it’s kind of, we did more trade shows, and more just actually go to customers, than we’ve ever done this year. And it just, it’s been growing like crazy. So, yeah.
Congratulations.
Thank you.
I really appreciate it on your behalf. So-
Yeah, well, me too, because you know, you’ve helped us with that. The videos we’ve done together have been, have definitely, the initial video we did with [Bernardo 00:00:05:31], we’ve really used that a lot. It helps our brand a lot, so.
Thank you for your support, and I appreciate your time here in Copenhagen. I know to time and cost money to get here, so thank you very much.
Good to be here.