I Never Intended to Build a Software Company

People sometimes ask me whether I always dreamed of building a software company.

The honest answer is no.

Ab Ovo exists today because one plan failed.

Back in 1996 I was about to acquire a company with around three hundred employees. Everything was ready, until it wasn’t. The deal collapsed. At exactly the same time, I had already left Royal Nedlloyd, where I had spent years working in logistics. Suddenly I found myself without the acquisition I had counted on and without the job I had just left.

There was only one logical conclusion.

If I couldn’t buy a company, I would simply have to build one myself.

Looking back, I couldn’t have wished for a better outcome.

My years at Royal Nedlloyd had taught me much more than logistics. Of course I learned about shipping, international trade and supply chains, but the real lessons were about people. I had the privilege of working with people who understood how businesses think, what customers really need and, perhaps most importantly, how to listen.

That became the foundation of Ab Ovo.

We didn’t start by writing software. We started by helping companies solve logistics problems. We hired enthusiastic young consultants with fresh ideas and gave them opportunities to grow. None of them still works at Ab Ovo today, but many have built impressive careers elsewhere. I still enjoy seeing where they ended up. It tells me we did something right.

From the very beginning, I never looked much further than five years ahead.

Every five years we asked ourselves the same question: what should the next chapter look like?

The first answer was almost disappointingly simple.

We wanted to earn money.

Not because making money was the purpose of the company, but because money creates freedom. Freedom to invest. Freedom to take risks. Freedom to build something that lasts.

Once we had that foundation, the next question became much more interesting.

What should we invest in?

The answer was technology.

The funny thing is that we didn’t yet know what kind of technology.

Sometimes entrepreneurship isn’t about knowing exactly where you’re going. Sometimes it’s simply recognising an opportunity when it presents itself.

That happened twice.

First we discovered Quintiq—today known as DELMIA Quintiq. We immediately realised that their planning technology was something special. Not long afterwards we acquired a small company called ED³. At the time we couldn’t have imagined that it would eventually evolve into what is now our Eco Logic Platform.

Those two decisions quietly transformed Ab Ovo from a consultancy into a software company.

Technology alone, however, never makes a company successful.

You also need to find a market where your technology genuinely solves problems.

For us, that market turned out to be rail freight.

At the time Europe was liberalising its railway sector. Passenger transport attracted most of the political attention and investment, while freight operators were often left with outdated systems that had never really been designed for the complexity of their work.

That fascinated us.

Passenger trains mostly follow timetables.

Freight trains live in reality.

Every day something changes. A locomotive breaks down. Infrastructure becomes unavailable. Drivers call in sick. Border crossings create delays. Planning never really ends.

It continuously evolves.

That is exactly the kind of complexity we enjoy solving.

Today, around forty percent of Europe’s rail freight traffic depends on software developed by Ab Ovo.

That is something I still find remarkable.

Like every company, we also experienced moments when the future became uncertain.

When my business partner became seriously ill, we faced a difficult decision. The company had become too valuable for me to continue alone. We eventually sold it to an investment company.

It was the right decision at the time.

But it also taught me an important lesson.

Private equity naturally looks at scalability and financial return. Mission-critical software lives by different rules. Our customers don’t buy software for three years. They often rely on it for twenty or even twenty-five years. That requires continuity, trust and long-term thinking.

Eventually my family and I decided to buy Ab Ovo back.

Looking back, I think we did so at exactly the right moment.

Because today our industry is changing faster than I have ever experienced.

Artificial intelligence dominates almost every conversation, but AI is only part of a much larger transformation.

Cybersecurity has become a boardroom issue. Quantum computing may fundamentally change digital security within only a few years. People often think quantum computing is still far away.

I disagree.

The computers may still be under development, but the risk already exists today. Criminals don’t need quantum computers yet. They only need to steal encrypted information now and patiently wait until those computers become powerful enough to unlock it.

That changes the way we think about software entirely.

The same applies to sustainability.

Artificial intelligence is creating an enormous demand for computing power. More computing means more servers. More servers require more electricity, more cooling and more water.

The software industry has to stop thinking only about functionality.

We also need to think about efficiency.

That is why I increasingly speak about Green Design rather than Green IT.

Sustainability starts long before a server is switched on.

It starts with the first design decision.

Perhaps the development that excites me most is the future of software itself.

For decades we’ve accepted that work means opening application after application, switching between screens and searching for information.

I don’t think that will last.

I believe we’ll soon start our working day differently.

You walk into your office.

You simply describe what you want to achieve.

The software creates your workspace automatically.

It connects information from every relevant system.

It already knows about disruptions before you do.

And quietly, in the background, an intelligent assistant learns from everything you do.

I often call it an agentic angel.

Not because it replaces people.

But because it helps them become better.

It supports experienced employees. It teaches new colleagues. It preserves knowledge when people retire. It quietly watches over continuity.

To me, that is where artificial intelligence becomes truly valuable.

Not by replacing human intelligence.

But by making human intelligence last.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the past thirty years, it is that companies survive by continuously reinventing themselves without losing sight of who they are.

Technology changes.

Markets change.

People change.

Values shouldn’t.

That is why I still believe in the Rhineland model of entrepreneurship. Build for continuity. Invest before you need to. Focus on long-term relationships instead of short-term gains.

Our customers expect us to be there ten, twenty or even twenty-five years from now.

That expectation is both a responsibility and a privilege.

When I started Ab Ovo, I never intended to build a software company.

Today, thirty years later, I realise I was never building software at all.

I was building continuity.

Willem Jan Groenewoud