It almost sounds like a boys' adventure

Fouad El Youssoufi and Siu-Hong Fung, both from Schoonhoven, dreamed of starting their own business as young teenagers. Decades later, their company, ServerDirect, is the largest of its kind in the entire Benelux region. The next goal? "To become the biggest in Europe."

When Fouad El Youssoufi and Siu-Hong Fung sat next to each other in their first year of secondary school, they quickly connected, as reported by AD. Even then, they shared the dream of becoming entrepreneurs. "But you're too young at that age to truly understand what that entails," recalls El Youssoufi. The duo sat next to each other in almost every class for years, but lost contact when they went to university.

"I leaned more towards business management, while Siu-Hong went into the technical side," El Youssoufi remembers. "But years later, we ran into each other at the gym. We started talking, and I convinced him to come work with me. We carpooled to work, worked side by side, carpooled home, and after dinner, we went to the gym together." After that first job, they worked at two more companies together. During all those hours spent together, they began to dream again: they had to start a business.

Snowshoes

And they did. Their first company in the IT sector was educational but not very successful. They decided to take a completely different approach. "We started selling snowsteps, snowshoes," says Fung. "In 2011, it was predicted that an extremely cold period was coming. We took quite a risk, as we invested almost all our money into those products, but it paid off."

With the profit they made from the snowsteps, El Youssoufi and Fung started their next company: ServerDirect. They provide custom-made servers to businesses and handle storage systems and network equipment. In the first few years, they did it all by themselves from their cluttered home offices. "We would call each other in the morning," Fung recalls. "We stayed on the line all day. Only when we went to sleep would we hang up. Sometimes it was silent for hours, but if you had an idea, you could always share it."

F1 Simulators

They wanted to run the company together for as long as possible, but the business started to grow rapidly. Now, more than 25 people work at their impressive building in an industrial area in Gouda. In addition to a large warehouse, office space, meeting rooms, and assembly areas, there is also room for relaxation. The second floor features a fully equipped gym with showers, and the lunch area not only offers healthy and delicious food but also has a dartboard, air hockey table, and two F1 simulators.

The company is the largest of its kind in the Benelux. But what sets them apart from the competition? "Every company needs a server," El Youssoufi explains. "But often, you can only buy ready-made ones. When a manufacturer only uses their own parts, the company becomes dependent on them. We offer a much more open system and make everything custom. The personal touch is extremely important."

Our servers are now used by almost every university in the Netherlands and Belgium.

— El Youssoufi

"But we also serve sectors like finance and healthcare. These are mostly companies that collect and analyze large amounts of data or use AI. We've even worked with the European Space Agency. Collaborating with such companies is, of course, very exciting. Because it's so enjoyable, it never really feels like work."

The company also has several overseas partnerships, which are going well. The duo’s big goal is clear: to become the largest in Europe.