Father Carlo and his sons Thomas and Nikolaas in front of the pigeon lofts
that have been turned into a visitor center
Nikolaas: When I started my studies I had no idea what I was going to end up doing. I was good at math and science and I had an interest in economic science. A good friend of mine had opted for Business Engineering and I decided to do the same. We went to Leuven together.
I realised I had not made the right choice after just a few months. The mathematic courses were too theoretical. For instance, I had to know hundreds of mathematic proofs by heart for the exam. I heard that the math courses in Applied Economic Science was more practice based, and so I switched over after half a year. In 2003 I graduated with a one year delay (five instead of four years).
Was your higher education enough of a challenge for you? You already started publishing news articles about pigeon racing in 1999…
Nikolaas: It definitely was! But PIPA was just a hobby. Some people do sports in their spare time, I published news aticles about pigeon racing.
You were the right-hand man of Freddy Thienpont, who was running the pigeon website Racing Pigeons All Over The World.
Nikolaas: That is correct. I got in touch with him in 1999 through my father. Freddy’s website (domain name:https://www.cevi.be/pp/freddy/index.html) had about a hundred visitors a day. This is not a lot compared to today but it was still a great number. I was responsible for the news articles and for the technical aspect but Freddy would still take the time to upload all the information onto his own server.
Over time Freddy had less and less time for his website so I suggested that I would further develop his website and upload the updates. We came to an agreement and the website became mine. My internet provider at the time offered free webspace, so the website moved to a different URL as well (https://www.pi.be/rice1/index.html). That URL was not clear and difficult to find. That is why I changed its domain name to www.pigeonparadise.com in 2000. In December I changed it again to www.pipa.be, which is even more straight forward.
The website reached 1,000 visitors, which they celebrated with a bottle of champagne
This all happened during your studies. What did you struggle most with in the beginning? The fact that you could not spend enough time on PIPA?
Nikolaas: Yes, and it often annoyed me. I felt I could not put enough effort into PIPA. I had this constant struggle: should I continue my studies or work on further developing PIPA? In my study room I was usually occupied drawing wireframes and developing new ideas and content tables for the website. After a day of studying I would usually end up with several pages of ideas. I enjoyed it but I also knew I did not have enough time or money to put my ideas into practice.
Fortunately I met Martin Degrave in 2001. Together we have put our heart and soul into PIPA, and he worked day and night as a volunteer. I will never forget what he did. I am also very grateful to my father, because he has put al lot of effort in PIPA as well. He also made a financial contribution.
Thomas, Carlo and Nikolaas with Martin Degrave, who spent several years working for PIPA as a volunteer
When did you feel for the first time that your efforts were paying off, and that almost every fancier knew the PIPA website?
Nikolaas: That was in 2003, the year of the pigeon flu in Belgium that held pigeon fanciers all across Europe in its grip. Pigeons were no longer allowed to enter France, and new measures could be introduced every day. I brought news updates about the flu every single day, whereas the pigeon magazines appeared only once a week. Sometimes our news coverage was quicker than that of national television. That was quite exciting, especially since we suddenly attracted tens of thousands of visitors a day. Basically every fancier in Europe got to know our website, since everyone wanted to know when they could start racing pigeons again. Other news reporters would follow. Ad Schaerlaeckens for instance said in an article that PIPA was the CNN of pigeon racing. This was an exciting but often chaotic time. This all happened in May 2013, my last year at university, when I was working on my thesis. In this hectic period I also met my wife Jana. I had no time to attend lectures and so I borrowed other students’ notes, including Jana’s notes from English class.
The PIPA website in 2004
A milestone in our online auctions was our Tsunami event in 2005. We sold hundreds of pigeons in our charity auction for the victims of the seaquake and the Tsunami in the Indian Ocean, raising 100,000 euro in total. Fanciers from all across the world placed a bid, and our auction was an international news item in pigeon racing.
The high number of visitors during the bird flu crisis and the highly successful Tsunami auction. Would those be your best moments in 15 years of PIPA?
Nikolaas: I do not really have one favourite moment, because there have been so many in the past years. Honestly, I have been feeling happy and excited throughout this adventure, because it has never felt like work to me. Sometimes I would rather work than going on vacation, because when I’m on vacation I am still thinking about PIPA. I just love my job.
I get satisfaction from so many things. It might sound strange but it am very excited when we hire someone that turns out to be a perfect match for PIPA. I am equally satisfied when one of our online auctions turns out to be a major success.
Nikolaas meets Luna Lai, who represents PIPA in China. This cooperation turned out
to have a major impact on the further development of PIPA
Have you had any moments that made you think about stopping the entire project?
Nikolaas: Not really no. PIPA is my project and I would never leave it behind. You put your heart into it, even in difficult times.
I did have a few difficult moments, especially in 2004. I had a few health issues due to the high workload. I could hardly get any work done for a few months because I did not have the energy. My brother Thomas helped me out, and this is how het got involved in the project. I learned a lot in these few months. I learned to put things in perspective, and I started to see things differently. I was partly influenced by Steve Jobs, who talked about his way of life in his book, which I was reading at the time. His speech in Stanford in 2005 was one of the most inspiring things I have ever seen or read.
How do you clear your head if the workload gets too high?
Nikolaas: I always find it difficult to forget about work, because like I said it feels like my faourite hobby. I do try try to exercise every week, either running or cycling. I can also clear my head when I’m with my family, and with my daughter Amalia (4) in particular. She gives me a lot of energy as well.
How does your wife Jana feel when PIPA is going through a difficult time?
Nikolaas: She is happy to provide a listening ear. One of her strengths is that she is not at all interested in money, material things or business life. She only cares about me as a person and our family.
This is something I learned in 2004, when I started suffering from health problems. I was not yet making any money with PIPA, and she was always by my side during these months. I am very grateful to have met such a wonderful person. I think there is a lot of truth in the following quote: “The most important choice in you life is to decide who you will be marrying to.”
Nikolaas and his wife Jana on their first holiday together in 2003
Do you get a lot of support from your father and your brother? Or is it difficult because you are running a company together? It is often said that family and business should be kept apart.
Nikolaas: Both. On the one hand I can trust them for 200% but on the other hand it can be difficult to criticize my father’s work, after he has done so much work for this project. But I have to treat everyone the same way. This has to do with my strong sense of justice. I try not to make a distinction between my father or brother and my other colleagues.
And new something else: the PIPA Elite Center, your other hobby project. What is your ultimate dream for the PEC?
Carlo, Nikolaas and Thomas Gyselbrecht with their PEC star Porsche 911
And what do you hope to achieve with PIPA?
Nikolaas: My dream is to create a work environment that our employees love to come to every day, and I hope this will in burn lead to customer satisfaction as well. Customer satisfaction is something I want to improve next year; I think we can provide even better service towards our clients and sellers. Our employees and our clients are the heart of this company. Most of all our clients, since they pay our incomes every year. That is why they deserve special attention every day.
In the long term I want to turn PIPA into a stable company, the strongest firm worldwide in pigeon trade. Many people have told me they think PIPA is the number one worldwide and that it hardly has any competition. But I think there is still room for improvement. I really want to work on that.
As you say: many think PIPA is the number one, and that it has no rivals. Who do you call if you do not find a solution for a problem?
Nikolaas: It comes down to surrounding yourself with people that are better than you in a certain field. I am fortunate to be surrounded by talented people both inside and outside of PIPA. I used to call Pros Roosen very often. He is a clever man in pigeon or business related affairs. Today I often turn to Dirk Deroose for advice. He is the leading man of Willy Naessens, and he has an answer to most of my problems thanks to his many years of experience in business. That does not mean I call him every single day. I will always try to come up with a solution myself.
PIPA has had an increasing number of employees over the years:
Its first two employees are on the left (Martin and Erwin), the current team is on the right.
We have talked about your dreams with PEC and PIPA but we would also like to talk about your personal ambitions. Some people have a bucket list, a list of things they want to achieve during their lives. What would be your number one?
Nikolaas: I do not really have a bucket list. I wake up every morning with Steve Job’s motto in mind: If you live each day as if it was your last, some day you’ll most certainly be right. Would I have lived my day the same way had I known it had been my last? If the answer is no for several days in a row, I know it is time to change things around. This is how I try to live. I do the things I want to do right away, instead of waiting for later. What if there is no later?
Speaking of later: how long do you want to go on with PIPA?
Nikolaas: Like I said, PIPA is my personal project. I will never stop working for PIPA, although it might be possible that I leave the day to day running to someone I consider to be capable. I am already thinking about this today. It would allow me to continue with PIPA without it ever becoming too much.
Perhaps I see myself as the advisor of the future CEO in a few years’ time, instead of being the CEO myself. Most of all I would like to continue maintaining business relations and travelling around to visit clients worldwide. In fact, I might have something on my bucketlist after all: travelling around China with my family for a few months or perhaps an entire year. I would like to get to know the country even better, and I could also visit our clients during our trip.
PIPA will always play an important role in your life, even when you are no longer the CEO. Nikolaas, thank you for talking to us.
