Michiel Roodenburg

“Real impact is driven from within. Only when you believe in the purpose of what you do, you can excell. Focus on your strengths, complement your weaknesses in a team, and together you will deliver change”

Michiel Roodenburg (1985) is a co-founder and Chief Impact Officer at the online supermarket Crisp. After earning a master’s degree from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and an executive master’s in finance from Nyenrode, Roodenburg spent 10 years at Ahold-Delhaize. He started his career at the parent company, worked for three years at its subsidiary Etos, and spent another twelve months at Albert Heijn, where he was responsible for Merchandising & Sourcing. With a great love for good food, Roodenburg noticed a growing consumer demand for healthier, more conscious eating and convenience. Food has been a constant theme in his life, where not only what we eat but also how we eat together is important. According to him, it is a moment to enjoy, seek connection, and take a break.

In 2018, he co-founded the online supermarket Crisp with two good friends, Tom Peeters and Eric Klaassen. The grocery app aims to transform the food system by making better food accessible to more people. Through the app, customers choose from mostly local and seasonal products from around 900 small-scale farmers, producers, growers, and makers. Orders are delivered to customers’ homes throughout the Netherlands and Flanders via the shortest possible route between farm and table. In 2024, Crisp achieved B Corp certification with 109 points due to its extensive sustainability efforts. The grocery app is supported not only by institutional investors but also by several of the Netherlands’ top entrepreneurs behind companies such as Mollie, Thuisbezorgd, TomTom, Adyen, and Vinted. Crisp was named Best Online Supermarket by research firm GfK in both 2022 and 2023 (GfK E-commerce Survey Report among >35,000 consumers).

How did I unlock my potential?

Always focus on changing your environment in a way it suits you by 3 steps: 1) Focus on your personal purpose 2) Identify and centralize your strengths 3) Add complimentary skills, experiences & character traits you lack within your team so that combined effort will be stronger