The idea first came to life a few years ago during the Bevrijdingsfestival in Zwolle, a music festival commemorating Dutch Liberation Day. “It suddenly started pouring, and everyone grabbed their plastic disposable ponchos. Not exactly sustainable — and afterwards, they were scattered all over the ground. I turned to my friend and said, ‘We have to come up with something better,’” Nathalie recalls.
It wasn’t the first time she had considered starting her own business. “A few years earlier, I joined the UT Challenge with some housemates – an entrepreneurial competition for students. Although we didn’t win, it was such a fun experience, and throughout the competition, I became more and more enthusiastic about the idea of entrepreneurship,” says Nathalie. “After the Bevrijdingsfestival, I couldn’t stop thinking about it – and that’s when the idea of shared umbrellas really took hold.”
From ideation to concept
The sharing economy is booming. Shared scooters and cars have become part of everyday life, and more and more people are choosing to rent clothing for special occasions rather than buying new items. “That got me thinking — why not shared umbrellas? You rarely need one, and when you bring your own, you end up carrying it around all day,” Nathalie explains. “After some market research, I discovered that similar concepts have already been successfully implemented in Scandinavia. The real challenge was to develop a strategy that would also work in the Dutch market.”
To bring the idea to life, she turned to Incubase, the start-up incubator on the University of Twente campus, where student entrepreneurs can find guidance and support in starting their business. “That was incredibly valuable,” says Nathalie. “Together, we explored different business models, and they connected me with our first potential investor.”
It also turned out to be the place to meet useful contacts. “With my background, I know a lot about design, prototyping, and a bit about marketing — but I was still looking for someone to handle the technical side.”
That’s where Miguel came in. As a Mechanical Engineering student from Portugal, he’s responsible for the design and functionality of the umbrella-sharing machines. “Even though we had a clear vision of what we wanted, it turned out to be more challenging than expected,” Nathalie explains. “For example, we initially hoped people would return the umbrellas on their own – but when that didn’t happen, we added a deposit system. During our pilot, we also discovered that the connection between the payment system and the lock wasn’t stable enough, so we had to improve that to ensure the machines worked reliably.”
PLU throughout the city
Alongside refining the machines, Nathalie and Miguel are now focused on expanding and testing PLU. “During this testing phase, using PLU is free, but in the future, we’ll need to introduce a revenue model. We plan to charge users €2 and combine this with advertising opportunities for sustainable companies and organisations. There’s already quite a bit of interest, but before businesses are ready to advertise on our umbrellas, we need more machine locations,” Nathalie explains.
Through contact with the municipality and local businesses, they hope to increase PLU’s visibility. “It would be amazing to see PLU stations all across the Netherlands, and maybe even abroad.”
In the meantime, both students are finishing their degrees. “Balancing two master’s programmes and a start-up can be quite a challenge,” Nathalie admits. “But it’s incredibly rewarding to apply what we learn in real life and build something we’re truly passionate about. Ideally, I’d love to work on PLU full-time after graduation – we have big plans!”
PLU is currently looking for an extra team member and new locations for future expansion. Want to learn more or collaborate? Get in touch with Nathalie and Miguel via info@plu-umbrellas.com.
