From Struggling Student to
Student Champion

From Medical Dreams to Digital Reality

It was 2:17 AM on a Tuesday in November 2023. A 20-year-old student sat alone in the university library, surrounded by ICT textbooks, empty coffee cups, and the weight of a completely different future than he'd imagined just months before. His stomach growled loudly enough to earn disapproving looks from fellow night-owl students.

This wasn't his first time in this position. Just a year earlier, he'd been here studying medical textbooks, dreaming of becoming a surgeon. But life had other plans.

💔 The Dream That Almost Was

At 19, our founder had applied for HBO with one clear goal: become a surgeon. He'd worked tirelessly to get accepted, imagining a future saving lives in operating rooms. But reality hit hard when he started his medical studies.

The financial pressure was crushing. Textbooks cost hundreds of euros. Living expenses piled up. His part-time job paid just enough to survive, but not enough to thrive academically. The choice became brutal: work more hours to afford his education, or study more to succeed in his education. He couldn't do both.

Mid-year 2023, he made the hardest decision of his young life: drop out. The boy who dreamed of saving lives was defeated by the very system meant to train him.

🔄 Second Chances and New Visions

But he didn't give up. A year later, he tried again—this time with a new vision. ICT and business felt more practical, more achievable. Maybe he couldn't save lives with surgery, but he could build something that mattered.

Yet here he was again: same library, same late nights, same impossible choice between work and studies. The financial pressure was identical. The stress was familiar. Nothing had changed except his major.

💡 The Lightbulb Moment

That night in November 2023, facing his second potential dropout, our founder made a promise to himself: If I have to leave school again because of money, I'm going to create a solution so this never happens to me—or anyone else—again.

He realized the problem wasn't just his—it was systemic. Students everywhere were choosing between work and studies, between basic needs and academic success. What if there was a way to create flexible work that actually supported student life instead of competing with it?

🎓 The Student Struggle is Personal

Our founder understood the reality of student life because he'd lived it twice, failed at it twice, and refused to accept defeat a third time:

The 10-minute gap between classes where you're supposed to eat, but you're really just running across campus with a granola bar in your mouth—he'd done this rushing between medical lectures, then again rushing between ICT classes.

The dining hall hours that mysteriously never align with your schedule, closing right when you need dinner most—he'd experienced this frustration twice, across two different majors.

The delivery apps that charge €8 in fees for a €12 meal, making it financially impossible for most students—especially painful when you're already working just to afford textbooks.

The work-study jobs that pay minimum wage but expect maximum flexibility, leaving you choosing between income and study time—the choice that had forced him out of school not once, but twice.

� From Dropout to Founder

Instead of dropping out a second time, our founder made a different choice. He started building StudieBite during those late-night study sessions in 2023. Every frustrating moment became fuel for the solution.

He began small—creating a WhatsApp group with fellow struggling students, offering a simple service: he'd pick up food from the dining hall and deliver it anywhere on campus for €2. It wasn't just a business idea; it was a survival strategy.

Within a week, he had 50 requests. Students were desperate for this solution because they were living the same nightmare he'd experienced twice.

❤️ Students Helping Students

But the real magic happened when other students wanted to help. They understood each other's schedules, exam periods, and financial constraints in ways that no corporate delivery service ever could.

A fellow ICT student started doing morning coffee runs between his programming classes. A business major began delivering dinner to the library during her evening study sessions. Students coordinated orders from multiple people in the same dorm, making deliveries more efficient and affordable.

This wasn't just about food delivery—it was about students taking care of students. Our founder had found a way to create work that supported education instead of competing with it.

🎯 The Promise Kept

True to his word, when our founder returned to university the following year, things were different. StudieBite was ready. The solution he'd built during his second struggle was now helping him and hundreds of other students succeed academically without sacrificing their basic needs.

What started as a personal survival strategy had become a movement. From a 20-year-old who nearly dropped out twice to a founder creating opportunities for thousands of students across Dutch universities—proving that sometimes the best solutions come from those who've lived the problem most deeply.