Top 5

Thanksgiving just went by...but it's never too late to give thanks, is it? Allright...here we go: the top 5 people who helped getting wafels & dinges off the ground this year:

1. My wife, Rossanna. She has been the encouraging force, she made me believe it is possible to pursue my entrepreneurial dream. She puts up with a batter covered kitchen floor every day, with screaming mixer noises at 6 am every morning, with a 30 boxes of packaging in our living room. She asks the hard questions and won't let me settle for less than the best.
2. Jeroen De Schrijver and Ellen Depoorter....two Belgian architect/artists friends living in Brooklyn who helped develop all the graphics and design elements for the brand and the (eventually we hope) store... They have endless creative energy, an incredible eye for detail and again, ask even more hard questions...
3. Susi Rajah and Corey Mitchell - my downstairs Ozzie neighbours / marketing gurus. Susi was the one who first saw "wafels & dinges" as a candidate name for the truck. Even better, when we learned that the word "dinges" resembles some other American slang word with an edgy/sexual meaning, Corey was the one who told me to stick to my gut feeling and not cave in to potential political incorrectness...
4. All my NY friends and IBM colleagues, and everyone who has sent encouraging emails telling me how much they admire the step I've taken to leave my cushy corporate life: If I haven't told you before, let me tell you know: These are the notes that get my out of bed every morning at 6am.