Average Is the Most Expensive Thing an Entrepreneur Can Do

Dr. Niklas Richter · 2026-09-11

Dries Henau and Yuri Vandenbogaerde have been building businesses together for over fifteen years—professionally and personally. They built WASBAR and sold it. Built Chez Claire and sold it. Built Ambassy and sold it. Each time, with their own money and their own risk. Today, through The Brand Guys, they create total concepts for hotels and food brands worldwide. The Boardwalk Hotel in Aruba earned two Michelin Keys simply by consistently working on brand and experience. They gave a safari camp in the Masai Mara a new life. And through their COBRA program, they help small and medium-sized businesses find their unique place in the market. In this conversation, they explain why the world has become average, why that's the most expensive thing an entrepreneur can do, and why there are only three strategies: be the cheapest, shout the loudest, or be so clear that customers never think of anyone else. ### The Three Strategies (And Why Two Are Traps) Let's be honest: most businesses fall into the first two traps without even realizing it. - **Be the cheapest.** You compete on price, which means you're always one race to the bottom away from extinction. Margins shrink, stress grows, and you attract customers who'll leave the second someone undercuts you. - **Shout the loudest.** You spend a fortune on marketing, hoping volume drowns out the competition. But noise isn't signal. People tune out, and you burn cash trying to be heard. - **Be so clear that customers never think of anyone else.** This is the only sustainable path. It means owning a specific idea in your customer's mind. It's harder upfront, but it pays off forever. Dries and Yuri learned this the hard way. They've made mistakes—like accepting a deferred payment when selling WASBAR that they never should have. Or turning away an investor because they were too young and too arrogant to have the conversation. And building a team kept stalling because of their own perfectionism. > "We do so much for so many, but what do we really stand for?" That's the question every entrepreneur eventually faces. And it's the one that separates the average from the unforgettable. ### The Adults-Only Hotel Experiment They also talk about how a hotel became adults-only. It felt scary. What would happen to occupancy? Would people still come? But after the change, both occupancy and prices went up. Why? Because they stopped trying to please everyone and started appealing to a specific someone. That's the power of clarity. When you're clear, you attract the right people and repel the wrong ones. And that's a good thing. ### The AI Tool That's Coming And there's a first: they're building an AI tool that contains their entire methodology and way of thinking, trained on every project they've ever done. So even smaller entrepreneurs who can't afford their COBRA program can still use their framework. It's a game-changer for anyone who's ever felt stuck in the middle—doing okay but not standing out. This conversation is for every entrepreneur who's ever thought: we do so much for so many, but where do we really stand? If you're tired of being average, this one's for you.