Hans de Penning & Neople: Personalized Customer Support at Scale
Hans de Penning is the Founder and CEO of Neople, providing the world’s most helpful and intelligent digital co-workers for customer support teams. With the help of a Neople, your customer support team can handle incoming tickets with the speed of light. Neoples help answer all incoming questions, and they’re trained in your tone of…
Laura Di Santolo & Forward·Inc: Helping Newcomers Become Entrepreneurs
Laura Di Santolo is the Managing Director and Co-Founder of Forward·Inc, an Amsterdam-based, internationally operating organization devoted to helping newcomers pursue their entrepreneurial dreams. They have a program dedicated to supporting people through all stages of entrepreneurship. Learn more about their programs and find out what Laura predicts for the Dutch startup ecosystem in the…
Dutch Startup Changemakers: Nalden
Ronald Hans aka Nalden first came to prominence with his pioneering blog, Nalden.net, which he started as a teenager. He co-founded WeTransfer, bootstrapped it to profitability, raised $25M, opened an office in LA and left a decade later. In addition to WeTransfer, he is the co-founder of the design studio Present Plus and is now building…
Dutch Startup Changemakers: Kimberly Ofori
Kimberly Ofori, the Managing Director of Ofori & Company, a strategy innovation & business model design agency, climbed up the career ladder starting at a very young age, worked and lived in the Middle East, Africa and Europe and founded & sold two companies. Find out what is it about entrepreneurship that particularly attracts her,…
Dutch Startup Changemakers: Nataly Schammel & Laurens Hamerlinck (Future of Finance Accelerator)
Nataly Schammel is working for Techstars, which invests in early-stage companies and has 50 Accelerator Programs across the world with 2600+ portfolio companies. Laurens Hamerlinck is the Innovation Partnerships Lead at ABN AMRO Bank connecting startup ecosystem innovation with the internal organisation in order to drive change and growth. Together, they’re running the Future of Finance Accelerator by Techstars &…
Mapping Dutch Angel Investors: A Survey by Techleap
The role of angel investors is crucial to every startup ecosystem, including the Dutch one. Business angels play an essential role in the early, most risky, phase of a company, providing much-needed capital and expertise. Unfortunately, the share of deals done by Dutch angels during the early stages is significantly lower than in other countries….
Dutch Startup Changemakers: Tim Lorijn
Tim Lorijn is the Financial Director and Business Sponsor at Label A, a digital product agency. He acts as an unofficial advisor for startups, helps with setting up the administration and budgeting and matches them to potential investors. Find out what is it about the startup world that particularly attracts him, which lessons for founders…
Shahar Graf & the Amsterdam Capital House Event
We had a chat with Shahar Graf, the Co-Founder of Capital House, which organizes the annual Amsterdam Capital House event, with a mission to create an ecosystem that actively supports the growth of founders. This year, the event will be taking place from March 24th-26th. As a part of the event’s program, Leapfunder will be hosting…
Dutch Startup Changemakers: Sieuwert van Otterloo
Sieuwert van Otterloo is the Founder and Managing Director of the ICT Institute, a consulting firm for IT Due Diligence, Software, Privacy, and AI advice. They provide independent advice combining the latest research results with practical experience. To keep learning, he also invests in and provides guidance to technology startups, teaches software project management at…
Dutch Startup Changemakers: Annegien Blokpoel
Annegien Blokpoel has been an entrepreneur for almost 20 years and a business angel for the past 12. She is the author of two books: ‘Maak Je bedrijf meer Waard’ (Improve the Value of Your Company) and Eerste Hulp bij Groeien (First Help When Growing Your Business). She also gives workshops, lectures, and tailor-made sessions…
