Anke Huiskes

Vijen Patel is the founding partner of The 81 Collection, a VC fund that invests in unsexy industries. Before that, Vijen founded Pressbox, a dry cleaning startup, in 2013 and sold it to Procter & Gamble in 2018. In our conversation, Vijen shared: → What defined his upbringing → Journey with Pressbox → Building The 81 Collection → Investing in Hard Industries → The Power of Patience and Purpose → India opportunity → Sports & family & much more! Listen now 👇🏼 Youtube: https://bit.ly/3XujEs2 Spotify: https://bit.ly/3Tjeah5 Some key takeaways: 1. Breaking the Mold: Coming from a family of physicians, I chose a different path—entrepreneurship. Sometimes, success means stepping out of the expected and embracing your unique journey. 2. The Power of Risk-Taking: American culture's risk-taking spirit played a crucial role in my career. Being the first in my family to venture into technology, I realized that risk is often the bridge between dreams and reality. 3. From Actuarial Science to Building an Empire: My entrepreneurial journey started with a failed attempt at being an actuary. Yet, that experience led me to finance and eventually to founding a dry cleaning startup that grew to 1200 locations. Don’t fear pivots; they might lead you to unexpected success. 4. Investing in ‘Unsexy’ Industries: While many chase the next big tech startup, I found value in overlooked sectors. Investing in what others ignore can yield the most significant returns, both financially and socially. 5. Purpose-Driven Success: For me, entrepreneurship isn’t just about profits. It’s about creating jobs, lifting communities, and making a lasting impact. When your work aligns with a deeper purpose, the rewards are far beyond financial. What risks have you taken that changed your life or career? Share your thoughts below! #investing #entreprenurship #indiandiasporas

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🌱 𝐖𝐞'𝐯𝐞 𝐠𝐨𝐭 𝐛𝐢𝐠 𝐧𝐞𝐰𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐞!  🌱 Downland is honored to be featured in the Foodbytes by Rabobank 2024 End of Year Report, recognized for sustainable business models driving growth. Downland supports landowners during generational wealth transfers, especially when they don’t have an heir to manage their farmland. We ensure their legacy stays rooted in agriculture by connecting them with new farmers and ranchers committed to regenerative practices. Through baseline carbon drawdown measurements, we set these farms up to add carbon offsetting as a supplemental revenue stream—creating financial and environmental resilience. It's about ready, aim, fire—methodical practices, patient observation and a scientific mindset in managing soil from the start. But here’s the key: the benefits of regenerative agriculture only happen if we build a skilled workforce and ensure access to land. That’s the future we’re working toward. Here’s to a regenerative future where farmland thrives, legacies endure, and new farmers rise. 🌾 #RegenerativeAgriculture #FutureOfFood #CarbonDrawdown #FutureofFarming #FutureofWork

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Netherlands based Innovation Industries recently launched their third fund to back deep-tech start-ups and scale-ups. 💸 €500M Innovation Industries Fund III, with backing from PME pensioenfonds, Pensioenfonds Metaal en Techniek ( PMT ), bpfBOUW, Pensioenfonds ABP, KPN, Pensioenfonds TNO, ABN AMRO Bank N.V., Athora Netherlands, Rabobank, Oost NL, InnovationQuarter, Brabantse Ontwikkelings Maatschappij (BOM), Wachstumsfonds, Invest-NL, European Investment Fund (EIF) and KfW Capital 💡 Innovation Industries Fund III invests in technology companies that offer innovative solutions to societal challenges, including #energysupply, #circularity, #healthcare, and #agrifood. The fund generally invests between €10 million and €30 million in each company over multiple funding rounds. 🌍 #Benelux and #Germany 📈 Innovation Industries has invested into more than 30 #deeptech companies including beeOLED, Battolyser Systems, EnOcean, Carbyon, Pharrowtech, Protealis, Onera Health, Axelera AI, among others. 💭 "Investing in deeptech is very attractive from various perspectives. Nevertheless, deeptech companies still face significant challenges in raising capital. With our third fund, combined with the Strategic Partners Fund, we are taking an important step in addressing this issue for Dutch deeptech companies." - Nard Sintenie, partner at Innovation Industries. 💭 “Our investment in the Innovation Industries Fund III underlines our commitment to highly innovative companies in the Netherlands.” - Nicolaas Heij, Senior Investment Manager, Invest-NL. 🗞️By Vigneshwar Silicon Canals - European Technology News https://lnkd.in/dabHmYQA 👏 For the #AudaciousInvestors unleashing innovation and empowering tomorrow🚀 Chris I Harm I Nard I Sander I Caaj I Tom I Vincent I Pleuni I Margherita I Rogier I Tobias I Tom I Claire I Team Innovation Industries … #venturecapital #vc #funds #startups #entrepreneurs #funding #tech #entrepreneurship #technology #innovation #Netherlands #dutch

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Interesting post about the difference between the big upstarts in the US versus the EU. I think regulation is indeed one of the killers. I have been setting up some new startups in the Netherlands recently. Even before we set up an entity, I got nausea from the way the tax system works. Trying to tax 'value growth' of an early stage startup, making it practically impossible to transfer shares without paying taxes is not a great incentive. Another problem besides the regulations is the mindset of Europeans. I think we're simply lazier and more risk averse than the US. https://lnkd.in/gUjkrwPm

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Are Dutch and European founders not ambitious enough? 🤔 I just read Techleap's latest report: "AI Scaling Challenges for Dutch Founders." (Okay, I got AI to read it and share the highlights with me. 😜) This quote caught my (& Claude's) eye: "𝘞𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘰𝘯 𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘷𝘢𝘭 𝘪𝘧 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 4% 𝘰𝘧 𝘋𝘶𝘵𝘤𝘩 𝘈𝘐 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘴𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 10𝘔. 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘱𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘢𝘮𝘣𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯..." Almost every day, I see posts and jokes about European founders thinking too small. As someone who works with Euro-founders everyday, I have a different view. I see: - Massive visions - Global mindsets from day one - Founders ready to take on the world It's not the founders who lack ambition. They're just working within the realms of what's possible in Europe. That's why many of them get funded from and/or move to the US. 💰 The real lack of ambition? That's from investors and governments in Europe. 🇪🇺 I'm still working on an article, "The Case for European Optimism." And I think it will show that European founders are just as ambitious as their US counterparts. The real question we should be asking is: - How can we create an environment that allows founders to dream bigger and reach higher? 🚀 And yes, I know this quotes mentions deep ecosystem issues... --- ↳ What's your take? Are European founders thinking too small, or is it the ecosystem that's holding them back? 👇

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How to structure your venture studio SaaS portfolio company right from the start Venture studios are keen on creating SaaS portfolio companies. If structured right, SaaS companies can become profitable cash machines for venture studios. Combining fifteen years of experience with SaaS business models and researching venture builders for a PhD project, these are my five major learnings: 🔗As most SaaS products may be copied. Excellent distribution and long-term customer relationships are crucial. Long-term and strong relationships impact many important KPI's including ARR growth, Churn, NPS and eNPS. ➡️For venture studios, that means building on the existing network to creating legitimacy for the portfolio start-up. ---- 🚥A streamlined organization where everyone knows what to do makes recruiting during scaling much easier. Hiring too fast, before the need of more team members occurs, may hinder efficiency. Create job descriptions, routines and procedures for the organization open enough not risking losing founder mode. ➡️For venture studios, that means knowing what competence to look for in different states. Use accumulated knowledge timing and managing recruitment as best as possible. ---- 📈 Keep track on the blended CAC ratio. Inefficiency and high cost in acquiring new ARR will eat up your EBITDA margins. Most B2C SaaS gets scalable through higher numbers of customers. In B2B SaaS, expansion, cross-selling, and price increases are fundamental for fast growth. ➡️For venture studios, that means share customer databases, cross-sell as much as possible, and develop a value-based pricing structure as soon as possible. ---- 🔁 Having routines and procedures in place capitalizing from a management quality system (we used ISO) helps bringing your start-up from a healthy creative chaos to an efficient scale-up. ➡️For venture studios, that means creating a management quality system and put it in place in each portfolio company will help increase speed of development and growth. ---- 💻 An understanding that an intuitive and ‘friendly’ user interface with few bugs in the product, allow support and customer success to be part of the sales organization focusing on the core product, rather than being a business unit trying to help customers handle an in-efficient product to avoid churn. ➡️For venture studios, that means accumulate knowledge in software development in relation to user friendliness and learn from previous start-up attempts to avoid churn. From your experience, what other learnings should be added here? #venturestudio #venturebuilder #entrepreneurship #scaling #saas ________________________________ Did you like this post? Connect or Follow @john-erik hassel

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Sustainability, profitability and wellbeing belong in the same sentence… Noone knows this better than Jasper Steinhausen, today's podcast guest. Jasper is the founder and CEO of Business With Impact whose specialty is making sustainability profitable for small and medium sized companies. Not only that, he is the author of the Amazon Bestseller Making Sustainability Profitable – a Leader's guide to growing a thriving business that makes the world a better place.. Here’s what we uncover in this episode: ✅ How to turn  sustainability into a business magnet. ✅ROI on Sustainability ✅5 mindset shifts needed for a greener business ✅How to get everyone on the sustainability bus ✅The role of leadership for a future ready business ✅Timeless Advice Does the future of your business have sustainability at the heart? Watch the full episode here: https://lnkd.in/dwyY9kMw This is a must listen for anyone who cares about sustainability and profit (which is hopefully every business leader). #sustainability #profit #leadership #thriveintheworkplace #becomeaforceforgood #workplacewellbeing #podcast

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My newest column in Quote Magazine: Dutch Dynamism 🇳🇱 💡 Inspired by Andreessen Horowitz’ “American Dynamism” and the Not Boring newsletters of Packy McCormick about why tech is going to be much bigger, I realized there is a momentum in the Netherlands to become one of the European leaders to lead this new industrial revolution - if we double down. 💻 Historically, the Netherlands was strong in trade and banking. However, the country now leads in technology with companies like ASML, Adyen, and NXP Semiconductors as the top 10 most valuable companies, replacing former giants like Shell, Unilever, ING and ABN AMRO Bank N.V 💶 Fueled by capital, according to the latest report of Techleap; 48% Venture Capital investments in 2023 the Netherlands went to deeptech companies. 🤖 While the latest AI innovations have enhanced office jobs, the fusion of software and hardware, like physical robots, is set to revolutionize all types of labor, making tasks scalable and more manageable and cheaper. Two great examples of Dutch robotics companies are Monumental and family business Lely, that are automating less attractive jobs, like bricklaying and milking cows. ⚡ The insight is that the world's largest tech companies of the next decade will likely surpass today’s giants, and for the first time in a long time, tech companies have the opportunity to rebuild the world’s industrial base and tap into huge, existing pools of revenue at higher margins than incumbents can. Assuming the same revenue but structurally higher margins will create more valuable companies than the incumbent comps. 🇳🇱 In the Netherlands, we have access to incredible research institutes, top technical universities like Delft University of Technology, Eindhoven University of Technology, Wageningen University & Research & University of Twente, (which has its own Robotics Centre University of Twente) - incredible talent and more and more hardware friendly VC funds, (incl the support of Invest-NL) and recently the NATO Innovation Fund (NIF) with an office in NL, so I don’t see why we can’t punch above our weight and become one of the leaders to reshape the industrial foundation in Europe. Curious to hear your thoughts, what's needed to make this happen? Dutch Dynamism 🇳🇱 , het bekt toch lekker (Thanks Salar :-)). Link to article (for translation) in the comments. #HardTech #AI #Robotics #Innovation #DutchDynamism #AIRevolution #DeepTech #FutureOfWork #Netherlands #Technology

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We're doubling down! Join us for the Re-Industrialize Europe Meetup 👩‍🏭 We’re bringing together leading minds in HardTech, TechBio, and DeepTech to discuss what it will take for Europe to lead the next wave of industrial innovation. Learn more about: ➡ Farmless’ fermentation platform that allows for local protein production independent from climate and agricultural land, increasing food security. 🎤 Adnan Oner ➡ Cradle’s design platform that uses generative AI to help biologists design improved proteins and accelerate research and development, making it easier, quicker and more cost effective to create bio-based products for human and planetary health. 🎤 Jelle Prins ➡ Monumental’s AI-driven electric construction robots that are capable of building walls autonomously, solving the labour, cost and sustainability challenges crippling the global construction industry. 🎤 Salar al Khafaji ➡ ASML's involvement in the European startup ecosystem and the biggest challenges we need to tackle. 🎤 Evelien de Vries Connect, collaborate, and be inspired by ambitious founders shaping the future. Sign up here: https://lu.ma/de2uprl2 NP-Hard Ventures #FoundryMeetups #HardTech #Deeptech #TechBio #Founders #Hiring #Startups #Europe

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🚀 57% of our investments are certified B Corp! We just added 2 to the mix: #Untamed | B Corp™ and #KoRo! At Five Seasons Ventures, we do as we preach, so we are also B Corp certified ourselves. Even though the label is far from perfect, it certainly has its advantages: - Fast growing community: from 1.2k certified companies 10 years ago to over 9k today. - Trusted and recognized by consumers and investors - Holistic approach: B Corp offers a comprehensive framework, recognizing companies that prioritize ESG, but also giving companies extra points if their products "promote the health and wellness of individuals" or "reduce toxins or pollution" for example (aka impact) According to our head of Impact Gaetan Kerloc'h: 'there is a strong correlation between certified companies and my own evaluation of their sustainability practices. With the new framework currently in development, I believe this alignment will only grow stronger.' 💚

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New name. New guts. More glory? You bet.   Today, we announce our new name and brand: DFF Ventures (Dutch Founders Fund) Ventures—or simply 'DFF' to most.   📍 We’ve been first-cheque partners for founders building marketplace or vertical SaaS/AI solutions across Europe and MENA since 2018. Over the years, our portfolio has grown to 36 companies, spanning 20+ nationalities. From Mehmet and Zeynep, who are building Turkey's leading trade-in infrastructure at Getmobil, to Sebastian and Rafael, creating a global recycling marketplace for scrap metal out of Germany and China, and Florian, developing an employee compensation OS much closer to home – we’ve always had an international focus. Our new name fits that global footprint slightly better 🤝   And although our name and brand might have changed, our ethos has not. We continue to invest in founders building digital solutions for non-digital industries with a 0-bullshit, all-in approach. We move at your speed: no jargon, murky terms or long-winded processes. Hopefully a quick 'yes', but otherwise a candid "no'. We tell it like it is. Just like founders, and just like the Dutch 🧀   👉🏻 Come and check us out at www.dff.ventures   w/ Laurens, Patrick, Hidde, Mart, Federico, 🤖Tom, Maarten, Maarten, Remco & Sjoerd

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🚀 Entrepreneurial Insight: Build a Painkiller, Not a Vitamin 🚀 One of the key lessons I shared in my recent keynote speech at the University of the Witwatersrand was all about focusing on solving real problems. Here’s why it’s crucial: 🔍 Painkillers vs. Vitamins: In the world of startups, your product or service should address a pressing need—a "pain" for your customers. A painkiller provides immediate relief, while a vitamin is a nice-to-have but not essential. 💡 Why It Matters: When you solve a significant problem, you create real value and a strong demand for your solution. This approach not only drives growth but also ensures you’re meeting a genuine need in the market. 🔥 Actionable Tip: Always ask yourself, “What problem am I solving?” Make sure your solution is indispensable, not just an enhancement. Stay tuned for more insights from my keynote! For a deeper dive into this and other key lessons, check out the full video https://lnkd.in/d34JfAFY ! #Entrepreneurship #Startups #Innovation #BusinessAdvice #PainkillerNotVitamin

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Should family offices invest themselves or use an external manager? Read my article in this month's Business Brief and find out! As always, thank you Amanda (Mandy) Eulenkamp for the opportunity to contribute. #founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic More at unbundled dot vc.

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Scaling a company is hard. Doing it without forgetting your PURPOSE when the dark days hit is even harder. That’s what we discuss in this week’s edition of The Founder’s Collective Newsletter. Here are three key takeaways we discuss: -> The Importance of Defining and Communicating Your Core Purpose -> Why Aligning Profit with Purpose is Good Business -> How to Foster a Passionate Team 🔗 Subscribe to The Founder's Collective Newsletter and read the full article for a detailed guide on building a startup where passion, purpose, and profit intersect for maximum impact. Link in comments. #Entrepreneurship #StartupLife #PurposeDrivenBusiness #BusinessGrowth #FoundersJourney

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It’s always hard being a founder and running a company. But it’s been a tough year. No lie. Q1 nobody’s buying. Put us on back foot. Budgets didn’t increase or decreased. Spend on SaaS events seemingly down inline with software spend. Always feeling behind and late Pressure of delivering events felt harder. My dog and loyal companion of 12 years died. Second kid diagnosed with autism. Felt like one thing after the next. Sleep was shit. Almost felt like a year of what’s next? Yet: I felt these set of challenges made me and SaaStock stronger. USA event grew. SaaStock Europe experience improved and NPS up YoY. Lots of new client logos. Team stronger as a unit. Helped shape our focus for 2025 and beyond. Became a better dad and partner. Made some bigger bets for the company. We never gave up. Kept on keeping on and learning and improving as we go. Ready and better for 2025.

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✨ VERY SMALL PARTICLES ✨ That's what the three co-founders of VSPARTICLE – Aaike van Vugt, Tobias Pfeiffer, and Tobias Coppejans – have dedicated their last 10 years to. VSP is a once-in-a-generation Dutch company which has developed a unique nanoparticle printing technology to bring us high-performance materials for clean energy transformation. That's why together with my colleague Taiga Ueta, we at NordicNinja VC and in partnership with Sten Tamkivi and Plural Platform, are thrilled to fund this world-class founding team. In particular, VSP’s technology is enabling the mass production of catalyst-coated Porous Transport Layers (PTLs), which are the key components in electrolyzers and are essential to the production of green hydrogen. Green hydrogen is essential to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and power a more sustainable future for industries such as shipping, transport, heating, and aviation, yet the process currently relies on using scarce resources including platinum and iridium. Combined with AI-powered material discovery and computational chemistry, VSParticle and their network of partners are able to create the most complete database of materials in the world, which can serve as an input for building an economically scalable and a sustainable clean energy future. VSParticle's technology is material agnostic and comes with high precision nanoparticle control (at nm level), requires no wet chemistry, and allows for quick experiments & production. Looking forward to working with the whole team at VSP to bring this new technology to the world!

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scale up: The Systematic Approach to Breaking Growth Barriers for High-Performing Companies Recently, I came across a post that questioned the innovation behind frameworks like the 4D Scaleup Framework. Here's a quick summary of the post: "The framework consists of four steps: Direction, Design, Delivery, and Development. While this sounds familiar — goal setting, strategy, execution, and continuous improvement — is this really innovative? I’ve approached challenges similarly before." I love this kind of discussion, so I wanted to share my take, particularly in the context of how we help companies at scale up. While the steps themselves may seem familiar, the real innovation lies in how we execute them at ScaleUp. Our approach isn’t just theoretical—it’s practical and designed to help already successful companies break through the barriers they face when scaling. We focus on: 1) Data-driven diagnostics to pinpoint exactly where the bottlenecks are and prioritize impactful actions. 2) Live interaction with experienced entrepreneur coaches who have faced the same challenges and provide real-world insights. 3) Turning strategy into daily operations, ensuring that it’s not just a leadership conversation, but one that’s lived by the whole team. 4) Building scalability into your core, making sure your teams, culture, and processes grow smoothly, without friction. Sustainable, long-term solutions, so you don’t just fix today’s problem, but create lasting growth without constant fire-fighting. At ScaleUp, we work with businesses that aren’t failing—they’re successful, but they hit a ceiling. Our process helps them break through that ceiling with a systematic and repeatable approach that works across industries. It’s not about intuition alone; it’s about executing growth through a structured, proven method.

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TribeAngels is a small investor in Pitch59... Watch our overview of TribeAngels in 59 seconds. I get a lot of questions of what TribeAngels is ... ❌ We are NOT a group just interested in Startups ❌ We are NOT for people trying to raise money ❌ We are NOT a networking group, where the lead self promotes Here's what we ARE ... ✅ This is for Business Owners, Executives & Investors that ARE investing $50k - $1M in the next 12 months ✅ Relationships before Transactions ✅ If you don't GIVE-FIRST you probably aren't a fit ✅ You will get the chance to connect deeply with the other members #Landons_Thoughts #June27thEvent #WhatAreWe #TribeAngels #Pitch59 Jon Barlow, Haysam S., Kyle Hanagarne, Crystal Godfrey Bartlett We mean it Relationships over Transactions ... we mean it. COMMENT What you like most about this list? COMMENT if you watched the video

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