About
Not a résumé. A way of working.
I am an entrepreneur. I build companies, improve companies and invest in companies. Preferably all three at once, and always hands-on.
01
It started with an agency
In 2001 I founded A side media. That is where I learned how to sell, how to deliver and how to build a team that runs without you. In the years after, companies were added and acquired, and it grew into more than a single agency.
02
Five agencies, one name
In 2016, A side media, Punt 4 and three other agencies continued together as Loyals. That was the first time I really saw what merging does: more weight in the market, but also more need for structure and numbers that add up. From there it grew into Loyals Groep, with labels such as Stimmt, Gravity, SmartRanking, Nextly and Huray.
03
From services to technology
Selling hours does not scale. Products do. From the agency world, the path led further into software, portals and integrations. Technology became the way to deliver more value with less manual work.
04
In parallel: hospitality
At the same time, I built restaurants in Amsterdam with partners. Heemelrijck, La Nostra Gigí, Mesa Mesa. Hospitality is operationally demanding, which is exactly what makes it interesting: concept, numbers, purchasing, people and marketing meet every single day. I run it with the discipline of a technology company, with a dashboard over every venue.
05
Spain and real estate
Buying, renovating and negotiating on the Costa del Sol showed me how that market works, and what could be done better. DutchQ came out of it: independent buyer's advisory that does not show as many homes as possible, but the right ones.
06
AI as the layer through everything
Every company kept raising the same question: how do we make this smarter, faster and more scalable? Increasingly the answer is AI, built practically into processes and systems. First inside my own companies, and from there ever wider.
What always comes back
- Build.
- Measure.
- Improve.
- Scale
Outside work
Entrepreneurship is a large part of my life, but not the foundation. That is at home: married, a father, and the calm to be sharp again after a long day. I live and work between the Netherlands and Spain. Mijdrecht and Amsterdam for the companies here, Marbella for DutchQ and life there.
Building something interesting?
I am always interested in meeting entrepreneurs, investors and people building ambitious companies. A business that can do better, a participation, a partnership: send a message.