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Why hook up with us.

You are probably looking for more than ‘just’ money. And you are right,  investors that actively support companies typically can help with ensuring success and growth. 

On top of the typical fund support activities, be it providing access to funds, introductions to a network and being a sounding board, we provide support in 3 topics that we know are key to go next level. These are “Go-to-market”, especially on the branding and digital front, “scaling”, as the art of fast growth is experience-based and “personal development”, as being an entrepreneur can be quite an emotional roller coaster. 

Entrepreneurs for Entrepreneurs.

Bottom-line this tagline says a lot. With fiets! Freshmen’s founder has built a business from scratch in 7 years to become rather big, think 250 people and 45 EUR M turnover. We did the start-up thing and the scaling thing in a short timeframe. We had our successes and our failures. In hindsight we are proud of some of the great things we did, but we made many mistakes as well. So will you, but with us by your side we sort of hope we can see it coming and avoid one or two. We know what it is to take risk and do the ride. The ride is wildly exhilarating, we would never want to go back to the (golden) cage. But, at the same time, the ride will bring you some significant ‘downs’ as well. Also there we want and can help. It is no coincidence that plenty or our mentors are kings and queens on the people-side of things.

Expert Skill Set.

Our core team offers complementary skills which are relevant to any founding team, be it about branding and digital go-to-market, a global network, recruiting strategies or funding rounds.

Freshmen’s GP Steven has lead the problem solving and implementation of more than 400 cases, mostly in go-to-market and digital at iconic companies. Pattern recognition and exposure to some of the thinking of world leading companies can help to identify potential pitfalls, make fast correct decisions or point towards the right contact person.

To structure this and make sure we focus our efforts, we typically run with our scale-up investments a 100 day program to identify needs and key pivot points. 

Blue Chip Network.

Of course we bring a big network. As we are focused on B2C businesses and given our experience sort of our entire professional network is relevant to you and we are happy to bring it to you. The right contacts at the right time can catapult you a couple of years ahead.  In the B2C space we do not think you could be in a much better place than with our network.

Sometimes specific deep expertise is required, market access in a peculiar market, or a 3rd party sounding board. That’s where our operational advisors come in. They are experts in leading B2C companies across the globe.

Typically we also help our companies to populate an Advisory Board for them.

Exchange with Fellow Entrepreneurs.

We create an ecosystem with dozens of teams active in the same market. All these teams are trying to improve customer lives and wellbeing. And yes, surprise surprise…, they do run into the same things. The struggle of getting attention in a crowded digital marketing, finding people and managing growing teams, having the occasional issues at home… It does help on all fronts to be surrounded by peers. Do not expect cookie cutter solutions from your peers, but be amazed by the power of sharing. At least every quarter we get together on a specific topic, but there is also plenty of room to touch base informally with each other and learn.

Access to Funding.

Oh yes, we do invest of course. We are not a consulting boutique. We help you and put our money where our mouth is. We want skin in the game. Without the equity stake it would not be half the fun. Ticket sizes? We are ok with starting out low, as long as there is clear ambition and hence funding needs in the 24 months after the initial investment. We do late seed between 100-300 k; and scale investments between 500k and 5 EUR M

So, who are we looking for?

We are not just banks. We want to guide and help you in the best possible way, but only if the skills, network and experience of our Freshmen mentors can be matched to your business. 

OUR DREAM DATE

Keep you updated?

Most of the time we act.  But sometimes we talk.  When we do, we mostly try and share some of our experiences and thoughts with you.  We try not to proclaim any big truths or be judging, we just try to share. Subscribe to get updates!

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