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Jeroen Arts

Early-stage Marketplace Investor & Entrepreneur

Jeroen Arts is a Partner at Speedinvest, a venture capital firm specializing in early-stage investments in marketplace platforms and consumer businesses. Based in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Jeroen focuses on startups leveraging network effects and innovative business models. He has been part of Speedinvest since 2017, initially joining the Marketplaces & Consumer team as an Associate Partner before being promoted to Partner.

Before his VC career, Jeroen co-founded Deskbookers, a SaaS-enabled marketplace for renting workspaces in the Netherlands and Germany, where he served as CEO until 2017. He successfully raised venture capital and expanded the company internationally. Earlier in his career, Jeroen worked with Global Sports Communication, managing world-class athletes like Eliud Kipchoge, the Olympic champion and marathon world-record holder.

Jeroen holds a Master’s degree in International Economics (2009) and is also an active board member or advisor for several startups, including CoachHub, Byrd, Smiler, and others. His investment sweet spot ranges from $1 million to $2.5 million, with a current fund size of $70.8 million.123

Highlights

Aug 26 · linkedin

In about a month's time we're taking over Berlin for The Marketplace Conference 💥

On September 24th, we are bringing together 100s of marketplace founders, investors and experts to discuss the latest on All Things Marketplaces.

What I've come to realize over the years organizing this conference, is that the event is hands-down one of the best places to collect Marketplace Wisdom Nuggets. So much so, that I recognize myself referencing many talks from the MPC to the early-stage founders that I am talking to on a daily basis at Speedinvest.

Two of my personal favorites are:

🗣️ Jambu Palaniappan's talk called "The First Rule of International Expansion" in which he shares what needs to be in place before moving into new markets. I see (unfortunately) many cases of premature internationalization - where founders are moving across borders too early in the company's lifecycle - and in his talk Jambu shares some key milestones to hit prior to expanding.

🗣️Sarah Tavel's seminal presentation on "The Hierarchy of Marketplaces", in which she shares her learnings on building and investing in dominating marketplaces. The starting point for any enduring marketplace is to grow transactions that create meaningfully more happiness than any substitute. With that, she argues, GMV in and of itself is a vanity metric in so far it does not account for that meaningful uptick in happiness.

The beauty of The Marketplace Conference is that you can find these talks and many more for free on our Youtube Channel (link in comments).

In September, we are bringing together a great set of new experts to speak about the impact that AI is having on Marketplaces. In case you want to join the event, make sure to secure your tickets soon as we are expecting a full house (link in the comments as well!)

I hope to speak with you there!! 🙌

CC: FJ Labs, DFF (Dutch Founders Fund), Katharine Spooner, Maximilian Wilhelm, Victor H., Sameer Singh, Nora Herzog

Nov 22 · linkedin

🦸‍♀️/ 🦸‍♂️ Superstar wanted 🚨

💭 Are you dreaming about Marketplace and Consumer startups?

🎯 Well, now is a good time to turn your dreams into reality by joining our team as an investment manager!

Please apply using the link below or send me a DM!

Related Questions

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Jeroen Arts
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Location

Amsterdam, North Holland, Netherlands