move forward with tech
move forward with tech
Executive Board Member at Invest NL
President of Warner Music Group and Warner Chappell Music Benelux
Venture Partner @ CommerzVentures, Chairman of the Board & Founder ExB Group
Dutch FashionTech designer
Founder of Amplitude Ventures
Founder Heartfeldt Records
Founder & CEO of QTsense
Manager investment at NOM
Guides new CEOs toward a strong start and first-year Growth
Bestselling author & Founder of VIE People
VC @FORWARD.one Investing in Deeptech & Energy Tech
Composer · Performer · Instrument Designer
Co-founders Nascent
Founder CC Diagnostics
Co-Founder of Gritd
Community lead Founded
Moderator and Social innovation advocate
Startup & Scale-up Banker at Rabobank
Community lead Founded
Social Entrepreneur & Founding Partner Rubio Impact Ventures
Co-Founder of AI Foundation
REIN Advocaten & Notarissen
Co-Founder de AI Foundation
Co-Founder of FuelFWD, DecentralCode and Docheart
Kwartiermaker AI Factory (NLAIF)
Senior Program Manager – Applied AI Systems at AI Coalitie 4 Nederland (AIC4NL)
Co-Founder and former CEO of Mayht
Co-Founder and CEO of Opticus Technologies
Tech investor at Future Tech Ventures & G-Force Capital
CEO and Co-Founder of Simplicate
VP of Product operations at Lux Research
Executive Board Member at Invest NL
Invest-NL, the national promotional institute for the Netherlands. She is involved in managing an investment portfolio of approximately €2 billion, aimed at accelerating key transitions in a carbon-neutral economy, bio-based and circular systems, deeptech, agrifood, and life sciences.
Invest-NL supports these transitions not only through direct investments in innovative companies, but also via financial product development and market creation. Jellie brings over 20 years of experience in the financial sector. From 2012 to 2021, she served as CCO and COO at Triodos Bank, where she played a central role in advancing sustainable finance and societal transition across Europe.
Venture Partner @ CommerzVentures, Chairman of the Board & Founder ExB Group
Founder & CEO of QTsense
Romana Schirhagl obtained her PhD from University of Vienna, where she studied chemistry and biology. After postdoctoral research at Stanford University and ETH Zurich, she started her own research group in 2014 at the Department of Biomaterials and Biotechnology at University Medical Center Groningen.
Romana has published over 160 scientific articles and secured more than €17 million in research funding, including an ERC Starting Grant and the Dutch VIDI grant. Her research focuses on quantum sensing for biomedical applications. In 2024, she founded the spin-off company QTsense to commercialise quantum sensing equipment. QTsense has since brought its microscope, the Quantum Nuova, to market and now sells internationally.
President of Warner Music Group and Warner Chappell Music Benelux
Niels Walboomers is President of Warner Music Group and Warner Chappell Music Benelux, where he oversees recorded music and music publishing across the region, including the globally influential dance label Spinnin’ Records. In 2025, his responsibilities expanded when he was appointed President of Central Europe, leading one of Warner’s most important European regions across six key markets.
Since joining Warner Music Group in 2023, Walboomers has played a central role in shaping the company’s regional strategy. Earlier in his career, he co-founded Walboomers Music and spent twelve years at Sony Music Publishing as Managing Director Benelux, building extensive experience across both creative and commercial sides of the music industry.
Earlier in his career, he co-founded Walboomers Music and spent twelve years at Sony Music Publishing as Managing Director Benelux. With experience on both the creative and business sides of the industry, he brings a broad perspective on how artists, rights, and companies evolve in a fast-changing music landscape.
Founder Amplitude Ventures
Jakob Wredstrøm is the founder of Amplitude Ventures, a venture studio that helps early-stage founders build, launch, and grow their startups. He has over 10 years of experience in music tech and startup development. His approach is practical and focused on execution. He works closely with founders to build products, prepare for investment, and move with clarity through the early stages of growth.
His focus is on building strong teams, clear strategies, and early traction. He also hosts the Sound Connections Podcast, where he speaks with founders, creators, and operators about how ideas become companies. He introduced AI-Jake, the first AI podcast co-host, to explore new ways of sharing insights. Jakob is based in Norway and works with a global team. He values focus, trust, and getting the work done.
Session: The Next Soundwave: Inside the Future of Music & Tech
Manager investment at NOM
Marco de Jong is Manager Investment at NOM, where he focuses on investing in and accelerating new internet-driven ventures across a wide range of industries. Fascinated by the transformative power of internet technology since the early 1990s, he has built his career around turning technological change into positive impact for businesses, the economy, and society.
Marco brings a broad operational background, with previous roles in the telecom industry and as General Manager of digital agency theFactor.e. Since 2016, he has combined this hands-on experience with an investment focus, supporting founders not only as an investor but also as a strategic advisor throughout their growth journey.
Dutch FashionTech designer
Dutch FashionTech designer Anouk Wipprecht creates designs ahead of her time; combining the latest in science and technology to make fashion an experience that transcends mere appearances. She wants her garments to facilitate and augment the interactions we have with ourselves and our surroundings. Her Spider Dress is a perfect example of this aesthetic, where sensors and moveable arms on the dress help to create a more defined boundary of personal space while employing a fierce style. Partnering up with companies such as Intel, AutoDesk, Google, Arduino, Microsoft, Samsung, Adobe, Adidas, Cirque Du Soleil, Audi, Disney, Swarovski, and 3D printing companies Shapeways she researches how our future would look as we continue to embed technology into what we wear, and more importantly – how this will change our perspective on how we will interface with technology.
Session: The Intelligent Body: Designing Where Fashion Meets Robotics
Moderator and social innovation advocate
Linda Vermaat is a seasoned moderator and social innovation advocate. As former director of Innofest, she transformed a small EU project based in Groningen into a national NGO and worked with hundreds of startups testing their innovations at festivals and living labs. With her sharp insights, soft presence and subtle wit, Linda creates space for meaningful conversations. On stage, her energy brings people together and sparks real momentum.
Linda is a passionate advocate for social innovation, inspired by people who dare to challenge the status quo. She helped launch influential initiatives such as the Slow Food Youth Network, Professional Rebel, and the impact-driven video company TwentieFour.
Moderator of Day 1 and Day 2
Co-Founders of Nascent
Nascent is a Hasselt University spin-off and technology platform built to solve one of startup’s biggest challenges: co-founder fit. Powered by a science-based methodology that combines academic research on soft skills, personality and alignment with practical startup experience, Nascent makes the “human fit” between co-founders visible and actionable.
Our platform matches solo founders with the right co-founder and helps existing founding teams anticipate friction and design processes to manage it. Our co-founder team combines academic rigor with startup expertise, ensuring that every insight is both evidence-based and practical in the messy reality of entrepreneurship.
Our mission is simple: increase the odds of startup success by empowering resilient co-founders teams that can withstand the pressure of startup life.
Session: Co-Founder Fit: The Human Side of Startup Succes
Composer · Performer · Instrument Designer
Rafaele Andrade (Brazil, 1994) works at the intersection of sound, technology, and social impact. As the creator of Knurl, a 3D-printed string instrument, she pioneers new modes of musical interaction and interdisciplinary performance.
Her work blends experimental music, creative coding, and world influences, with projects spanning Europe, Asia, and South America. Awards include the Alpine Music Prize (2024) and the Crystal Pine Music Award (2024).
In 2024, her solo Brazil tour connected music with societal themes like urban mobility, disaster prevention, and inequality, turning sound into a tool for awareness and change.
Session: Opening MXT
Founder CC Diagnostics
A medical doctor who chose scale over the status quo. Nutte didn’t want to help three patients a day, he wanted to help 10,000 at once. That drive sparked CC Diagnostics, a medtech company transforming early cervical cancer detection worldwide.
Born from a student project. Built through clinical grit, startup hustle, and moments that test every founder.
Nutte’s mission became personal when a false-positive result hit close to home, sharpening his focus: better diagnostics aren’t optional: they’re urgent.
From Groningen’s innovation ecosystem to Silicon Valley’s fast pace, he blends northern groundedness with global ambition. Today, he leads a specialist team pushing diagnostics forward with science, precision, and impact.
Nutte builds where healthcare, tech, and purpose collide. Moving innovation into the lives that need it most.
Session: Exporting Dreams, Importing Dollars
Startup & Scale-up Banker at Rabobank
I’m Harjan van der Linde, working as a Startup & Scale-up Banker at Rabobank. I’m actively involved in ecosystems such as Founded, Wetsus, Novel-T, and Zwinc in the Northern and Eastern regions of the Netherlands. My role is to support startups by leveraging my network, sector expertise from Rabobank Netherlands, and exploring funding and debt opportunities.
In addition, I assist startups with applying for the Rabobank Innovation Loan—a subordinated loan specifically designed for startups that contribute to key societal themes.
I’m always open to connecting and happy to brainstorm ideas with anyone. Feel free to reach out to me via LinkedIn.
Session: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly Decks
Founder VIE People
Wendy van Ierschot is entrepreneur, tech investor, bestseller author and founder of VIE People, a People & Culture consultancy firm. She wrote the best seller – scale-ups & downs on leadership, culture and HR priorities in growing organisations. She is a well known public speaker on leadership, scaling and HR technology.
Session: Start up bookclub
Guides new CEOs toward a strong start and first-year Growth
Maaike van der Wal specializes in the start of new CEOs. She is the only expert in the Netherlands who approaches the first CEO year as a strategic lever for leadership effectiveness and organizational impact. It is the most decisive phase for renewal and development, accelerating growth. Yet it is structurally underutilized causing opportunities to be lost and risks to rise. Many of the challenges CEOs face later can be traced back to their start.
With more than twenty years of experience guiding new CEOs, Maaike sees patterns and dynamics others overlook. Drawing on her background in organizational change—from academic depth to strategic transformation advisory—she translates these insights into decisions and actions that help new CEOs move forward immediately.
Her book Het venijn zit in de start (The Devil Is in the Start) is a wake-up call: in a time when CEOs and organizations are under intense pressure to succeed. traditional starts deliver too little value and carry unnecessary risk.
Session: Start up bookclub
VC @FORWARD.one Investing in Deeptech & Energy Tech
Julia Kuijs is an Associate at FORWARD.one, investing in the Future of Compute, quantum hardware, and industrial automation. She backs high-energy founders who move fast, think in data, and build technology with staying power. At the fund, she also leads internal automation, sharpening sourcing speed and workflow performance. Julia is a board observer at QuiX Quantum and part of the deal teams behind QuantWare and AlixLabs.
Her background spans finance, market-making, and Machine Learning, a combination that shapes her disciplined, pattern-driven investment approach.
Session: Investing at the Edge: Where Deep Tech, AI & New Frontiers Collide
Social Entrepreneur & Founding Partner Rubio Impact Ventures
Willemijn Verloop is a peace activist, serial social entrepreneur and impact investor dedicated to creating systemic societal change. After founding War Child (1995) and Social Enterprise NL (2010), she co-founded one of the first impact investment funds in the Netherlands in 2014 together with Machtelt Groothuis: Rubio Impact Ventures.
Today, she is focused on scaling solutions that shape a better future. With the recent launch of Rubio’s third impact fund—over €75 million in commitments—her mission is clear: the most valuable companies of our time will be those solving humanity’s biggest challenges. That is why she invests in impact-driven tech entrepreneurs building scalable answers to global issues, from climate to social equality.
Session: Investing at the Edge: Where Deep Tech, AI & New Frontiers Collide
REIN Advocaten & Notarissen
The Legal Lab is a practical, interactive session for startup founders who want clarity on legal questions without the jargon. Hosted by REIN Advocaten & Notarissen, this session focuses on the legal topics founders face every day—such as IP, contracts, shareholders, vesting, and investments.
Instead of a lecture, the Legal Lab is set up as an open conversation. Founders are invited to bring their own questions and cases, discuss real scenarios, and get concrete, actionable advice from legal experts. The focus is on what you can improve or fix now, so you leave with clear next steps and more confidence in your legal foundations.
Session: Legal Lab – Ask Your Startup Law Questions
Co-Founder of AI Foundation
Anton van Halteren is co-founder of AI Foundation, where he focuses on translating artificial intelligence into real, tangible business value. With a strong background in building and scaling technology-driven solutions, he helps organisations understand not just what AI can do, but how to apply it in practice.
Anton works closely with teams on AI strategy, implementation, and ecosystem development. His approach is pragmatic and impact-driven, guiding organisations from early experimentation to scalable solutions that create lasting value.
Building an AI-First startup: From idea to scale
Co-Founder de Ai Foundation
Quinten Mulder is co-founder of AI Foundation, working at the intersection of AI strategy, business development, and ecosystem building. He helps organisations translate emerging AI capabilities into practical, scalable applications that align strategic ambition with real-world execution.
Through his work at AI Foundation, Quinten focuses on building connections between technology, people, and partnerships. His approach is grounded in collaboration and implementation, supporting teams as they move from ideas and pilots to solutions that deliver measurable impact.
Building an AI-First startup: From idea to scale
Co-Founder of FuelFWD, DecentralCode and Docheart
Aljosja Beije has over 25 years of experience designing, building, and implementing supply chain solutions across diverse markets—from Rotterdam to Lagos. He is co-founder of FuelFWD, DecentralCode, and Docheart, working at the intersection of logistics, technology, and innovation.
Alongside his entrepreneurial work, Aljosja writes about logistics and emerging technologies and regularly shares his expertise through (guest) lectures, including at the University of Southern California. His perspective combines hands-on experience with a strong interest in how complex systems evolve in practice.
Session: Building an AI-First startup: From idea to scale
Kwartiermaker AI Factory (NLAIF)
Bart Scheerder is Kwartiermaker of the Netherlands AI Factory (NLAIF) and a founding team member of the Applied AI Accelerator Lab (A3 Lab) at UMCG. At A3 Lab, he works on accelerating the deployment of (generative) AI solutions in healthcare, bridging advanced research with real-world application.
With over 20 years of experience in clinical research and development, Bart focuses on making AI scalable, reliable, and impactful. His work centres on translating cutting-edge technologies into solutions that deliver measurable value for patients, healthcare professionals, and healthcare systems alike.
Session: AI Factory NL: Building Sovereignty, Scale & Strategy
Senior Program Manager – Applied AI Systems at AI Coalitie 4 Nederland (AIC4NL)
In this role, Edwin focuses on accelerating the responsible application of AI systems, helping translate national AI ambitions into concrete societal and economic impact.
The AI Coalition for the Netherlands leads the transition towards trustworthy and scalable AI, strengthening the Netherlands’ international AI position while addressing societal challenges through technology. Edwin contributes by connecting stakeholders, shaping programmes, and driving real-world implementation.
Previously, he founded E-Routes and Crowdynews, and he currently serves on the Advisory Board of Back to Code. His background combines entrepreneurship, innovation, and a strong focus on applied technology.
Co-Founder of Gritd
Stephan Botz is the co-founder of Gritd and one of the driving forces behind milestone-driven startup development in Europe. Having contributed to the launch of over 1,000 startups, Stephan brings a decade of experience in guiding founders toward product–market fit and investment readiness. His data-driven approach to venture building helps reduce risk and accelerate growth. Driven by the belief that Europe’s next wave of innovation will come from ventures built on real market demand, he continues to push startup development toward measurable impact.
Session: “WTF Is Product-Market Fit Anyway?
Co-Founder and former CEO of Mayht
Co-Founder and CEO of Opticus Technologies
Tech investor at Future Tech Ventures & G-Force Capital
Co-Founder and CEO of Simplicate
Peter Hager is CEO and Co-Founder of Simplicate, a fast-growing software company helping professional services organisations streamline their operations through an all-in-one business platform. Under his leadership, Simplicate has scaled internationally, supporting thousands of users with tools for CRM, project management, invoicing, and workflow automation.
Peter focuses on building scalable software and strong teams, with a clear emphasis on simplicity, growth, and long-term value for customers.
VP of Product operations at Lux Research
Samhitha Udupa was Vice President of Product Operations at Lux Research, where she worked at the intersection of deep-tech strategy and operational execution. She advises companies on the commercialisation and scaling of emerging technologies across areas such as advanced materials, nanomanufacturing, building-integrated photovoltaics, drug delivery, and catalysis.
With over 17 years of leadership experience across the energy, materials, and consumer sectors, Samhitha is known for translating innovation strategy into operational excellence. Her work includes scaling a private-equity-backed advisory firm from startup to maturity and advising Fortune 500 innovation leaders on technology roadmapping and implementation. She is recognised for navigating complex systems, building high-performing global teams, and acting as a trusted advisor to executive leadership.
Community lead Founded
Founder of Heartfeldt Records and The Heartfeldt Foundation
Sam Feldt is the founder of Heartfeldt Records and The Heartfeldt Foundation, a charity dedicated to raising awareness about global warming. As a strong advocate for sustainable music production, he has built a broader Heartfeldt ecosystem, including Heartfeldt Publishing, Heartfeldt Radio, and Heartfeldt Events.
Alongside his work as a DJ and producer, Sam is an entrepreneur and sustainability pioneer within the dance music industry. He recently sold Fangage, a platform designed to strengthen creator–fan connections. With a passion for social impact and long-term change, Sam works to promote a more sustainable lifestyle through music, while continuing to perform on some of the world’s biggest festival stages.