NP-Hard Ventures

📣 London calling! We'll be in London every other week for the next three months to participate in Mountside Ventures' Emerging VC program, designed to accelerate the next generation of European venture capitalists. Pumped to be selected as one of the very few new funds to join this stellar peer group of 20 European funds, an incredible mentor network of both GPs ( 👋 hello; LocalGlobe’s Robin Klein, Dawn Capital’s Haakon Overli, Speedinvest’s Oliver Holle and Connect Ventures’ Sitar Teli); and LP (Christian Stiebner, KfW senior investment manager, Yvonne Bajela, partner at Basecamp (LocalGlobe’s fund of funds) and Dario de Wet, founding partner at fund of funds LTV Capital, Jaap Vriesendorp, partner at Marktlink) who committed to give 10 hours to the program. And last but certainly not least, access to institutional investors and family offices. 🙏 Thanks Jonathan Hollis, Gregor von dem Knesebeck & team for setting this up. Pumped to be part of this first co-hort! More about the program here: https://lnkd.in/eND38u8a. Link to Sifted article in the comments. Off we go 🇬🇧! NP-Hard Ventures // Micha Hernandez van Leuffen // Paul Veugen

💥 Another memorable Foundry Meetup in the books! The Zero to IPO edition, co-hosted by our friends of INGEN HOUSZ, featuring two incredible speakers: 🦸 Pieter van der Does, Co-Founder & CEO Adyen 🦸 Bas Smeulders, Co-Founder & COO Sendcloud What happens when you bring top founders, builders and investors together? You get an event where over 80% of the Dutch startup market cap is one room. (This was an actual quote of one of our speakers :-)). From Pieter (Co-Founder Adyen) sharing how execution beats vision to Bas (Co-Founder Sendcloud) breaking down the reality of scaling internationally, the night was full of lessons on: ✅ Hiring & scaling culture in fast-growing startups ✅ Why staying private longer is becoming the new IPO ✅ The power of thinking globally from Day One A few memorable quotes from our speakers: 🗣️ “We were setting this up as a global company from the very beginning. We never aimed small.” 🗣️ “Execution matters more than vision—an idea is worthless if you don’t know how to execute.” 🗣️ “I don’t care how young you are—if you’re really good, you deserve the chance to lead.” 🗣️ “Scaling is not just about revenue—it’s about people, culture, and execution.” 🗣️ “The biggest hiring mistake? Hiring great people who don’t fit the culture.” Big thanks to Salar al Khafaji & team at Monumental for hosting. Joukje Baur, Matthijs Ingen-Housz, Quirijn van Veen & team at INGEN HOUSZ for co-organizing, and all incredible founders & builders who skipped their night behind their desk or Netflix'ing to join us. --------- With Foundry Meetups we aim to bring great minds together to foster meaningful conversations and partnership. They are one-of-a-kind events. No two events is the same, largely because the community drives the format. If you'd like to join one of our future Foundry Meetups, pls subscribe here; lu.ma/nphv. Paul Veugen // Micha Hernandez van Leuffen // Anke Huiskes // Melissa van den Brink - Romero // Frank Emous // NP-Hard Ventures #ZerotoIPO #FoundryMeetups #startups #founders #tech

If an investor asks about user retention metrics and takes percentages and time periods as an answer, without any follow-up questions or specification, they learned very little about your business. If their next statement is a conclusion about the quality of that metric, you can draw your own conclusions about their understanding of the underlying mechanics of your business. Some example follow-up questions smart investors might ask (of course depending on the type of business): • How do you measure retention? • Do you measure bounded or unbounded retention? • Do you measure retention based on installs, signups, or another event? • How do you qualify a retained user? • Do you see significant differences between cohorts? • How is your retention evolving in recent cohorts? • How does your user acquisition growth impact retention? • Do you see significant differences in retention per channel? • What is the retention on subscriptions? • What is the retention on monthly versus yearly plans? If you find yourself in a conversation about retention or "benchmark" metrics, especially one where quality is getting judged without qualification, it can be enlightening to turn the tables: • What does good retention look like in your experience? • Do you have any benchmarks you can share? • How would you measure retention for a business like us? • What are the 2 or 3 key metrics you focus on for a company like ours? Grill investors on their understanding of metrics when you're getting judged, and you’ll quickly learn how well they truly understand the market they invest in.

My experiences as founder and investor in Europe colored my opinion of the European venture ecosystem. Anecdotally, it feels there are very few investors with relevant operational or entrepreneurial experience and even less with any product or technical background. So how much of this my own lack of perspective or bias as founder? Or do we really only have former bankers and financial consultants investing in European startups? With the help of chatGPT I dove a bit deeper into the stats. Take the exact numbers with a grain of salt, but it does give you some perspective on the ecosystem in Europe... --- 250 European Seed/Series A investors 1500+ (senior) partners and employees Background: - Financial: ~50-55%  - Founder: ~10-12%  - Operational: ~17-18%  - Technical/Product: ~8–9% The conclusion: Europe’s early-stage investment scene is well-suited to fintech, SaaS, and e-commerce, benefiting from finance-driven and operationally oriented partners. However, the next wave of critical tech industries—developer infrastructure, deep tech, robotics, and AI—demands a deeper pool of technical or product expertise within VC. With European investor teams hovering at only ~8–9% technical backgrounds (vs. ~10–12% in the U.S.) and funding levels in these sectors lagging behind by a factor of 2–3, there is a clear need for strategic changes. Enhancing the ratio of technical partners, forging stronger advisory networks, and harnessing public policy could bolster Europe’s ability to produce globally competitive companies in these pivotal industries for the decades ahead. --- The findings here are in line with this report from Sifted from two years ago: https://lnkd.in/ed7q_B7k. "European VCs talk a good talk about being “founder friendly” and “hands on”. But the vast majority of them have still never actually run a startup — or worked in one." It's pretty hard to find folks who actually deeply understand what they're investing in, beyond the things that can be presented in a spreadsheet. And the background and experience of the folks who allocate capital to growth, can have significant impact on the types of companies that get funded in Europe. We got work to do... Interested in more? Let me know and I'll try to compile the sources and insights in a more detailed post.

💼 Looking for a new job? –> welovehumans.io 🚀 Get matched automatically –> welovehumans.io 💸 Transfer bonus up to €20,000 –> welovehumans.io Yes! Today we go live with a bold new approach that rewards employees for making a career move.🎉 How? We’re giving workers the bonus that used to go to the recruiter—as it should be! Whether you’re just starting out or have years of experience, our platform helps you make the career move you deserve. We automatically match you with the perfect role at a company that truly fits you. And the best part? Bonuses can reach up to €20,000 and go straight to you! 💸 Pretty great, right? Open to a new opportunity? Sign up now at welovehumans.io and get paid! Or, are you looking to grow your team? We’re here to help. 🎯 Help us in this mission and share this post with your network—thank you so much! 🙏 #welovehumans #dreamjob #transferbonus #nextstep #signupgetpaid #career #jobopening

🎉 Introducing Temple 3.0! After 6 months of working closely with hundreds of artists, managers, and labels, we’ve fine-tuned our platform to bring you the most powerful version yet—Temple 3.0. A fan growth platform designed to reach fans directly and automate full-funnel growth. 🚀 What’s New? → Get a fully customisable site with landing pages to promote your latest music, events, and merch. → Auto-DM links to followers when they comment or reply on Instagram. → Track every fan interaction with AI and pixels to build a rich, owned database to retarget. → Launch highly targeted ads and messages for any platform in just a few clicks. → Easily invite your entire roster and team. How does it work? 🚀 Share content directly with fans using high-converting landing pages to promote your music, merch, and events. 📊 Track every fan with built-in tracking powered by AI and pixels, building a rich database with smart segmentation. 🌱 Grow your fanbase effortlessly by launching highly-targeted ads and messages that convert and engage every time. And the best part? You can save hundreds when marketing your roster. It’s subscription-free. $0/month. Forever. 📈 Results so far? → 10x fanbase growth. → 178% ads ROI. → 45% increase in message opens. → 2x Instagram engagement. → 5 hours saved per campaign. Temple is the only platform in the music industry that combines advanced marketing tools with comprehensive full-funnel fan data capture, offering unmatched marketing sophistication. Whether you're a label, management company or artist, book a demo and get access now 👉🏼 https://temple.fans #musicmarketing #fanmarketing #musicindustry #digitalmarketing

🙌 Huge congrats to portfolio company Emidat for closing their $4M seed round, led by General Catalyst, with participation of BOOOM💥 , Auxxo Female Catalyst Fund, Übermorgen Ventures, and incredible angels. With NP-Hard Ventures we're proud to double down! 🌍 Construction and real estate amount for around 40% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Emidat has built a software platform for automating the generation of validated Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) certificates for this sector. Basically, they help the construction industry understand their environmental impact and support them in reducing it. 👩🚒 The speed of execution of this team is incredible. Lisa Oberaigner & Florian Fesch started Emidat a bit over a year ago, and already have 25 customers who have used or are using its platform for some 350 construction plans. Their database of materials contains information on over 150,000 construction products, spanning 13 product categories so far. But it’s just getting started. Thanks for having us on your journey! NP-Hard Ventures // Paul Veugen, Micha Hernandez van Leuffen // Melissa van den Brink - Romero More on TechCrunch: https://lnkd.in/ezctG2GU

We're kicking off Flipt’s Launch Week with big news! Announcing the Flipt C# Provider for OpenFeature, contributed by the community—huge thanks to Jean Andrei de la Cruz Austria ! Thank you so much, Jean Andrei, and all the amazing folks behind the OpenFeature project who got this across the line! See all of our OpenFeature providers in our docs: https://lnkd.in/e74-bxWk Check back tomorrow to see what else we've got cooking. 👨🍳 We haven't even begun to hit the Ballmer Peak yet!

Excited about what our portfolio company Flipt Software is building with flipt cloud and Feature Flags. Checkout their Product Hunt launch and share with your communities ! 🙌

💥What an incredible evening last Thursday—packed with ambitious founders, bold ideas, and speakers that are shaping Europe’s future. We left energized, inspired, and with a few key takeaways that stood out: 🔩You don’t need to be an industry veteran to start in Deep Tech. Most speakers in the room—from AI-driven robotics to alternative proteins—shared that they began with curiosity, got obsessed, and went for it. (Checking out GDP-driving industries is a great tip for bigger impact). 🐲Storytelling Matters: Whether it’s communicating your vision to employees, winning over investors, or navigating a highly regulated market, a strong narrative is crucial. It’s not just about what you build, but how you communicate your mission. ⏳Long-term commitment is key. Building in Hard Tech and Deep Tech takes time. It’s a marathon, not a sprint—requiring resilience, patience, and the ability to keep buy-in from stakeholders over the long haul. Check out a few snapshots from the evening 📸👇 Special thanks to our speakers Salar al Khafaji (Monumental), Jelle Prins (Cradle), Pepijn Vloemans 🔸 who kindly took over Adnan Oner (Farmless), who unfortunately fell sick; and Evelien de Vries (ASML). And to our audience —thank you for bringing your energy, questions, and openness to the room. Looking forward to seeing what this community builds next! #DeepTech #ReIndustrializeEurope #FoundryMeetups #TechCommunity #HardTech #NPHardVC Cc: Anke, Melissa, Micha, Paul