Rockstart Accelerator team:

Oscar Kneppers

Founder

Oscar is an experienced serial entrepreneur in media. In 1998 Oscar founded Emerce, the leading Dutch magazine on business, marketing and technology. Emerce was sold to VNU in 2003. In 2005 Oscar launched Bright, a cross media title on tech, style and design. Oscar was awarded the 2007 Most Innovative Publisher title by the Dutch Publishers Congress. In 2008 Bright was sold to NDC|VBK.

Don Ritzen

Co-founder

Co-founder of Rockstart Accelerator. Co-Founder of Startup Weekend Amsterdam, Founder of Startup Weekend Eindhoven, Startup Weekend Cameroon and EU SW facilitator. Founder and Curator of StartupDigest Amsterdam and previously responsible for Business Development at Wakoopa.

James Digby

Co-founder

Co-founder of Startup Weekend NL and UK and also one of the founding EU Facilitators for Startup Weekend. James brings to the team over a decade of entrepreneurial experience working with a number of startups in growing brand value and product development.

Rune Theill

Program Director

Jury member at Venture Cup (business plan competition). Previous Startupbootcamp Associate. Owner of Nu det jul.dk. Tried several entrepreneurial ventures, and believes in learning by trying.

Stefanos Karakasis

Storyteller

Marketing graduate of Erasmus, student of The School of Hard Knocks. Loves sushi, denim and playing with online tools. Likes to write, build brands, collect sneakers and stories on Samurai.

Nikos Kalliagkopoulos

Finance and Operations at Rockstart Accelerator

Nick is a Computer Engineer, currently pursuing an MSc in Finance and Investments in Rotterdam School of Management. Nick is particularly interested in the intersection of technology, entrepreneurship and the financial world.

Edith den Hartog

Info about Edith den Hartog

Sjoerd

Info about Sjoerd

Lyzanne Jonker

Interactive media at Hogeschool van Amsterdam. Experienced in marketing and online promotion. Love football, sushi, Hema breakfast, coffee and learning to make great designs.

Bart Langedijk

Interactive media at Hogeschool van Amsterdam. Experienced in web-development and 3D modelling . Loves working out, HTML, cars.

Sebastiaan Hooft

Non-executive director and advisor

A pioneer in the Dutch internet retailing starting in 2003, Hooft built a string of successful internet, fashion and media firms that engineered ground-breaking e-commerce in The Netherlands. Hooft advised leading venture capital firms on their internet investments and worked on a director level at a successful venture listed in the Deloitte Technology Fast 500. Since 2011 Hooft focused his skills on charity and serves on advisory boards of growing companies.

Joris van Heukelom

CoFounder MakerStreet, Chairman IAB

Currently Partner in MakerStreet, Joris was one of the first to kick of a start-up related long term initiative in the Netherlands in 2011. Joris has got a decade of digital knowledge and will be a source of information towards the Rockstart-entrepreneurs concerning product development, how to work out the ideal pitch and smart ‘ to-market’ -strategies.

Lucien Burm

co-founder and CEO of Kimengi

Lucien Burm is the co-founder and CEO of Kimengi, a Dutch recommendation technology company, that launched the groundbreaking news service, nine connections. With more than 16 years of experience, Lucien is a veteran in the still nascent online media space. Currently, he oversees Kimengi’s daily operations, investor relations, and new product launches.

Prior to founding Kimengi with partner Christian Vogel in 2008, Lucien worked with many web, new media, and cross-media companies after founding an internet consulting business in the mid-1990s. While his work during this time covered a wide range of account management, sales, and marketing disciplines, it focused on managing business development and cultivating online strategies for his companies. Lucien worked for four other startups, before co-founding Kimengi.

Lucien also likes to create some time to work as a mentor to other aspiring startup entrepreneurs and is involved in several incubator programs. He also plays guitar and pretends to know a few things about authentic Italian food and quality coffee.

Rockstart Accelerator advisors:

Jon Bradford

Founder of Springboard

Jon has founded the Difference Engine, Springboard and ignite100. The Difference Engine was the first major acceleration programme in Europe, Springboard is based in Cambridge (and soon to be London) and ignite100 combines an accelerator with £100k follow on funding.

Rajesh Patel

Former CEO

Indian background; raised in the UK. Former CEO of Exact. CEO of year 2007 by Computable; Entrepreneur of Year in 2008 by the BID; Voted as member of the board to run “Netherlands BV” by Management Team in 2009.

Paul Molenaar

Investor

Publishing specialist. Former: CEO @ IDG Communications, CEO @ ilse media (Sanoma Digital), COO @ Sanoma Media. Current: co-owner Layar, co-owner Z24.nl, member of the supervisory board @ Consumentenbond, member Privacy Authority NL, advisor KRO

Walter van Damme

Managing Director at Kardan N.V.

Mr. Van Damme started his career as a lawyer. From 2000 until the end of 2006, Mr. Van Damme served as one of the founding partners of First Dutch Capital. In 2007 he joined the Kardan N.V.

Maarten Beucker Andreae

Co-founder and CEO at 2dehands.nl – TTY

With his web-development company TTY they bring together experienced entrepreneurs, innovative ideas, technical skills and investors to successfully launch new internet companies, including 2dehands.be, the nr 1 Classified Ads website in Belgium, Jaap.nl, Paypool.com, Zwapp.com and EU1.tv. In 2009 Maarten was elected Amsterdam Entrepreneur of the year.