Starting to Scale Oakwell Hampton

David Arnoux is a growth hacking expert. He is the co-founder and Head of Growth at Growth Tribe, which coaches and trains organisations and individuals to improve their digital skills.

David has a long entrepreneurial history, launching an import/export business in China straight out of university, then building a fashion brand in France, before moving to the Netherlands and getting involved with Amsterdam startups.

David has been in and around startups for a long time, and he has tons of insight to share.

In the episode, David covers how to find a customer base, why investors look for traction, gaining product/market fit, utilising data, why focus is crucial, and much, much more.

It's a little longer than our other episodes, but trust us, this episode is overflowing with information for entrepreneurs.

Get your notepad and enjoy the episode!

Diversity and inclusion are two of the biggest topics circulating in businesses and startups, but it's not an easy discussion to have. Luckily, we've got some amazing guests lined up for this episode to help. Will sat down with three influential women that are making an impact on the Amsterdam startup scene and beyond.

Semra Çelebi works at StartupAmsterdam as the Female Entrepreneurship & Women in Tech Lead, and she also coaches women to meet their business and life goals through her own company Female Works.

Semra was instrumental in creating We-Rise, a female hub that collaborates with organisations around Amsterdam to drive diversity and inclusion, where Dieuwke van Buren is Project Coordinator.

We were lucky enough to also speak with Iffat Rose Gill, Founder & CEO of The Code to Change, a nonprofit that mentors women to gain technology skills to address gender diversity in the tech industry.

There's plenty of wisdom to pick up on for women and men alike, as all three of our guests have many years of experience dealing with the subject of diversity and inclusion. Enjoy the podcast!

Kees van Nunen has seen the Amsterdam startup world from every angle. In his career, he's worked at corporate venture incubators, co-founded multiple startups, and worked as a startup coach and consultant.

He has coached over 60+ corporate innovation, product & marketing teams, departments and their senior leaders in adopting new mindsets and ways of working. He brings tons of advice for entrepreneurs to this conversation.

Kees stresses that startup founders and entrepreneurs need to get comfortable with failure. To Kees, a failure is only a true failure if you don't learn anything from it.

In the episode, Kees discusses failure, the importance of vulnerability, how to develop as a leader, what success looks like, and much more.

Kees has seen a lot of startups in his career and knows what it takes to succeed, so listen up and enjoy the episode!

Will is joined by Christina Caljé, an amazingly accomplished woman in the Amsterdam startup world.

Christina co-founded Autheos, which was recently named 'Startup Disrupting Media' by EU Startups, after over 10 years of Executive experience in finance and e-commerce companies across New York, London and Amsterdam.

On top of that, she sits on the Rotterdam International Advisory Board and was listed as one of the 'Most Inspiring Women in Tech' in 2019 and appeared on the EUtop50 'Top Woman Entrepreneur' list in 2020. See? We weren't lying.

In this episode, Will digs into Christina's background to understand the journey that she's been on to get to where she is today. They also discuss diversity and inclusion in the Netherlands and what it's like to be a woman in the Tech industry, before drawing on her own startup founding experience to talk about the main challenges and how to attract investment.

This one is packed with value from top to bottom, so don't miss out.

To kick off our series speaking with some big names in the Amsterdam startup world, who's better to talk to than StartupAmsterdam? They know the city and its startup scene inside out – you would hope so with a name like that!



In the episode, we get into why Amsterdam attracts so many entrepreneurs, why mentors are a vital lifeline for founders, the importance of getting the right investor, and everything that StartupAmsterdam does to help startups succeed.



Oakwell Hampton's very own Sales Manager Will Aldred was lucky enough to sit down with Dieter Oude Kotte (Lead International Business) and Alexandra Belicova (Partnerships & Events Lead) from StartupAmsterdam. They certainly know what they're talking about, and their passion for their city really shines through.



StartupAmsterdam is an action programme run by the City of Amsterdam that brings the public and private sectors together to support the startups, scale-ups, entrepreneurs and other players in the local ecosystem. By taking part in dozens of projects and initiatives promoting innovative and sustainable entrepreneurship, it’s helped the Dutch capital become a major player in the global scene.



Want to learn more about StartupAmsterdam? Head to their website: https://www.iamsterdam.com/en/business/startupamsterdam