Done with your traineeship? Become an entrepreneur!

Traineeships are an awesome way to kick-start your career. Through a combination of working and learning, and a lot of perseverance, you gain your first work experience. And even better, you get a taste of what it’s like to work at a large corporate or consultancy firm. But what will be your next step? And what if you actually come to realize that corporate life is not for you? Did you ever consider translating your initiative and creative ideas into your own startup? Ready to unleash your inner entrepreneur? At Holland Startup, you can…

Whether it is applying artificial intelligence to build a startup in recruitment tech, or creating an app that helps consumers to better manage their finances – at Holland Startup we turn young professionals into successful entrepreneurs! You bring your knowledge, passion and dedication – we bring experience, funding and network. Together, we find your co-founder, identify a problem, figure out a solution, and build a company…

A bit about Holland Startup… 

Holland Startup, an Utrecht-based venture builder, was founded in 2014 with the goal to help young entrepreneurs succeed and overcome the pitfalls of venture building. Since then, we have become the specialist in the design, incubation, acceleration and active operational support of digital companies and their founders. Our core philosophy is “Enabling young entrepreneurs to shape our society”. For the next 5 years, we aim to help 50 entrepreneurs build 25 companies, focusing on themes such as a healthier society, an educated world, financial empowerment and logistics. We love business models that are disruptive to stodgy old industries, or that are validated outside of Europe but not yet available in Europe. Since its inception in 2014, Holland Startup has invested in 8 startups and invested over EUR 1 million. We are a diverse, international team of 26, dedicated to find repeatable and scalable business models that can change the world for the better!

The opportunity:  

As a co-founder, it will be your primary task to validate and build a startup. Holland Startup builds teams of two co-founders that validate and build startups using a standardized process, allowing us to move from ideation to scaling in 300 days. We offer:

• A challenging, full-time (>40 hours) position as co-founder of a startup;
• Full ownership from scratch: shaping and pivoting a high-level idea into an actual proof of concept and ultimately an MVP (minimal viable product);
• A research grant while building a startup;
• An extensive network, access to relevant expertise and in-depth guidance;
• Incorporating a company and getting backed by venture capital (and their support team) at Holland Startup;
• Friday drinks at our very own startup bar!

What we are looking for:  

• A great teammate: you flourish when you work in a competent and harmonious team. Your fellow co-founder is your partner in crime.
• Entrepreneurial drive: recognizing market opportunities and considering them in a businesslike manner. You’re open, curious, investigative and you have a positive mindset. You’re willing to take on the role of pioneer and explore unknown avenues to achieve business advantage;
• Drafting and executing plans: hands-on and experience in handling projects independently is what defines you. You’re decisive and willing to act, but are always maintaining flexibility to adapt plans according to new insights, changing circumstances, tasks, responsibilities and people.
• Networking: you’re naturally strong at building and maintaining relationships with partners and customers; you’re a people’s person and have excellent social skill to make affective use of informal networks;
• Results oriented: you’re passionate about achieving tangible results and are driven to find the right business model for the venture. You know how to engage partners, listen to potential customers and translate this into successful business.
• Self-development: you have the ability reflect on your strengths and weaknesses, and you initiate activities that further develop your own knowledge, skills and competences.
• Resilient: you’re resilient, determined and passionate about your work, and you continue to perform effectively when facing time-pressure, adversity, disappointment and opposition;
• Analytically strong: you’re a start at identifying problems; recognizing significant information; making connections between data; tracing possible causes of problems; investigating relevant data;

Requirements:  

• At least a Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field;
• Fluent in English, written and spoken;
• 0-5 years of relevant work experience in your industry/sector and/or product development experience
• You live in the Netherlands, at an acceptable travel distance from Utrecht

Practicalities:

• Interested in this position? Send your application, containing your resume and a motivational letter to apply@hollandstartup.com
• You will need to attend our 2-day Pressure Cooker program as part of the selection
• We highly encourage entrepreneurial women to apply. We value diversity at Holland Startup!

Curious to learn more? Please contact Tamim Karim, Startup Scout at Holland Startup via: apply@hollandstartup.com or +31 6 43 29 10 83