Helping Investors Grow Returns on Portfolio Companies
We all know: startup success ratios are low. Especially in the hardware domain: 97% fail or become zombie companies
We also know that many promising startups and scale-ups fail not because of their ideas, but because of execution. But you never have enough time to properly steer your struggling portfolio companies.
That’s where I come in. I embed inside ventures for 4–6 months to de-risk the company, secure investor value and set the business on a strategic growth path.
“Amazing job Lourens. Without your interventions, we would not have invested — there simply wouldn’t have been sufficient progress. Your strategic plan really helped me formulate the investment proposal and risk analysis.”
Investment Manager, Regional Investment Fund
Venture Partner as-a-Service
Founders are great at coming up with ideas and starting companies. But materialising those ideas and growing companies require different skills. In particular founders in technical, hardware companies.
As investment manager you are stretched thin across your portfolio companies and simply don’t have the time to properly support them. In the mean time, the portfolio company burns away your fund
As a Venture Partner, I join the team for 4 - 6 months with hands-on, no-nonsense, honest support to protect portfolio value and increase ROI.
My approach is simple but effective:
Analyse & Assess
Mainly by truly listening to team, clients and investors, drafting deep understanding of market, product, team, financials, and ways of working
Establish Common Understanding & Willingness to Change
Working iteratively with founders, team, board, and investors to picture the current state and the need to change
Co-create the Strategic Plan
Co-create a realistic roadmap, business model, financials, company essence, product-market fit and team setup.
“A truly impressive plan that hits the nail on the head on all company challenges. I would love to have such a strategic document as CEO”
Chair Supervisory Board, High-Tech Scale-Up
Focus Areas
I work with impact-driven ventures in the Green Tech domain:
New energies & energy transition
Circular economy & biobased innovation
Nature restoration & Agri
Water quality & supply
“Your approach and how you implement your ideas completely hit the mark, this is exactly what we need”
Director Strategy and Implementation
About Me
I am an entrepreneur and a venture partner, working directly with founders, boards, and investors for impact companies.
After a successful international career with several multinationals, I switched to impact startup and scale-ups. I joined The Ocean Cleanup as Head of Technology at an early phase, shifted the concept to the systems currently operating and helped grow the company from 8 to 50 people.
I then started my own company Sponsh, developing a nano textile to irrigate seedlings with water from air without requiring energy.
Following Sponsh, I started working with investors to support their portfolio companies.
My role is to bridge the gap between ambition and execution: aligning vision, team, and strategy so that companies can grow sustainably.
I’m based in Portugal and The Netherlands, and work across Europe.