StartupJuncture started in november 2012 as a blog bringing almost daily news from the Dutch startup scene. Now, after five years and 4 months, StartupJuncture will scale back to one post each quarter. We are a bit sad that we have to scale back, but mostly we are happy about the way the Dutch startup scene has developed in the past five years.
Why StartupJuncture was founded
StartupJuncture was founded in late summer 2012 by four founders: Tijs Markusse, Wouter Kneepkens, Samir Saberi and Sieuwert van Otterloo. All founders had different reasons and ambitions for blogging about startups:
- Some of us thought a lot was happening and we should cover it and give the Dutch startup ecosystem an international platform.
- Some of us thought that not enough was happening and that a blog might inspire people to do something.
- Some us thought StartupJuncture could become a successful media business.
- Some of us thought it would be a nice for-free side project while building other businesses or investing in startups.
Either way, we all recognized that it made sense, in a country as small as The Netherlands, to work together. We joined forces and created StartupJuncture as a platform where people could blog about the Dutch startup scene.
StartupJuncture throughout the years
StartupJuncture started with four readers (the four founders) but has grown significantly since then: Since we switched to google analytics in 2014 we have had 1.1 million pageviews. 7800 people have decided to follow us on twitter and 3000 on Facebook. Even more importantly our example has inspired others to also cover Dutch startup news in English. This has helped to put The Netherlands on the international startup map, attract international talent and allowed more startups to grow into real business. Our role in the overall growth was small (many people in The Netherlands have contributed to the startup successes, most importantly the startup founders) but we are satisfied with the growth of a real ecosystem.
Next steps
As of this month, we will only make 1-2 posts per quarter. We will make a quarterly funding overview at the end of each quarter, like our previous overviews (see for instance startup funding Netherlands 2017, startup funding Netherlands 2016, startup funding Netherlands 2015 and startup funding Netherlands 2014). Occasionally we will publish guestposts if the quality is good, the topic is relevant and we have some time to publish. Otherwise we will be inactive: we will not cover news, we will not read press releases and we will not respond to questions.
If you are interested in following the Dutch startup scene, we recommend you to use the following alternatives: Silicon Canals, Sprout, Emerce, StartupAmsterdam, tech.eu and occasionally Techcrunch. To get in touch with the startup scene, contact accelerators like Yes!Delft or Utrecht!Inc or visit accelerators like Rockstart and Startupbootcamp.
Thanks to everyone involved
First of all we would like to thank our readers. We also would like to thank the many founders we interviewed over the years. By sharing their stories they increased our understanding of the ecosystem and we hope they will continue to do. Last but, defintely not least, we thank all our contributors. This includes our regular editors (Lorenz van Gool, Suzanne Blotenburg, Sabine de Witte) but also other team members such as Joren Frielink and Thomas van der Bijl from Knijbel, Moniek Veltman, Joffrey Mandersloot, Adine Rooyakkers and all guest bloggers. Also thanks to our other supporters and contributors, including KPMG, Node1 and also Ruben Nieuwenhuis and the other past and current StartupDelta staff.
Image: Henning Witzel via unsplash