Presentation by Ruben Timmerman (Springest) and Herman Kienhuis (SanomaVentures) on their activities and their lessons learned as entrepreneur and investor, at Sanoma Media Matters, June 11, 2014 in Hoofddorp, The Netherlands.

1. Lessons Learned in Venturing
Herman Kienhuis & Ruben Timmerman
Sanoma Media Matters
Hoofddorp, June 11, 2014

2. agenda
the investor - introduction to herman & sanomaventures
the entrepreneur - introduction to ruben & springest
the investor - lessons learned
the entrepreneur - lessons learned
Q&A

3. the investor

4. chemical engineering / mckinsey /
mba / sanoma
finance & strategy / digital product
development / venture capital
family-man / music-maker /
vintage-lover / internet-geek

5. Addressing all three horizons of growth
defend and extend
core businesses
(TV, newspapers,
magazines, local online
assets, educational books)
PROFIT
build emerging
businesses
(marketing solutions,
international online,
learning solutions)
REVENUE
create viable
options for the
future
(Innovation Lab,
SanomaVentures)
INNOVATION

7. Geographies

8. Consumer Media
Consumer web
services
Mobile & Tablet
publishing
Online Video &
connected TV
E-commerce
Advertising &
marketing services
Lead generation &
Marketplaces
Commerce services
Education
Pre-school educational
apps
K12 ecosystem
Personal/professional
development
Scope

9. capitalneed(EURx1000)
>20.000
20.000
10.000
5.000
2.500
1.000
500
250
100
50
25
Incubators/
accelerators/
angel investors
start
development phase
friends & family
venture capital
Sanoma
Ventures
(€0.1-1.0m)
pre-seed seed early-stage /
venture
growth later-stage
• Very difficult to screen (no
metrics available)
• Low success rate
• 5-7 years for return
• Competition from VC’s
• Limited ability to acquire >15%
stakes
• Much capital required
• Less investors, lower
valuations
• User metrics available
• 3-5 years for return
sweetspot
Stage

10. SMART MONEY
•customer reach: Sanoma media package (in
addition to cash)
•mentoring: Sanoma business owners act as
sparring partners
•expertise: Sanoma design, development,
marketing and sales specialists and industry/
domain experts & knowledge
•network: Sanoma corporate customers, suppliers,
partners, other ventures

11. R&D: Create access to external talent and innovations; reduce cost of
experimentation; 24 investments in 3 years
!
Growth: Create options for future growth; build up a portfolio generating
>€20 mln revenues in 2017
!
Value creation: Support startups with expertise, network and media as an
investment currency; manage portfolio companies to positive return and
create 5 ‘exits to Sanoma’ (acquired) in 6 years
!
Transformation: Facilitate knowledge exchange, bringing new insights
into Sanoma, supporting its transformation
!
PR: Help build Sanoma’s innovation and growth story towards
advertising-, labour-and capital market
SanomaVentures’ objectives

12. L.Druege@vdz.de

13. L.Druege@vdz.de
ROOMLR
SOCIAL
SHOP

14. L.Druege@vdz.de
STAGE OF INVESTMENT
>EUR
0.25mln

15. L.Druege@vdz.de
AREAS OF INVESTMENT

16. L.Druege@vdz.de

17. the entrepreneur

20. Springest:Your Learning Source
Learning is fragmented. People and companies need a guide.
We’ll be the Amazon of Learning.
Springest.nl / .de / .co.uk / .be / .com / .ru

21. People
regularly discover, buy &
review learning products
Companies
help employees grow, get
education + budget compliance
Publishers
monetize their content via
our API & white label
Learning providers
local or online, get clicks,
leads, sales & branding
Software vendors
enable their apps with learning data
What: Learning marketplace

22. Cloud perspective

23. Inspired by Jeff Bezos‘ Amazon Flywheel
New
Users
User
Experience
Learning
content
Learning
Providers
Flywheel, chicken, egg

24. how: holacracy / agile

25. how: data driven product

26. how: data driven product

27. how: internal awareness

28. the investor:
lessons learned

29. team, team, team

30. dedication & focus

31. invest in stuff you know
something about

32. push what goes well

33. and get out of
the way

34. accept limited control

35. and have patience

36. the entrepreneur:
lessons learned
(the hard way ;))

37. choose leverage

38. solve existing problems

40. conquering country cliches

41. scaling by teaching

42. sales is marketing is product
2800 providers = 1 accountmanager + 1 support

43. extreme transparency

44. focus on (in)security

45. get started
@kienhuis | @rubzie |#smm14
Questions?