Netherlands Business Support Office

Tim Westergren at the Dutch Business Breakfast in Oakland.

With Tim Westergren, founder of Pandora Radio, as headliner for today’s DBB, we expected an audience that would stay on their seats till the bitter end. And, we were not disappointed!

After the opening remarks of Deborah Acosta (City of Oakland), raving about Oakland and the renovation, and Doug Engmann (excellent Dutch Honorary Consul), it truly became “Tim” time. Passionately he told us about the countless hours invested in the product, the long periods of time that there weren’t funds to pay the employees, and all the hurdles Pandora had to take to become today’s powerhouse.

Deborah Acosta (City of Oakland) and Doug Engmann giving opening remarks.

The Genome (manned by dozens of people) determines the DNA of all songs coming in and, hence, makes sure that the listener gets access to similar songs or artists. It is an ‘ear’ thing, meaning that the ‘Genome’ people judging those songs must be accomplished musicians in order to give the songs the proper ratings.

By now Pandora has all the tools to direct a band to an area where supposedly their audience is, just by interpreting all the measurements they can make while listeners key in the songs they want to hear. Pandora was already founded in 2000, but it took them hardship, creativity, human resilience, and, in the end of the day, also serious VC money to gain the maturity as demonstrated today.

Interaction with the audience was lively, and there wasn’t a question Tim wasn’t able to field. He casually informed us that over the last couple of years he did some 250 town halls, all over the country. The smallest crowd he got was a mere two people, but he also addressed more than 3,000 people crammed into a book store.

Nowadays Pandora Radio ‘THE Internet Radio’ comes built in with lots of electronic goodies, cars and numerous other applications.

It must be said that Tim Westergren, still looking youthful and eager, hit the nail when he started his project, almost ten years ago. And hail to his co-workers who stayed on the job while times were dire. Faith in the vision of its creator kept it all alive; surely a lesson, and encouragement, for many start ups.

To be informed about it all in depth, check www.pandora.com.

Last Monday, June 1st, we welcomed seven companies from the Netherlands, who spun off from their Universities (TU Delft and TU Twente). They showed up to attend the 9th international Silicom Summit 2009 at Stanford.

The companies were accompanied by their University incubators, Yes!Delft and Kennispark. We started that same day (what jet lag?) with a rehearsal of their five minute speech. And boy, it wasn’t easy to get them under that generous number of minutes, or convince them that discussing an “exit” was a necessity when you want VC money. However, we saw the potential, and that evening it was more valuable than a polished speech, even though they’d better stay within the five minutes for qualification purposes.

After that half an hour of do’s and don’ts of doing business in the USA. ‘Yes, Dutch liberal is different than Bay Area liberal, let alone other parts of the  country. No, you can’t ask somebody’s age when he is applying for a job.’ No politic discussion until you know somebody real well.’ Well, you get the picture.

The following day 8.40 a.m. they had to check in for a Boot Camp Program where the following topics were discussed and taught by true professionals:

• Critical mistakes made in business plans
• How to deliver a successful presentation
• Top ten mistakes when raising funds
• Fundraising: How much, valuation and future rounds
• Managing and thriving in a troubled company

And then, last but certainly not least; their presentation in front of a screening committee. June 3rd, started with a keynote from Meg Whitman, former CEO of eBay and now running for one of the nation’s most difficult jobs: Governor of the State of California. All companies had a booth where they could demonstrate their products.

The day was filled with keynotes of grandeur like Trip Hawkins, CEO of Digital Chocolate and one of the founders of Electronic Arts. Also, Vinod Khosla, founder of Khosla Ventures but possibly better known as founding CEO of Sun Microsystems. The various panels dealt with alternative energy, biotechnology, and early stage investment, to name a few, and were also manned with extremely ‘in the know’ people.

Then the announcement came that one of ‘our’ companies, Micronit, managed to make the final five presenting companies. Even though Founder and CTO Ronny van ‘t Oever didn’t win the grand prize, he most definitely won the public award, getting the most votes from the attendees.

The reception, sponsored by the Dutch Consulate General, turned out to be quite successful. The companies presented themselves with a 2 minute elevator speech and were matched with companies and people who didn’t attend the summit. Deputy Consul General Jaap Veerman had a wonderful speech in store whereby he managed to once again motivate the participants to the fullest.

Demonstrations were given and much later that same evening it was crystal clear that the week already was a success before the scheduled trip to Google, the day after. Not everybody could make that tour because other matchmaking meetings were scheduled as well.

It has to be said again; “your tax dollars (in this case Euros) at work for you” truly made sense that week.

If the focus on “our” San Francisco Bay Area and Silicon Valley stays in line with our present workload, we might as well declare the recession over and done with.

At this moment we are working on six market scans for Dutch companies interested to become part of “The Valley”. On top of that we are pleased to host another seven Dutch companies (start up and next phase) which will attend the Silicom Summit ’09 at Stanford early June. They will be accompanied by the incubators of the University of Delft (Yes!Delft) and the University of Twente (Kennispark). We are preparing some nice networking, a premium reception and some fine matchmaking.

June 23rd we expect a packed house in Oakland when Tim Westergren, CTO and Founder of Pandora Radio, will address members of the Dutch and American business community.

Tim Westergren, CTO and Founder of Pandora Radio

About Pandora

“When was the last time you fell in love with a new artist or song?  At Pandora, we have a single mission: To play only music you’ll love. To understand just how we do this, and why we think we do it really, really well, you need to know about the Music Genome Project.”

Consulate General

We are very excited about the move of our Consulate General from Los Angeles to San Francisco by year end. It means we will all be housed in the same building, close to Market and the Embarcadero, with sweeping views of the Bay and the Golden Gate Bridge. Our receptions will get even better attendance with all this eye candy at hand.

The fifth of May, or Cinco de Mayo, we stayed inside to take in a wonderful presentation from Clive Boulton.

Clive is a Principal Research Engineer with Exact International Development, research arm of Exact Software, headquartered in picturesque Delft, the Netherlands.

Exact, founded 1984, grew into a global company with offices in 40 countries, with yearly revenues reaching $350 million.

And, investors will love this, an EBITDA margin of 22.3%.

Through his research, Clive helps Exact make better decisions about new IT technologies to design and build products for small to midsized businesses customers, to improve performance and expand their business. Clive contributes to Silicon Valley at the technical evangelist level through community groups specializing in emerging technologies.

His talk, which focused on changes Exact Software envisions in the ways of doing business, and how they organize research and turn concepts into solutions, was well received.

We also took the opportunity to introduce our incoming Consul General, Bart van Bolhuis.

He is expected to start his activities per mid August, unless, as Peter Laanen joked, he isn’t accredited by the U.S. Government.

Bart explained his role in The Hague government circles and expressed his eagerness to start in the Bay Area.

The Netherlands Network in San Mateo, as a whole, is very excited to become part of the San Francisco Consulate General.

And, we feel that the greater San Francisco bay Area, including Silicon Valley, is the place to be for the Dutch government when it comes to a location with a unique eco system and ditto prestige.

Please find some pictures of the breakfast; all pictures by Frans van Gosliga.

NBSO's Peter Laanen introducing the incoming Consul General and speaker Clive Boulton of Exact Software at the Dutch Business Breakfast

Incoming Consul General Bart van Bolhuis

Clive Bolton giving his presentation about Exact Software at the Dutch Business Breakfast

Clive Boulton of Exact Software

Wow, that was a wild one, with lots of (positive) action.
We closed the quarter with the ever impressive Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. In alliance with our Canadian counterparts we organized a flashy Canadian-Dutch Business Breakfast at Jillian’s. We had a great keynote speaker in EA Games Label COO Bryan Neider. 19 Dutch and Canadian companies gave it their all with a 60 second elevator pitch, and our own Honorary Consul Doug Engmann, and Canadian Senior Trade Commissioner Thierry Weissenburger also had encouraging words for the more than 150 breakfast participants. Pictures below: Left Doug Engmann smoothtalking the crowd. Right: Thierry Weissenburger has Canada on his mind! Then: Bryan Neider; how inspiring can one be? NBSO’s Peter Laanen has 60 seconds in mind and is ready to blow the whistle.
The early bird breakfast participants truly enjoyed it.

All pictures by Frans van Gosliga.
Below the booth, one of the activities of Handelsroute, aside from organizing the trip. www.handelsroute.nl
Also thanking the Dutch government for partly subsidizing the entire endeavour.

The show itself was a blast, from the high heeled ladies at the entrance to the free beer, and the many interested parties wanting to connect with Dutch game designers.
We closed the Dutch GDC week with a great reception March 26th, followed by a ditto party, both at the Supperclub. The reception was offered by the Consulate General, and the party was organized by the NLGD www.nlgd.nl
Very tired, but pleasantly satisfied most of us went to bed at….er…….good day, sunshine. One of the very nice aspects was that all three San Mateo based offices were involved; Netherlands Office for Science and Technology, www.twanetwerk.org the Netherlands Foreign Investment Agency www.nfia.com and, of course, the folks of the website you are visiting this very moment. Kudos!
The coming months will bring us again the various delegations (exciting), the International Summit at Stanford, and the excitement that the Consulate General will move to San Francisco by the end of this year.
With Easter around the corner, we can be very pleased, and we’re positive the economy is on its way back.

The Cinderella story of the Dutch Baseball Team, knocking out the Dominican team at the World Baseball Classic, urged ESPN to interview our Ambassador, Renee Jones-Bos.

Enjoy!

Several agencies located in the Eastern part of the Netherlands have joined together and set up a program to coach Dutch entrepreneurs, translating their  innovative excellence to a global commercial success. To inspire these entrepreneurs they to the entrepreneurial world of Silicon Valley for eight weeks. A full presentation of this program is avaialble on LinkedIn.

Nothing nicer than finishing the year in an almost empty office, allowing one to regroup, and forget about the ugly year 2008 (even though we can look back at some Cinderella stories - like Printer.com).

Then, looking at the activity board, it is a joy to to see what is already ahead of us the first three months of 2009.

Other than dealing with market scans, inquiries, etc. we are hosting 54 students and 6 professors from the Erasmus University of Rotterdam from the 12th through the 16th of January. These 54 students represent the top of the Erasmus University, and are looking to become more familiar with the most entrepreneurial and innovative region in the world.

The central theme: sustainable energy and entrepreneurship in a clean and sustainable way. They will be hosted by DLA Piper, Plug and Play Tech Center, and Adobe, amongst others. They will also interview and videotape renowned green entrepreneurs, like Gil Friend, CEO and Founder of Natural Logic. Exciting!

Spie Photonics West, January 24 through January 29, San Jose

SPIE is an international society advancing an interdisciplinary approach to the science and application of light.

Organized by The Hague based Netherlands Council for Trade Promotion (NCH), there will be a delegation from the Netherlands representing the industry at a Dutch pavilion.

Together with our colleagues from the Netherlands Office for Science and Technology (NOST), we will host a network event, and assist with the necessary match making.

March will be the month of the mind boggling Game Developers Conference ‘09 in San Francisco, the 23rd through the 27th. There will be a Dutch pavilion, and the Netherlands will be represented by a group of exciting game makers, and representatives of the main Universities and branche organizations. The trip will be organized by Handelsroute, and a Dutch government grant was awarded to facilitate companies during these times of “need”.

Together with our NOST colleagues we will arrange a kick off meeting, host a network event, and make sure the elevator pitches by the various firms will be heard loud and clear by interested parties from the US of A and Canada. Our colleagues from the Netherlands Foreign Investment Agency will be at the booth to advice companies willing to make the move to game crazy Holland (the other name for the Netherlands, even though only two provinces got the word Holland in their name).

Okay, okay, you weren’t waiting for us to teach geography (or history, really), but you have to admit that it looks like a darn exciting start of 2009.

Please let us know whether you are interested to be part of one of these events/sessions/partnering, or just want to be informed at all times!

Happy New Year from all of us in San Mateo!

Peter Laanen gave an interview late October on Dutch FD.TV, one of the leading business newspapers in the Netherlands. Peter discusses the challenges Dutch businesses face when entering the American market.

Watch the whole video here.

Frans van Gosliga! Frans started some two months ago, and came running out of the box. Hence, he lacked time to to pose for a decent picture, but finally we caught him.

Frans will assist Dutch technology companies and bio-tech firms interested in establishing or expanding their presence in the United States market. From May 2006 till the 14th of July 2008, he was active as Assistant Area Director for the Netherlands Foreign Investment Agency (NFIA). Frans was managing projects, providing information and assistance to North American companies with regard to site selection and logistics strategies; intensive, personal guidance on matters such as permit procedures, labor issues and tax structures in the Netherlands.