Going the extra mile is probably the best phrase to use to define Dataconfetti Investments. With support ranging from legal and HR consulting to office space, the investment vehicle, a spin-off of IT company Bossers & Cnossen, wants to offer startups far more than just a bag of money. Dataconfetti co-owners Bjørn Cramer and Jeroen Bos discuss the investments made so far, the synergy between their startups and their role in the ecosystem.
Dataconfetti is owned and managed by Jeroen Bos, Marten van Vliet and Bjørn Cramer . Dataconfetti in its current form started around 4 years ago, with a total of 7 investments made so far and one on the way. The company is a sort of spinoff and separate vehicle of Bossers & Cnossen. “I have 25 years of experience as an entrepreneur, and I felt like giving something back”. co-owner Jeroen Bos explains. “Dataconfetti was a separate company we acquired through Bossers & Cnossen, and it just felt like the perfect vehicle to invest in technology and IT startups in the Northern Netherlands.”
Smart money
Bos, van Vliet and Cramer use their experience and individual skill sets to offer more than just a bag of money. “Our starting point is that we want to help and support entrepreneurs”, Cramer explains. “An investment is part of that, but we want to take things a step further and really help where we can, whether it’s finance, legal or HR support, help with logistics, a sales funnel, you name it. We look at the individual cases and try to figure out what we can offer to help this entrepreneur become successful. So it’s about smart money and providing a solid foundation, rather than just giving a bag of money.”
Dataconfetti even helps with an office space. “The great thing about that is the synergy between the startups we invest in. Whether it’s entrepreneurs in the same phase or some that are a little further along, they’ll also help each other grow, as a sounding board or maybe even work together. And they have different teams, like legal or finance, from Bossers & Cnossen available to them, who can help them with just about anything. And it’s just a matter of going down the hall and grab a cup of coffee.”
Synergy
One of their more recent investments is Arc Ventures, a startup specializing in designing phone cases. “It’s a great example of that synergy and a funny story actually”, Bos says. “At first, I wasn’t really impressed. It’s just a phone case, I thought, nothing special or revolutionary about that and almost said no to investing in the startup. But then I showed it to one of the founders of Citoforma, a 3D printing startup we also invested in. He was really impressed by the design and thinking behind it.”
“So that made me change my mind and I decided to have them drop by for a visit anyway,” Jeroen smiles. “As an investor, you look primarily at the product, the business model and the team. And with Arc I immediately saw that the whole picture was right. In the way they presented themselves and consulted with each other, how Moritz thinks up things, Tom looks at organizational aspects and finances and the way Niclas wants to do marketing.”
“It fell into place for me when I saw the product in combination with the team. That's why we decided to invest in Arc with Dataconfetti Investments and to support them with things such as logistics, sales, HR, financial administration and legal matters. Since then, they've also been using our office space and something like that would’ve never happened, were it not for the way we work together with all of our startups.”
Supporting the ecosystem
Aside from the support, Dataconfetti considers itself more pragmatic than other investment funds and agencies. “We’re entrepreneurs ourselves, so we fully understand that if an opportunity presents itself, you need to be quick about it”, says Bos. “So in terms of decision making, we can be really fast if need be. If we need to decide something this week, we can execute it the following week.”
“And I think our particular strengths work really well together with other investment funds in the region”, Bos continues. “There’s the NOM, G-Force, RuG Holding and Carduso, for example and I think all of us have very complementary skill sets and individual expertises. And working together, we can really help talented entrepreneurs focus on being successful.”