Amsterdam, North Holland, Netherlands
Finance taught me how to read a business. Rabobank, Commerzbank, Deutsche Bank, PwC. Years across banking and Big 4. Financial audits, credit reviews, balance sheet analysis. Learning how businesses work from the inside out. What finance never taught me was what it feels like to build one. A marketing degree and running a web agency gave me that. Customer acquisition, positioning, making something people actually pay for. At some point both paths led to the same question. Why am I working on other people's businesses instead of my own? So I left. And started learning the hard way. A land investment that did not scale. A marketplace I built and sold. A web agency that fell apart. 3 ventures. 2 failures. 1 exit. That journey gave me something most first-time acquirers do not have. Real experience of what it feels like to build something from nothing and keep going anyway. Then my MBA at the University of Greenwich changed everything. 11 interviews with European search fund investors. A dissertation on governance after a small business acquisition. A front row seat to what actually happens after a deal closes. One thing became clear. The biggest risk in buying a European small business is showing up as a stranger. No track record. No relationships. No reason for a seller or investor to trust you. So I decided to build the trust before I needed it. Most people start searching immediately. I started a newsletter first. Every Monday at 8:30am, one honest idea on buying and owning small businesses lands in the inboxes of acquisition entrepreneurs, HoldCo builders, independent sponsors, and investors across 40 countries. The content builds the relationships. The relationships make the acquisitions possible. Today I am building a media company. Around acquisition entrepreneurship, investing, and boring businesses. Built solo. Independent. Buyout Diary: the engine. Weekly newsletter every Monday at 8:30am CET. Research and interviews on European acquisition entrepreneurship. YouTube channel coming. ETA Europe: the community. Monthly events in Amsterdam. Quarterly events in Brussels and Paris. An active WhatsApp group between events. Alongside the media I run my own self-funded search across the Netherlands, Flanders, and northwest Germany. 3 ways to work with me. Free newsletter every Monday: join 1k readers across 40 countries. buyoutdiary.com PPM Review: written feedback on your investor materials before they go out. €1,800. Conference Pass 2026: 4 detailed reports from Europe's top ETA conferences. €99. Links in Featured section below.
Buyout Diary is my weekly newsletter on European acquisition entrepreneurship. The foundation of the media company I am building around buying, owning, and investing in small businesses. I started it during my MBA. While everyone else talked about joining big companies again, I felt something different. I did not want to analyse businesses anymore. I wanted to buy one. But I also noticed something else. Millions of small business owners across Europe and the UK are approaching retirement with no clear successor. Profitable businesses closing not because they failed but because nobody stepped in. That gap was not being documented honestly from the inside. So I started writing it myself. Every Monday at 8:30am CET in your inbox. On Buyout Diary I share what I learn about finding deals, talking to owners, structuring financing, and building the right governance layer after an acquisition closes. The content comes from real conversations with acquisition entrepreneurs, investors, and operators, and from my own search progress. A YouTube channel is on the way. Long-form interviews with European acquisition entrepreneurs, investors, and operators. My goal is simple. Make acquisition entrepreneurship in Europe more accessible, more visible, and less lonely. 1,000+ subscribers across 40 countries. Growing every week.
Guest lecturer and client representative on Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition and SME succession at Saxion University of Applied Sciences in Deventer. I introduced the European succession gap as a business opportunity, designed five real platform concepts for students to develop into full business cases, and act as the client they research for and pitch to at the end of the project. Business students research and pitch real platform concepts for European SME succession markets such as retail, agriculture, financial services, landscaping, and mobility.
ETA Europe is Europe's community for acquisition entrepreneurship. I started it because during my own search I noticed that most people trying to buy a small business in Europe are working alone. Information is scattered, conversations happen in private, and it is difficult to meet others who are serious about ownership. At ETA Europe we fix that. We connect searchers, operators, investors, and advisors who believe in long-term ownership. We share what we learn about finding opportunities, talking to owners, structuring deals, and running companies after acquisition. We host in-person events across three cities. → Amsterdam: our flagship chapter. Monthly events. 300 members. 5.0 rating across seven events. → Brussels: quarterly events starting June 2026. → Paris: quarterly events starting September 2026. Between events we stay connected through our active WhatsApp community. Join us: → Amsterdam: meetup.com/acquisition-entrepreneurship → Brussels: meetup.com/acquisition-entrepreneurship-brussels The purpose is simple. Help more people in Europe buy real companies and become enduring owners.
I mentor early-stage founders on business strategy and financial clarity. I help them validate business models, make decisions with real numbers and secure their first customers or revenue. My focus is always practical: fewer slide decks, more execution.
I advised founders on financial modelling and projections, helping them make decisions based on data rather than assumptions.