I loved playing baseball as a kid – the excitement, the competition. But I also loved the fact that, while we were all so very different, as a team we were totally dedicated to the same goal.   

LUMO Labs is built on a team with very diverse backgrounds, knowledge and experiences. What ties us together is a grounded, common-sense approach and the determination to assemble an amazing portfolio of successful impact-driven ventures – in Eindhoven as well as in Los Angeles. 

I was born and raised in the Netherlands, but I’ve been based in California for several years now. Over the past two decades, I have lived and worked in different countries, with countless different people. 

Cultural diversity is a superpower for businesses and vital for innovation. You need it and you need to embrace it. Cultural diversity on the work floor requires that you work a little harder and get a whole lot smarter in finding common language and mutual understanding. 

When finding common language and mutual understanding is part of your day-to-day routine, you develop a priceless habit that will improve every single relationship in which you engage (or will tell you intuitively to run for the door). 

The founders I look most forward to working with are founders who bring a brilliant business idea that contributes to at least one of our three focus SDGs, and who bring wit, drive and humility. 

LUMO Labs supports founders who seek – and seize – the opportunities we offer to optimize their proposition and company. We need founders capable of building strong connections with their customers, partners, coworkers, suppliers and peers to achieve the previously impossible.

The thrill of experiencing completely new and revolutionary solutions to seemingly unsolvable problems is second to none. We invest in early-stage technologies – technologies with unlimited potential. In the hands of impact-driven, visionary entrepreneurs, these innovations will make our collective future brighter.

When we take on a team, we support them from ideation to Series A and beyond. And let’s be candid, everyone involved is going to struggle to climb this mountain. This requires time and presence of mind. Our expectations are high, and the pace is fast at LUMO Labs. 

I’m deeply committed to LUMO Labs’ guiding principle: business and entrepreneurship are the best way to weave sustainable social impact into the very fabric of society.

My other great passion in life is preventing massive numbers of African wildlife from going extinct. I feel very blessed that I can align my personal and professional passions in such a way that I am now able to spend my time contributing to these two greatly important causes.