TNW 2021 Recap: Entrepreneurs Back Together Again

The WE.VESTR team attended TNW Conference in Amsterdam last week, where we hosted a booth and met with founders and investors to discuss how our platform can help them manage their equity. What a thrill to be back in-person, meeting entrepreneurs from all over the world!

We also had the opportunity to listen in on a few keynote speakers during the conference, each rich with inspiring takeaways. See below for a quick recap:

Stakeholders Create the Identity of Your Company ?

We listened to SYLVAIN founder Alain Sylvain’s discussion around disposable culture in business, and what that does to the identity of companies. Sylvain’s main point is that company culture informs the identity and the public perception of a company, and that culture comes from the companies stakeholders (shareholders, partners, employees, etc.). Any other attempt from a company to promote an identity or brand that is not based on their stakeholders is manufactured, Sylvain argued.

Our biggest takeaway from Sylvain’s point is that, with the vast majority of startups and scale-ups competing in an always-competitive attention economy, stakeholder management couldn’t be more important. That is, if the differentiating public identity of a startup or scale-up comes from its stakeholders, founders need a strong stakeholder management solution like WE.VESTR.

It’s All About Finding New Solutions for Old Problems ?

During his discussion about leveling the playing field for SMEs and startups, Mollie CEO Shane Happach noted, “We’re all hoping to find the next, new solution for an old problem.” This quote resonates with what we’re solving for at WE.VESTR, as founders have always struggled with losing precious time and resources while trying to manage their cap tables, shareholders and company performance. For this old problem, we feel we have a new solution.

Happach also talked about the importance of accessibility when it comes to technology solutions, saying that SMEs and startups need access to technology that is used by big corporations in order to stay competitive. With WE.VESTR, we’ve built a flexible platform that makes equity management simpler, no matter the size of the company. Accessibility is crucial to our product, as we developed WE.VESTR to grow with companies.

Founders Must Be Able to Sell to Employees & Investors ?

When it was announced that Vivino Founder Heini Zachariassen would be speaking about his six tips for surviving life as a founder, we knew we had to be there! Zachariassen covered a range of topics while reviewing his tips, but the one that stuck with us was that, in addition to selling to customers, founders also need to be able to sell to investors and employees.

But how to sell to investors and employees? We think it starts with providing foundational transparency. For founders to provide value to their investors, they should be able to offer real-time reporting on company financials and KPIs, as well as a single source of truth for the company’s cap table. Founders can also offer valuable transparency to their employees, including clearly stated equity reward structures and real-time updates on the share value for employees who participate in ESOPs.

In other words, by using WE.VESTR, we believe founders gain a leg up on selling to employees and investors.

Of course, this is only a portion of the many inspiring learnings from TNW 2021. We will continue to share our takeaways from the events we attend, and you can follow along on LinkedIn or on our blog. Next stop: Web Summit in Lisbon ?