Founders Dinner 2025: collaborative winning in the Philips Lounge
This is your monthly newsletter from the Gerard & Anton Foundation. Every month, we bring you the latest from startup Eindhoven — news, stories, and events from the places where innovation thrives.
This Saturday, the seats in the Philips Lounge not only looked out onto an exciting Eredivisie match featuring the national champions, but also onto other champions: the most successful startup founders from the Brainport region. For the third Founders Dinner, more than 100 former Gerard & Anton Award winners, investors, and partners came together. The program - lighthearted, personal, and sharp - was hosted by Bert-Jan Woertmann and Nina Hoff (byFlow). The common thread: collaboration that works.
“No one does it alone. Just like Gerard and Anton, entrepreneurship is always about ‘together,’” said Nina Hoff. IO+ published a full report about the event, you can read it here.
As always, Philips Netherlands president Sylvia van Es welcomed her guests with some warm words:
“Thank you and welcome, everyone, to the beautiful Philips Stadium. I see many familiar faces, but also many new ones. This is now the third time we have gathered here to welcome the winners and former winners to our Philips Lounge. This is becoming a wonderful tradition, one that we will continue to honor. If you ask me what connects us and what characterizes us, it is without a doubt innovation and growth, because you seize opportunities with both hands as soon as you see them. And innovation, seizing opportunities, is not only in your DNA, but also in that of the entire Brainport region, because based on the foundations laid by Gerard and Anton, we have built the Brainport region together. An innovative technological ecosystem that offers all residents opportunities and the possibility to grow. In our region, we have unique opportunities and innovation is at the forefront. And even today, there are plenty of opportunities for young entrepreneurs to grow into the innovators and award winners of tomorrow. Because while we celebrate the current winners of the Gerard & Anton Awards, we must also work together to ensure that new entrepreneurs in the future are given the space to continue to grow.“
There was a contract! Hugo van Hees (Boost Brabant) and Hilde de Vocht (High Tech Campus) struck a deal to help young startup founders organize get-togethers. Hugo: “Startup Vibes is a bottom-up startup community initiative. We finance bottom-up startup community initiatives. We do this throughout Brabant, also with the regional development agencies. To ensure that founders like you can get together, have a drink, but also exchange useful contacts and information. The partnership agreement with the Hightech Campus will offer free locations for great events at the High Tech Campus.”
Bert-Jan and Nina included many other guests in their show. We heard from alderman Stijn Steenbakkers (Gemeente Eindhoven), Richelle Kant (BRAVENTURE), Anouk Hubrechsen (Antennex), Bence Racsko (Securely), Wouter van den Bemd (VBTI), Boudewijn Docter (TNO), Renato Calzone (KTO bij TU Eindhoven), and Mark Verhagen (Rift).
Fully in line with the event’s main theme, Stijn Steenbakkers focused on collaboration:
“It’s incredibly important to emphasize the importance of collaboration. But since Operation Beethoven, we’ve often been asked whether it’s all becoming too much like ASML here. Are we becoming too dependent? It might be a good idea to share a few figures and numbers with each other. If you look at it, about 25% of our gross regional product currently comes from semicon, with 7% of jobs. And including all Beethoven results, that goes up to 30% of the gross regional product and 11% of jobs. For comparison, let’s look at 1971, the heyday of Philips. At that time, this one company accounted for 41% of all jobs and 45% of the economy. So are we too dependent? No. But we do need to continue to invest in new technologies and new companies. And there’s one more thing we must do. Companies that have passed the startup phase and really want to scale up need funding and capital. If you really look at the national level, specifically for deep tech, the government, pension funds, together, with 1.7 trillion invested capital, we would have more than enough with just 1% of that. The second thing is, I also believe that we, as a local government, need to do better in that regard. Every year, we set aside around 2 billion euros in investments as the municipality of Eindhoven. We could look at spending part of that amount on startups and scale-ups. For social challenges, for social assignments. In addition to the subsidies we provide through the MRE, that could lead to many more successful scale-ups.”
And then, of course, we have the ultimate proof: all the event’s pictures! Thanks to our G&A photographer Bram van Dal, you can watch them here.
That wraps up the highlights of this year’s founders dinner. Many, many thanks to everyone who contributed. See you next year at the Fourth Founders Dinner!
Upcoming events
This section covers the most relevant events in the Brainport Eindhoven community. If you want to be part of this calendar, send your next events to info@gerardanton.com.
Rabobank Innovators Community Event - On October 23, during Dutch Design Week, the second edition of the Innovators Community Event will take place—the place where startups, scale-ups, and investors meet. Want to know more? Call or email startup & scale-up banker Michel Ziekman at +31 6 25 51 20 15.
Walk-in hours The Gate - Every first Monday of the month, you can visit the walk-in hours at The Gate and find answers to all your entrepreneurial questions. Whether it’s IP, funding, or legal, The Gate’s service partners are there to help you out. Want to know more, or do you have a question? Visit the monthly walk-in hours every first Monday of the Month.
OWOW’s Startup Investment Afternoon - valuable lessons from investors to startups at the OWOW headquarters. 7 November, Fuutlaan 14E, 15:00 - 18:00 hrs. More info here.
Project Management Inspiration event at HighTechXL in collaboration with Holland Innovative. What if your project plan isn’t the problem… but your approach to change is? HighTechXL, High Tech Campus 27, Eindhoven, 4 November 2025, 16:00 – 18:00 Info and registration: https://lnkd.in/eXemBCJ6.
CTO Unconference at HighTechXL, in collaboration with TNO and Eindhoven University of Technology a peer-driven event for senior technical leaders. HighTechXL, High Tech Campus 27, Eindhoven. 6 November 2025, 09:00 – 14:00. Info and registration: https://lnkd.in/e2knfWGs
ExperienceXL is back on November 27th! Meet the ventures and alumni tackling some of society’s biggest challenges, and discover where you could make an impact. HighTech Campus Eindhoven – Building 27, HighTechXL Office, 14:00–17:00. Register now: https://lnkd.in/enyUNCRG
Piek Awards - The annual Gerard & Anton High Tech Piek Awards are just around the corner… Invitations will follow, but for now, it would be wise to block January 8 in your calendar. We start around 6 pm and will honor the people who ‘carry’ the ecosystem. Remember last year’s winners? Check it here.
And…. there’s always a next #DPD - reserve your ticket for #111 - the annual special DDW edition - here - it’s this Wednesday!)
News from the Brainport startup community
First cleanroom at a Dutch vocational education institution: Ter AA
TU/e sets sights on becoming the “Semicon University of Europe”
CUREON: Brand new medtech and biotech innovation center at the High Tech Campus Eindhoven
Helia Biomonitoring: from research to industrial breakthrough
Rabobank’s Startup & Scale-Up Team supports entrepreneurs in various ways
NTT DATA launches innovation lab at Brainport Industries Campus
Inside the imec-ASML alliance: How to keep Moore’s Law moving
More News
And yes, there’s always more news. Once again, there was a lot to report. Here are some highlights (and all links to the articles can be found here):
[Beware: our gerardanton.com website is showing some hiccups at the moment - we’re working to resolve the problem]
Co-enablers
Gerard & Anton has many co-enablers, some in front of the scenes, others behind the scenes. Some provide mental support, others give us the euros to operate. All are very welcome; without all that support, we would never be able to do it. For that reason, we would like to mention our great sponsors here: ECFG, Euflex, Greyt, LIOC, EY, Rabobank, V.O. Patents & Trademarks, TWICE, Kadans Science Partner, Braventure, Lumo Labs, Gemeente Eindhoven, High Tech Campus, Philips, GEVA Vastgoed, Holland Innovative, DeepTechXL, and IO+. A deep bow to all of you (and anyone who wants to join us is welcome to get in touch).
See you next time!
We will be back with a new newsletter in a month, but hopefully we will see each other tomorrow, at the DDW-edition of the Gerard & Anton Drinks, Pitches & Demos. Do you have colleagues who would also benefit from reading this newsletter? Feel free to forward it to them.
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