This article was taken from the September 2012 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online.
Amsterdam's liberal attitudes and global ambitions sit easily alongside a hacker community that's reminiscent of San Francisco's. Add booming creative and digital sectors, strong old-media names (De Telegraaf newspaper and TV giant Endemol) and a connection culture, and you have a hotbed of talent.
Space is cheap and there's a growing number of accelerators, angel and VC networks, making it relatively easy for professionals to launch startups. "Amsterdam has realised that to get a business off the ground here, all you really need is a developer, two great coders and a great designer," says Patrick de Zeeuw, cofounder and CEO of Startupbootcamp Amsterdam. Bureaucracy and worries about exit strategies may slow growth, but for now, these locals are the ones to watch.
1: LayerGloss
Westerhoutpark 11, 2012 JL Haarlem
Old and new media co-operate rather than oppose in Amsterdam. LayerGloss is helping newspaper, magazine, book and catalogue publishers, and producers of company reports, switch to iOS through its site, software and consultancy services.
The company was founded by CEO Phuong Do and technical director Martin van Spanje. LayerGloss offers a full-service product for professionals and a DIY toolkit for individuals or small businesses. Both platforms enable users with limited technical knowledge to produce digital publications or apps. "We believe that tablet publishing should be more than sticking together PDF files and some links and videos," says Do. The pair self-funded the startup's first two years and have built a steady trickle of consultancy money -- roughly €60,000 (£48,300) per month from clients such as cocktail-making iPad app Ushake, digital art magazine Dots and a sales brochure for DE JUUL, a contemporary furniture company.
One of ten winning companies at this spring's Amsterdam Startupbootcamp, LayerGloss plans to use the seed funding and mentoring for an autumn launch of AppTuny -- a do-it-yourself system for digital publishing.
2: WeTransfer
Nieuwe Prinsengracht 33, 1018 EG Amsterdam WeTransfer is Amsterdam's rival to file-transfer platform YouSendIt. It was founded by lifestyle and music blogger Nalden, and Bas Beerens, owner of local design consultancy OY Communications. WeTransfer began life as OY's client-only FTP server before the duo realised its potential and turned it into a standalone business. Since its launch at the end of 2009, WeTransfer has delivered more than 100 million files -- photos, music, documents, anything up to 2GB per upload. It's an ad-funded site, although Nalden says he's on a mission to banish the banner ad from the internet and "put some love back into advertising".
WeTransfer's revenue model is based on click-throughs of ad-supplied wallpapers on its homepage -- with the likes of MTV, Electronic Arts and HTC producing image-rich, full-page creative executions. "We wanted to create an experience around the site so users can see beautiful photography or artwork that leaves a lasting impression," says Beerens. "The brands who advertise with us create something aesthetic and there is more engagement with the advertising as a result," adds Nalden.
Additional revenue comes from WeTransfer Channels, which for £77 a year offers an ad-free homepage with personalised wallpapers and longer-term file storage.
WeTransfer is launching an HTML5-based version of its site in September, moving away from Flash. "We're really proud of what the team's done," says Beerens. "It's been an impressive journey."
3: Layar
Vijzelstraat 20, 1017 HK Amsterdam
The world's largest mobile augmented-reality platform is already an industry darling -- winning a $14 million (£9m) investment in 2010 led by Intel, and named a Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum and TIME magazine in 2011. Developers can now embed a Layar player into any app, and after a successful trial with Dutch magazine VT Wonen, which allowed readers to buy products just by holding their phone over the page, it is moving into commerce.
4: Localsensor Simon Carmiggeltstraat 6, 1011 DJ Amsterdam "Where you are can tell us who you are and how you feel," says Rob van Buuren, CEO of Localsensor and cofounder with CTO Jetze van Beijme. "We don't need any personal data." Targeting place and time of day is Localsensor's privacy-friendly pitch to advertisers. The company's founders met at Accenture and launched last year with seed funding from Dutch investor Erwin van der Veen.
They're now integrated with Mads, a mobile-advertising network.
5: Adyen
Simon Carmiggeltstraat 6-50, 1011 DJ Amsterdam
The payment-service provider offers outsourced transactions and fraud control, as well as essentials such as a single-click online checkout for etailers. Data about who's buying what and when, and A/B testing, are also key business tools made easily available to users.
Launched in 2006, with a board steeped in experience at Royal Bank of Scotland, ING and Rabobank,
Adyen's clients include Vodafone, Getty Images and Mango.
6: 22tracks
Nieuwe Prinsengracht 39, 1018 EG Amsterdam
22tracks is a is a web- and app-based jukebox with a simple numerical premise: 22 DJs from Amsterdam, Brussels and London, each specialising in a different genre, share their 22 favourite tracks in separate playlists.
Founded by DJ Vincent Reinders and web developer Gilles de Smit in 2009, the site launched in March 2012. It now has 50,000 daily listeners and is used by the music industry to launch new tracks or artists, thanks to links to the iTunes Store.
7: Silk
Spuistraat 239-3, 1012 VP Amsterdam
Silk is a web-based platform for building websites. It lets the user view, mix, filter information, discover trends and explore and visualise data in graphs, tables or on maps. Still in beta, it intends to be both a search engine and a web tool, enabling users to build their own sites on the platform by the end of 2012. The startup, founded by Salar al Khafaji and Lon Boonen in 2010, clinched €320,000 in funding led by Atomico in May 2011.
8: Mipagar
Parklaan 125, 2011 KT Haarlem
Due to launch in the second half of 2012, Mipagar is the brainchild of marketer Duncan Bloem and account manager Matthijs te Winkel. It claims to be Europe's first pay-per-use billing service -- meaning firms of any size can set up subscription-based-pricing business models without incurring additional hefty IT or accounting costs. Picked as one of the top ten at Amsterdam's Startupbootcamp this spring.
9: Foodzy
Muzyq 3.01, Atlantisplein 1, 1093 NE Amsterdam
Foodzy is like Foursquare for those who care about what they eat. It monitors your food intake by rewarding you with badges for checking in your healthy choices -- or a Hangover Badge if you drink too much. Founded in 2011 by Marjolijn Kamphuis and Johan Voets, it combines a free "light" version with a €12 (£9) annual subscription service. It has users in 130 countries and its 500,000th food check-in was logged in March.
10: Usabilla
Rokin 75, 1012 KL Amsterdam
Usabilla is a tool that allows marketers, analysts and designers to collect user feedback on their website or app. Last year the team, led by founder Paul Veugen, raised $1 million in early funding led by Dutch venture fund Boralis. In February this year it launched Usabilla Discover in beta, described as "Pinterest for professionals", which lets users curate elements of sites they like or dislike.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
