
Sjoerd van Berkel
Co-Founder & Operator at Dutch Operator Fund, Co-Founder of FitForMe, and Entrepreneur in Residence at Tilburg University.
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APPEARANCES
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Aug 5, 2026
You have to fall in love with the founders
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S
1:40speaker_1HOST
And, uh, how, how successful were, were the previous companies that you, that you founded?

Sjoerd van BerkelGUEST
Well, my first company [chuckles] I was actually selling ice cream, uh, which was a lot of fun, but definitely not scalable.

Sjoerd van BerkelGUEST
Uh, I was selling ice cream on a few boats in the lakes surrounding the area where I grew up, uh, which was for me the best job ever, 'cause I was making my money as a student in my swimming shorts with mainly happy customers.

Sjoerd van BerkelGUEST
I learned my first lessons in, as an entrepreneur, but I also realized soon that it was fun, but not scalable, so that was a business aspect I would like to see in the next venture.

Sjoerd van BerkelGUEST
Um, FitForMe was and is still scalable, and currently we support the quality of life of 200,000 people on the globe, and our CFO recently calculated that every second, two of our supplements are taken somewhere by a person, uh, on this earth, so, uh-
S
4:42speaker_1HOST
So how, how do you weigh it in terms of, oh, this is how much I, I focus on the, on the business and I b- my belief in the business idea, but then also how much is about believing in the person behind the business, in the entrepreneur himself or herself?

Sjoerd van BerkelGUEST
I would say criteria number one is team, criteria number two is team, and criteria number three is team as well.

Sjoerd van BerkelGUEST
[chuckles] Uh, which is maybe a boring answer, uh, but the longer I'm active as an angel and the more investments that I do, uh, the stronger that belief is, honestly.