Launching 3HSF: backing the next generation of Dutch founders

In 2014, the three of us started building United Wardrobe. At the time, we didn’t think much about why we worked well together. We were three young founders trying to build a company. Looking back, though, our roles were remarkably different.

Sjuul was the Hippie. He had the vision. He saw a future in which wardrobes around the world could be connected and clothing could easily move from one person to another.

Thijs S was the Hacker. The technical whizzkid. He had never built an iOS app before, but within a month United Wardrobe was live in the App Store. From there, he built the technology that powered the platform.

And Thijs V was the Hustler. Constantly selling, growing, finding partnerships, convincing influencers, talking to investors and doing whatever was necessary to move the company forward.

Together, we built United Wardrobe into one of the largest second-hand fashion marketplaces in the Benelux, eventually selling the company to Vinted in 2020.

That experience shaped how we think about startups. We believe exceptional companies are rarely built by one-dimensional teams. They need people who can imagine a different future, people who can actually build it, and people who can get customers, employees and investors to believe in it. A Hippie, a Hacker and a Hustler. Today, we are launching a fund to back those teams.

Hippie, Hacker & Hustler Seed Fund (3HSF)

Hippie, Hacker & Hustler Seed Fund — or 3HSF — is a €2 million angel fund investing in Dutch pre-seed and seed startups. We invest €75,000 to €250,000 per company, primarily in software and technology businesses.

We like to invest early. Typically, that means pre-seed and seed rounds, joining the founders before an institutional VC has invested in the company. We can, however, invest alongside a VC entering in the same round. And once we've decided to invest, we can help founders complete the rest of their round through our network where useful.

The fund is financed with our own capital together with the Seed Business Angel scheme of the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO).

What we look for

Our starting point is the team. We don't literally require every startup to have three founders with “Hippie”, “Hacker” and “Hustler” printed on their business cards. What we do look for is the combination behind those archetypes. But a great team alone isn't enough.

We are looking for startups where there is already real-world evidence that something is working (traction), we look for healthy revenue models with decent margin (now and at scale), scalable growth models and attractive market dynamics (growing markets and limited competition).

Capital, plus everything we learned the hard way

We don't want to pretend that investors build companies. Founders do. Our first responsibility is therefore simple: provide capital and give founders the space to build. But we have also spent the past twelve years making many of the mistakes that early-stage founders are about to make.

We built products nobody used. We hired people who weren't the right fit. We figured out marketplaces and growth loops. We raised multiple funding rounds. We expanded internationally. We learned how difficult it is to build a great team as a company grows.

And ultimately, we went through the process of selling United Wardrobe to Vinted and then spent years helping build Vinted further from the inside. When useful, we want founders in our portfolio to be able to draw on those experiences. That can mean thinking through product strategy, growth, hiring, marketplaces or fundraising. It can also simply mean calling us when something has gone wrong and talking to someone who has probably faced a similar problem before.

If you're building a Dutch pre-seed or seed-stage technology company, have started seeing real traction and are raising a round, we'd like to hear from you. Especially if somewhere inside your team there's a Hippie, a Hacker and a Hustler. Looking forward to working together!