Scaleup Vlaanderen
Teamleader welcomes One Million Club
Starting and selling your own successful software company in less than ten years? It sounds almost too good to be true, but entrepreneur Jeroen De Wit knows all about it. One Million Club took a trip to Ghent to hear the unique scaleup story of Teamleader.
Most students spend their free time partying, partying and ... sleeping in. Jeroen De Wit had other ambitions - although he probably also partied regularly. Fueled by a strong entrepreneurial spirit, he founded his first company during his studies in 2008. Four years later, Teamleader was born, a software application for CRM, project management and invoicing.
Belgium and the Netherlands were quickly on board, but the next steps proved more difficult, Jeroen told the One Million Club on December 1. That club brings scaleups with a turnover or capital round of at least one million euros together on a regular basis to network and learn from entrepreneurs who have preceded them.
"After expanding to the Netherlands, we thought the logical next step was to expand into other European countries. Nevertheless, when we opened our Berlin office, we were suddenly facing complex GDPR issues and other challenges."
Despite the obstacles in Germany, Jeroen persisted and also opened offices in Paris, Madrid and Milan. His efforts led to impressive growth, allowing Teamleader to triple its revenue two years in a row. To say that business was moving fast is an understatement.
"I never expected Teamleader to grow so quickly. You suddenly go from two to six markets, which was not easy for us here in Ghent. We began to ask ourselves which issues we should prioritize and how to create the necessary bandwidth for the company."
In 2018, Teamleader decided to close the offices in France, Spain and Italy and recentralize in Belgium. It was one of the hardest decisions Jeroen had to make in his life, but it resulted in Teamleader being stronger than ever.
"Today, 30% of our revenue comes from international markets. We still have developers and other employees outside Belgium and the Netherlands, but our core business operations are based in Ghent. As we continue to grow internationally, it appears that we definitely made the right decision."
Another major contributor to Jeroen's success is his talent for building a strong team. Each member of Teamleader is committed to making customers' businesses more efficient and profitable. How does Jeroen accomplish this? He goes looking for lobsters.
"In order to grow, lobsters shed their hard shell to make way for a new one. It's a metaphor for being flexible and dealing with change even when it's uncomfortable. You have to approach every situation with an open mind and see opportunities rather than obstacles. That's exactly what the people at Teamleader represent."
By hiring passionate team members, improving the customer experience and optimizing the software, Teamleader is always able to adapt to the changing needs of the market.
Today, Teamleader is used by more than 13,000 organizations. An impressive figure, but the number of SMEs and the demand for secure cloud software continues to grow rapidly in Europe. In order to innovate faster and stay ahead of the competition, Jeroen decided to join Norwegian software group Visma.
"This is an exciting new chapter for Teamleader. Joining Visma will strengthen our European market position. Their software expertise combined with our understanding of customer needs will ensure that we offer even better products and services."
The acquisition is a testament to the hard work of Jeroen and everyone at Teamleader. The company continues to operate as an independent entity within the Visma Group and is ready to take the world by storm in the next phase of their success story.
