From Student to CEO: Jeroen De Wit's Teamleader Journey
Dr. Niklas Richter ·
Listen to this article~3 min
Jeroen De Wit saw entrepreneurs struggling with admin and built Teamleader with his first customers. He reveals how rapid growth created a cashflow crisis, burning through $75k in 3 months, and why funding became survival. Learn how he evolved from builder to CEO as the company scaled.
As a student, Jeroen De Wit noticed something that would change his life. He saw entrepreneurs drowning in paperwork and struggling with clunky, inefficient tools. It was a problem begging for a solution.
So he did what any ambitious problem-solver would do. He teamed up with two co-founders and started building software. But here's the twist—they built it literally alongside their first customers. They weren't just creating a product in a vacuum. They were solving real problems, in real time.
### The Brutal Reality of Fast Growth
In this episode, Jeroen pulls back the curtain on what rapid growth actually feels like. Spoiler alert: it's often a cashflow nightmare. He talks about how scaling quickly at the start created more financial pressure than opportunity.
He shares the gut-wrenching moment when $75,000 (roughly 70,000 euros) from their parents vanished in just three months. That's right—burned through in a single quarter. It's a stark reminder that passion doesn't pay the servers.
That experience taught them a hard lesson. Their first investment round wasn't a luxury or a badge of honor. It was pure survival. A necessary lifeline to keep the dream breathing.
### The Pivot from Builder to Leader
Perhaps the most relatable struggle Jeroen describes is the evolution from product builder to CEO. How do you shift your mindset when the company is growing faster than your financial runway?
It's like learning to fly the plane while you're building it. And someone's constantly moving the runway. You have to let go of the code and start thinking about vision, team, and sustainability.
Jeroen puts it perfectly:
> "We were selling during the day what we had to build at night. That pace isn't sustainable, but it teaches you what's truly important."
Today, Teamleader serves over 35,000 clients across Europe and is part of the Visma family. But the heart of the story remains three young founders, a big idea, and the relentless hustle to make it work.
### Key Takeaways for Entrepreneurs
If you're building something, listen up. Here are the hard-won lessons from Jeroen's journey:
- **Cashflow is king, especially early on.** Revenue doesn't mean stability if it's not hitting the bank account at the right time.
- **External funding is often a tool for survival,** not just for explosive growth. Know when you need it.
- **The founder's role must evolve.** You can't code your way to scale forever. Leadership becomes the most critical product.
- **Build with your users, not for them.** That early customer collaboration was their secret weapon.
It's a story that starts with a simple observation and ends with a platform transforming small businesses. But the middle part—the struggle, the near-misses, the personal investment—that's where the real lessons live.
Remember, every massive company was once just an idea. And every successful founder was once just someone who decided to start.