Michiel Kotting

We just launched our first customer in the Netherlands in under 1 hour 🇳🇱 The integrations were already there, so we had a head start. But the magic was in how quickly we could configure the rest; settings, standards, tax numbers, codifications. This is possible because our product is AI-native. It’s not just another SaaS bolting AI on top. We build with the models, not against them. Some ways this shows up: → Approvals happen implicitly based on tool calls → Workflows are written in plain English → UX primitives are abstractions designed around threads/conversations It is how we truly create a global product! This speed isn’t just an implementation detail. It’s what accounting should feel like in the AI era.

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One of the first things you notice when working closely with succesful founders is their obsession with speed and standards. The sense that everything feels urgent. Every detail is up for improvement. That waiting is never neutral and accepting low standards is never an option. Most people think momentum is just about working hard. But founders know momentum is a multiplier. Every day you move fast, you get sharper, learn quicker, grow stronger and build trust with your customers. Momentum compounds. It’s why small, consistent progress outperforms occasional fast sprints. It’s why urgency is baked into every decision and every interaction you have with founders. But here’s the part that rarely gets discussed: Complacency compounds, too. Every time you wait for perfect clarity, you lose speed. Every time you let a standard slip because it’s easier, you teach your team that speed and quality is optional. Inertia becomes culture, and culture defines outcomes. Founders push even when it feels uncomfortable. Not because they enjoy pressure, but because they understand something most people don’t: You don’t just wake up one day and find yourself behind. You get there inch by inch, delay by delay, excuse by excuse. And It’s not because one big decision derailed you. It’s because you stopped moving with urgency and gave up on standards. So yes, founders can seem intense about timelines. They’ll push for answers faster than you’d prefer. They’ll set deadlines that feel aggressive. They’ll question why things aren’t already in motion and they’ll pick on very small details to raise the standards. It’s not personal. It’s not ego. It’s not control. It’s the discipline of someone who knows that in the long run, speed and standards are often the only advantage you have.

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🚀 A big milestone for Stellar Tech - and for the creator industry in Europe. Today, I’m proud to share that we’ve just closed a new chapter in our growth story: Join, the Netherlands’ leading creator platform, is now part of the Stellar Tech constellation! ✨ Join will merge with Creatorz, bringing together two strong communities under one name - and creating the largest marketplace for nano- and micro-influencers and UGC creators in the Benelux. This is our third acquisition in just over a year (after Influo and IROIN® by Stellar Tech®) and it’s a huge step toward our mission: building the most transparent, innovative, and scalable ecosystem for creators and brands in Europe. Here’s why this matters: ✨ One unified marketplace for Belgium and the Netherlands ✨ Thousands of vetted creators for authentic, high-trust campaigns ✨ AI-driven workflows and transparent pricing ✨ End-to-end support for UGC and nano/micro-influencer activations But more than features, this is about values: - Giving creators visibility, freedom, and fair opportunities - Giving brands of every size faster, easier, and more impactful access to the voices audiences trust most I’m very proud to welcome the two amazing founders of Join - Paolo Martorino now Managing Director of Creatorz and Edwin Knip now Tech & Product Lead. Alongside Sarah Levin Weinberg, my co-founder, and Sylvain Duckers (CTO) and André Kilz (CPO), they’ll help us shape the future of Creatorz. This is not just an acquisition. It’s a promise: to keep building a creator industry in Europe where authenticity, transparency, and collaboration drive real impact. The journey is accelerating - and we’re only getting started 💫 #CreatorEconomy #UGC #InfluencerMarketing #ScaleUpJourney #Benelux #FutureOfMarketing

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🚜🌍 Norway has become a launchpad for ambitious agritech companies with global reach. Just look at the momentum: ✅ Nofence: $35M Series B (Europe's largest agtech funding round in 2025) ✅ SAGA ROBOTICS // THORVALD: $11.2M raise (Aug 2025) ✅ Kilter: €9M Series A (Nov 2024) These scaleups are proving that you can build from Norway and expand to the world 🙌 At WinterLeap, Cornelis Arnoldussen and I celebrate their success and take inspiration from their journey. Our focus: helping farmers tackle weeds and pests during winter, using microwaves on frozen soil to stop problems before they even begin. The Norwegian agritech ecosystem is small but mighty, and it’s exciting to see what can grow from here 🌱 And credit as well to the investors behind these rounds, you’re not just backing companies, you’re helping reshape farming worldwide 💙 Pymwymic, Nufarm, Capagro, Speedinvest, European Circular Bioeconomy Fund (ECBF), Nysnø Climate Investments, Sandwater, Ferd AS, Praesidium Momentum,Blystad Groupp,Hattelandd,MP PENSJON PKK,Climate Innovation CapitallAkerrSBG Invest ASS,Natural Venturess,Verdelis Investments | ProAgInvest LLCC

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NiCE Cognigy’s acquisition by NiCE officially closed this week – Europe’s largest AI acquisition to date and a major exit for DN Capital, having backed Cognigy at Series A back in 2019. I recently joined Seb Johnson 📊 on Scaling Europe to talk through Cognigy’s journey, and why it stood out amid a raft of companies trying to crack AI-driven customer service in recent years: ✅ Cognigy’s founders always had a holistic, long-term, platform vision - everything was built with long-term scaling within the enterprise in mind. We couldn't have predicted LLMs would emerge when we led the Series A in 2019 but it was always clear that Cognigy had a super flexible, enterprise architecture that allowed them to adopt the latest technologies. ✅ The founding team had deep experience building and selling to enterprise in the past that enabled them to have this clarity and holistic approach. ✅ Cognigy’s leaders were focussed on product instead of VC hype, and it was our job largely to get out of their way and let them build – with only a few key strategic interventions along the way 😉 I joined Seb to unpack this and more, watch the clip or check out the full episode linked in the comments – great insights from Saul Klein, Will Wells, Bill Dobie and Max Sinclair. 👇

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We just gave AI the ability to know exactly when to speak. No wakewords. No cameras. 100% local. Yesterday, two voice agents sat in a meeting on our laptops, catching and answering questions in real-time. They’re not 'human-level' remote colleagues quite yet (some OpenAI API latency), but its a start. Our tiny Selective Auditory Attention (SAA) engine drops into any device—even smart glasses—plugs into any LLM with one Python line, and helps voice agents follow real-life group conversations. Conversation capabilities • 97% accuracy picking the right speaker(s) within 5 meters • Waits its turn, speaks at the right time. • Ignore irrelevant prompts—no false triggers. Engine specs • 10x smaller & faster than multimodal SOTA • Only 400k params, processing stays on-device • Works with OpenAI, Gemini, or your own model We're excited to participate in this next wave of natural human-machine collaboration. Join the wait-list for the SDK (first comment). Tag someone who could use this to build the next killer voice agent. 👇 #VoiceAI #EdgeAI #LLM #FutureOfWork #AudioTech

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🛒 European retail fights back 🛒 We are thrilled to announce our investment in Zenline AI, the startup building AI agents for margin-optimised assortments in retail. Zenline, founded by Arber Sejdiji and Gerrit Merz, has raised a $1.6M Pre-Seed round led by Seedcamp, with participation from Yellow, arc investors, and us, First Momentum Ventures. Why does this matter? Retailers actively manage only ~5% of their assortments today; the rest remains under-optimised, causing massive margin leakage. Meanwhile, e-commerce retailers like Amazon and Temu move faster, armed with data-driven product decisions. Zenline changes the game: its AI agents analyse millions of SKUs and provide concrete, product-level recommendations, from pricing to consolidation. Already live with major European retailers, Zenline’s technology is optimising 1M+ products today. We are strongly convinced that Zenline is one of Europe’s most promising AI + retail ventures, empowering retailers to close margin gaps and operate on a globally competitive level. 🏆 Congrats, Arber, Gerrit, and the team on this milestone. We are excited to be part of your journey! #FirstMomentum #Zenline #IndustrialTech #RetailTech #AIagents #DeepTech #StartupFunding #RetailAI

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