{"id":31945,"date":"2026-10-23T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-23T02:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thebrokernews.ch\/?p=31945"},"modified":"2026-10-20T11:43:23","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T09:43:23","slug":"mark-wesselink-listen-first-then-build","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thebrokernews.ch\/en\/mark-wesselink-listen-first-then-build\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Wesselink: Listen First, Then Build"},"content":{"rendered":"
Mark Wesselink's (left) life motto: Never give up, rely on evidence rather than gut feelings, and take responsibility.<\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Twelve companies founded, four failed, three sold, one IPO, two bankruptcies: Mark Wesselink makes no secret of his track record. In the CapricornConnect video podcast, Dutch serial entrepreneur and venture builder Jakob Barandun explains why more than half of all startups fail because of a product that nobody wants to buy, and why too much money too early is often more dangerous than too little.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark Wesselink has been an entrepreneur for over three decades. His brief introduction, which he likes to use as a 30-second pitch, is remarkably honest: he\u2019s founded twelve companies, failed four times, sold three, taken one public, and gone bankrupt twice. That, he says dryly, is simply the flip side of entrepreneurship. Today, he is a co-founder of venturerock<\/a>, a digital platform that aims to bring together founders, investors, and venture builders in Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wesselink cites not one of the sales but a development process from 2006 as his most important lesson. Back then, the team started with a direct-to-consumer business for baby food, and ultimately ended up with a B2B2C platform for green energy. A completely different ballgame, as he puts it. The company still exists today and is growing. The lesson learned: When starting a business, don\u2019t get fixated on the original idea; instead, adapt to what customers actually want. Often, the initial idea has little to do with the final product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Four failures, one pattern<\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n

According to Wesselink, his four failed companies all had the same fundamental flaw. First they built the product, then they sold it, and only then did they realize that the market wasn\u2019t ready, there was no demand, or the problem simply wasn\u2019t big enough for people to pay for it. With his first company, back when he was still a student, he spent two to four years \u201ctrying every possible avenue\u201d until the first customers finally came and the company broke even. That wasn\u2019t sustainable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, his motto is: listen first, build later. And that means listening not only to customers, but also to users, who are rarely the same people in B2B business, as well as to the sales team. How do you reach customers in a scalable and repeatable way? This question can be addressed right at the very beginning, and the answers can be used to work your way step by step toward product-market fit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Too much capital, too soon<\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n

When it comes to financing, Wesselink is clear. In his experience, many companies go under because they raise too much money during the experimental phase. Among the five most common reasons for the failure of European startups, he cites \u201cpremature scaling\u201d: Founders believe they\u2019ve found product-market fit, invest heavily in customer acquisition, and lose those new customers just as quickly. Wesselink compares this to filling a bucket even though there\u2019s a big hole in the bottom. Added to this is a very practical problem: investors who\u2019ve bought into a baby food story are hard to convince that they\u2019re now invested in an energy platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Over 100 Failed Startups Reveal<\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n

For a survey, Wesselink\u2019s team asked more than 100 founders of failed startups a single question: What went wrong? Respondents were allowed to give three answers. The result surprised even him. More than half admitted to having built something the market didn\u2019t want to buy. The second most common response was the team, not just a lack of connection to the problem, but also the realization that good founders aren\u2019t automatically good at scaling a business. Many companies remain founder-centric for too long. Third: access to capital. Those affected spent up to 80 percent of their time on fundraising, often the very person who should have been developing the business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As an investor, Wesselink therefore pays particular attention to the \u201cfounder-problem fit.\u201d Anyone who feels a problem every day, like a pebble in their shoe, will persevere when the going gets tough. And it will get tough, he assures us: roller-coaster rides, wildfires, chaos. His example: A dentist who develops a technology for his own daily practice is more likely to persevere than an investment banker with a good idea for the medtech industry. Not because he\u2019s more credible, but because he\u2019s closer to the pain point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scaling is a whole different ballgame<\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n

When expanding abroad, Wesselink identifies two cardinal mistakes: a lack of market research into which market, after the first one, makes sense, and a lack of clarity regarding distribution. A few detailed inquiries via the website aren\u2019t enough to serve as an expansion strategy. Suddenly, customer acquisition becomes more expensive than anticipated, the ratio of acquisition costs to customer lifetime value tips, and the scale-up turns into a \u201cstall-up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Furthermore, the legal differences are often underestimated. Even the U.S. is not a uniform legal system, and contracts under common law are many times more extensive and expensive. And anyone who wants to break into a new market must have a presence there, personally, as a founder, for the first five years. Delegating expansion to an outside consultant often goes wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Europe: Strong in Research, Weak in Scaling<\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n

Europe excels at conducting research and bringing products to an initial market, but it struggles to turn them into global companies. Wesselink advocates for a better-organized model for technology transferfr, om universities to international scaling, including the courage to shut down unsuccessful projects. He refers to \u201czombie companies\u201d that muddle their way from one funding program to the next without ever becoming viable businesses. Their fundamental flaw: a solution in search of a problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

venturerock: 72 evidence points and AI agents<\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n

With venturerock, Wesselink aims to address the three main causes of failure. The foundation is a shared understanding of what progress actually is, without embellished hockey-stick curves. To this end, he has defined 72 data points that map the journey from idea to scaling. A support system is built on this foundation: AI agents for legal, finance, marketing, and other areas guide founders through these steps. A CFO isn\u2019t necessary in the early years, but proper bookkeeping is; a flawed contract in the early stages could prove costly later on. The third level is access to capital, which is highly fragmented in Europe, between regional, national, and European funds, as well as business angels who rarely invest across borders. The fact that the European Investment Bank, for example, as an anchor investor in many funds, requires a regional focus leads to absurd situations: A Dutch startup whose market turns out to be Spain would have to relocate to secure Spanish capital, much to the chagrin of its Dutch seed investors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s certainly fair to question whether AI agents, of all things, are the most objective advisors, as Wesselink suggests. His basic idea, that progress should be measured by evidence rather than by presentation slides, is, however, difficult to refute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What he would do differently today<\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n

Looking back, Wesselink would think globally from the very beginning, seek out an experienced consultant with practical experience rather than a theoretical one, and never start a company alone. He cites Steve Jobs as a role model, who placed the customer experience at the center of every decision and had the iPhone developed by a small, separate team with short development cycles. Wesselink believes large corporations could still learn from this. In corporate accelerator programs, he has seen how companies rely on market data from third-party providers without ever speaking to customers themselves, except to demonstrate an initial product version to them. But when you\u2019re showing something, you\u2019re not listening. The right question isn\u2019t \u201cHow do you like this?\u201d but rather: What\u2019s annoying you right now, and how much would it be worth to you to solve that problem?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He sums up his life motto in three parts: never give up, rely on evidence rather than gut feelings, and take responsibility. Because, he says, many people talk a lot but deliver little.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Binci Heeb<\/p>\n\n\n\n

See, hear, and read more: Sebastian Schnur: Those Who Take Action Are Mindful<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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