Four days. Thirteen founders. One city that doesn't slow down.
Thirteen Dutch scale-up CEOs inside the rooms you can't book yourself into — Adyen, Wilson Sonsini, Insight, Radian, RTP, Datasnipper, Yext, Bilt. NASDAQ to close.
By the numbers
In pictures
A walk through the week — NASDAQ, Adyen, the Founders Table, Datasnipper, Ludlow House, Times Square.
The week, session by session
Every hour earned. Times approximate, the rooms exact.
Putting the real challenges on the table
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Arrivals
CitizenM BoweryCohort lands. No opening panel — the question on the plane was the agenda.
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Opening deep dive — your US plan, blocked
Xposed Gallery · Joe Wilson · ex-COO bunq · founder, RisenuFive startups, a decade running billion-dollar businesses globally. Each founder put the real blocker on the table. Ran straight into dinner.
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Welcome dinner
Hosted by Adriaan Kolff · Co-founder & CEO, MatchrThe guest list started becoming a cohort.
Scaling and fundraising, by the people doing it
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Adyen's US expansion playbook
Adyen NYC · Eric Mahecha · VP Account Management, Adyen25 years of payments distilled into a 30-minute deep dive.
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US expansion & VC fundraising
Adyen NYC · Daniel Glazer & Timothy Broas · Wilson SonsiniThe firm in the room for more tech IPOs than you can count.
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Equity & dilutive financing — the real options
Adyen NYC · Jos van Zante & Juliette Hensgens · RabobankHalf-understood until you need them. Broken down properly.
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Unicorn founder AMA · lunch
Radian Capital · Hosted by Jamie Glavin · VP, Radian CapitalUnfiltered.
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Unicorn founder AMA
RTP Global · Hosted by Thomas Cuvelier · Partner, RTP GlobalRound two. Different operator, same format.
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The Founders Table — NYC × NL
Beauty & Essex · Constantijn van Oranje × Consulate General of the Netherlands40 founders. Colin Kahl — former US Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, Senior Advisor at Macro Advisory Partners, Senior Fellow at Stanford — on the US macro & geopolitical climate. The read you don't get from a newsletter.
Selling, scaling, and the room you can't book
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Consumer fintech at speed — AMA
Datamaran office · David Wyler · CBO, Bilt RewardsOne of the fastest-growing consumer fintechs in the US. No script.
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VC lunch
Datasnipper office · Insight PartnersWorking session, not pitch meeting.
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Building a US sales machine
Datasnipper office · Carrie Bosworth · CRO, DatasnipperThe kind of operational session founders pay consultants thousands for.
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Building, scaling, IPO'ing — and doing it again
Datasnipper office · Brian Distelburger · Founder, Yext & WindmillA second-time founder who already took one company public.
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Tech Connect — NYC × NL
Ludlow House · Constantijn van Oranje × Tech:NYC80 founders, investors and operators from both sides of the Atlantic. The room you can't walk into on your own. That's the point.
NASDAQ. Times Square. Done.
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Opening bell visit
NASDAQ MarketSite7:50 AM. The cohort walks in.
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Tower photo
Times SquareThe shot you don't get on a layover.
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Closing debrief & departure
A short debrief. By 9:15 it was over. You leave New York different than you arrived.
Who was in the room
Thirteen companies. One shared question: what does it actually take to win in the US?
What founders walked away with
- A direct line to the operators running US expansion at Adyen, Bilt, Datasnipper, Yext.
- Working sessions — not pitch meetings — with Wilson Sonsini, Rabobank, Insight, Radian, RTP Global.
- A macro read on the US from Colin Kahl that you can't Google.
- A peer group of twelve other Dutch CEOs on the same scaling questions, now on a first-name basis.
- Room access — Beauty & Essex, Ludlow House, NASDAQ — that opens doors long after the flight home.
Who we sat down with
Want a seat on the next one?
The next Cities trip is already being shaped. Spots are limited and the bar is high — we bring founders of scaling businesses ready to take the US seriously. Every trip ends with a private recap like this one.