Second Stop: AMSTERDAM
Day 1

After arriving in Amsterdam, we dropped off our luggage and settled in at the the Golden Tulip Riverside Hotel, before we made our way to the PitchDrive event which was later the same day at TQ. TQ is a tech hub dedicated to helping tech-start ups to reach higher levels and is located around the centre of Amsterdam.
Sophie, who works at TQ, helped out with the event, in turn ensuring the PitchDrive went smoothly. After the pitches were finished, everyone was welcome to drinks at an open bar next door, which was very generous of them!

For dinner, we made our way to “Abyssinia — Afrikaans eet-café”, an Ethiopian restaurant. This was my first time trying Ethiopian food, which I very much enjoyed. One platter fed up to five people, and it was nice that everyone took part in the communal eating experience. It definitely reminded me of eating eba (a staple food described as a firm dough) with ọbẹ (a thick stew) back at home. One main difference was that the staple food that Ethiopians use to eat their food with is a soft pancake-like bread, called “injera”. This is just one example showing how diverse Africa is as a whole, and that every country in Africa more or less have their own unique cultures, not just with eating, but with music, dancing and other themes too. The people who owned the restaurant were very warm and friendly.(they may have even given me one or two complimentary shots of Ethiopian liquor, on the house.)


Days 2-3


It’s the weekend! We had the two days to venture and explore the city with all it has to offer. The very first thing I noticed about Amsterdam was how beautiful the city was. Bicycles are used so often there that the cyclists even have their own dedicated roads! The faint ringing of bicycle bells in the background and less traffic on the roads also felt much more serene and peaceful compared to the UK. After eating at a steak-house, a few others and I went to explore the famous Red Light district, well known for a lot of things I’m sure many are aware of. Initially, it was a little bit mind blowing for me, but it is important to realize that many countries and cities have varied outlooks/opinions on life. I think that people will grow much faster if they’re aware and more importantly, open-minded to cultural diversity.


Day 4
The team and I spent most of the day at B. Amsterdam, founded 3 years ago and was originally an IBM building. It is now used as a co-working space and is dedicated to helping other entrepreneurs as a community rather than just a work place; preventing entrepreneurs spend unnecessary costs. Now growing in size, they have three large neighboring buildings in Amsterdam and have recently built a campus in New York. B.’s vision of producing “a city in a building” highlighted the importance of the people that they have in their building, as the people inside make the building what it is, regardless of how nice the interior may be.
A talk by Marc Wesselink highlighted 3 main problems entrepreneurs make:
- Too optimistic — It is more attractive to investors to be realistic with targets and to account for failures optimistically
- Can’t say no — There is a chance not everyone who wants to offer help is suitable for your business, be selective
- Falling in love with our own vision (“tunnel vision”) — Once in this state you are not likely to be open to new opportunities that may enhance your business.


Day 5

On the last day of Amsterdam, Booking.com treated us to breakfast, lunch and a boat tour! Booking was founded in 1996 and is now a top accommodation provider, growing approximately 40% more a year, booking around 1.5 million hotel rooms every single day. One of the speakers, called Clive, has worked for 2 months there as a designer. He has now also mentioned along with Tom Ilube about needing to learn to embrace failures as well as successes. Some may not have been brought up with a mindset that failures are important (and in some cases vital) for success. It is a mindset we all need to learn to adapt to prevent letting the failures affect us and prevent reaching full potential.

For instance, I hate navigating, and I used to always back away when the responsibility was offered. But during Amsterdam and London on PitchDrive, I was the one responsible of how to get from A to B. Soon enough, I was getting better and I guess I’ve done an okay job because I haven’t led us into the middle of no where! Even Baptiste, (Co-Founder of GoMetro), described me as “if Uber and Google Maps had a baby” which others from the team are now starting to adopt for me.



If you’re pushed to do certain things, including things you don’t necessarily enjoy, you’ll be surprised how good you can be at it. Especially when you have no choice but to learn it!

Thank you Amsterdam for having us, Berlin here we come!
Shelby x