Simplicity with purpose: why we’re backing Tebi

INDEX PERSPECTIVE
By Jan Hammer, Partner at Index Ventures

I first met Arnout Schuijff almost 15 years ago in Amsterdam. Having recently joined Index, I was there to persuade Adyen—co-founded by Arnout—to consider raising capital for their successful, profitable startup, which had shown no interest in outside funding. I was nervous as I really cared about this deal.

My colleague Dom and I were meant to see Adyen’s CEO, Pieter. But something came up for him at the last minute and he couldn’t attend – so the task of pitching us fell unexpectedly to Arnout, his technical co-founder. He and Pieter had already built and sold their first company together, Bibit, to RBS. But Arnout didn’t relish being the frontman. He didn’t tend to take external meetings, because he preferred to be in the basement, writing code. Yet it was Arnout’s impromptu presentation that got us hooked. We were so impressed by his passion for and understanding of Adyen’s business, delivered without an ounce of self-promotion or bravado, that we came away determined to find a way for Index to invest.

In an industry often characterized by grandiosity, Arnout stands out for building teams that combine extraordinary talent with genuine humility. After Index became a shareholder in Adyen, I remember Arnout saying to the board that he didn’t deserve his bonus: he’d only expanded the company’s data capacity by 980 times in the past year, not the 1000 times he’d promised. It was this ethos of relentless execution combined with scrupulous honesty that carried Adyen through to becoming one of the most successful tech companies ever to emerge from Europe, with a market cap today of around $50 billion.

Now we’re backing Arnout and his team as he goes on to his third company, Tebi – the all-in-one financial platform for independent hospitality and retail companies. Tebi, like Adyen, is a business that’s being built in a radically different way. The team believes in playing the long game, with an eye on the enduring success of customers and the communities they serve. They question conventions and seek different perspectives. And they operate with a sophisticated Dutch directness – open, respectful, and creating an environment where anyone can say what needs to be said.

Tebi’s approach is based on the insight that the most powerful solutions are often the simplest ones. The core product is a successor of the bare-bones, makeshift app that Arnout spun up for a struggling bar-owner friend. Arnout is just that kind of guy – the kind who can’t help but roll up his sleeves when he sees a meaningful problem that he’s well placed to fix. The Tebi team brings all the scar tissue from decades of founding and scaling successful businesses against the odds. Yet they’re approaching Tebi with the energy of first-time founders, ever eager to learn and innovate. We’re proud to stand with Tebi as it goes on to transform and empower independent businesses around the world – showing that the biggest impact often comes from those least concerned with taking credit.