(Publisher’s note: This post about Sanders Arts, a Dutch dealmaker and marketer in Silicon Valley, is part of Dispatches’ Tech Tuesday series. We cover startups and finance because so many of our highly skilled internationals are entrepreneurs and investors. Dispatches receives no remuneration for this post.)
I’m going to make the argument that the easiest part of building a successful tech startup is the tech. Let’s face it … if you have access to the best talent and some early stage capital, you can get a lot done. It’s on you to come up with strategy and marketing, biz development, project management, graphics and fundraising, not to mention negotiating with investors and lenders.
Let’s say you do get a lot done and suddenly you have the foundation for the next ASML or BioNTech.
Now what?
European sensitivity, Silicon Valley chutzpah
Most European startups go for the low-hanging fruit – government subsidies or investments from European VCs. Or they could go see Sander Arts and get connected to a full ecosystem of deal makers.
Combining European sensitivity with Silicon Valley chutzpah, Arts is the Dutch consultant/marketer/venture advisor in The Valley behind numerous big acquisitions, including Nordic Semiconductor acquisition this month of Neuton. Sander was advisor to Andrey Korobitsyn, Neuton CEO. He also played a role in Intrinsic ID’s acquisition by Synopsys. In April, Siemens acquired Wevolver. Guess who was Wevolver’s advisor? Sander Arts. In his past he helped position Klue for an acquisition by Medtronic, and re-positioned Atmel before it was acquired by Microchip Technology in a $3.6 billion deal.
Sander recently wrote a LinkedIn post on his journey to the board of Connected Vision Advisors, which is sort of the digital age version of the fabled analog deal makers such as KKR.
These firms exist to take promising firms and help them get acquired, connecting them to investment banks, consulting firms and private equity.
What’s that? You say you don’t want to get acquired?
First, the notion that a European tech startup in 2025 can turn into the next Philips, or even reach an IPO is – how can I say this diplomatically? – unlikely. No, wildly unlikely. The most recent significant IPO was ARM in September 2023. The Cambridge, UK-based chip company went public (on the Nasdaq exchange in the US, or course), raising $60 billion.
By our estimation, there are 100 acquisitions for every IPO.
Second, unless they’re spinning out wholly formed from research centers such as TNO, most European startups will die without American capital.
Lots of deals
When you look at the big acquisitions recently, including Synopsys’ acquisition of Intrinsic ID, Sander played a role.
Sander worked with Intrinsic ID founder Pim Tuyls in his deal to be acquired by Sunnyvale-based Synopsys. “In that particular case, I put some corporate marketing and branding on top of everything Pim had built for the past 10 years, which made it a bit more attractive (to Synopsis), Sander said in an interview from his home base of Sunnyvale, Calif. “I made sure Intrinsic ID looked better than it already did. (Pim) did all that work himself, which you will soon read in his book!”
Recently, Sander joined Austin-based Connected Vision Advisors as an Executive Advisor, a banking-side advisor: If a company needs to raise money or is looking for a suitable acquisition, “I will assist those firms in those processes for that project with the teams,” he said.
Since the Neuton/Nordic Semiconductor deal, he’s gotten queries from companies “looking to explore an acquisition, and they’re from all over the world,” Sander said. There are, of course, founders who think they’re going to do an IPO. “I always say an IPO is a failed acquisition.”
An acquisition allows you to build something, sell it, then do it again, he says. “You make 20, 30, 50 or a $100 million and you go do it all again or you go help the next people who’re trying to build something.”
All this takes what he calls “rich friends,” those the rest of us call Reg D accredited investors and all the service providers it takes to do deals.
“I like rich friends. So, let’s make rich friends together.”
So, I ask him, how do you want people to contact you?” Thinking he’d want everything to go to a secretary or assistant. Nope. Sander says DM him on LinkedIn.
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See more about Sander here in Dispatches’ archives.
Co-CEO of Dispatches Europe. A former military reporter, I'm a serial expat who has lived in France, Turkey, Germany and the Netherlands.
