Meet the founders
Erik Boer | International programs
Erik is the former director of the Amsterdam Center for Entrepreneurship (ACE) where he created programs and partnerships that enable students and researchers to start high impact ventures. His work resulted in many awards; the 2011 European Enterprise Award, the #1 Dutch incubator in 2018 and the best PhD course of the Medical Graduate school in 2019. He created Startup Village, a tech, innovation and co-working space housing more than 35 startups and scale ups. Erik was the university Lead for Entrepreneurship at VU where he led the team that created VU Starthub. Currently Erik is also program director at UvA campus Roeterseiland shaping the UvA Impact centre for social sciences. Erik’s strength is helping university leaders to create entrepreneurial universities as well as academics and students to transform their ideas and research into businesses.
Role within Preneurz
Four years ago, I joined Preneurz as one of the partners, primarily responsible for international projects. Over the past 15 years, I have been deeply involved with universities, focusing on a wide range of activities related to knowledge transfer, promoting entrepreneurship among students and researchers, and leading various entrepreneurship and impact programs for the university.
Currently, in addition to my work at Preneurz, I also serve as the lead for Impact & Entrepreneurship on the social sciences campus at the University of Amsterdam (Roeterseiland).
Best experience so far
Within Preneurz, I find the collaboration with other partners and clients to develop and implement projects the most enjoyable. The projects we’ve worked on for universities in Greece and Albania have been fantastic. Working with dedicated educators to enhance entrepreneurship education for students has been a truly rewarding experience.
Advice for young entrepreneurs
Your time as a student is a great opportunity to start a startup. You have the freedom to figure out whether your idea works in practice. While the chances of it becoming highly successful might not be that great, the learning experience is invaluable. Moving from idea to practice is quite challenging, and you can only learn by doing. Also, don't hesitate to seek advice from experienced individuals. Listen carefully to what they say, but make your own choices for your startup.
Reasons to reach out to Preneurz
At Preneurz, we aim to bridge the gap between knowledge institutions and SMEs. We assist SMEs looking to innovate, startups with innovative missions, and knowledge institutions in launching collaborative projects where students can work on assignments for SMEs, start their own SMEs (startups), and make it as easy as possible for educators to collaborate with SMEs and establish entrepreneurship education. We see ourselves as experts who understand both worlds and can work together; not as external consultants, but as a partner actively involved in the execution and helping to achieve results.
Unlock the power of collaboration
For more information on creating the perfect SME workspace, designing entrepreneurship programmes at universities and to become your partner in European collaborations, please do not hesitate to contact us.