About
We build what should exist next.
Lab of Awesome creates new ventures and helps existing companies reinvent themselves when technology, markets or customer behaviour change. We combine entrepreneurship, technology, product development and growth to build the next version of a company — whether that means starting from zero or transforming what already exists.
Sometimes you start from zero. Sometimes you start from something worth saving.
Create
For opportunities that need an entirely new company.
- New venture
- Spin-out
- Joint venture
- New technology business
- New consumer proposition
- New platform
- New market category
Reinvent
For companies that already exist but need to evolve.
- Declining business models
- Technological disruption
- Outdated products
- New revenue streams
- Organisations adopting AI
- Models nearing end of life
- A second growth curve
We are equally interested in creating the new and reinventing the existing.
The second curve
Every business model has a lifecycle.
Markets change. Technology changes. Customer expectations change. What made a company successful for the last twenty years may not be what makes it successful for the next twenty.
The hardest moment to reinvent a company is when the old model still works.
Lab of Awesome helps organisations identify, build and grow their next curve before the current one reaches its end.
Current business
Optimised, understood, profitable — and finite.
Next business
It has to begin before the first one disappears.
Signals
When what got you here won't get you there.
That does not always mean fixing the current company. Sometimes it means building the next version of it.
- Growth has stalled
- Margins are under pressure
- Competitors are moving faster
- AI changes how value is created
- Customer behaviour is shifting
- Legacy technology limits innovation
- The category is commoditising
- New entrants are changing the market
- Teams are too busy operating today's business to build the next one
- Leadership knows change is necessary, but the direction is unclear
Where we enter
Three situations.
01
Something new
There is a problem or opportunity that deserves a new venture. We help create it.
02
Something next
The company is healthy, but leadership knows the future requires a new product, business model or growth engine. We help build the second curve.
03
Something has to change
The existing model is approaching its limits. Revenue stagnates, technology shifts the market, relevance slips. We help rethink what the company could become, then build toward it.
We are not a financial turnaround or insolvency specialist. Our role is innovation, technology, product, commercialisation and company building.
What we do
Build, validate, grow, scale, reinvent.
Build
We turn opportunities into products, platforms and companies. Sometimes that means starting from nothing. Sometimes it means building the next growth engine inside an existing organisation.
Validate
Before committing heavily, we test what needs to be true. For new ventures that means proving demand. For existing companies it means testing whether a new model, market, product or technology can become the next source of growth.
Grow
Once something works, we build the commercial engine around it. That can be a new company, or a new proposition inside an established one until it becomes a meaningful part of the business.
Scale
We build the organisation around what works: teams, technology, sales, marketing, operations, capital, leadership. The structure follows the opportunity.
Reinvent
When an existing model is reaching its limits, we help define and build what comes next: new propositions, AI-native workflows, new revenue models, new brands, spin-outs, new ventures.
Philosophy
We are not attached to the current form of a company.
Companies are structures built around a way of creating value. When that way of creating value changes, the structure may need to change too.
Sometimes that means improving the existing product. Sometimes it means launching something alongside it. Sometimes it means creating an entirely new business. And sometimes it means accepting that the future company may look very different from the one that exists today.
Lab of Awesome is interested in that transition.
Types, not case studies
Reinvention can take many forms.
01
From service company to technology-enabled platform
02
From traditional healthcare organisation to AI-enabled care model
03
From product business to recurring revenue model
04
From legacy software to an AI-native product
05
From mature company to new venture portfolio
06
From declining category to an entirely new customer proposition
These are examples of the kinds of reinvention we work on — directions, not completed projects.
How we're organised
A small core. Teams built per venture.
The studio itself is intentionally lean: a core of builders who move between ventures at the earliest stage, when the questions are still unanswered and the answers are still cheap to change.
Around each initiative we assemble a specialised team — engineering, design, growth and domain expertise appropriate to that market. Some ventures are built entirely internally. Others are developed together with domain experts, entrepreneurs, established organisations or investors.
A venture is not necessarily a startup. It is a new attempt to create meaningful value under uncertainty — and it can live inside an existing company, beside it as a joint venture or spin-out, or as an entirely independent business. The structure follows the opportunity, not the other way around.
We originate in the Netherlands and operate European from day one: European markets, European regulation, European talent.
Some of the biggest opportunities sit inside industries and companies that already exist. They have customers, knowledge, distribution, people and capital.
But their organisation is usually optimised for today's business, not tomorrow's. Lab of Awesome brings the entrepreneurial, technological and commercial capability to build what comes next.
We would rather own the outcome together than optimise billable hours.
Founders
Built by entrepreneurs. For builders.
The founders combine entrepreneurship, technology, product development, AI and commercialisation. Venture partners and venture leads join as individual companies take shape.
Maarten Dik
Founder
Entrepreneurship, commercialisation and taking new ventures from concept to market.
Tim Hoogstrate
Founder
Technology, product development and applied AI across the venture portfolio.
Manifesto
The future is not reserved for startups.
Great companies can be created from zero. But they can also emerge from organisations willing to rethink what they are.
We want to work with people who see something changing. A market. A technology. A customer need. An industry. A business model.
Whether that leads to a new product, a new venture or a completely new version of an existing company is secondary. What matters is building something that deserves to exist next.