Who Are We? Benno Groosman, the Entrepreneurial CEO

From the innovative kid to the businessman

Originally from the  historical city of Delft, the Netherlands, Benno has always been on the move. Even from a young age, he was always looking for business opportunities and convincing his classmates to join him. With an incredible ability to detect business opportunities from his environment, Benno was constantly innovating when other kids were just playing catch.

Naturally, Benno was destined for a business life.

After one year at the Delft University of Technology and Leiden University (studying Life Science & Technology), he followed his passion for business and enrolled into one of the most entrepreneurial business schools: the Erasmus University Rotterdam. There, he completed his Bachelor in Business Administration and Master in Entrepreneurship & New Business Venturing (specializing in entrepreneurial finance) programs. However, Benno could no longer wait until his graduation to start his first medical technology (medtech) business together with a fellow student. Prior to that, Benno grew his private tutoring company to a team of 10 tutors, but he wanted to build a highly scalable and impactful business and therefore got into innovative medtech.

Salusion was Benno’s first company in the medtech sector, which was focused on severely incontinent people. The business was to help ensure adult diapers were changed at the right time with the help of a passive chip placed in the diapers. They filed three different patents and had three different products on the market. But suddenly, they had to file for bankruptcy, because one of their suppliers withdrew his guarantee on their bank loan. “I learned a lot of lessons from it, which I can now pass along to aspiring entrepreneurs,” recalls Benno from this experience.

International journey

Benno’s vision has been enriched by meaningful interactions with the business world across borders. After Salusion, he was invited to work for a new international accelerator in Brazil. Then, he went to Budapest to write a recommendation for a new cleantech incubator.

Later, Benno worked at the Dutch Embassy in Athens to help young entrepreneurs to turn their ideas into a self-sustaining business, addressing both the “brain drain” and youth unemployment in Greece.

“The whole field of incubation and helping other start-ups with my experience and network became more and more interesting to me. I worked with several start-ups and did consulting to governments. At some point, I realised that it was time for a bigger project,” says Benno.

Back in the Netherlands, Benno gathered all his international knowledge to create a platform aiming to promote entrepreneurial initiatives worldwide. At Groosman.co Startups, Benno provided experienced guidance and hands-on management of projects in multiple areas for local and national governments, universities, event organizers, start-ups, investors, large companies and NGOs. Together with his previous business mentor, he completed a management buy-out for VirtualMedSchool, where Benno became CFO.

”The first cross-border European equity crowdfunding campaign we’re running now, supported by EIT Health and Aescuvest, is an example of the previous. It combines my interest in entrepreneurial finance with truly opening up our company to investors throughout Europe (and even beyond). We develop innovations for the public good, and now the public can join us on that very rewarding journey!” finalizes Benno.

Do you want to get in touch with Benno? Click here or here to send him a message.