Fractional COO. Author. Keynote speaker.
Build a business that thinks without you.
At some point, the founder becomes the bottleneck. Not the market. Not the product. You. I sit beside scale-up founders, build the system that lets their team decide for themselves, and step out once it runs.
- 15+ years in operations
- Scale-ups guided from €3 to €50 million
- The CEO Parent, coming Q3 2026
The problem
The revenue grows. Your freedom doesn't.
Three things you probably recognise.
It looks like a time problem. It isn't. The real problem is that everything still runs through you.
See how it's fixedThe Value Acceleration Method™
Five pillars. One outcome: a company that keeps growing without you holding it together.
Most founders I meet have already tried a framework. Scaling Up, EOS, OKRs. The canvases are there, the scorecards are there. And the document sits on a shelf while everyone goes back to firefighting. So this isn't another document. It's a practice you build into the everyday rhythm of your company, until the framework does the work you used to do yourself.
How we work together
From "everything runs through me" to a business that runs itself.
What works for your kids, works for your team.
"People grow in the space you leave them, not the space you fill."
My son fought with his shoelaces for weeks. Every morning my instinct was to step in. Four seconds, done, out the door. One morning I stayed back instead and said, just try, I'm here. It took him half an hour. He fumbled, he adjusted, he tried again. And then he tied them himself.
That's the whole book, really. Every time you step in to make something faster, you take away the moment someone proves it to themselves. A team whose founder always has the answer stops looking for its own.
The CEO Parent shows founders how to build teams that think, decide and act without waiting for permission. It's grounded in neuroscience, psychology and fifteen years of sitting next to founders inside scale-ups. Coming Q3 2026.
"This is a book every scale-up CEO should read before growth turns into chaos."
"The most valuable thing you can do for your business is learn to get out of its way."
"If you're a CEO ready to grow beyond yourself, The CEO Parent is the book you need."
"Essential reading for business leaders who want to scale without burning out."
"Essential reading for every founder or CEO who wants to scale their business without it all running through them."
"Sjoerd has a gift for making complexity simple, with vivid examples that stick."
Speaking
I speak the way I consult. Fast analysis, honest stories from the kitchen table and the boardroom, and frameworks people can actually use on Monday morning. No motivational fluff. More like a mirror, held up kindly.
Book me for keynotes, leadership off-sites and founder events.
- Tailored to your audience, from first traction to serious scale
- Formats from a 30-minute keynote to a half-day working session
- In English or Dutch, in person across Europe or remote
- Everyone leaves with one shift they can make that same week
Work with Sjoerd
One way to begin: a day at the table together.
No packages to choose from. No advisory report that disappears into a drawer. I work as a fractional COO and integrator. I build the foundation underneath your company, the decision rights, the rhythm, the standards, until your people carry it themselves. And then I leave. That's the deal.
The Expose Day
We start with one day together, mapping exactly what chains the business to you. The decisions that pile up on your desk, the habits nobody questions, the dependencies nobody sees. By the end of it, you'll know precisely what's holding your growth back.
Then you decide whether you want me beside you for longer. If not, no hard feelings. You still walk away knowing what's in the way.
Book a strategy call
I don't solve your problems. I make sure your team solves them.
For more than fifteen years I've been the right hand of founders. I'm usually the call a scale-up CEO makes when they finally admit they're an excellent entrepreneur and a terrible manager. I've worked in shipbuilding, at Coolblue, in FMCG, logistics and e-commerce, and everywhere I saw the same thing: companies growing faster than their structure could carry.
Before all that, I played basketball at professional level. Not the obvious route into this work, I know. But both come down to the same instinct: don't work harder, find the fastest, best route to the goal and cut everything else.
Day to day, I work where strategy meets execution. Sharpening priorities, setting up scorecards, clarifying roles and decision rights, building a fixed rhythm, and cutting work that adds no value. I don't bill by the hour. I build until it works, and then I step out.
- MSc Production Engineering and Logistics, TU Delft
- Lean Black Belt
- Former professional basketball player
- Exchange at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm
Ready to lead differently?
Imagine walking into a meeting and the problem is already solved.
Not because your team is perfect. Because they've stopped waiting for your approval, and only need your direction.
Contact
Booking a speaker, exploring a fit as a client, or just connecting: it starts here.