Tebi, the Fintech From Adyen’s Co-Founder, Raises €30M — Q&A with Arnout Schuijff

FOUNDER Q&A

Last year, Index partner Jan Hammer wrote about why we're backing Tebi. On the day the company announces additional €30m in funding, we asked Arnout Schuijff, its co-founder and the former CTO and co-founder of Adyen, a few questions

Jan: This is your third company. What advice would you give to founders having their first go?

Arnout: I would advise them to do what inspires them and then have fun while trying not to f*ck it up. And that last part obviously is the hardest and there is a lot to say about that. For me, the essence of my success now and in the past to work with a core team of very smart and open people that all trust each other. Politics is deadly, everywhere, but especially in start-ups / scale-ups. There are enough hurdles to overcome without it.

You adapted the Adyen values to Tebi when you co-founded the company. Which value from the Tebi recipe is closest to your heart?

Launch fast and iterate. I am allergic to people trying to come up with the perfect plan to make the perfect product and build it to the end without any feedback from the customer. This inevitably leads to a product that nobody wants or needs. I always urge the team to launch the MVP fast and then stay close to the beta customers using it while staying laser-focused on the problem we’re trying to solve. Over time, we then start to add more functionality as it becomes clearer how we can best solve the key need of the customer.

What's your ambition for Tebi?

My ambition is to help as many businesses as possible to be successful and do the things they love. Tebi started with just helping a friend who was running a local bar, but I would be very proud to see Tebi providing the best platform all over the world without charging hard working independent business owners an arm and a leg.

It's been a tough time for the hospitality sector where you have most of your customers, including many independent bars, cafes and restaurants. What role do you believe technology can play in helping them thrive again?

Nobody gets into the hospitality business to spend time chasing invoices, planning staffing, and keeping a close eye on margins. However, current tech hasn’t really taken this work away, it’s just digitised it. For us, it’s about helping owners make better decisions by getting them the information they need. At the same time, we’re at crossroads where productivity gains for office jobs are accelerating faster than ever. We see a big opportunity to also help hospitality owners run a healthier business, while having AI take away the tasks that end up wasting way more time than they should.

Tebi is expanding to the UK. What are the plans and why have you chosen London as the first international hub?

London has one of the most dynamic restaurant scenes in the world while being the most competitive market in Europe. You can find every type of hospitality business imaginable with a lot of nuances for us to understand. We see this as a great testing ground beyond the Netherlands where we can push our product even further and sharpen how we reach our customers. We have big global ambitions and the UK will be a great step for us as we continue to expand across Europe.