Last night, the LOEY award 2011 was presented at the Taets Art Gallery. Springest founder Ruben Timmerman was nominated for the LOEY Starters Award and…………won!
The LOEY award distinguishes the best entrepreneurs of the Dutch online industry. LOEY stands for Leading online Entrepreneur of the Year.
Among the nominees for the award were none other than Peter Driessen, CEO of Spil Games, and Floris Rost van Tonningen, co-founder of Hyves. In the category Starters, Ruben was up against tough competition, i.e. Karel Kolb, CEO of Feeder, and Martijn Groot, co-founder of Peecho.
Nevertheless, the Starter award went to Ruben and was presented by one of the judges Annemarie van Gaal. Award judge Daniel Ropers, founder of Bol.com, said about the award winner Ruben: “The offer in the education sector is enormous, but has always been very fragmented. It is very impressive how he brought it all together in his passionate way. He makes good use of the relevant knowledge within his network and knows what he is doing. In 2008 he still thought it would be about a Dutch niche, today he is fully busy with his international ambitions.”
Ruben himself was very clear about his ambitions: “In a few years time, I hope to stand up here for the big LOEY.”
The remaining presentations of the evening focused on the subject ‘Kaizen’ a manner of thinking and working which is also utterly important at Springest.
The winning of the LOEY Starter award is not the end of the story. Ruben asked the award judges to sign his own iPad to auction this unique piece for a good cause.
Update
As the winner of the LOEY Starters Award, Ruben had the honor of opening the Amsterdam stock exchange this morning.
Watch him strike the gong!