#146: This European SaaS Bootstrapper Raised $22M in Growth Equity Without Losing Control - Roy van den Broek

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May 30, 2025

Roy van den Broek, founder and CEO of Rentman—software that streamlines logistics for the event industry—shares his journey from building a rental business to launching a successful SaaS platform. He discusses adapting to COVID-19, the significance of multilingual support, and the challenges of navigating equity funding while retaining control. Roy emphasizes the importance of product development driven by real-world needs and effective resource management to ensure smooth operations in large-scale events.

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ANECDOTE

Bootstrapping From Rental Business

Roy built software initially to solve his own rental business problems.
He sold his rental company to focus full time on the Rentman SaaS product with early customers from the same network.

INSIGHT

Vertical Focus Drives Competitive Edge

Deep vertical market knowledge creates competitive advantage.
Understanding clients' specific pain points helps build the best tailored software.

INSIGHT

Freelancers Fuel Word-of-Mouth Growth

Word-of-mouth driven by freelancers is Rentman's key growth lever.
Freelancers work across multiple companies, spreading Rentman's usage organically.

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Roy van den Broek is the founder and CEO of Rentman, a rental business management software platform for event and media production companies. Roy built software for his event equipment rental business in the Netherlands. He had over 100 software customers in Europe before selling his rental equipment company in 2015 to focus on growing his Rentman SaaS company.

Rentman grew slowly and profitably as word of mouth spread in the industry and their product evolved. In 2024, after growing to nearly 100 employees and 200,000 users across 100 countries, Roy raised a $22 million growth equity round from Expedition Capital to derisk the founder's investment and add growth capital to continue expanding.

In this episode, Roy discusses how they managed the painful growth stages as they expanded from one employee to 80 global employees, building a multi-lingual product and business, and why he chose to raise a significant growth equity investment.

Quote from Roy van den Broek, founder and CEO of Rentman

"We had a lot of interest in investing in Rentman after COVID, so we ran a quick process. We ended up with 3 term sheets. You have multiple ways to look at these term sheets. You can look at the numbers and the valuation, which is a big part.

"But what's often overlooked is the other terms. The other terms are as important as the valuation because they really determine the way you work together. I think these terms might even be important or more important than the valuation. You got to understand their game and really figure out if you could get some alignment.

"In essence, you are negotiating the amount of autonomy that you have as a founder. That's basically what we prioritized. Like the board seats and who makes certain decisions, what are the decisions that require a majority vote? And I think we were able to get 100% autonomy on our side."

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