Lars van Wieren
Co-Founder and COO, Starred. On 1 show, 2 appearances. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
founderexecutiveoperatorinvestorstarred.com ↗
Van Wieren founded Amsterdam-based Starred in 2012, developing an HR tech and candidate experience analytics platform that captures structured applicant feedback for global employers. Following Starred’s September 2023 merger with Danish recruitment analytics rival Talenthub, he became COO of the unified entity.
1shows
2appearances
25statements
1resolved
1supported
0contradicted
100%fully supported
Everything Lars van Wieren said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Van Wieren: Startups Serving Everyone Serve No One; Dominate a Niche Pond
“Essentially we tried to be there for everyone. So we were there for no one. And two years ago we sat down because every day we saw another competitor and we were a tiny fish, a fish in the big ocean. And we thought it's better to become like a big fish in a sm…”
Van Wieren: In Crises, Capture Customer Time If You Cannot Get Money
“In times of crisis, if you can't get their money, you can at least get their time.”
Van Wieren prefers diluting equity to scale fast over retaining total ownership
“You don't want to dilute that much, but I rather now know within five years, hey, we'll start taking over the world or not, then in, in 20 years, and I keep all my equity.”
Van Wieren: Starred ACV Is ~$10K for Candidate Experience, ~$20K for Engagement
“And if you look at the candidate experience side, it's more or less 10,000 ACVs, so 10,000 per year, and employee engagement is more like 20,000 per year.”
Van Wieren: Starred Has ~150 Legacy Clients and 70-80 New Focus Clients
“The customer satisfaction business, and that's still the majority of our revenue. So that's around 150 clients, and we have around 70, 80 clients in the new focus.”
Van Wieren: Starred reaches $2M ARR split between legacy and new product
“So it's around two million right now, and it's split equally amongst the two.”
Van Wieren: Starred candidate experience business doubles yearly, signing Brex and Robinhood
“In our focus, we're doubling every year, and we're signing also big American companies, or at least big tech companies like Elastic, Robinhood, Brex.”
Van Wieren: Starred took $1.5M government-backed loan, holds no VC funding
“We only got a bank loan government-backed bank loan of 1.5 million, but we don't have a VC yet.”
Starred Is in Talks to Divest Its Legacy Business
“And we are also having some conversations with other companies, maybe to acquire our legacy business.”
Van Wieren Would Consider Selling Starred Legacy Business at 3x-5x Revenue
“But if there's a company offering a three to five X, for instance, it's definitely worth looking at.”
Starred plans to raise $3M-$4M Series A at 20%-30% dilution
“Around three to four million, we would say. And what valuation would you try and get? Yeah, I think it's a typical Series A, so I think you would give away, or at least how it works here in Europe, 20 to 30% of the company.”
Van Wieren: Poor candidate experience cost Virgin $5M yearly in cancellations
“So Virgin is one of our clients, and they found out that in the beginning they were offering quite a bad candidate experience, and it was costing them five million per year, bottom line, because people were canceling their subscription.”
Starred scales customer base to 250 enterprise and tech clients
“We are working for 250 clients on the one hand for big corporates like Nestle Heineken DHL, but also for many tech companies like Spotify Deliveroo, Takeaway”
Starred was generating approximately $100,000 in monthly revenue a year ago
“So a year ago we were around a hundred.”
Van Wieren took a 4% government loan backed by a personal warrant
“So on the one hand it's there's a warrant, so there's risk for me, but on the other hand, the interest is very low and you can use it. Four percent.”
Starred burns $50,000 monthly but intends to accelerate its spending
“So now on average 50 grand per month. So that's, I think, okay, but it will accelerate.”
Starred saw 30% response rates on early outbound email campaigns
“So when we were sending a hundred emails, we got like 30 replies.”
Spotify expanded its Starred usage from two countries to twenty
“For instance, Spotify, we first signed them in the Netherlands and Belgium, and they're now using it in like 20 countries.”
Starred currently misses its 12-month CAC payback goal due to over-investing
“So as, so what we would be willing to pay has, so we're aiming for that we that we can make the customer acquisition calls back in 12 months, but right now, and that's also what you're seeing when you're over investing. It's yeah, that, that's, that amount is …”
Starred Stopped Selling Legacy Product in Early 2020 to Focus
“You can't find our legacy product any longer. So that's also something we changed beginning of this year. We said, if you really want to focus, we should stop selling in our legacy business.”
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Lars's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 TOP FOUNDERSLEDGER | Co-Founder and COO, Starred | 2 | 25 | 100% 1/1 | full record on Top Founders → |