Hi, I'm Els Philipp 👋

»  As a mentor, I guide you in finding your repeatable scalable business model

»  As a founder, I help early-stage startups to progress faster

»  As a public voice, I speak with, for and behalf of founders to increase their odds

» '16- Obsessed with early-stage startup best practices, and connected to the (Dutch) startup ecosystem. 

» 3 startup attempts; 

✖️ '17 last-mile delivery 📦  

✖️ '17-'19 buddy platform for freelancers: SparMatchMaker 🤝 

       '24- Startup building tool (SaaS): With SAM 🚀

» '21-24: GTM & Startup consultant/venture builder at Off The Record (agency)

» Volunteer mentorship offering:
- designated mentor to a handful of startups I endorse
- weekly 3 new startup mentor sessions to help early-stage startups
 - active mentor at Cæmpus Amsterdam

» Also: multiple year experience as highest performing B2B + B2C salesperson + Scrum master (enabling technical development) in a startup transitioning to scale-up.

Let me get excited about the theory, while you benefit from the progress it helps you make.

All my practices are based on three core values:

Customer centric: focus on understanding and fulfilling the customers needs

Data informed: use facts and numbers to make forward thinking decisions

Lean: make real progress while using your time/resources wisely


💸 Perks 

*for early-stage startup founders only*

Offering mentor sessions, our official Notion template, discounts and more!

🤖 Progress faster
With SAM .ai

We've created the AI Startup Assistant and Mentor that helps you through the early stages of building your startup.

When SAM understands you and your company, it's pro-actively helping you to define together where to focus on, and how you can do that best.

Practical help to move forward, tailored to your startup.

Check it out here


🎙️ Join panel or jury

As an active voice in the startup community, advocating and cheerleading for early-stage startups, I'm happy to join public panels, interviews, startup pitch events etc.

Challenging startups to:


Contact me 👇

Reach out to get in touch!

My guiding principle:

"Be curious about the problem you're solving.
Know more than anyone else.
Then solve it like nobody else does."

👩‍💻 Passionate about innovation, disruption and technology.

🤓 Never stop learning, new methdologies, technologies and tools.

💚 Excited to move forward with love for our planet

👨‍👩‍👧 Proud wife, mom and kitesurfer from Zandvoort 🌊 

I decided I'm going to use my skillset where it's needed most: helping early-stage sustainable startups. 


If we want to stop throwing our ecosystems out of balance 🌎, it's time to change our behavior.


We need:

🔥 New ways of doing things

🔥 Replacement products designed with their entire lifecycle in mind

🔥 To advance as a society, not by current measures of economic growth, but by improving our lives with comfort, equality, health, love, abundance, nature, and joy.


All this screams innovation. 💡


I believe we need smart people who are driven to make that change happen. Founders with a vision, ready to disrupt our current status quo. Forget the rules and start doing. Figure it out. They think big, and their products have enormous potential, both in their impact on the world and society as well as in financial benefits for those who make it happen. 👩‍🎤


As a mentor, founder of WithSAM.ai, and general cheerleader and advocate for early-stage startups, I'm doing everything I can to get early-stage startups founded with love for the planet. 🫡

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