Pitch decks don’t build companies. This does.

Startups look slick from the outside. Founders posting wins, raising rounds, launching betas—it all looks like progress. But what actually builds a company? That’s hidden behind the noise.

That’s because real progress is ugly. It’s uncomfortable. It’s doing the same thing ten times until it finally clicks. It’s killing good ideas, fast. It’s sitting with a customer long enough to realise you're wrong.

We’ve seen it up close—over and over again. Not just from one founder or one venture, but across the loop. Momentum doesn’t come from headlines. It comes from tension. From pressure-testing assumptions, getting punched by reality, and deciding to go again—with more signal, not more fluff.

That’s the work we do inside the studio. And this month, we’re opening it up. Not the pitch. Not the polish. The actual process of earning belief—by proving the problem, and doing the reps most avoid.

Shiny ≠ real

It seems that everyone wants to look ready. Clean deck. Sharp landing page. Tagline that slaps. But here’s the uncomfortable truth: none of that matters if the problem isn’t real. None of it.

We’ve all seen it: startups that chase surface-level traction. Dashboards no one asked for. That mistake a working demo for real proof. It’s easy to confuse activity for validation—especially when investors clap early.

But the teams that do work out? They go deep. They build from truth, not aesthetics. They don’t chase features. They chase friction. Because friction is where the real signal hides.

Inside the studio, we’re hunting kills. Pressure-testing everything. Only building when we know the system has teeth:

🚫 Is this noise disguised as progress?
🚀 What makes this non-optional for the user?
🧱 Can this survive without a founder holding it up?

We’re not here to ship decks. We’re here to ship systems—tools that think, adapt, and compound value. Anything else just looks good in a portfolio slide.

Inside the loop: studio signals

This quarter, we doubled down on friction, not fantasy. Faster validation. Sharper convictions. More venture velocity. Here’s what’s been happening behind the curtain:

• Q1 Check-in: Shape launched. Everday hit revenue milestones. Avery entered beta. And we ran our first-ever Builders Bootcamp—no fluff, just traction. Every loop faster than the last.

• Bootcamp → May 31: Not a feel-good founder club. Four weeks of testing, rebuilding, validating, killing. Rotterdam. 🔗 APPLY NOW

• Investor House @ Upstream (May 22): Real convos. Raw pitches. Zero ego. Proudly co-hosted with Rabobank. 🔗 GET TICKETS

• FitStream x Arches (May 21): High-output CrossFit collides with high-intent conversations. Rotterdam. 🔗 JOIN US

Our ventures in motion

Not hype. Just high-functioning systems, built to outlast the cycle.

• Everday: Rabobank loan: locked. First angel: in. Customers: live. Estefania & Dylan are building the infrastructure for workforce performance—and hiring their first engineer.

• Avery (Beta 🚀): 30+ orgs onboard. Recruitment with context, not chaos. Marco & Alisher are turning hiring into a signal-rich engine—and they’re just getting started.

• New venture (quietly dangerous): Dashboards distract. This one decides. Predictive finance meets orchestration logic. Not for tourists. DM to get inside.

👀 What we’re reading:

• Studios aren’t cheap (and that’s the point): Why you burn to build—and why it's the only path to proof.

• Why we hate MVPs: Stopgap thinking kills compounding systems. Here’s how we build for the endgame.

• Dashboards ≠ insight: What it really takes to validate the problem and win.

Final word: Proof beats pitch

Every strong venture has a graveyard behind it—of features killed, loops run, and instincts rewritten. That’s the work we live in. And that’s what makes the winners obvious when they arrive.

We’re not scaling vibes. We’re scaling proof. Let’s build.

Forward, always,

Michael van Lier
Managing Director at Builders