Bram Kanstein

I help founders de-risk startup ideas and get ready for growth๐Ÿš€ 10 years experience | 5 exits and 25+ failures

Amsterdam, Netherlands (+01:00 UTC) English, Dutchfrom Amsterdam, Netherlands
Usually responds in 11 hour
$139 / hour
Price per hour
30 min
Time Blocks Available
4.98
22 reviews / 25 sessions
Mon
26
Next availability

Bram is an awesome mentor. He has a wealth of knowledge and he is willing to help. He listened to all of our problems and provided great advice. We felt like we were better equipped to sort out the issues in our business after the call with Bram.

Bilal Ahmed

Bram is an excellent source of knowledge and insights. He is also really fun to talk to, super kind, and positive. He is a good listener and gave me excellent, down-to-earth advice. I highly recommend reaching out to Bram to validate your business ideas and more. In fact, I plan on reaching out to him again soon.

Tzakhi Freedman

Patient, kind, to the point, & very insightful! Bram was able to summarize my pain points within a single session and present them to me through just a few questions to answer. Now I am using those questions to guide my growth & focus and it is really helping! Definitely look forward to connecting with him again in the near future!

Valerie Louissaint

Bio

Hi๐Ÿ‘‹ I am Bram Kanstein and ๐—œ ๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—น๐—ฝ ๐—ณ๐—ผ๐˜‚๐—ป๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐˜€ ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ-๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐˜€๐—ธ ๐˜€๐˜๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐˜๐˜‚๐—ฝ ๐—ถ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐˜€ ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—ด๐—ฒ๐˜ ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—ฑ๐˜† ๐—ณ๐—ผ๐—ฟ ๐—ด๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐˜„๐˜๐—ต ๐Ÿš€ As an early-stage startup expert and founder coach with 10 years of experience, I have seen 2000+ startups launch and have worked with dozens of startups and corporate innovation teams on developing, launching, and growing new businesses. I've also built and sold five of my own products (and failed at 25+ ideas). Most notable is Startup Stash, a curated directory of resources and tools for startups that's been used by 1M+ people. My work has been featured in Forbes, Entrepreneur.com, and Business Insider. And I have been privileged to work with and advise startups at several accelerators and incubators like Seedcamp London, Techstars London, Barclays Accelerator London, Startup Wise Guys Accelerator Tallinn, and the Telenet Kickstart Accelerator in Antwerp. I absolutely love to help (and challenge!) people in the early stages of their startup and business ideas. What I bring to the table is an honest, unbiased, and outside perspective to help you de-risk your ideas and move forward with your startup. We can work on and discuss: ๐Ÿง  Idea mindset ๐Ÿ”Ž Customer Discovery ๐ŸŽฏ Idea validation & Building a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) ๐Ÿงฒ Go-to-market & Growth strategy ๐Ÿ’ธ Business Model Creation & Validation If you are looking for a professional and enthusiastic partner to challenge and guide you in a sustainable way toward success, I'd love to work with you!

Expertise


  • Go to market strategy

    Worked with dozens of founders and teams on their go-to-market strategy, focusing on launching with the right customers, messaging, and channels in mind.

  • Growth marketing

    Worked with dozens of founders and teams on their growth strategies. Especially companies who got to a certain point by hustling (what everyone does in the beginning), but then had challenges of translating learning from this early stage to the next.

  • Idea validation

    I have a lot of experience with the validation of my own ideas, my college thesis about Lean Startup, consulting for startups and corporations and teaching https://nocodemvp.com + helping early-stage entrepreneurs with my framework https://themvpcanvas.com.

  • Mindset coaching

    I am a certified coach and have worked with lots of (aspiring) entrepreneurs on their mindset as they encounter the challenges (and opportunities) of their business. You can view some of their testimonials here: https://kanstein.co/testimonials.

  • No-code

    I have built and sold 5 no-code products. One was called Startup Stash, a curated directory of resources and tools for startups, which is the most upvoted product of all time on Product Hunt.

  • Product launches

    I have launched the most upvoted product of all time on Product Hunt and have advised lots of founders on how to launch their products. You can read more here: medium.com/startup-grind/how-i-launched-the-2-most-upvoted-product-of-all-time-on-product-hunt-f3772fb20ad8

  • Productized services

    I ran a growth marketing agency where we sold a "Growth Audit" as a productized service. I am currently working on a new productized service myself which revolves around startup validation.

Toolkit


  • Zapier logo

    Zapier

    Zapier is a core part of my online course https://nocodemvp.com and I have spent LOTS of hours building my custom workflows for the products that I created.

Experience

  • Kanstein.co

    I Help Smart People Build the Right Things

    ๐—œ ๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—น๐—ฝ ๐˜€๐—บ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐˜ ๐—ฝ๐—ฒ๐—ผ๐—ฝ๐—น๐—ฒ ๐—ฏ๐˜‚๐—ถ๐—น๐—ฑ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ด๐—ต๐˜ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด๐˜€, ๐—ฏ๐˜† ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—บ๐—ฏ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐˜€๐˜†๐˜€๐˜๐—ฒ๐—บ๐˜€ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ธ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด, ๐—ฐ๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐—น ๐˜๐—ผ๐—ผ๐—น๐˜€, ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—ฐ๐—น๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ ๐˜€๐˜๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ด๐˜†โšก๏ธ We live in a time of infinite ideas and instant output. But building something meaningful still takes sharp judgment, clear priorities, and real structure. Thatโ€™s where I come in. Iโ€™m not an agency. Iโ€™m not just a coach. Iโ€™m a builder whoโ€™s shipped dozens of ideas, exited a few, reached over 1M users, and learned a lot from failing fast. I know the drill, and I know how to help others cut through noise, move with clarity, and build what actually matters. I bring: โ€บ Systems thinking over trend-chasing โ€บ Honest feedback without ego โ€บ Structure and execution, not just theory โ€บ A sharp human filter for using AI wisely โ€บ And a grounded, reflective style that helps people slow down, zoom out, and get real I donโ€™t sell hype. I donโ€™t speak in frameworks. I build trust by being clear, curious, and direct. I help smart people get unstuck, and move forward with clarity and conviction. If youโ€™re building something new or growing an existing product, and want a partner who moves fast, thinks deeply, and keeps it real, reach out.

  • Bitcoin for Millennials

    Podcast Host

    As a long-time Bitcoin student and investor, I decided to contribute to educate my generation on the benefits of Bitcoin. In this podcast, I dive into why Bitcoin is a fascinating and crucial discovery for millennials. We are a generation that grew up benefiting from the current fiat money system, yet we now struggle to build and maintain wealth due to its inherent flaws. Join me and my guests as we go on a journey to understand how the current money system works, why it is flawed, and why Bitcoin is the most relevant technology you need to grasp and adopt. ๐Ÿ“บ Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bramk ๐ŸŽง Listen on Spotify / Apple Podcasts / Google Podcasts: https://bitcoinformillennials.com Stats after 24 months: โšก๏ธ185 episodes โšก๏ธ2.58 million views/streams โšก๏ธ650.000 watch hours/listens โšก๏ธ29.4K subscribers

  • Montra

    Strategic Advisor & Shareholder

    Montra is a video course creation tool that's as familiar as PowerPoint, designed for course creators to create compelling video lessons. I am an advisor to the founding team on Product and Growth. Montra raised a funding round of $500K in June 2022.

  • Early Riders

    Strategic Advisor

    Seeing that an age of abundance is coming towards us through accelerated technological advancements, itโ€™s becoming apparent that we need a way to value these innovations with a hard money that aligns with the characteristics of technological deflation. Bitcoin is the best way to do that. It is therefore also the incentive for builders to be diligent, honest, transparent, and motivated to innovate to the best of their abilities. I am excited to join Early Riders as an advisor to be part of this new wave of investing through a Bitcoin denominated venture fundโšก๏ธ

  • Onramp

    Head of Growth

    Onramp provides white-glove Bitcoin advisory, asset management, and financial services, ensuring your Bitcoin remains secure, accessible, and under your control. As Head of Growth, I focus on creating a foundation to scale our business and driving customer acquisition, engagement, and retention through creative strategies. I work across teams to level up social media, multimedia projects, and special initiatives, ensuring sustainable growth aligned with Onrampโ€™s mission.

  • No-Code MVP

    Founder & Teacher

    No-Code MVP is an online education program that teaches people and teams the mindset, process, and tools to rapidly build and validate new startup ideas - all without writing or learning a single line of code. Learn more and join FOR FREE via http://nocodemvp.com This online course is also available as a 2-day on-site company training. Given at Rabobank, DHL, PON, KPMG, Univรฉ and more. Creating this course started as a thought exercise to structure my approach to validating startup ideas and teaching them to others in a scalable way. The results have exceeded my expectations. And after enrolling 1000+ students and โ‚ฌ130K+ revenue, I decided to make this course FREE for anyone. I am super happy that I was able to teach that many people!

  • BridgeFund

    Business Operations & Growth Strategy

    Working with a fast-paced growth team to research, analyze, and execute on growth opportunities to help BridgeFund reach their business objectives and goals. Top projects: - Initial analysis and proposal for improving high-ticket customer onboarding, leading to 89% and โ‚ฌMM+ monthly growth - Ideation of โ‚ฌ30M+ funder campaign - Holistic analysis of value proposition delivery, suggesting process improvements to improve company wide customer, market, and product understanding.

  • EARLY ONES

    Founder (Shut down)

    ๐—˜๐—”๐—ฅ๐—Ÿ๐—ฌ ๐—ข๐—ก๐—˜๐—ฆ is the place for early adopters to discover new early-stage Web3 and crypto startups being built at the forefront of the internet. For builders in Web3 and crypto, it is the best place to share their (upcoming) startup with a relevant audience of 6000+ early adopters in order to gather early interest and feedback. After a year of validation, product building and research we decided to shut down this startup due to a lack of business viability. After talking to over 200+ founders, teams, and investors in the crypto space I came to the realization that it is still very immature and I should focus my attention on the true "crypto" invention and discovery that is Bitcoin

  • RVS

    Senior Innovation Coach

    Working as a Senior Innovation Coach at Booster,ย NN Group's internal innovation agency that brings expertise in testing and developing new business models and concepts, from initial idea to market launch. Coachingย proposition teams and their investors by utilizing my expertise on Lean Startup, Business Modelling, Innovation Strategy, Idea Validation, and practical experience of building and launching my own products.

  • Stride (formerly JobLab)

    Strategic Advisor

    Assisting fast growing startup Stride with with product and community related subjects. Stride helps university graduates get discovered by, and start their careers at, exciting high-growth companies. What's more, Stride pays grads for doing so! Graduates earn Stride Tokens - that can be exchanged for GBP, BTC, or ETH - for responding quickly to messages from employers, completing their profiles, and when they get a job. Unlike other job sites, graduates are personally invited by companies to apply to jobs. Once invited, grads are able to apply -- with one click -- and then message employers directly through the platform ๐Ÿ‘‰https://www.stride.io

  • Bram Kanstein

    Freelance Startup & Innovation Expert

    Worked with dozens of (early-stage) companies on the strategy, development, launch, and growth of new business initiatives. This includes idea validation, development of a Minimum Viable Product (MVP), business growth strategy, go-to-market strategy, value proposition, and positioning. Clients include Recruitee, Temper, Revue, Startups.com, Wonderkind, OpenUp, TaskSift, Findie.me, Camarilla, and more. I've also advised startups at several accelerators and incubators: Seedcamp London, Techstars London, Barclays Accelerator London, Startup Wise Guys Accelerator Tallinn, and the Telenet Kickstart Accelerator (IdeaLabs) in Antwerp.

  • Venture Minds

    Innovation Strategist & Co-Founder

    Venture Minds is an Innovation Strategy and consulting collective, experienced in the art of Lean Innovation and Rapid Experimentation. If you are looking to grow your company with new (digital) business initiatives to, but are not sure about the right steps to get things off the ground, you should talk to us. We: - Teach in-house workshops and training sessions to level up the innovation mindset and skills of your teams. - Help company management in creating a transparent, autonomous and communicative environment. - Provide long-term and hands-on guidance in setting up and co-managing your company's Innovation Portfolio. - Offer in-depth assessments for companies who've already started to explore new business initiatives and want to evaluate their efforts. Disclaimer: We are not your average innovation consultants that will plainly implement your ideas. Our methods are battle tested, direct, honest, creative, holistic and sometimes a pain in the ass. But hey, "If there is no struggle there is no progress"โ€‹.

  • Road to Scale

    Creator (Acquired in May 2020)

    Nowadays thereโ€™s a lot of startup related content around the web, but itโ€™s difficult to navigate what to read, watch or listen to. Because in every stage of your startup journey there are different kinds of relevant content you can consume and draw inspiration from. Thatโ€™s a problem I wanted to solve. Road to Scale (roadtoscale.com) is a curated knowledge library with 300+ content items for every stage of your startup journey. So whether you're just starting out with your idea or scaling like crazy, Road to scale has got your back with insightful, practical, and useful knowledge you can apply to your startup. With 20K users in 6 months, Road to Scale was acquired by SignalFire, a venture capital firm from San Francisco, in May 2020.

  • Angel Academy EU

    Lecturer

    The Angel Academy is an initiative from the Keadyn Angel VC team. The purpose of the program is for angel investors to connect, learn, and bring their new knowledge into practice by making a real investment at the end of the program. In a 9-week long program, the angel investor will learn the ins and the outs of angel investing. Within this program I'm the lecturer on the subject of Go-to-market strategy. See www.angelacademy.nl for more information.

  • Techstars

    Mentor
    โ€ขtechstars.com/

    Mentor to startups in the Arcadis City of 2030 program, Powered by Techstars.

  • StartupWatching

    Founder & Curator (Acquired in May 2018)

    StartupWatching is a bi-weekly newsletter publication with curated knowledge, inspiration and background stories from the startup world. Itโ€™s for anyone who's interested in startups and tech, delivered every Monday and Thursday to an audience of 11.000+ (aspiring) entrepreneurs, creative developers, digital designers, online marketers and shark investors. --- StartupWatching was acquired May 2018.

  • ABN AMRO Bank N.V.

    Startup & Innovation Coach

    Responsible for guiding and mentoring innovation teams in exploring and accelerating new business ideas. Turning ideas into MVP's while validating them through Lean Startup methodology with an entrepreneurial mindset. Also worked on the development of an "Innovation Kickbox": a set of guides and tools to empower employees to explore and validate their innovative ideas on their own.

  • Startup Stash

    Founder (Acquired in November 2017)

    Startup Stash (http://startupstash.com) is a curated directory of resources and tools to help you build your startup. It includes 400 products in 40 categories, like for example: Idea Generation, Early users, Marketing, Raising Capital and Customer support. Each category consists of 10 handpicked resources and tools, all with their own detail page that displays some info about the product. Startup Stash was launched on 25/02/2017 and became the #1 most upvoted product of all time on Product Hunt (http://www.producthunt.com/posts/startup-stash). The site went completely viral and received 35K Unique visits and 230K pageviews in the first 48 hours. To date, Startup Stash has helped 1.000.000+ entrepreneurs from around the world while building their startup and is being used by organisations like Techstars, Harvard Business School, Founder Institute and Venture for America. It was named as one of the 100 Best Websites For Entrepreneurs in 2015 by Forbes Magazine. (http://www.forbes.com/sites/emilyinverso/2015/12/02/100-best-websites-for-entrepreneurs-2015/#2715e4857a0b6d0307ac877a), and also featured on http://www.businessinsider.com/startup-stash-is-the-best-guide-for-starting-a-company-2015-2 and various other (inter-)national publications. Read more about the Startup Stash project and launch here: https://medium.com/@bramk/how-i-launched-the-2-most-upvoted-product-of-all-time-on-product-hunt-f3772fb20ad8 --- Startup Stash was acquired by an Israeli media company in November 2017.

  • ABN AMRO Bank N.V.

    Product Owner & Digital Business Developer (a.i.) - Gradefix

    Responsible for the product development of an internal innovation project called Gradefix. Gradefix offers a bank-independent risk analysis based on personal payment data. My role included giving guidance on lean startup tactics & work ethics, stakeholder management and strategy.

  • We Are Off The Record

    Co-Founder

    We Are Off The Record is an Amsterdam-based digital growth agency for high-potential companies. We help them leverage the hidden opportunities within their existing business and get them ready for growth. Our process starts by making an inventory of your current assets, activities and goals. Which we then turn into a battle plan for you to attack your market, build your audience, grow your product and increase your revenue. We focus on working with (early-stage) startups, SMB's, (corporate) accelerators and investors. Our expertise revolves around Go-to-market strategy (value proposition, positioning, strategic roadmap, storytelling), Product development, and Growth hacking (customer development/acquisition, tactics, business metrics, data-driven experiments and product/funnel optimization). Worked with 50+ clients, from Amsterdam to London, New York, San Francisco, Paris and Rome.

  • Product Hunt

    European Community Lead

    Product Hunt is Silicon Valley's (and the world's) top online community for discovering new digital products, startups and services, every day. It's a place for product-loving enthusiasts to share and geek out about the latest mobile apps, websites, hardware projects, and tech creations.

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