This is the story of Ruben Brave, a Dutch citizen from Amsterdam, with a Surinamese background, and with a black skin. Ruben is a successful serial tech entrepreneur, investor, and board member at several impactful organizations such as the Social and Economic Council of the Netherlands (SER). He is also playing a key role in the start‐up scene as well as in denouncing racial discrimination. He has experienced many situations of racial discrimination himself, as a person in general but also specifically as an entrepreneur. Recently, he conducted a broad and deep Diversity & Inclusion Exploration in the Dutch Startup Ecosystem, commissioned by the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs & Climate. For this project, he personally interviewed more than 250 ‘“diverse” founders and professionals, which led to the formation of the Dutch New Narrative Lab.

The presentation of this case takes place during a lecture of the course ‘The Entrepreneurial Venture’, part of the joint UvA and VU master Entrepreneur. Everybody is welcome on Thursday 22 September, 15.30 – 17.15, room NU‐4C51 (Theater 9), NU Building, VU campus Amsterdam. Next to the case presentation, Ruben Brave will present more of his insights and recent experiences concerning bias in the Netherlands in the innovative entrepreneurship landscape.

Contact person: Enno Masurel (e.masurel@vu.nl).

In order to raise entrepreneurship education in Amsterdam to a higher level, entrepreneurship cases ‐ a variety of teaching cases with successful new businesses from the Amsterdam region, covering a broad range of topics ‐ were developed for teachers active in entrepreneurship education. These entrepreneurship cases are part of the IXAnext valorisation program the City of Amsterdam.

This is the 11th case, made by Enno Masurel, Marianna Akhbulatova and Maud van Merriënboer, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Go to the website of entrepreneurship cases to download the case (text and video).