WAT x Thibaut Vanderhofstadt (Sortlist)
What I Wish I Knew Before Scaling to €10M ARR
Thibaut Vanderhofstadt co-founded Sortlist and led the company as CEO from its early days to more than €10M ARR across 9+ European markets. Raising capital from a first €500K Seed round all the way to an €11M Series B.
On October 1st, he’s coming to WAT to share the version of the story that rarely makes it into fundraising announcements and LinkedIn posts: the decisions that worked, the ones that cost years of growth, and what he would do differently today.
He'll walk through four key chapters:
From €500K Seed to an €11M Series B: how fundraising changes as the company scales, and why raising more money doesn’t necessarily make the next stage easier.
Expanding into 9+ European markets: what worked, what didn’t, and the hidden cost of expanding too early or too broadly.
Pricing, positioning and VC pressure: the strategic decisions that looked right at the time but ultimately cost the company growth.
Breaking through the ceilings on the road to €10M ARR: why the company, team and CEO have to change at every stage, and what happens when they don’t change fast enough.
Talk, open Q&A, then drinks.
General Information
🗓 1 October, 18:30-21:00
📍 WAT Beta, Brussels
🅿️ No Car Parking on site
🎫 Free - Approval required