FSR x MAEUR | Upfront & Slingshot Ventures Conference 2025

Note: The conference will be held in Dutch.

Would you like to learn how startups like Upfront successfully scale up, and how venture capital funds such as Slingshot Ventures evaluate startups?

On Thursday, November 6th, from 16:30 to 18:00 at Van der Groot Athene M1-19, FSR and MA-EUR will host Mark de Boer, founder & CEO of Upfront, and Roope Vahahyyppa, director at Slingshot Ventures, for presentations and an extensive Q&A session.

They will share insights about what it’s like to work at a startup like Upfront and at a venture capital fund like Slingshot.

Upfront

At Upfront, we’re transforming the food system with a young, idealistic, and highly driven team. Our team isn’t a family — it’s a (sports) team determined to become world champions. We’re tripling in size every year, remain fully independent from investors, and prioritize talent density and culture above all else.

Our goal is to offer food products that are simple, unprocessed, transparent, affordable, and accessible. Over the past five years, we’ve proven that our solution works in sports nutrition (2020–2025).

The next steps are ambitious:

• 2026–2030: Building our own supermarkets using the profits we’ve earned

• 2031–2035: Developing our own food production facilities

• 2035–2040: Integrating everything to achieve unprecedented economies of scale

By connecting all these elements in the final stage, we can make the Upfront alternative more understandable through our brand, more accessible through our own supermarkets, and more affordable through our own production.

Slingshot Ventures

Slingshot Ventures is a venture capital firm based in Amsterdam that invests in young, successful, and groundbreaking consumer brands across Western Europe. Some of the names might sound familiar — and you may even use them yourself! Think of the scooters and shared cars from Check, the trendy compression socks from STOX, the natural deodorant from Wild, and the razors from Boldking.

Where banks and other institutions often find it too risky to invest at such an early stage, we make sure ambitious entrepreneurs get the opportunity to accelerate their growth. With a fund of approximately €60 million, we help these companies rapidly conquer markets.

We believe that by joining forces, these startups can evolve into scale-ups that have the potential to change consumers’ lives worldwide.

Participating companies: Upfront & Slingshot Ventures

Date & Time: November 6, 2025. 16:30 - 18:00, with drinks afterwards.

Location: Van der Groot Athene M1-19, Erasmus University Rotterdam