Zoofy: From Amsterdam Emergency Plumbers to €3M Revenue
The Story
Before Hypefury, Yannick co-founded Zoofy with Arthur de Leeuw in 2015. It was a marketplace connecting consumers with trade professionals (plumbers, electricians, etc.) for home services. Essentially the Uber for service professionals.
They launched as an emergency service in Amsterdam, focusing on urgent needs like broken pipes and locked doors. Within a year, they expanded across the entire Netherlands, building a network of over 20,000 professionals. The business grew to over €3 million in annual revenue.
Yannick was featured in Quote and Emerce (major Dutch business media) for the work. After approximately three years, he sold his shares and moved on.
The Zoofy experience taught him marketplace dynamics, scaling operations, and managing a network of service providers. But it also showed him what he didn’t want: a business that required heavy operations and coordination. When he found Hypefury (a software product with minimal operations), it felt like the opposite model in the best way.
Lesson for Creators
Building and selling a startup gives you skills and capital for the next thing. Yannick didn’t keep grinding at Zoofy forever. He sold, learned, and moved on. Each venture teaches you something: Zoofy taught him scaling and marketplace dynamics; Hypefury uses almost none of those skills but all of that judgment. Sometimes the best outcome of a business is what it teaches you about the next one.
Related
- Quit Banking, Got Sued, Paid €15,000 — Each career step building on the last, even when it seems unrelated
- Early Hustles - Moonshine, Fake YouTube, and a $50 PDF — Businesses as learning vehicles where the real value is the skills you gain
- Bunk - His First (Tiny) Acquisition — Small exits that teach the process for bigger ones later
- Banned from Reddit for Being Too Clever — Growth hacking attempts for Zoofy that taught hard lessons about community trust