Pepijn Vloemans

I'm a Deutschian optimist — anything can be built as long as it adheres to the laws of nature. I'm a Popperian conservative when it comes to government and democracy.

• Work at startups (previously Fastned and Farmless)
• Made a list of the most ambitious European hardware startups
• I like to visit underrated countries like Djibouti, Somaliland, Sudan and Eritrea
• Write on Substack and keep a list of books
• Founded the Tien Procent Club because traditional charities suffer from a severe market failure — fundraising is decoupled from actual success. Charity evaluators are the answer.
• Maintain a list of beautiful Dutch words

Things I believe

• Now is the best time to be alive
• Humans should build a civilisation on Mars
• Humans are the only animal with a capacity for morality outside our own kin. We should cultivate this towards other people and animals.
• The two top moral concerns: (1) the way we treat animals and (2) we have not globally eradicated preventable diseases
• The world has gotten much better and continues to be so
• Developing smaller, cheaper, simpler and lower-maintenance tunnel boring is highly underrated
• The ultimate bottleneck for Europe's future is cultivating and attracting ultra-ambitious founders
• Minimalism has peaked — beauty and tradition in architecture will make a comeback

How to improve conversations

• Ask questions, be genuinely curious above all else
• Tolerate silence, even if it's mildly uncomfortable
• When you disagree, instead of stating your opinion ask: what's the best argument against this? Or: how would you summarise your opponent's position as charitably as possible?
• Raise someone's ambitions. It's free, it's underrated and it works.

My expectations of the 2030s

• Affordable space tourism
• A permanent Mars base
• Supersonic commercial flight
• Fully electric VTOLs
• Tunneling startups drilling hundreds of kilometres of small-form tunnels per day
• Eradication of all cheaply preventable diseases like malaria
• Large scale land reclamation of the North Sea
• A majority of global energy generated by solar
• Synthetic fuels (solar → methane / methanol) outcompeting fossil fuels
• Fermented proteins going mainstream

Startup insights

• Founder obsession is the most important thing
• Every startup should be like a cult with a secret at its core
• Embrace pain, confusion and messiness
• Iterate fast. Share the lessons.
• Ego is the enemy. Make a point of writing down your mistakes to the group.
• Present information starting with the conclusion
• You can just do things. Ownership is how you rise.
• Always question the requirements
• Delete parts or processes — humans are hardwired to add, not remove
• Celebrate wins — it signals what you value
• Say the things no one else wants to say
• Be nice

Some essays that influenced me: Ian Hogarth on vertical integration, Quit your job

Principles for living

• Find comfort in the process, not the goal
• Momentum is everything — the best predictor of tomorrow is today
• When in doubt, take the smallest possible step
• Experiment with your life
• Alcohol is the momentum killer (currently: one drink per week)
• Slowing down occasionally is probably the most impactful thing you can do