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‘Humanities Venture Lab offers an environment full of energy, inspiration and like-minded people’

With Stichting TechMeUp (TechMeUp Foundation), UvA alumna Nikky Hofland helps financially vulnerable people who want to retrain in the IT sector. The foundation provides interest-free loans so that students can pay for their tuition fees, travel and living expenses. In this way, the foundation offers anyone with the ambition to do so the opportunity to build a future in the tech sector, regardless of their financial situation. The Humanities Venture Lab provided the foundation with the right environment to grow from a one-person initiative to a team of seven people.
Photo: Gwendolyn Keasberry

‘For me, TechMeUp is not only a company, but a movement as well’, says Hofland. The foundation has now supported more than 450 people, 75 percent of whom found a job in the IT sector within nine months. After alumni have found a job, they repay the loan interest-free. The foundation uses that money to help new students. Hofland: ‘TechMeUp shows that there is talent everywhere, but not always opportunities. We are closing that gap with our foundation.’

What I hope to achieve with TechMeUp is to give others the opportunity that I had: the opportunity to learn, to grow and to give your life a sense of direction – only without the financial stress. Everyone deserves a fair start.’

An inspiring environment

At the time of the pandemic, Hofland found refuge in a flex space of the Humanities Venture Lab. ‘During the coronavirus crisis, I lived and worked with my partner and our one-year-old son in a home measuring just 50 square metres. That was tough. I received a tip from a female friend about a flex space at the Humanities Venture Lab and that was an immediate relief. At first, this was a flexible arrangement, but I was later given the opportunity to take over an office that had become vacant. That ultimately became the home of TechMeUp for four years. During that period, we grew from a one-person team to a team of seven people.’

‘At the end of the day, the Humanities Venture Lab offered us a lot more than just a workspace. It was an environment full of energy, inspiration and like-minded people, who were all occupied with entrepreneurship and social impact. Furthermore, the conversations with former business coach Robert Meijer were crucial for our first revenue stream and brainstorming with others gave us a tremendous amount of energy. Thanks to that environment, we were able to grow from a one-person initiative to a team of seven people. It’s an inspiring place to work, with a fine community and lots of opportunities for growth.

In order to grow further, Hofland’s foundation relocated to a bigger office in the Bijlmer district of Amsterdam in September 2025. ‘We will miss the atmosphere and conversations in the Humanities Venture Lab and look back fondly on the years we spent there.’