10 Things You Didn’t Know About Thomas Plantenga
Thomas Plantenga is a businessman who serves as the current chief executive officer of Vinted, a European-based startup. We were interested in learning more about him. We looked into his personal and career history to find out how he became so successful. We made some interesting discoveries and here are 10 things you probably didn’t know about Thomas Plantenga.
1. Thomas Plantenga is Lithuanian
According to Qoorio, Thomas Plantenga is Lithuanian. The site lists his home city as Vilnius, Lithuania. This is his native country and where he now resides when he is not busy traveling the world on business.
2. Plantenga is a guest and keynote speaker
Thomas Plantenga shares the wisdom that he has gained through his experience in the business world, as an executive leader, with others who seek tips and knowledge. He has listed his availability to come to speak at conferences and events on Qoorio. He is open to booking and speaks on timely topics including travel, startups, technology, and management, and strategy. So far he has participated in 5 talks and has gained 38 admirers.
3. Thomas Plantenga is an Angel investor
According to Crunchbase, Thomas Plantenga has participated in four investing rounds. He invested 2 million Euros in Qoorio on November 26, 2019, in a pre-seed round. He also invested an undisclosed amount in the company Orderchamp on September 22, 2020, 30 million Euros in Crisp, in March of 2021, and an undisclosed amount in Luko. Mr. Plantenga has invested millions in new startups with the hope of receiving generous returns when the new businesses come into their own and become profitable. He is an active angel investor who is participating in the venture capital scene as a part of his investment portfolio.
4. Mr. Plantenga is highly educated
According to LinkedIn, Thomas enrolled in bioengineering and biomedical engineering programs at the Eindhoven University of Technology in 2002. He earned his bachelor of science degree in the two disciplines in 2007. He continued at the same school in pursuit of his master’s degree in fluid dynamics and soft tissue mechanics. He earned his MS degree in the field in 2009. He also participated in a one-week case study program focused on e-commerce strategy at Harvard Business School Executive Education in 2014.
5. Thomas Plantenga is also an entrepreneur
In addition to his current leadership talents in the executive arena, he has entrepreneurial experience as well. Plantenga is the co-founder of a company called Bookaboat.nl. He founded the company in 2010 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. it is a subscription-based booking software company that provided products for use by boat rental companies. It included a free booking module that he officially launched in 2012. The company hit the top of the market in two weeks of its launch, securing investment from the Telegraaf Media Group. He remained with the company from 2010 to 2013 and left after 3 years to pursue other interests.
6. He worked two jobs at once
During the three years that Thomas served as co-founder of his boat booking software company, he also worked as a consultant. He was employed with an online business development company called Harvest from June of 2010 through May of 2013. He served in the capacity of a consultant leaving this job at the same time as his other venture.
7. He worked for OLX
Thomas Plantenga spent 2 years and one month employed for OLX. In June of 2013, he served as a portfolio development manager for emerging markets at the Buenos Aires location, until February of 2014. after nine months in this position, he was made the head of West and East Africa Emerging markets from March of 2014 through February of 2015, at the company’s Nairobi location. In February of 2015, he was made the head of MENA emerging markets at the Dubai location. Thomas remained at this post until June of 2015, leaving after five months. This gave Thomas a great deal of international business experience with exposure to a variety of diverse cultures and customs within the business arena for OLX.
8. He moved to New York City
In July of 2015, Thomas accepted a job as Advisor for FJ Labs. He relocated to the New York City location and worked at the stage-agnostic fund that invested in startups and building companies. He remained as an advisor with the company for one full year, leaving in June of 2016.
9. Thomas Plantenga has been at Vinted for the past five years
Plantenga joined Vinted in June of 2016, as a strategy consultant at its Vilnius location. He was only there for two months before being promoted to the position of CSO of the company. He worked at the Vilnius and Berlin offices and helped to implement a turnaround strategy for the firm. In March of 2017, he was promoted to CEO of the Vilnius location, then transferred to CEO at the Berlin location for the company in November of 2017. He has been in the position ever since.
10. Thomas Plantenga runs a hard line
When we were browsing through his various bios posted throughout the internet we made note of the fact that he loves rollerblade and wakeboard. These are healthy hobbies that help to keep him physically fit. When it comes to unsolicited offers, he draws a hard line. He states very clearly that he will not respond to messages on his LinkedIn profile page and he has held to his word. His inbox is full. He doesn’t speak with vendors who are making offers to market products for his company. They’ve got that taken care of. He enjoys speaking to large groups about business strategies and he has traveled the world working at different locations. He’s good with people but he doesn’t put up with any nonsense. He has a solid foundation and a serious approach to business and he doesn’t waste time on unsolicited offers. He’s a private guy who doesn’t share much of his personal history, but he’s all about leadership and making smart business decisions.
