Martijn Bevelander

Unlike most young people who do not finish their primary education, Martijn Bevelander has become quite successful since leaving Havo in 1998. At the time, Mr. Bevelander was already a successful Internet businessman with two popular ventures under his belt. Mr. Bevelander founded both Bevelander Internet Services B.V. and ChatPlaza B.V. in July 1997, and both ventures were an immediate success, thanks in part to the newness of the World Wide Web and the innovation of the then 17-year-old Bevelander. By 2002, Bevelander Internet Services had gone the way of many internet providers faced with the break of the Internet Bubble, and Mr. Bevelander began to seek a new venture. In 2003, while still at the helm of ChatPlaza, Mr. Bevelander took over a struggling discotheque in downtown Haarlem: Club Delirium. At the time, Club Delirium was facing bankruptcy and hurting for patrons, but Martijn Bevelander saw promises in the business and was soon able to turn it around. Today, Club Delirium is one of Haarlem's hottest nightclubs and shows no signs of slowing down. In 2005, Martijn Bevelander once again expanded his repertoire, adding the social networking site StayClose B.V. to his list of enterprises. StayClose B.V. combines blogging, videos, photos, music, and news on a fun site that has been immensly popular with teens and young adults in the Netherlands, and its influence and growth continues to expand.