Marten Blankesteijn
Marten Blankesteijn is an entrepreneur, journalist, and technology innovator at the intersection of media, technology, and education. He is the founder and director of the Nederlands Onderwijsinstituut (Neon), a cooperative educational publisher of teachers and school boards that develops new learning materials for primary and secondary education. Neon gives schools more control over their teaching materials and works toward higher quality at lower costs. Marten succeeded in getting more than a quarter of Dutch schools to join Neon in a short period of time.
Marten became well known when he co-founded Blendle together with Alexander Klöpping. Blendle is a digital newsstand where readers can buy individual articles from newspapers and magazines. The platform grew internationally into one of the most well-known Dutch media startups. In addition, he co-founded the Universiteit van Nederland with Klöpping, a platform that makes free online lectures from leading scientists accessible to a broad audience.
In his work, Blankesteijn combines entrepreneurship, software development, and societal impact. In his talks, he shows how technology, collaboration, and new organizational forms can contribute to innovation in media and education.
A selection of talks he has given previously:
How AI runs my company—and how it can help yours too
In one year, Marten built an organization of 70+ employees and lets AI handle organizational work. From recruitment to customer service: he sometimes developed tools himself to make processes smarter, faster, and more enjoyable—even though he couldn’t (initially) program. No theory, no hype, but concrete real-world examples. Everyone leaves with tips they can apply the very next day.
Shaking up an industry twice—what I learned
First, he transformed the media together with Alexander Klöpping through Blendle. Now he is disrupting education with Neon: better schoolbooks, lower costs, and free tutoring for every child. Marten Blankesteijn knows what it takes to get a stagnant sector moving and shares the patterns he has observed twice. How do you look at a market with fresh eyes when everyone has been doing the same thing for years? And how do you convince an entire sector to move with you?
From private equity to public ownership
Teachers and schools raised the alarm: schoolbooks are too expensive, too polluting, and of poor quality. Marten Blankesteijn listened and built an alternative with Neon that will likely impact every Dutch child—and one that is owned by teachers and schools. This enabled schools to push back against private equity. This talk explores how education will change in the coming years and what other sectors can learn from it. An inspiring story with practical lessons on how to build something big with AI and a relatively small team (60 employees).