March 7, 2025
Entrepreneurs, Female Founder Spotlight, Latest Articles

IWD Inspirational Female Founder Spotlight: Martien Van Loo

Martien Van Loo, together with her friend and co-founder Margot Van De Riet, launched the innovative digital organisation app, Bundle It, aimed at tackling the pervasive issue of ‘online overwhelm.’ Their mission is to provide a single structured space where users can manage and retrieve their digital information effectively, such as IG posts, weblinks, screenshots & podcasts. Martien’s vision for Bundle It is to foster clarity, calmness, and control, helping users navigate their digital lives with ease and focus.

1. Can you tell us a little about your background and your company?

I grew up in the northern part of the Netherlands but always felt drawn to the energy of the bigger cities in the west. Eventually, I settled in Amsterdam, where I spent many incredible years before moving to a suburb with my husband and two daughters.

Entrepreneurship runs in my veins. I come from a family of entrepreneurs, and from a young age, I was exposed to all aspects of running a business. This hands-on experience shaped my approach to work—I’ve always been someone who learns by doing. My career has been an evolution: from starting businesses while still studying business administration to founding a design agency, which then grew into a digital marketing agency. But something was missing.

I struggled with the inauthenticity of digital marketing, which led me to shift my focus to something I had always been fascinated by—technology. My curiosity led me to explore blockchain, Web3, and AI, and through that process, I realised that the way we organise and access information in our digital lives is deeply flawed. That’s where the idea for Bundle It was born.

2. What inspired you to start your business?

It all started with a personal frustration—my phone was a mess. I was constantly losing screenshots, struggling to find saved articles or websites, and juggling six different tools just to keep my digital life organized. I love productivity tools, but none truly brought everything together in a way that made sense for daily life.

When I started diving into Web3, I noticed how overwhelming it was to collect and keep track of valuable insights. I created a system for myself—categorising and tagging information so I could retrieve it easily. At first, it was just for my own learning process, but then I realised: this isn’t just my problem. Everyone deals with digital clutter. That’s when I knew this could be something bigger.

3. How did you create awareness for your brand?

We bootstrapped everything, which meant we had to be intentional about who we reached first. Instead of trying to market to everyone with a phone (which is, well, impossible), we focused on a specific audience: female millennials juggling work, family, and social life. These are the ultimate multitaskers, constantly switching between roles and devices.

By honing in on their needs first, we built a strong foundation before expanding to a broader audience. Word-of-mouth played a huge role—not just in the traditional sense, but also through one of our most valuable features: Bundle Sharing.

When a user creates a Bundle and wants to share it—whether to inspire, collaborate, or pass on knowledge—the recipient has to download Bundle It to access it. This organic sharing mechanism has helped us grow in a way that feels natural and aligned with how people already engage with digital content. Users love being able to seamlessly pass along curated insights, and it’s become one of the most powerful ways we expand our reach.

And the best part? The possibilities are endless. Whether someone is learning a new profession, making a career switch, deepening their knowledge on a subject, inspiring others, planning an incredible trip, or even sharing the best local shops and restaurants with guests staying at their rental—Bundle It makes it easy to collect, organise, and share valuable content.

4. What strategies helped you secure funding and scale your business?

We’re still in the early stages of fundraising, but our approach is simple: funding is a journey, not a one-time event. Every conversation is a chance to refine our vision, understand what investors are looking for, and get clearer on how we want to grow.

Instead of just chasing capital, we’ve focused on building relationships within the startup ecosystem—learning from other founders, joining communities, and continuously studying what makes companies succeed. The goal isn’t just to raise funds, but to bring in people who truly believe in our mission.

5. What have been your biggest successes so far?

The biggest win? The feedback from our users.

When someone says, “This app is a game-changer” or “I finally feel in control of my digital clutter,” that’s when we know we’re making an impact. It’s not about vanity metrics—it’s about real people finding value in what we’ve built.

Another success is how we’ve embraced learning and adaptability. None of us came into this as seasoned app developers, but we’ve built something people love by being relentless in our learning, testing, and iterating.

6. What challenges have you faced, and how did you overcome them?

Bootstrapping means facing challenges every single day. While I have a strong background in tech and entrepreneurship, I had never actually built an app before. That meant figuring things out on the fly, embracing mistakes, and constantly learning.

Instead of seeing technical hurdles as roadblocks, we used AI, studied best practices, and tapped into every available resource. Ironically, the philosophy behind Bundle It—find the right information, focus on it, and eliminate distractions—became our own approach to solving problems.

7. What are your plans for the future?

We want to make digital organisation effortless for millions of people.

That means enhancing AI-driven categorisation, integrating with other productivity tools, and expanding the ways people can use Bundle It in their daily lives. But beyond just productivity, we see this as a way to help people feel less overwhelmed and more in control of their digital world.

The possibilities are endless. Whether someone is learning a new profession, making a career switch, deepening their knowledge on a subject, inspiring others, planning an incredible trip, or even sharing the best local shops and restaurants with guests staying at their rental—Bundle It makes it easy to collect, organise, and share valuable content.

And our Bundle Sharing feature makes it even more powerful. When a user creates a Bundle and wants to share it—whether to inspire, collaborate, or provide useful recommendations—the recipient has to download Bundle It to access it. This natural sharing mechanism has become one of our strongest growth drivers, allowing users to introduce others to the platform in a way that feels effortless and valuable.

8. What advice would you give to aspiring female entrepreneurs?

If you truly believe in your idea, go for it.

This advice isn’t just for women, but for anyone who feels like they don’t fit the traditional mold of a startup founder. That said, I actually see being a woman in tech as an advantage. Web3 and AI are still male-dominated, which means we have the opportunity to bring fresh perspectives and challenge outdated ways of thinking.

One thing I’ve had to learn is to think bigger. As women, we often focus on the practical steps, but sometimes we need to allow ourselves to dream bigger than what feels realistic. That shift in mindset can change everything.

9. What are your top three tips for entrepreneurial success?

Solve a real problem. The best ideas come from personal frustration—if it’s a pain point for you, chances are it is for others too.
Keep iterating. Launch, learn, improve. Perfection is the enemy of progress.
Surround yourself with the right people. Whether it’s mentors, co-founders, or a strong community, having the right network is everything.