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“Be different or better than the competition — and set up a business that can run without you.”
Vincent Linssen's world travels had left him broke and looking for a fun way to earn extra cash. Back home in the Netherlands with a full-time job at one of Amsterdam's major financial firms, he still needed money to cover his expenses. He'd always wanted to be a tour guide and felt he'd taken enough walking tours around the world to try it himself.
He joined a company giving city tours on big yellow bikes, running ten tours a week around his day job for two months — a crash course in big-city tours. But he didn't like how parts of the company were organized, and felt he could do it better.
A few weeks later, on his morning commute, Vincent tuned into a Side Hustle School episode about an urban hiking tour company someone had started in San Francisco. It gave him an idea — and by the end of the episode, his side hustle, Amsterdam Experiences, was taking shape. Total startup costs were around $250: a Squarespace website and a few supplies for his first tour.
To beat the competition, he knew he had to offer something people would tell their friends about. He studied the tours people loved in Amsterdam and put his own spin on them, spending weeks researching the history and folklore of the city, because storytelling and a strong narrative matter. He also built a core set of tours that were easy to replicate and scale.
His main struggle was spreading the word. A Facebook page brought only sporadic bookings — until he met Stephan, an experienced online marketer, at an Airbnb event. The two became co-founders and built a marketing engine: a well-reviewed TripAdvisor profile, listings on Airbnb, Google Ads, and SEO-friendly pages, plus partnerships with boat-tour companies (since boat licenses are nearly impossible to get). Between March and November, profits reach up to €20,000 a month.
Vincent and Stephan still work their day jobs, hiring tour guides to scale — good guides being local, friendly, and quick on their feet. His advice for anyone starting out: get experience with an established company first, learn the trade, and note what you'd do differently — that's your starting point. Then aim to build something that can largely run without you.
