Some professional partnerships go beyond business cards and signed lease agreements. Didier Paardekooper, Head of Sales at ScaleHub, is one of those people who genuinely believes that finding the right workspace can change the trajectory of a company. He has been part of the ScaleHub team for several years now, and despite the organisation's continued growth, he still experiences it the way an entrepreneur would: with freedom, trust, and a shared drive to build something meaningful. That combination — the energy of a growing company with the autonomy of someone who is essentially building his own practice within it — is precisely what keeps him motivated. And it is exactly what ScaleHub offers its clients.
A Sales Leader Who Thinks in Growth, Not Square Metres
As Head of Sales, Didier spends his days speaking with entrepreneurs, scale-ups, legal professionals, and financial institutions — all of them searching for the right place to work, meet clients, and grow their businesses. What sets him apart is that he refuses to think in square metres. Every company has its own story, its own pace, its own culture. One founder is scaling aggressively and needs to double their team within six months. Another is restructuring after a round of investment and needs more breathing room before committing to anything long-term. A third is an established firm looking for a prestigious address that communicates credibility to international clients the moment they walk through the door.
No two conversations are the same, and that is precisely what Didier finds so rewarding. Every day he learns something new from the entrepreneurs he meets — about their ambitions, their challenges, the decisions that keep them awake at night, and the moments that remind them why they started. If ScaleHub can contribute to even a small part of that journey by providing the right working environment at the right time, that is enough.
ScaleHub's Core Philosophy: Environments That Move With You
ScaleHub does not see itself as a landlord. It is a partner during every phase of entrepreneurship. The concept is built around fully serviced office environments that flex alongside the business — more space when growth demands it, less when circumstances change, all without the disruption of a physical relocation, lengthy notice periods, or negotiating a new lease from scratch.
Entrepreneurship is rarely linear. Market conditions shift. Teams grow. Strategies pivot. A fixed, traditional office lease of five or ten years can quickly become a liability when the business outgrows the space — or when it needs to scale back. ScaleHub solves this by providing infrastructure, services, and community, while leaving the entrepreneur free to focus entirely on the business itself.
That community element is more significant than it might initially seem. Within ScaleHub's locations, entrepreneurs meet each other naturally. Conversations at the coffee machine turn into referrals. A lunch break leads to a new client relationship. The energy inside a well-curated workspace creates cross-pollination between companies that simply would not happen in an isolated office. If you are exploring the full picture of what to look for when renting office space, the quality of the surrounding community belongs near the top of that list.
Two Old Friends, One Shared Goal
The collaboration between ScaleHub and RE-SEARCH is grounded in something that most business partnerships lack: a genuine personal relationship. Colin Westerneng of RE-SEARCH and Didier Paardekooper have known each other for years. They started as colleagues, became friends, and are now partners in helping entrepreneurs find the spaces where they do their best work.
Their bond is perhaps best illustrated by a detail that has nothing to do with real estate. The two of them ran the Paris Marathon together — an experience that demands mutual trust, resilience, and the kind of shared determination that does not fade once the medal is around your neck. That is the foundation of their professional relationship too. Today they work from separate organisations, each bringing distinct expertise to the table — Didier from ScaleHub's operational and sales perspective, Colin from RE-SEARCH's platform and brokerage knowledge — but with an identical objective: connecting the right entrepreneur to the right place at the right time.
RE-SEARCH works with partners who share its philosophy: finding the right match matters more than completing the most transactions. ScaleHub embodies that philosophy completely, which is what makes this collaboration feel natural rather than commercial.
The New Location: Claude Debussylaan 10, Amsterdam Zuidas
ScaleHub's newest location sits at Claude Debussylaan 10 on Amsterdam's Zuidas — widely regarded as the Netherlands' premier business district and one of the most internationally recognised office addresses in continental Europe. The building is notable not only for its architectural quality but also for its existing tenants. Google's Amsterdam office is housed in the same building, which immediately communicates something powerful about the calibre of the environment.
For businesses that rely on first impressions — law firms receiving international clients, financial institutions meeting with institutional investors, consultancies pitching to multinationals — location and address carry real commercial weight. A meeting at Claude Debussylaan 10 on the Zuidas opens differently than one in a generic suburban office park. The address does some of the work before anyone has spoken a word.
Accessibility reinforces the appeal. The Zuidas is connected to Amsterdam Zuid station, which sits on the main intercity rail network and serves Schiphol Airport directly. Road access is equally strong. The office space for rent in Amsterdam market rarely offers this combination of prestige, connectivity, and flexibility within a single building.
If you want to understand why the Zuidas continues to command the attention of both occupiers and investors, the full case for why the Zuidas remains Amsterdam's top business address is worth reading before you sign anything.
VAT-Free Office Rental: A Genuine Advantage for Financial Institutions
One of the most commercially significant aspects of this location is the option to rent office space VAT-free. For many businesses, this detail goes unnoticed — but for a specific and important segment of the market, it represents a material financial advantage worth understanding clearly.
Under standard conditions in the Netherlands, commercial office rent is subject to 21% VAT. For most companies, this is not a problem: they reclaim the VAT through their tax return, making it effectively cost-neutral. But this mechanism only works for businesses that are themselves VAT-registered and make VAT-taxed supplies. A significant number of organisations do not fall into that category.
Who Benefits Most from VAT-Exempt Office Rental?
Financial institutions operate largely outside the standard VAT system. Banks, insurers, asset managers, investment firms, family offices, private equity houses, and holdings typically provide financial services that are VAT-exempt by nature. This means they cannot reclaim the VAT charged on their costs — including office rent. Every euro of VAT on their lease is a real, irrecoverable cost. The same applies to many accountancy and legal practices, certain healthcare providers, and FinTech companies whose primary revenue stream falls under exempt financial services.
When a landlord structures the lease as VAT-exempt, that 21% cost disappears entirely. On an annual rental of, say, €100,000, that is €21,000 in direct savings — every year. Over a multi-year agreement, the cumulative advantage is substantial. For a deeper look at how VAT exemption in commercial real estate works and which companies qualify, the topic deserves careful attention before you enter any lease negotiation.
The Claude Debussylaan 10 location can be structured for VAT-free rental, making it particularly well-suited for:
- Banks and financial institutions
- Family offices and wealth managers
- Asset managers and private equity firms
- Holdings and investment vehicles
- Law firms and notarial practices
- Accountancy firms
- Consultancy companies
- FinTech businesses with exempt revenue streams
For these organisations, the combination of a prestigious Zuidas address and a VAT-exempt lease structure is genuinely rare and commercially compelling.
Flexible Office Sizes From 25 m² to 500 m²
ScaleHub's offering at this location is deliberately broad in scale. Office space is available from approximately 25 m² — a private office for a small founding team or a senior professional who needs a dedicated, professional base — up to around 500 m² for larger operations that still want the benefits of a serviced environment without the overhead of managing a building themselves.
This range makes the location genuinely suitable for a wide spectrum of occupiers:
- Early-stage start-ups testing their first physical presence
- Scale-ups that need room to expand without locking into long-term commitments
- Established SMEs that value flexibility and want to avoid capital being tied up in real estate
- International companies establishing a Netherlands base and requiring a credible local address
- Larger enterprises that want a satellite office on the Zuidas for specific teams or functions
The scalability is the point. A company that starts with two private offices today can grow into a floor of dedicated space tomorrow — without moving, without negotiating an entirely new lease, and without losing momentum at a critical stage of growth. Understanding how many square metres of office space you actually need per employee is a practical starting point before committing to any size.
Why RE-SEARCH Partners With ScaleHub
RE-SEARCH chooses its partnerships carefully. The platform is built around finding the right match between tenant and space — not driving the highest possible number of transactions. ScaleHub fits that philosophy naturally. They understand that an office is not just a place where people sit. It is where ideas are tested, where teams develop culture, where clients form their first impression of a business, and where entrepreneurs find the energy to keep building.
The comparison between a flexible office and a traditional fixed lease is worth working through for any business that is genuinely uncertain which model fits its current stage. For many of the companies RE-SEARCH speaks with, ScaleHub's serviced model at the Zuidas hits a point on that spectrum that is hard to replicate elsewhere in Amsterdam.
In Their Own Words
"The best part of my job? Every day I meet entrepreneurs who are going somewhere. If we can contribute to that with the right working environment, that gives me enormous energy." — Didier Paardekooper, Head of Sales, ScaleHub
"After all these years, it is great to work together again. Not just because Didier is a friend, but above all because ScaleHub truly understands what modern entrepreneurs need." — Colin Westerneng, RE-SEARCH
If your organisation is looking for office space on the Zuidas — whether you are a fast-growing scale-up, a financial institution that would benefit from VAT-exempt rental, or an international company seeking a credible Amsterdam address — the ScaleHub location at Claude Debussylaan 10 is worth a serious look. Browse the current office space listings in Amsterdam on RE-SEARCH, or reach out directly to discuss what the right fit looks like for your specific situation.
