Every year on April 27, the Dutch throw presumably one of the largest – and certainly the most orange – birthday parties on the planet. On King’s Day, or koningsdag, the Netherlands celebrate their king’s birthday with a rather exuberant street festival. This year, Willem-Alexander turns 52. Happy royal birthday, your majesty!

The Dutch love their royal family but they also appreciate that they are approachable humans – and they can make fun of them in King’s Day marketing campaigns (while always keeping it nice), find some funny examples here.

King’s Day is a public holiday in the Netherlands and street sales are VAT free on that day. And speaking of attractive taxes for businesses (time for a super elegant transition): Another royally important sector the Netherlands are known for is the Dutch startup ecosystem which is sparkling and thriving. We took the occasion of Willy’s birthday to ask our Amsterdam team, the latest addition to the DCMN family, about their predictions of the future queens & kings of Dutch B2C companies. Here is their selection of Dutch startups to keep a close eye on. And of course we kick things off with… bicycles.

Swapfiets

There’s nothing more Dutch than the beloved omafiets – so called “grandma bikes”, basic bikes that are strong enough for the urban territory. Being an owner of a bike means freedom and the fantastic feeling of wind in your hair – but also high investment and frequent maintenance. Swapfiets offers the best of both worlds: For a very affordable monthly fee you get a bike to use with a flexible maintenance service, so that you will never be without your beloved two wheeler for more than one day. And wait for it, there is a cherry on top: The blue front tyre tells potential thieves that your bike is traceable and unsalable so it will not end up on the King’s Day flea market.

Picnic

Picnic offers a truly digital grocery shopping experience, so, as they phrase it, you can have “an entire supermarket in your pocket”. Free delivery, shopping coming to your house in after-work hours and a useful extra bonus: With the Picnic app you can track your groceries around town precisely and this way accurately see the time of your shopping delivery to the minute! Are you already shopping King’s Day favourites: beer and snacks?

Withlocals

Great to see there is a service that helps you get to know international people and avoid tourist traps at the same time. With Withlocals you can show visitors your city and earn a little extra cash or book locals to see a city from their perspective. We did not see any special King’s Day tours but we’re sure they will show up right in time for orange fest.

Bidroom

This company was born after countless conversations with hoteliers about their frustration with paying high commission and having no control over their revenue and communication with their guests. Bidroom’s business is based a no-commission membership model in the mix with a unique technology scanning all hotel offers and applying special discounts. The result? Unbeatable bargains. With a fully booked city on King’s Day, Amsterdam might still be quite pricey but saving up to 25% can buy you a lot of beers, snacks and orange t-shirts.

OneFit

You might need to burn all those King’s Day beers and other guilty pleasures – and now you can do it easily with this fitness on demand app. With OneFit you don’t need to commit to one gym, yoga studio or swimming pool. For the price of a gym subscription you can have it all, do different sports at different locations all over the city and pause your contract whenever you want.

If you feel like we have missed a company here that needed to be mentioned, let us know! If you want support finding the best ways to grow your brand – on King’s Day and all other days of the year – then let’s talk! hello@dcmn.com