# Taco Potze

> Taco Potze is the Amsterdam-based co-founder and CEO of Open Social, a Drupal-based community collaboration platform. His career spans a student electronics webshop, the GoalGorilla agency, the development of Greenpeace Greenwire, and the transition to subscription software. He has helped organize the Drupal community and co-founded the Dutch Startup Association; his current work emphasizes data sovereignty, shared knowledge and customer control.

- **Role:** Co-Founder & CEO at Open Social
- **Organizations:** Open Social, GoalGorilla, Dutch Startup Association, Stichting Drupal Nederland, AboutAnalytics, THX Project, Twente voor Oekraïne
- **Nationality:** Dutch
- **Education:** BSc, Industrial Engineering and Management, University of Twente, MSc, Industrial Engineering and Management, University of Twente
- **Known for:** Co-founded Open Social with CTO Bram ten Hove., Helped build Greenpeace Greenwire, recognized with a Dutch Interactive Award in 2015., Co-founded the Splash Awards with Bert Boerland and Imre Gmelig Meijling.

## Career timeline

- **2003-2004** — Co-founded electronics webshop Bitz and sold it while continuing university studies.
- **2005-2006** — Completed a Mexico City internship studying purchasing and inventory management at Promocionales Pacífico.
- **2008** — Co-founded GoalGorilla.
- **2009** — Co-founded AboutAnalytics.
- **2012-2016** — Served on the board of the Dutch Drupal association.
- **2014** — Helped organize the Dutch Splash Awards.
- **2015** — Greenpeace Greenwire won a Dutch Interactive Award; demand for similar communities helped inspire Open Social.
- **2016** — Open Social completed a €200,000 crowdfunding campaign and developed its first version.
- **2017** — Became a founding board member of the Dutch Startup Association.
- **2018** — Identified himself as a co-founder of the THX Project in his DrupalEurope presentation.
- **2019** — GoalGorilla’s agency-to-product transition reached its reorganization phase, as reported by MT/Sprout.
- **2020** — Open Social secured €1.25 million from Peak and Nimbus Ventures.
- **2022** — Open Social was included in MT/Sprout’s Challenger50.
- **2025** — Presented Open Social’s Community Collaboration Platform positioning at the company summit.
- **2026** — Opened Summit ’26 in Rotterdam with a keynote on network platform ownership; joined a BigBlueButton meeting-to-knowledge demonstration.

## Achievements

- Co-founded Open Social with CTO Bram ten Hove.
- Helped build Greenpeace Greenwire, recognized with a Dutch Interactive Award in 2015.
- Co-founded the Splash Awards with Bert Boerland and Imre Gmelig Meijling.
- Founding board member of the Dutch Startup Association.
- Led Open Social through its €1.25 million 2020 investment round.
- Open Social was selected for MT/Sprout’s Challenger50 in 2022.

## Latest updates

- **2026-10** — The October 9 recap of Summit ’26 describes his September 28 keynote on shared memory and ownership, and a meeting-to-knowledge proof of concept with Fred Dixon; ELIA is planned as the first pilot in 2027.
- **2026-01** — Announced Open Social platform support at cost, covering hosting and essential services, for organizations affected by U.S. withdrawal from international institutions.
- **2025-09** — Authored an account of the WE BUILD General Assembly and Open Social’s role supporting collaboration among more than 180 organizations at that time.

## Links

- Website: https://www.getopensocial.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tacopotze/
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/tacopotze

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/taco-potze
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-10-11