Attendees at Silicon Luxembourg’s last Startup Apéro of 2025 received the unfiltered story behind one of the Grand Duchy’s most successful scaleups: Salonkee.
What began as a “naive” idea among high school friends has evolved into a European powerhouse, boasting 10,000 salons across six countries, 140 employees, and over 50 million appointments processed. Over the course of an hour, the co-founders shared their journey from a local booking platform to a comprehensive vertical SaaS solution.
While Salonkee is often perceived solely as a booking platform, the founders clarified that the real value lies in being an “all-in-one” operating system. The idea was born in a shisha bar, fuelled by the founders’ personal frustration with calling barbers. However, early market research, conducted by cold-calling salons under the guise of a university project, revealed a larger need.
Today, Salonkee manages the entire business logic for hair and beauty salons: from Point of Sale (POS) and payments to marketing and, soon, banking. As CEO Tom Michels noted, the goal is simple: “The salon should have one system to manage all of its business.”
The “Sales Machine” and Expansion Strategy
Scaling a tech product in a non-tech industry required a specific approach. Alex, head of sales, described the company as a “Sales Machine.” Unlike purely digital startups, Salonkee relies heavily on “boots on the ground.”
“There is no salon with 10 employees where you just send an email and say ‘use this tool,'” head of sales and CSO Alex Claro explained.
The team cut their teeth in Luxembourg, spending two years acquiring their first 80 customers. This manual, door-to-door grind was the proof of concept required to expand. They targeted Belgium and Switzerland first due to market similarities, before tackling the “battlegrounds” of Germany (due to size) and the Netherlands (due to high legacy digitisation).
Funding and Traction
Salonkee’s fundraising journey, from a €1 million Seed round to a massive €28 million Series B in 2023, was driven by a desire to accelerate rather than survive. CFO Samuel Faber noted that while they could have grown organically, they knew international competitors with deep pockets would eventually target Luxembourg.
Michels offered a stark reality check regarding investors: “Nobody cares about the idea. It’s really about execution.” He stressed that founders must prove product-market fit by selling the product themselves before raising capital. “If you as a founder cannot sell it, probably any other person you hire will not be able to sell it.”
The Hardest Lesson
As the team grew from five friends to a staff of 140, the hiring strategy had to mature. Gilberto Fernandes, head of Talent, admitted that early hiring was based on “kindness,” but today involves data-driven processes.
The panel’s collective advice to aspiring founders was unanimous: Do not rush strategic hires. “It’s better to be smaller and struggle than to hire the wrong people,” Michels warned.
This event was sponsored by Gcore, Sponsor, MyConnectivity, Startup Luxembourg and Silversquare.
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