Danny Schuurman, founder of Apex Partnerships & Advisory
About Apex Partnerships & Advisory

A founder who thinks in structures.

Apex is one person, working from Amsterdam across Europe. I represent Elite profiles whose reputation is earned, Serdar Gözübüyük among them. My job is to find the organisation each of them belongs with, make the introduction, agree the terms, and stay on as their point of contact for years after the deal is signed. When a career or a brand has not settled on a direction yet, I map the options and recommend one.

Founded 2026 · Amsterdam
Practice Architecture & advisory
Principle Fit over reach
The founder · Amsterdam

Danny Schuurman.

Founder. Reads every message himself, and stays the same person from the first email to the signed agreement.

Danny Schuurman, founder of Apex Partnerships and Advisory, photographed in Amsterdam
01. Why Apex exists

Reach is easy to sell. Whether someone fits is what decides if the partnership works.

A person has earned authority and something they visibly stand for. An organisation has a public it wants to reach and a reason it wants to be trusted. Often both want the same thing and have never been in a room together.

The influencer model sells the opposite: the largest audience for hire, whether or not it belongs anywhere near the brand. Apex starts from fit instead, the right person for what the organisation is trying to reach. It works the same for a watchmaker, a bank, a municipality or a police force.

That is architecture. It means learning what the organisation is trying to do and what the person is known for, then writing an agreement that holds for years.

"The right person already stands for what you are trying to reach. Most of the time, neither side has seen it yet."

02. How Apex works

Five things that do not change.

01
Fit comes before reach.
The match is built on what a person stands for and what an organisation needs. Audience size does not settle it. Reach that does not fit is a cost.
02
Authority is earned, then protected.
Apex works with authority that comes from demonstrated work. Once it is real, the job is to protect it, no partnership that borrows credibility it cannot return, and exclusivity where the fit needs defending.
03
Aligned with the outcome.
Apex is engaged for the work and compensated on what closes. Advisor and client have the same thing at stake: whether the partnership holds, and whether it compounds.
04
No is a full answer.
Most approaches are the wrong fit, and Apex says so in the first conversation. The wrong partnership costs more than none: it takes the place the right one would have held.
05
The founder is the firm.
Every conversation, every contract, every renewal is with the same person. Apex is not built to scale through hiring. The smallness is deliberate.
Danny Schuurman, founder, at his desk in Amsterdam
03. From the founder

A note from the founder.

I do one thing. I connect the right person to the right organisation, and write the agreement that keeps them together for years.

Most of this industry sells reach: a number, an audience, a post. It is easy to sell and it rarely holds, because fit is what keeps a partnership together.

So I work the other way around. I read what an organisation is trying to do, in its own words, and what a person stands for, in their work. When the two line up, I build the partnership and stay on as the person who runs it, through every renewal.

I’m good at spotting when a person and an organisation fit, even when other people miss it. I’ve worked on both sides: years in enterprise software and years around elite sport. That’s why Apex often lands on a match an agency would have walked straight past. And someone has to judge which offers build on twenty years of standing and which spend it. That judgment is the product.

It works the same whether the partner is a brand or a public institution. What matters is that the person belongs there, and that both sides can defend the match in a room without me. The firm declines more often than it engages, and takes on the next partnership only when it can be carried with the same care as the first.

If something here reads like a brief you would have written yourself, the door is open. The first conversation is unhurried, and there is no pitch.

Danny Schuurman

Founder · Amsterdam

Based Amsterdam, Netherlands
Languages Dutch · English
Operating area Europe
Direct contact info@apexpartnerships.nl
04. How Apex is engaged

Three things, built into the firm.

Aligned

Aligned with the outcome.

Apex is engaged for the work and compensated on what closes. The structure is transparent and the incentive is shared: it pays when the partnership is built. Specific terms are agreed per relationship, in conversation.

Direct

No introduction fees. Ever.

No fee for the first conversation, no fee for an introduction, on either side. Fit can only be judged honestly when there is no invoice riding on the answer.

Founder-led

One person, end to end.

From the first email to the signed renewal, every interaction is with the founder. No account managers and no handoffs. Both sides always know who is responsible for the partnership.

05. Who Apex works with

We work with people who have earned their authority, and the organisations that need it.

On one side, people whose authority comes from what they have demonstrably done. On the other, organisations that choose their partners on credibility: brands, but also causes, institutions and public bodies.

Both sides are in it for years. These are partnerships written to hold and defensible on both sides, across premium brands, financial and professional services, and public and societal work alike.

Individuals Earned authority, elite officials, executive and public figures
Organisations Credibility-led, brands, causes, institutions, public bodies
Horizon Multi-year, built to compound
Structure Written, exclusive where it matters, defensible both ways
Geography Europe · Netherlands, Germany, UK, Belgium
Currently active Serdar Gözübüyük · UEFA Elite Referee
Begin the conversation

You reach the founder directly.

An organisation can open a conversation about a partnership. A person can write directly about representation. Either way it is the same door, with the same person behind it. The first conversation is confidential.

Book a call
Or write directly to info@apexpartnerships.nl