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The canal in Amsterdam. Dutch hosting company TransIP is moving into the UK market. Photograph: Ruy Barbosa Pinto/Getty Images/Flickr RF

Leiden in The Netherlands is famous for two things. It is the birthplace of Dutch artist Rembrandt and it has the oldest university in the country, the University of Leiden, which was founded in 1575. Since April, this historic town has extended its links with the UK, as local hosting company TransIP has set up shop in London's TechCity.

Entering a market and location where hosting is extremely competitive was a bold move. It's launch event, Inspiration Centraal, was an eight day celebration of technology and entrepreneurialism and featured talks from the likes of Mindcandy founder Michael Acton-Smith. Over 3,500 people attended, considerably more than would bother to show for an ordinary product launch.

So is this approach the brainchild of TransIP CEO Jeroen Hüpscher, a former PR man for Porter Novelli and general manager of Jazz Radio in Holland?

Hüpscher seems modest, not wanting to take any credit. Perhaps he's a team player? Perhaps that's the point: TransIP does not expect events such as these to be all about the company.

Hüpscher says he wanted to "inspire" people and be associated with the idea that technology, no matter how functional and uninspiring, can actually provide the platform on which people can generate ideas. It's a big ask and he knows it but he's convinced the approach will work.

He talks warmly about his employees, especially the 40 coders who he says are central to the business as "they are the ones executing and often coming up with the ideas and innovation".

That innovation has so far enabled the business to thrive. The company, which started in an attic in 2003, now claims to have over 155,000 customers and owns more than 850,000 domains, making it the biggest hosting company in the Netherlands. In two months it will launch another product into its virtual server range and is drumming up ideas to launch it.

So why London?

"We decided to look at communities that want to achieve things and have great ideas," says Hüpscher, "so we looked around and saw what was happening in London with TechCity. I felt there was an enormous match between startups here and our mentality at TransIP, so it made sense us being there."

He says reaction in the UK has been good, and claims that TransIP's machine in the cloud, that offers a choice of 14 operating systems, is well suited to startups but it's the company's culture that he reckons provides the real differentiation.

"Empowerment and technical knowledge," he says, when asked which two ideas best describe the business. "It's our mentality and understanding of startups that will help us succeed in this competitive space."

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Source: TransIP: the hosting company hoping that London goes Dutch