Eric Smit

Eric Smit an investigative journalist/social entrepreneur. He is co-founder of the new Big Tech watchdog The Firewall and co-founder and former editor in chief of Follow the Money (FTM.nl), the first independent (for profit) platform for investigative journalism in the Netherlands. FTM strives for transparency and justice in a world that is ever more controlled by economic motives. Follow the Money has more than 50.000 paying subscribers (January 2026). In September 2004 his first book - De broncode (The source code) - was published. It's a story about a man who invented an unthinkable coding technology that would change the world, who died before he could transfer the source code. 

In March 2010 his second bestseller hit the shelves - Nina, de onweerstaanbare opkomst van een power lady (literally translated: Nina, the irresistible emergence of a power lady). The main character of the book - the founder of the internet company World Online - put serious effort in trying to prevent the publication of this book. In 2013 he won the journalism award De Tegel, together with Jesse Frederik. In 2018, together with journalist Kim van Keken, he was awarded Dutch journalist of the year (2017) and also won the Anne Vondeling prize for political journalism for their muckraking stories that disclosed the unethical business dealings of the chairman of the most powerful political party of the Netherlands (VVD).