Matthijs Keij | Building an Effective Team, Working with Investors and the Importance of Values
Matthijs Keij is the CEO of Withlocals, an international experiential company that connects people to local hosts who offer private, personalised tours from all over the world.
Before Withlocals he founded companies in online marketing and technology and led them to a successful exit, building extensive knowledge in how businesses work and developing his entrepreneurial talent.
Matthijs has had a fascinating journey in business, working for multiple companies that he has gone on to sell, and working in both startups and then corporate environments after selling those businesses.
It has given him a hugely informed view of what makes successful businesses (and startups in particular) tick, and he delivers it with an incredibly calming tone as you would expect from a man who has been there and done it!
This conversation covers a wide variety of those learnings, from growing a successful team to how you should establish your mission as a company and how that should then flow down into all elements in the business structure.
We also discuss how Matthijs satisfies his desire to learn (and specific ways he goes about that), along with insight into working with investors, tips for bigger thinking, leadership and hiring approaches he uses.
This one is packed with value from top to bottom, so make sure you’ve got your notepad at the ready…
Enjoy!
Podcast Timestamp
0:02:20
What did you want to be when you grew up?
0:04:50
Did you think you were going to be an entrepreneur?
0:08:00
Moving into the startup world and running a marketing agency
0:15:00
Changing from the agency to launch a new startup
0:18:20
Selling the business and everything it entailed, then starting corporate life
0:23:00
Benefits of smaller business versus larger organisations
0:27:00
Methods of ongoing learning
0:30:00
Joining WithLocals and growing a team
0:34:00
Investment – what to look out for and how to approach it
0:42:00
Advice for bigger thinking
0:47:45
The importance of having a mission and how it impacts the wider business
0:56:20
How to build an engaged team
1:06:30
Recommendations for hiring good people
1:10:30
Effective (and ineffective) marketing strategies
1:13:20
Building the brand
1:17:00
Where does he get inspiration from
1:19:00
Advice to someone starting their own travel business
1:25:00
Closing remarks
Links Mentioned
WithLocals
WithLocals for Teams
Matthijs Keij Twitter
Reforge
Quora
Unit Economics
