What was your very first job?
""I worked as a dishwasher in the kitchen of a restaurant owned by friends of my parents in Vlissingen, Zeeland. Working for a boss was really not for me even then, because I was always looking for more responsibility and more control. Therefore, pretty soon I focused on preparing the plates and cooking in the restaurant. So I literally loved taking on more responsibility on my plate back then."
What did you aspire to?
"I didn't have a specific goal in my teenage years. At least I knew I wanted to build my wealth and achieve some form of success. In thinking about where my passion and strengths lay, it came out pretty quickly that they were in finance. By doing a lot of reading and research on asset management to trading platforms from the age of 15, I realized pretty quickly that there was a limit to, say, an e-commerce business or a brokerage firm. In the financial industry, I saw enormous opportunities: there is, in fact, unlimited potential in this industry."
What were your next steps?
"Every hour I had free in my schedule I spent gaining information on various financial topics. I did this by watching YouTube videos, reading articles and scouring the Internet. I went deep down the rabbit hole. I wanted to know everything. The salary I earned at the restaurant I put into my accounts on retail trading platforms. However, I could not put this in my own name because of my 15-year-old age, so I traded in my parents' name. Playing around, I started with the oil markets and from there I lost everything several times.
How did you end up in your current job?
"At the age of 17, I found my first consistent successful strategy and I started milking and optimizing that strategy all over. I started producing content and started sharing that content on social media. As a result of my social media, interested people followed me and often asked for advice. Around my strategy, I eventually built educational materials.
I then got in touch with some of my current partners who were in London at the time. They believed in my strategy and had just started their asset management business in which they also operated a piece of trading platform. I built a strategy for this platform: I lobbied my financial network for a year and received many requests through social media. Twelve months later, the project stood like a house.
A little bluffing never hurt anyone; I indicated that I wanted shares. This request worked out surprisingly well: two weeks later I had these shares to my name. At the same time I learned the ins and outs of the business, for example: how regulations work, what strategies can and cannot be offered on retail platforms, and the many ins and outs of the business. To this day, the company still exists and we now operate globally under the name Kapwealth for our asset management division, and Iquoto for the trading platform side; where I am mainly involved in the operations of and around Iquoto."
Your role within Iquoto is not the only thing on your mind. Tell!
""In addition to Iquoto, I founded the TWR Investments Group. Here we focus on the entire supplychain around asset management in order to get as much of the peripheral issues surrounding it under our own control. We actually started doing that by putting all the necessary elements together under one group. Whereas we used to work with various external partners, at some point we became these partners ourselves. That's how the TWR Investments Group was created. So everything is much more within reach and in addition to us. From a small element, we have grown into an entire ecosystem where on the one hand we take on assets and on the other hand we manage and allocate them on a diverse range of products. Today we deal with equities, currencies, real estate, blockchain & cryptocurrency, among others."
Who was your wheelbarrow?
''Those have been my partners from London. Because of them, everything went at a fast pace and I got a lot of opportunities at a young age. In addition, I also benefited greatly from 'my stubborn self'. By just doing, learning and occasionally getting down on myself, I have made progress in my career. That is why I see myself as my mentor, because I always try to get everything out of myself."
What is your greatest passion in your profession?
"Where others do not see opportunities, I do, and for me there is no 'impossible'. A good example is the regulation of various processes and projects. Where some say, 'this will never be approved by the regulator,' we do take on that technological challenge. In short: I love challenges and because of this I get up every day with energy. Many people have said that I am too young and inexperienced, all the way back when, but this has made me fight even harder to prove myself, and I have succeeded quite well. There is no blueprint in this space for success. You have to create it yourself."
What has been the biggest learning moment in your career?
"About four to six years ago, from when I was eighteen to when I was twenty, I really had a tropical time. Success, to be honest, went very much to my head. I started behaving differently and became a tad arrogant. That door hit me very hard, and as I lost €1.3 million of my equity through some good financial misses, I was brought back down to earth. This was mostly due to gathering the wrong people around me and wrong business choices. I was flushing money down the drain. For me, this situation was a very good teaching moment. It showed me that everything can go well, but there can also always be a moment of rain falling on you. However, you can't grow without setbacks."
How do you handle current mega dip situations in the financial markets?
""First of all, I think we have only just started these dips, and there is a lot more to come. On the other hand, I do notice slowing down in different areas, I'm in the middle of some hefty roll outs and I notice that things like fundraising etc are slowing down many times in some places and sometimes even stalling. Then you can either start whining and being difficult because of the setbacks or you can approach it from the other side. This situation happens to every company and it is precisely through such situations that you can show what the founder and the business are made of. With this we show the outside world that the business is actually not affected by bad news from the financial markets, something that in our space contributes greatly to boosting your credibility."
What advice would you give your 18-year-old self?
"Stay focused until certain things run autonomously and only then move on to the new things. In addition, try saying 'no' more often."
Have you been a wheelbarrow for anyone?
"Within our organization we have different elements in which we provide education, webinars, podcasts, among other things. I think it's important to share my knowledge with people so that they too can move forward. I certainly don't see myself as a guru, but I do know what it is to give, as I can also take a lot from it, and I stand by that."
