How to travel as entrepreneurs
My interview with Kévin and Matthieu, co-founders of Spitche, Expatyo & Meltin’ afterworks
In our Nomads Profiles series we feature interviews with digital nomads and nomads entrepreneurs with interesting profiles, from all over the world. We hope they will inspire you as much as they inspire us!
This week we talked to Kévin and Matthieu, 2 Frenchies co-founders of Spitche, Expatyo & Meltin’ Afterworks.
Hi Kévin! Hi Matthieu! Who are you and what do you do?
Hi Ahlem, thanks for doing the interview. We’re Kévin & Matthieu, co-founders of Spitche, Expatyo & Meltin’ Afterworks. Our aim is to help entrepreneurs and businesses develop successful strategies through innovative digital solutions.
Can you maybe tell us a bit more about you and your background?
We are 2 young entrepreneurs with an international and multicultural background, constantly looking for innovation and positive change. Passionate by people, travel, digital and technology, we’re always happy to meet, talk and share ideas around business development and many other topics.
Experience and freedom are our mantras.
Experience is important in order to develop a clear point of view about the world that surrounds us. This experience allowed us the freedom to create together the inspiration to keep things moving.
We have been entrepreneurs since the end of our business & marketing studies. We launched several startups and projects including Spitche and Expatyo. We’re from the Paris area and now live in Barcelona, with a team based in France, Spain and Colombia.
A question that I often get personally is “how did you get an idea to start a business?” I say it’s drawing from personal experience. So tell us, how did you get the idea for Spitche?
Spitche is our first startup, created 2 years ago. This platform allows brands to create and centralize their digital content that ambassadors (employees, partners, customers) re-share on their own social media profiles in order to amplify the visibility of the brand and get new customers. Relationship between the brand and its ambassadors is the innovative point of this digital marketing platform, built through gamification and rewards to ensure engagement.
We started Spitche after a first entrepreneurship experience. We had been asking ourselves how people and businesses could use their network efficiently for a better and faster growth. Then, after developing about 10 different business plans, we launched Spitche! The product is officially on the market since March 2017 and we’re proud to see that it’s off to a great start!
We would say that talking with a lot of people, traveling, working hard and mixing our experiences helped us bring this idea to life.
You are young entrepreneurs not having a typical path. Are your friends and family supportive?
We get a lot of support from our friends and family! They were always interested by what we wanted to achieve and it was a good experience to try to explain our ideas to them. We actually used their feedbacks to write the first lines.
Now onto travelling. As entrepreneurs, do you get to travel as often as you’d wish? How do you travel?
Yes, we travel a lot! Everything started with Erasmus, Alicante for me and Budapest for Matthieu, about 6 years ago. Then we lived in different countries (China, the UK, the US, Spain, etc..) and experienced many different parts of the world.
We do not really enjoy all inclusive 5 stars hotels but we prefer living with local people and discover the real mood and culture of the streets.
What would be your favorite place to work from?
Barcelona for sure! We usually work from everywhere: home, coworking offices or coffees, a terrace in front of the beach, etc…
We think that Barcelona is a great city in Europe for innovation, technology, startups and entrepreneurs.
We believe it’s becoming a major hub in Europe. It could become the Silicon Valley of Europe! That’s why we organize monthly afterworks here… where we met you ☺
For us Barcelona might be the best city in the world, a city between sea and mountains, with a great climat. We enjoy a lot the life here and you can find us on the beach playing Beach Volley or American Football or having a drink on a rooftop !
You mentioned the afterworks that you organize which is one way to meet people. How do you usually make friends in a new city?
We like to meet new people all the time, that is why we go to networking afterworks every week and also decided to create our own events with Meltin’ Afterworks. Very often, the people we meet in those events share the same interests and are like-minded so we tend to become friends with them. We also like to be surrounded by local people to understand better their culture and do new things with them, so going to salsa classes is another way to meet people and make friends.
Being startup cofounders comes with its advantages but also challenges. For you, what would they be?
In terms of pros, definitely the freedom, the freedom of doing what we like ; it doesn’t matter if we have to work 12 hours a day as long as we like what we do.
The challenges are that we have to fix our own goals without knowing what tomorrow is going to look like.
Can be scary but it is surely exciting!
In terms of finances, what is your monthly budget and how do you make money?
Barcelona is a city that isn’t too expensive but surely not a cheap one. I would say you can live with €900 including accommodation, food and entertainment but if you want to live well, try fancy restaurants and bars, go out etc… I would suggest to have around €1300. To plan the finances, we live together and share the food ; we use the Tricount App to know who paid what and try to maintain a balance. The money we earn comes from the startups we work for (Spitche, Expatyo and Eventtia), plus we create WordPress sites for our clients and we are going to launch a consultant workshop here in Barcelona for people who have ideas and want to develop projects and find a team.
For those who want to follow your path, what would you recommend to them? Any sets of skills?
Regarding the skills we would advise to be very open minded, have good communication skills, be energetic, focused, and know well the digital world if you want to work remotely. You can create websites, be a consultant in SEO or any type of marketing.
Try to be as innovative as you can!
Final question, what’s next for you?
What comes next for us ? We are planning a road trip in Spain / Portugal for this summer to know better the country we’re living in, as well as discover another one, and of course grow our startups which is the main focus for us right now !
Best of luck with the exciting adventures ahead! 🙂
Thank you Kévin and Matthieu for sharing your experience with the DN:m community! If you like the article, spread it by giving a 💓 and subscribe to the DN:m newsletter
All images: credit of Kévin and Matthieu and used with their permission
This article was originally published on digitalnomadsmedia.com on May 18— Find more about Kévin and Matthieu in the full article.
