Powerful Leadership Insights From HousingAnywhere Founder Niels van Deuren

On Thursday, July 12^th, 2018 I had the honor and pleasure of meeting with Niels van Deuren, founder of HousingAnywhere. Since December of 2017, I’ve been living in Rotterdam, Netherlands. As I build a network out here, I love meeting with influential people and picking their minds about their success – especially founders and/or CEOs of companies, like Niels.

HousingAnywhere is a peer-to-peer ecommerce platform, similar to AirBnB. They are currently in 64 countries and 400 cities, and continuing to grow. The way it works is you search for a room, get in touch with locals directly, and then book your place. If you have a place available for rent, you can also become a verified HousingAnywhere advertiser. It’s a safe and secure platform.

Niels is a respectful, genuine, and overall awesome guy. He’s down-to-earth and understands how to build a successful business. He took the time to give me a tour of his company and I enjoyed learning about the different roles and functions his employees have. I had a chance to meet the CEO, Djordy Seelman. When we sat down to talk, I asked Niels ten questions and we had an enjoyable hour-long discussion. I also did a YouTube video with Niels you’ll find at the end of this post. The following will be in question and answer format.

Jeff: Thank you for meeting with me today Niels. You’ve built a fantastic company and I’d like to learn more about it. My first question is, why did you start this company?

Niels: In the past I did a study abroad semester. I was living in Rotterdam and studied abroad in Singapore. I wanted to sublet my apartment while I was gone, so I did that. I saw it was an effective business model. From there, I helped students with housing and they started to sublet their rooms. I partnered with Maastricht University and the University of Cologne. A lot of students were coming in and out, so there was plenty of opportunity. In 3 to 12 months we were in 24 countries, facilitating the connection between students and landlords. We’ve now expanded into Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Italy, Spain, California, and many other places around the world.

Jeff: That’s a great success story. How do you define leadership?

Niels: As a leader, it’s important to define the OKRs and KPIs (OKR stands for Objectives and Key Results and KPI stands for Key Performance Indicator). These goals are what drive the organization. How people execute is largely up to them. It’s not totally up to them as there will still be general direction from leadership. It’s also about building a community and having people connect. We have soccer games, laser tag, and other team building exercises. We want work to be fun and for people to like their colleagues.

Jeff: What are your biggest leadership challenges?

Niels: We have very ambitious goals. Investors put a few million into our company and they want us to achieve goals. These goals are almost unattainable. In the beginning of this company, we had a lot of students working for us. I had to be strict on leadership at that point to make sure the job was getting done. Slowly as we’ve built our company, we’ve brought on more experienced people and I’ve been able to delegate. Delegating becomes fun the more you do it. I’ve even delegated the job of CEO to someone else. I’m the founder of this company, but not the CEO anymore. I’ve realized you don’t always know best, and you can’t conquer the world on your own.

It’s important to look for growth opportunities. I read The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss and found it inspiring.

In terms of our culture, we have a work/life balance. We encourage employees to dare to go against their boss. We want people to question their bosses and not agree with everything they say. We have people from fifteen nationalities working here, so there are going to be different perspectives. The Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte recently had a discussion with President Trump, and he disagreed with Trump on the spot. This is the kind of directness we encourage.

Jeff: Powerful insights, love what you’re saying here. I recently saw the YouTube video showing the conversation you’re referring to where the Dutch Prime Minister disagreed with President Trump, and I thought it was hilarious that he did that. I’ve also read The 4-Hour Workweek, lots of great insights in there. My next question is, what do you like most about working in ecommerce and a peer-to-peer marketplace?

Niels: I like the scalability of it, as well as the nature of the peer-to-peer network. With word of mouth, a good product spreads quickly. There’s also a close link between the buyer and seller, which allows us to maximize supply.

Jeff: How do you deal with critics? Have you had doubters and people who said you can’t do it?

Niels: Dutch and German competitors were pointed out to me right away. You need to be super convinced it’s a good product. If you fully believe in it yourself one hundred percent, you can go for it. If you are hesitant, you won’t get there.

Jeff: How do you resolve internal disputes?

Niels: Open communication. We discuss everything and everyone is heard. There was a city in Spain some of the company leaders wanted to stop focusing on. Other members of the team who focus on the Spanish market didn’t agree with this decision, instead wanting to keep the focus on this particular city in Spain. They sent us a detailed email explaining why we should keep focusing on this city. This is a good example of how people dare to speak their minds. We didn’t end up continuing to focus on that city in Spain, but we considered everyone’s perspective and input. Even an intern here for one month can have a good idea. They came from the outside and can offer us something.

Jeff: What do you do to establish strong culture?

Niels: Two of our most important values are to be open-minded and to have respect for each other. The rest follows from that. We have an onboarding handbook that I wrote myself. I ask, what is a way for our employees to feel valued? As far as emails, our policy is that you have to respond within 7 days, not 7 minutes. I think of things we can do together after work. Every Friday, we have “beers and cheers”. We also go to events together.

Jeff: What was your biggest setback and how did you overcome it?

Niels: In 2013 we had a potential investor who was a family friend of mine. After the investor was considering giving us half of a million dollars, it fell through. We were running out of money and had to find another investor. When we found another investor, our existing investors had a negative reaction to this. It took three months of convincing and some in-depth conversations, but I eventually got the family friend to invest in us.

Jeff: That’s a fantastic example of persistence. You definitely believe in what you do. Another question I love to ask leaders such as yourself is, how do you manage your own ego? You come across as a genuine guy who doesn’t have a big ego, so I was wondering how you approach finding the balance between confidence and humility.

Niels: It’s a balance. We’re one of the many, many startups. We’re not a Facebook or Airbnb. Confront your ego and your pride with reality. There’s also the likeability factor. Don’t force yourself to be humble – be in your nature. You don’t want to be too humble because then people walk over you. When your ego is too big you start to think you are smarter and better than others, and people will question that. When you ask for help, people are willing to help you. I’d also like to point out that bigger companies need tougher leaders. The leaders of Airbnb and Facebook need thicker skin and to not listen too much to individual opinions. Different leadership styles are needed for different sizes of companies. It’s impressive that Mark Zuckerberg was with his company all the way through the different stages. He must have some social skills because people are helping him.

Jeff: Well said, these are powerful insights. My last question for you is, how have you differentiated your company?

Niels: In the early days we differentiated by keeping the focus on international students. Now, we keep the focus on the product. On our platform, you write a message to the owner and then you’re in touch with them. It’s like the Airbnb model but for mid-long term. Once you’ve sent the message and set up the arrangement, you pay the landlord. We transfer the money 48 hours after you move in to be safe. Once the buyer and seller connect, we facilitate the secure payment.

Jeff: Thank you for your time today, I enjoyed it.

Niels: Happy to be here. Thank you for having me and taking the time as well.

 

Niels van Deuren is founder of HousingAnywhere, a peer-to-peer ecommerce platform. Jeff Davis is an author, authentic leadership speaker, and blogger.