Father of four — Amélie, Mika, Eli and Mia — living on a houseboat in the center of Amsterdam. Mathys (1974) has been building companies for 25+ years. He started his first while studying Astronomy and Computer Science at Leiden University, then spent the dot-com boom of '99 in Silicon Valley before going all-in on the web. He's drawn to projects that improve his own life or the world right around him — that's what gets his clock ticking fastest. With 30 companies and projects behind him, he's now focused on Playbook, and the tech-for-good startup Kinder. He is also the founder of Mobypicture and its Real Time Web Product Tag The Love, and secretly working on Peter's Pan.
He advises and mentors founders and early-stage startups on the regular.
“I like to observe people and improve the way we do things.”
Playbook helps teams collaborate better, wherever and whenever they work — interactive tools, gamification, and human content grounded in real behaviour change, built for clients like Deutsche Telekom and the Municipality of Zaanstad. Kinder empowers global citizens to contribute to a kinder world. to:co is a voice-first thinking tool for builders — speak it in, get the work out. Journall turns your daily photos into a journal that quietly tracks how you're doing.
He's picked up a few prestigious awards along the way — Red Herring 100, a Webby, Vodafone Mobile Clicks — and was named Online Media Man of the Year and Startup Founder by The Next Web.
Follow Mathys on Instagram or connect on LinkedIn. Looking for advisory or mentorship? Check this page — or book a meeting directly.
