This 17-Year-Old Entrepreneur Is The Go-To Social Media Advisor For Major Brands

Meet Matthijs Otterloo a 17 years old entrepreneur from The Netherlands, he started off his career providing SEO services for various websites. One of them being Skweezer where customers can buy Instagram followers. In this highly competitive market, he managed to rank the site on #1 on multiple high-volume keywords. In result, he gained 30% of the revenue, which gave him an excellent starting point for investing in other companies. This project gave him great insight into social media marketing, and the customer's needs, so he proceeded by creating an Instagram management app, which users can use to schedule posts and grow their accounts.

Besides his work in the Instagram industry, Matthijs is a software developer, and he works for some of the biggest companies in the world. When we came across Matthijs on Instagram, we at first couldn't believe he's only 17 years old and still going to school! When we did some more research on Matthijs, we found out he already owned multiple companies, the reason for us to invite him for an interview to find out more!

Tell us a little more about your markets!

I'm in 2 entirely different markets, the market of the trendy Instagram influencers and brands and the market for software development. At first, you'd think these two don't go well together, but I found out they do! Using my knowledge of coding I created multiple software solutions used by brands to grow their Instagram presence and reach their target audience. The experience I already had about the Instagram world helped me a lot and allowed me to build a product which will suit my customer's needs. Besides my software tools, I also provide them with personalized advice on their social media and what they could improve, my goal is for them to reach their next target on Instagram.

You're only 17 years old! Being in this world at such a young age is unique, isn't it?

It is, sometimes brands or influencers will be hesitant for a teenager to advise them on their social media presence and help them reach their next target. However, when I show them some examples and give them some information they're always amazed. What makes me stand out from my competitors is that I work based on targets and not on hourly rates. My goal is to have you reach your target as quickly as possible compared to other companies which will charge you by an hourly rate, something I'm not into.

How do you see the feature of social media?

Nowadays there are many people out there using fake followers to "grow' their brand or profile, but in reality, this does everything except growing your brand. It'll destroy your credibility; I can see many platforms like Instagram are already changing their algorithms based on this and I expect to see the focus shift to the engagement rates. Engagement rates will be deciding on whether you're an influencer or not where it currently is the followers that count.

What was it like selling your first company at 15 years old?

It was a fantastic experience! I feel privileged to have experienced that at such a young age, it's something I could've never dreamed of. It was quite an intense process; it took several weeks to create all the contracts, make deals on what they'd get, etc. We already knew the company was sold 3-4 months before the news came out, when the day of the press release was finally there I felt relieved, I'm now working on a new company with this same team focused on the FinTech world.

How do brands/influencers get to you?

In most worlds many things happen via other connections, in the social media world, it's a little bit different. Lots of people feel uncomfortable sharing they hired someone to help them grow on social media, while there's nothing wrong with this! I often reach out to influencers/brands myself and explain to them what I can do to assist them, and I'll have them try it out for a few days. I never share information on my previous customers since I appreciate their privacy just as much as they do.

What is it like working for those big influencers/brands while going to school?

Sometimes it's hard to realize! Every few weeks I fly out to the USA on Friday afternoon after my last school lesson, spend the weekend working out new concepts and then flying back on Sunday to land in Amsterdam at 6 am and be back in school at 8.30 am. Jetlagged I'll start my schoolday again like nothing happened that weekend, those moments are moments of realization of what a crazy world I live in, but I enjoy every second of it!

Thanks for the interview Matthijs! We're really excited for what's to come, he can be followed on Instagram (@matthijs) and on Twitter (@matthijs_soest) where he shares pictures of his trips and projects he's working on. I'd definitely recommend you to keep an eye out for him and follow him on social media!