Matthias Browaeys

Matthias Browaeys returns again and again to one idea: financing should be stacked, not mixed. "Iedereen zegt altijd de financieringsmix, maar ik spreek over stapelfinanciering, waarbij dat je elke financieringsmaatregel op elkaar moet gaan stapelen" ¹. In his framework, own capital and crowdfunding form the base layer, and bank or government financing can only be added once that base is solid enough. This is not just rhetoric but a legal and practical point: crowdlending counts as eigen inbreng, own-capital contribution, which means the more you raise from the crowd, the more a bank is willing to co-finance. "Hoe meer crowdlending dat je ophaalt, hoe makkelijker dat een bank gaat meegaan" ¹. He is explicit that Winwinner positions itself as a complement to banks rather than a competitor, built to unlock the rest of the financing stack rather than replace it ².

That view rests on a sober read of what banks actually are. "Realiteit is gewoon: de bank is geen durfkapitaalfonds" ². A bank's no is not arbitrary, in his telling, it signals either shaky financials or gaps in the dossier, and even a yes usually covers only 50 to 60 percent of what a company needs, leaving the entrepreneur to assemble the rest ¹². He is unbothered by the cost of that remaining piece. Crowdlending rates of 8 to 9 percent look expensive in isolation, but he reframes the comparison around growth: "Mensen zeggen ja, 9 procent is veel, maar als gij jaarlijks met 30 of 40 procent groeit, ja, dan is dat wel de delta tussen die 9 procent dat je betaalt en de groei van uw bedrijf" ¹. For him the real cost of capital is not the interest rate but the growth foregone by not raising at all.

Browaeys is equally insistent on discipline in what gets funded. He describes screening roughly 150 dossiers a month and letting only about six onto the platform, filtered through what he calls SNOR: a sustainable business, a network the entrepreneur actively mobilizes, a credible entrepreneur, and a competitive offered return ². Winwinner requires at least two filed annual accounts, demonstrable repayment capacity and co-financing from other parties, and it will hold raised funds in escrow until the rest of the financing is confirmed rather than acting as a last resort or sole financier ¹. He also stresses that momentum is engineered, not accidental: the first 10 to 20 percent of a campaign should come from the entrepreneur's own network, creating urgency once a campaign goes live. "Die campagne was op 24 uur gefinancierd. Ik krijg telefoons achteraf van mensen die kwaad waren dat ze niet konden meedoen, gewoon puur omdat ze te laat waren" ².

A recurring thread across both conversations is his own early miscalculation about credibility. He admits that as a young marketer entering finance, arrogance cost him access to people who could have accelerated the business. "Toen kwam ik niet geloofwaardig genoeg over omdat ik veel te arrogant was en zei van: ik ga dat gewoon zelf doen en ik heb jullie allemaal niet nodig" ¹. He recalls being dismissed outright by traditional finance people, "soms letterlijk uitgelachen" ², and names his biggest regret as waiting too long to partner with mature, credible firms and hire experienced people. The correction came through selling a small stake to a strategic investor early on, which he says opened doors on reputation alone rather than substance, and through moments of unexpected grace, like an official who told him "eigenlijk zou ik je onmiddellijk moeten buiten sturen, maar ik vind het super sympathiek... hier is mijn kaartje" ¹. He treats these as evidence that credibility, not product, was his real early bottleneck.

Internally, he built the company around blunt, self-imposed accountability rather than waiting for an eventual exit. As young founders he and his team set a hard KPI of paying themselves slightly more each month, moving from 500 to 750 to 1000 euros, which forced early revenue discipline ¹. That same instinct shapes his stance on vacation and burnout: if someone works to exhaustion, misses targets, and barely takes time off, he treats it as a structural problem with the job, environment or motivation, not a shortage of vacation days, which is why Winwinner ties unlimited vacation to KPIs rather than headcount policy ¹. He describes his own relationship to the work in almost frictionless terms, "Ik werk super graag, want ik voel niet dat ik aan het werken ben" ¹, and pairs that with advice aimed squarely at other founders: find a coach who develops you as a leader and person, not one who only optimizes revenue, "want dat is key om te blijven ondernemen" ¹.

He is candid that Belgium itself is a constraint rather than a finished market. He argues the country is not yet mature for crowdlending, and that the same effort applied in a more ready market would have produced faster growth, which is why Winwinner is using