Pepijn van Kesteren - CEO - Zelf episode artwork

EPISODE · May 23, 2025 · 1H 5M

Pepijn van Kesteren - CEO - Zelf

from The Ad Podcast · host Dylan Conroy

Pep loves working with amazing people, He loves solving problems, and he loves meeting new folks from everywhere in the world.Currently, he has the privilege of leading a fantastic team of engineers and business leaders. Together they are driving the future of brand-consumer relationships. They are building SaaS that helps brands uncover authentic conversations at scale and help them put the most effective marketers front and center – everyday people with 4-8x better engagement on vertical video than produced, branded content.Zelf brings together Pep's long-time passions. Originally from the Netherlands, he studied astrophysics while dipping his toes in video-making and progressive political activism. At the age of 9, he had his first entrepreneurial venture and had the fortune of living various lives since: from popcorn baker, to video editor, to sustainability activist, and eventually joining the consulting firm McKinsey & Company, before founding his first company.McKinsey allowed him to see the workings of a wide array of industries (consumer goods, e-commerce, retail, food, finance, etc.), took him all over the world and allowed him to live and work on all of the six major continents, with most notably business building adventures in Vietnam, Thailand, Sydney, Madagascar, Colombia, and the US, all with fantastic people.From there, he had the honor to pursue his MBA at MIT Sloan — where I founded Alfie one of the first movers in ISAs (Income Share Agreements) and through which he met so many of the amazing people that are now helping me build Zelf.

Pep loves working with amazing people, He loves solving problems, and he loves meeting new folks from everywhere in the world.Currently, he has the privilege of leading a fantastic team of engineers and business leaders. Together they are driving the future of brand-consumer relationships. They are building SaaS that helps brands uncover authentic conversations at scale and help them put the most effective marketers front and center – everyday people with 4-8x better engagement on vertical video than produced, branded content.Zelf brings together Pep's long-time passions. Originally from the Netherlands, he studied astrophysics while dipping his toes in video-making and progressive political activism. At the age of 9, he had his first entrepreneurial venture and had the fortune of living various lives since: from popcorn baker, to video editor, to sustainability activist, and eventually joining the consulting firm McKinsey & Company, before founding his first company.McKinsey allowed him to see the workings of a wide array of industries (consumer goods, e-commerce, retail, food, finance, etc.), took him all over the world and allowed him to live and work on all of the six major continents, with most notably business building adventures in Vietnam, Thailand, Sydney, Madagascar, Colombia, and the US, all with fantastic people.From there, he had the honor to pursue his MBA at MIT Sloan — where I founded Alfie one of the first movers in ISAs (Income Share Agreements) and through which he met so many of the amazing people that are now helping me build Zelf.

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Pepijn van Kesteren - CEO - Zelf

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This episode was published on May 23, 2025.

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Pep loves working with amazing people, He loves solving problems, and he loves meeting new folks from everywhere in the world.Currently, he has the privilege of leading a fantastic team of engineers and business leaders. Together they are driving...

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