All Hail Matt Timmons, Prince of Processes!
We all know him. A Kipsu staple who helped make the Customer Partnership Team what it is. His creation of the Market Development process, efforts to grow our partnership portfolio, establishment and maintenance of team culture, and countless other contributions have shaped our company’s identity. He’s a tremendously hard worker with unparalleled emotional intelligence. He’s a great storyteller and quick to laugh, even if only out of politeness because your joke was lame. He will drop what he’s doing to listen or help when you need it most and can do an amazing Foghorn Leghorn impression. We all know him, but wouldn’t we all like to know him better? The man. The myth. The legend. Matthew Timmons, ladies and gents! Please hold your applause until the end. Thank you for your cooperation.
December 9th, 2015 is a day that Kipsu will not soon forget - the day that Matt Timmons became Kipsu’s 11th employee. He dove headfirst into a new role (like literally...up until Matt’s arrival, Kipsu never had a person dedicated to lead generation), rolled up his sleeves and set to work creating a Market Development process. That’s right. From the ground up. It was a huge undertaking, but Matt was thrilled at the opportunity, “It meant I’d get to blaze a trail, figure a lot of things out, not figure a lot of things out, take educated guesses, gather data, stumble around, iterate, and do it all over again.” It’s a process that’s had a facelift or two to account for scale, but to this day, over four years later, Kipsu still largely relies on the process Matt painstakingly, but gleefully vetted out.
A Matt Timmons in his natural Downtown Minneapolis habitat.
Over the course of his career at Kipsu, Matt officially shifted his focus to sales. Unofficially, he wears dozens of hats at Kipsu and works across several teams, “I work to educate future hospitality partners on how our tool and our team can plug into their operations to better connect with guests in the moment. A day in my life involves a lot of customer interaction through product walkthroughs and regular correspondence. A prominent piece of my time is spent listening to the hotelier to understand their priorities and to ensure we’re all aligned. It’s a smattering of sending agreements, following up with proposals, conducting demos, training in new team members, interviewing to build our team, one-on-one’s with coworkers, contributing to committees, etc. There is no shortage of opportunities to dig in on our team.”
Speaking of team, one could argue Matt is a catalyst for Kipsu’s team. He leads by example, never asks anyone to do something he wouldn’t do (or already did) himself, sets the expectation of what a Kipsuvian is, and plays an immense role in Kipsu’s interview, hiring, and onboarding process. Talk to any employee hired after December 2015, and you’ll find the majority of them encountered Matt during their interview process. He cares a lot about his coworkers and the team Kipsu is building. “I’m motivated by my colleagues who thread the needle on taking themselves just seriously enough. I look around and constantly find team members stretching themselves professionally, creating a game plan out of little history or context, experimenting, and listening. Everybody I get to work alongside truly cares about our drive to empower service leaders.”
"Our team has taken a firm stance that there will forever be intrinsic value in human connection. We stand apart from peers looking to cut service staff out of the equation. We stand apart from teams that have tried to create artificial intelligence to mirror human behavior. We’re proud to stand apart and stake our flag on using digital innovation to bring people closer to one another through genuine interaction.”
In typical Matt fashion, he takes this building solid relationships with colleagues, to the next level: service professionals. “Let’s build a relationship! At every juncture, we put our customer first and think through how we could best create customer partnership, not sales or signed contracts, but colleagues looking to dig in with us.” It might be his eloquence, the knowledge of Kipsu, his curiosity and drive to learn, or his charming Minnesota accent, but it’s impossible to not want to be Matt’s friend, let alone buy something from him. Cue the Tommy Boy reference of selling a ketchup popsicle to a lady in white gloves. That’s Matt. (Except, she’d go back for seconds).
December marked Matt’s fourth anniversary at Kipsu. He’s been with Kipsu through its highest growth periods. It’s not surprising that he feels tremendously connected to Kipsu, “In a lot of ways, I resonate with Kipsu’s journey as a company. My professional and personal development feels mirrored by Kipsu’s. As I’ve grown and matured, the company has as well. I feel like I’ve been lock-step with Kipsu and I have a lot of gratitude for that.” I don’t want to speak on behalf of Kipsu, but I will. The feeling is mutual, sir.
Kipsu has already defied the odds. According to Embroker, 90% of startups fail. Furthermore, Kipsu isn’t venture backed. So what is Kipsu’s secret sauce to success? As one of Kipsu’s forefathers, Matt has a theory on this, at least in the customer service realm, “When I look at the landscape of digital innovation, most of it centers on efficiency, automation, and replication of human behavior. Our team has taken a firm stance that there will forever be intrinsic value in human connection. We stand apart from peers looking to cut service staff out of the equation. We stand apart from teams that have tried to create artificial intelligence to mirror human behavior. We’re proud to stand apart and stake our flag on using digital innovation to bring people closer to one another through genuine interaction.”
40% of the Kipsu Sales Team
This cohesion and connectedness extends to Kipsu’s team dynamics. Matt elaborates, “Our team is a place for people to feel their impact. There is always a mountain to climb. Everybody is encouraged to dig in, give it their all, and report back. To have the freedom to work in a multitude of lanes has been invaluable in the early stages of my career. I’d welcome anyone who’s looking for something similar to reach out and start a conversation! The sky is Kipsu’s limit - and even then, we’ll go there, too, if they build a hotel on Mars.” E.T. would have gotten home a lot faster had he been able to text his family rather than having to rely solely on phoning home. Just sayin’.
If you haven’t had the pleasure of being in Matt’s wake, and would like to not only meet him, but work beside him, Kipsu is hiring! We’re always looking for customer-obsessed, motivated professionals who have moxy and are indulgent in a few laughs along the way. Be a part of Kipsu’s journey and growth, and check out our open positions! I’ve already volunteered Matt to take you to coffee on your first day, if that sweetens the deal. If you’re lucky, you may even get to hear that Foghorn Leghorn impression, which I can personally attest is a total day-maker.
