CEO Insights Magazine

As the second largest economy in South-East Asia, Thailand is fast emerging as one of the fastest growing startup hubs in the region. The country’s strategic location, easy access to skilled talent, increased VC investment, and large middle class are some of the key factors that are driving the startup ecosystem within the country. As a result, Thailand is ranked No.21 in the World Bank’s latest Ease of Doing Business Ranking. Thus, we see an increased number of individuals gathering limelight in recent times through their industry experience, tech finesse and exceptional business acumen. One such entrepreneur taking his venture towards the pinnacles of success is Maxwell Meyer, Co-Founder & CEO of Masii. 

After graduating from prestigious institutions Phillips Academy Andover in Andover, MA, and Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Max moved to China and started working for McKinsey & Company. Owing to his experiences there in growth strategy, M&A and other critical aspects, he started his own company named Masii in 2016 with a vision to provide an efficient and reliable platform for people in Thailand to compare insurance and other financial products. He also works as a University Lecturer at Harbour. Space University and is Chairman of the Open Mind Legacy Project in New York, which recently debuted season 2 of their show 'Breaking Bread with Alexander' on Bloomberg.

CEO Insights Asia recently got the opportunity to interact with Max, wherein he shared information about his company Masii, his leadership approach and many other interesting topics. Below are a few key extracts from the exclusive interview.

What inspired you to quit your job at McKinsey and take the entrepreneurial path?

The three years that I spent at McKinsey will always be very close to my heart. Among the many projects that I handled during that time, the ones that intrigued me the most involved getting deep into operations. I always preferred working on projects with immediate impact rather than those more abstract in nature. Most importantly, I wanted to pivot from being an advisor who chalks-out strategies to the person actually implementing those strategies. So I moved out of McKinsey and started a venture in Thailand named Masii, which translates roughly to ‘come in, have a look’ in Thai.

Masii is a website with two main product areas - insurance and personal finance. Considering the expansive number of insurance and banking options in Thailand, Masii enables customers to compare different options and select the one that fits their needs. Within the Masii ecosystem we operate a fully licensed insurance brokerage for life and non-life insurance, and a fully licensed bank lender through which qualified and creditworthy customers are able to receive loans in less than 20 minutes. In insurance and banking we’ve innovated to make the market more efficient for our customers. 

At the core, our aim is to enhance financial literacy among the general public by creating insightful and creative content that people can view on our website to have a better understanding of their loans and insurance. I am proud to say that since our inception, around 50 percent of Thailand's entire adult population has visited our website and read this content at least once. Our website today sees monthly traffic of over one million customer visits.

Throw some light on your success mantra so far, along with the ethics and principles that you follow.

My foremost priority is to run the company in an ethical way and remain fair & honest with all our stakeholders – that includes our customers, our employees, and our shareholders. I try to inspire a culture of creativity and ownership across the entire organization, where my team members can experiment freely and come-up with new ideas and innovations. We learn from our failures and celebrate our successes together. I keep a non-hierarchical work culture, wherein even the most junior team members can freely approach me and discuss their ideas. Through it all, I make sure to stay resilient and remain undeterred even when faced with adversity. I tell the team that any barriers or challenges we face are also faced by any competitors, and each challenge presents us with a chance to prove our merit. 

How do you keep yourself updated with the latest tech advancements and use them to your advantage?

I try and surround myself with people who are much smarter than I am, which is admittedly not so difficult (smiles). I learn from those around me, I ask questions, and try to stay abreast of the latest technologies and how we can use them to serve our customers. For example, low income people in Thailand have a difficult time getting personal loans because traditional banks tend to have stringent offline pre-requisites such as requiring wet signatures on loan applications and in-person KYC. This process alone can cost the bank over $20 per loan, which the bank must recover back by charging more interest. By integrating the best technologies into our online loan application, we have cut-down processing fees to the bare minimum, and return that money to customers through lower interest rates. We are admittedly David to the bank’s Goliath, but I believe with the right support we can expand our model and deliver increasingly lower interest rates to people who need it.

What is your advice to young entrepreneurs and individuals aspiring to start their own venture?

It is so difficult to build something from nothing. Be prepared mentally and physically for the long journey that lies ahead of you. Enjoy the successes, but make sure to learn from your mistakes.

Maxwell Meyer, Co-Founder & CEO, Masii

With a background from Phillips Academy Andover and Harvard University, Max leverages his expertise from McKinsey & Company to drive Masii's mission of enhancing financial literacy and offering efficient financial solutions. Max contributes as a lecturer at Harbour.Space University and serves as Chairman of the Open Mind Legacy Project.