2. How Malt Expanded Across Europe: What to Centralize vs Localize

Next Market Live – The Podcast by Weglot explores what it really takes to grow beyond your home market. Each episode is a conversation with the people behind that expansion: marketing leaders, partnership managers, founders, and operators, all sharing their strategies for scaling internationally. In this episode, Quentin Debavelaere shares the hard-earned lessons behind scaling Malt across Europe. From early missteps in Spain to structuring teams across markets, he breaks down what actually slows (or unlocks) expansion. It’s a practical playbook on why being on the ground, setting the right targets, and adapting locally makes all the difference. About Quentin: Quentin joined Malt (then called Hopwork) as COO and one of its first employees in 2015. Over nearly 11 years at the company, he led its expansion across Spain, Germany, Benelux, the Middle East, and the UK – relocating his family to London to personally run the UK launch. Before Malt, Quentin spent five years at McKinsey after training as an engineer, giving him a mix of strategic and operational experience that shaped how he approaches market entry. What you'll learn in this episode of Next Market Live: Why a “no competition” market is often harder, not easier, than one with established players What localization really means beyond translation, and the legal, payment, and UX gaps that trip up most first-time market entries Why early-market targets often demotivate teams and how to structure incentives instead Why pricing in new markets should start higher than you think (Malt almost tripled its corporate fees in Spain without pushback) What changed when Quentin moved to the UK versus managing Spain remotely, and why “you don't build trust on Zoom” The cultural decoding guide for selling across Europe: transactional Dutch, detail-driven Germans, top-down Spanish, and polite-but-opaque Brits Connect with Quentin: LinkedIn Mentioned in the episode: Malt · Aircall · Spendesk · Qonto · Comatch (acquired by Malt) ► Ready to scale your brand across languages? Weglot uses AI to translate your website into any language in under 10 minutes. Try it for free ► Questions? Reach us at support@weglot.com Co-Production: MonkeyBird Production Studio: Studio The Pod, Paris Make-up artist: Livia Delacroix Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.