Joost de Valk

Professional info

Joost has a background as an SEO, digital marketer and web developer (in fact he still spends between 25-50% of his time coding). In the early days of his career, he worked in several IT companies, ranging from enterprise hosting to online marketing agencies. This allowed him to work with several large brands around the world.

In 2010 he founded Yoast, which has as its mission to allow as many people as possible to build a findable website. It empowers people through software (most notably its Yoast SEO plugin) and training. Team Yoast currently consists of more than 80 people. Yoast SEO is currently available for four open source platforms and active on more than 8 million websites.

Besides Yoast, Joost & Marieke have invested in several companies. As a result, Joost also has several advisory roles, he currently serves as an advisor to Mapfit and Student.com. More about their investments can be found on the website of their investment vehicle Altha.

Private life

Joost (36) and his wife Marieke live in Wijchen, near Nijmegen, where Yoast also has its main offices. Joost and Marieke have four kids: Tycho, Wende, Ravi & Borre, who are between 3 and 12 years old.

Outside of work Joost enjoys reading, photography and playing board games with his kids.