Why I started VIRTUS
I strongly believe in personal responsibility.
In business, that means being willing to take risks, make decisions and accept the consequences that come with them. But that does not mean you have to do everything alone.
The right adviser can help create clarity, challenge assumptions and improve the quality of important decisions.
That is the role I enjoy most.
I am not someone who simply agrees with everything a client says. If I believe something is not the right decision, I will say so. And when I see an opportunity, I prefer to create momentum rather than overcomplicate it.
A client does not always need to be told that they are right.
But they should always know that the advice they receive is honest.
The numbers matter. So does the person behind them.
Financial services can easily become impersonal.
Reports. Deadlines. Tax filings. Models.
All of those things matter, but behind every business there is ultimately a person trying to build something.
Often with employees depending on them. A family at home. Personal wealth tied up in the company. And ambitions that may have taken years to develop.
That is why I find it difficult to look at business and personal financial decisions as completely separate matters.
An entrepreneur who wants to grow, finance or sell a business rarely has a purely technical financial question.
There is almost always more going on.
That broader conversation is exactly what I find interesting.
How I like to work
I work best with entrepreneurs who combine ambition with common sense.
People who want to move forward, take responsibility and are open to an honest conversation.
That does not always need to be formal.
In fact, I believe the best conversations often happen when you know each other well, trust one another and can say what you genuinely think without unnecessary layers in between.
And for me, being a good adviser also means being there when things become difficult.
Not only when everything is going according to plan.
What comes next
VIRTUS starts with my own experience and way of working, but the ambition is much bigger than building a firm around one person.
I want to build an organisation with strong people who feel the same level of commitment to the entrepreneurs they work with.
A firm where quality is a given, but people are still genuinely accessible.
Where an accountant looks beyond the annual accounts.
And where financial advice ultimately serves one purpose:
helping entrepreneurs build better businesses and make better decisions.
That is why I started VIRTUS.
Kevin van de Poll
Founder, VIRTUS Group