About & Team
Keycafe provides cutting-edge property access management tools for everybody from individuals renting out their home to enterprises building their own sharing economy applications.
In 2012 founder Clayton Brown had the idea for Keycafe when he had a midnight call from a rental guest who couldn't get into his apartment due to a missed key handoff from the cleaner. He thought there had to be a better way, so he set out to create a solution to help himself and others who had the same need.
Keycafe began in a single cafe in Vancouver where the barista would hold keys for local apartment owners and has since evolved into our global network of key exchange locations, enterprise offering, and other solutions including real-time photo ID. Keycafe is very proud of our caring and dedicated team of engineers, support and management who have now helped facilitate over 1 million key exchanges in 3,400 locations in 44 cities worldwide. Our mission is to ensure our customers have a seamless access experience.
Keycafe Management Team
Alexia Brown-Anderson
Head of Support
Alexia is a member of the Keycafe Customer Service team. She believes “teamwork makes the dream work” and she is dedicated to creating a positive experience for Keycafe’s customers. Prior to Keycafe, Alexia worked in customer relations, sales and marketing and graphic design. She has worked with international companies such as Sandals, Vistaprint and Luxury Resorts, just to name a few. Alexia studied Hospitality Management and Cultural Exchange with American Hospitality Academy, Sales and Marketing with The University of the West Indies and Customer Service and Front Office Operations with Heart Trust NTA.
Bill Diamond
CFO
Bill Diamond is the Chief Financial Officer of Keycafe Inc. With over 20 years of experience, Bill has acquired a broad range of experience in governance, financial planning, controlling, treasury, and operations. Bill is a creative thinker with a financial mind and thrives on finding solutions where others see roadblocks. Bill’s career focus has been working in a CFO capacity with early stage startup companies. He has a Bachelor of Arts Degree in History and a Diploma in Business Administration from Wilfrid Laurier University.
Clayton Brown
CEO and Co-founder
Clayton's inspiration for Keycafe came when he had key exchange struggles as an Airbnb host. He observed a simple solution while living in a European walkup for several years – residents dropped their key with the downstairs cafe to get them to friends and family.
Clayton is responsible for Keycafe's vision, strategy and growth.
Prior to Keycafe, Clayton worked as a principal at a family office in Vancouver and as a consultant at McKinsey & Company. He has over $2 billion in private equity and new venture transaction experience. During his university training, Clayton studied Symbolic Systems and won awards for software and algorithm design. He earned his MBA, BS, and BA from Stanford University.
Jason Crabb
CMO and Co-founder
Jason is dedicated to making Keycafe's experience a great one for customers and merchants. Jason oversees Keycafe’s growth and key business relationships.
Prior to joining Keycafe, Jason served as chief marketing officer to Nautilus Explorer and Nautilus Lifeline, organizing excursions to remote diving locales and launching a new scuba radio technology that has transformed dive safety internationally. Before marine technology, he owned and operated a marketing agency in Vancouver for 10 years that launched a number of leading coffee and hospitality brands.
Jason studied Graphic Design and Advertising from Langara College and earned a BSc in Marine Biology from the University of Victoria.
Jonathan Soddu
European Accounts
Jonathan brings a depth of experience to the Keycafe team after working with Booking.com for several years helping with their expansion, starting when booking.com was only 75 employees, seeing their growth to 13,000 means that Jonathan really knows how to take the team and scale where required. He is responsible for global sales and mentoring his team to success.
Mitchell Luis
North American Accounts
Mitchell is part of the Keycafe customer service team and serves both our French and English users. As an avid traveller and long time Airbnb user, he understands all too well the hassles of key exchange and arriving in foreign countries at all hours of the day or night. With 10+ years of experience in various roles within the hospitality industry as well as customer service, Mitchell offers a friendly and effective approach when assisting Keycafe's customers and is dedicated to a great user experience.
Ryan Brown
Director of Engineering
Ryan is responsible for developing and maintaining Keycafe's software solutions. He is dedicated to providing customers with a reliable, high performance system built on robust technologies. He has a deep understanding of how to build scalable multi-tier applications, and his rapid style results in high quality products in short timeframes. He has been known to code faster than the team can design.
Prior to joining Keycafe, Ryan worked as an independent contractor on a variety of web and mobile based projects, helping architect and build products ranging from an online ride-sharing website to point of sale clients for iOS and Android. In his spare time, Ryan enjoys riding his bike around the city. He earned a BSc in Computer Science from the University of Ottawa.
亮 小河内
VP Global Operations
Ryo is responsible for growing the Keycafe businesses worldwide, heading the sales and business development teams in EU, North America, and across Asia. Prior to joining Keycafe, Ryo was responsible for Amazon’s device business in Japan (Kindle, Amazon Fire, and others) and managing different retail businesses within Amazon (a >$1 bn P&L). He has experience managing multiple business lines simultaneously, consisting of teams up to 40 full time employees and launching high impact new businesses in Japan such as the Kindle in 2012 as well as Amazon's Trade-In and Software Downloads businesses. He has developed strong negotiation skills, with 7 years experience in acquisitions / investment at Hitachi as part of their Business Development team, and daily negotiations with Amazon's vendors in a spectrum of industries. Ryo has an MBA from Stanford Business School and a Bachelor of Arts from Doshisha University.
Shirley Klootwijk
Head of Operations
Shirley serves as the Head Operations Manager here at Keycafe. She oversees the entirety of the global operations in addition to continuing to drive the company towards success. She is responsible for maintaining quality control and effectively managing our locations to better serve our customers.
Prior to joining the Keycafe team, Shirley worked as a sales and account manager for the Dutch and English market for over 8 years. Leading a team, implementing new processes and providing sales and communication trainings made her a strong asset to each team she has worked with. Aside from the monumental value she adds to our team, she is a world traveler who has a passion for exploring new cities, embracing other cultures, and spreading positivity to all with an open-mind.