About Me

I am a father of three, married to Femke, who is an MD. We live half an hour from Amsterdam in Wognum. At 1.98m I tend to stand out in a room, but what defines me is everything outside the code: coaching kids' soccer, running, hiking the Alps, playing games with my children. I can't do without collaboration and genuinely believe a good sense of humor is indispensable.

I know my flaws. Perfectionist who learned to ship anyway. Procrastinator who learned to move fast. I don't work well with micromanagers, inflated egos, or people who talk but never do.

I studied Computer Science at Delft University of Technology with minors in Psychology and Philosophy at Leiden University. Started a Ph.D. in Machine Learning, but two years in I left academia to join startup Wakoopa in Amsterdam and build their recommender system. That itch to build things led me to co-found Newcope, which got seed funded by Y Combinator in 2010. I have been shipping software ever since.

The Journey

Active Lifestyle

Community & Volunteering

How I Think

Years ago I read Scott Adams' "How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big." Two ideas stuck: passion is overrated, and goals are for losers. Systems are for winners. Instead of chasing outcomes, I focus on habits and processes that compound over time. That shift changed how I approach both work and life.

Cal Newport's work reinforced this. You don't find passion by searching for it. You build it by getting good at something valuable. That maps directly to how I think about engineering careers and building products: put in the reps, develop real skill, and the rest follows.

Stoicism grounds the rest. Focus on what you can control, accept what you cannot. When a client deal falls through or a system goes down at 2 AM, the response matters more than the event. I don't journal daily or meditate on a cushion, but the dichotomy of control runs through every decision I make.

I also believe in managing energy, not just time. Sleep, exercise, and saying no to the wrong things are not luxuries. They are the foundation that makes everything else possible. "It's only Hubris if you lose" is a motto I picked up somewhere along the way. It is a reminder to stay confident but honest about the odds.

Gratitude

I don't take any of this for granted. Y Combinator in 2010 gave me a front-row seat to Silicon Valley when I was 26. Moving back to the Netherlands afterwards shaped who I became professionally. Amsterdam gave me a tech community, a family, and a base to work with companies across Europe and beyond.

Femke keeps everything grounded. Running a household with three kids while both of us work is a team sport, and she is the better half of that team. The people I have worked with over the years, co-founders, engineers, clients who became friends, they all left a mark.

If there is one thing I have learned over time, it is that picking the right people to work with matters more than anything else. Surround yourself with people who share your values, have fun doing the work, and trust your gut. Don't over-rationalize. Just do.