I build software for businesses, and I run a few of my own.
That is what I say when someone at a party asks what I do. The first half is web2000. The second half is Altrady, Coinray and Kinfolder: products I built myself that real people use every day. The second half is why the first half works.
How I got here
I started with websites when I was twelve. The internet had just reached businesses; we did not even have it at home yet. I simply liked writing HTML files from scratch, without any of it ever going online.
At sixteen I earned my first money with it. It became a real job when I went freelance at twenty-one for a web agency. From there my work moved from websites to web applications, and then to something you barely notice when it works: almost two years on a new version of DigiD, the Dutch government login, followed by ten years as lead developer and architect of the authentication platform of Digidentity, which sits under eHerkenning and, at the time, under GOV.UK Verify.
Software a whole country logs in with is not allowed to break. Not today, not in five years. Those years shaped how I build.
In my last years there I started Altrady on the side. When it took off, it became my main work. In between I kept building websites, for a swimming club, for theatre groups, because I still enjoy it.
What you get when you call web2000
Me. Altrady is now a company of seventeen people; web2000 is just me. No account manager, no junior doing the actual work. The person you talk to is the person who builds it.
What I bring is one very experienced builder, amplified by AI. I use those tools every day and know exactly when they are good enough and when they are not. That lets me deliver on my own what used to take a small team, at a price you know up front.
What I believe
Ship early and often
Something that is live and used today teaches you more than a month of design. I deliver a clickable version within days, not at a hand-over at the end.
Don't dwell on what turns out not to matter
A lot of design effort goes into things nobody ends up using. I build the smallest thing that solves the problem, then see what is really needed.
Business value over pretty code
Code that is not perfect but works fine, I leave alone. Every hour polishing is an hour not spent on your customers. At the same time: a foundation that has to last five years, I build properly from the start.
What I run myself
Altrady, a crypto trading platform with more than 130,000 traders. Coinray, the market data API Altrady runs on. Kinfolder, one safe place for families to keep wills, accounts and instructions. Every piece of advice I give has been tested on those products.
Tell me what is going on
A new idea, a second opinion, or an app that creaks. You get an honest answer from me personally within two working days.