What formed meFrom career-switcher to founder — the long way round.
Every migration I lead, every platform I design, and every hire I make at Softwaredam is downstream of the same handful of experiences. Here's the honest version.
The journey
A deliberate leap into software
I didn't start out coding. I made a conscious decision to switch into software engineering — and wrote about how hard that leap actually is, long before it was fashionable to talk about career changes into tech. That early struggle taught me that expertise is built, not given.
University of Amsterdam
I formalized what I had taught myself with a Master of Science in Software Engineering — pairing the theory of good architecture with the instincts I had already built by shipping real, breaking, imperfect software.
The Rail Unit at CGI
I spent over seven years on CGI's Rail unit, starting as a junior engineer and growing into one of the lead engineers on systems that keep the Dutch railway running. When your software controls infrastructure people's safety depends on, you learn a different relationship with risk, testing, and downtime — one that has shaped every decision I've made since.
Walking away from certainty
I left CGI — a stable, respected role — to found Softwaredam. I wrote publicly that I left, but that others should still join the Rail unit: it was never about the place being wrong, it was about needing to build something of my own. That is the kind of honesty I try to lead with.
Building Softwaredam, deliberately
I grew Softwaredam slowly and on purpose — from a solo consultant to a small, tightly-knit team of platform engineers, each hired only when the work and trust justified it. No overhiring, no growth for its own sake.
The tinkerer underneath the architect
Outside client work, I still benchmark SD cards for Raspberry Pi projects and write about the Kubernetes internals I'm currently obsessing over. I stay hands-on because the moment I stop building things myself is the moment my advice stops being worth trusting.
What I believe
"The power of expertise, collaboration, passion for technology, and love for people and the world."
That line isn't a marketing slogan — it's the filter I run every decision through. It's why Softwaredam builds on EU-sovereign infrastructure instead of chasing the cheapest hyperscaler contract. It's why I still answer client questions directly instead of hiding behind a ticketing system. And it's part of why, outside of work, I support orangutan conservation — because "love for people and the world" is supposed to mean something beyond the office.
Home base
I live and work from the Dutch Innovation Park in Zoetermeer, in the same region as the rail networks I once helped keep running. It's a short drive from where I studied in Amsterdam, and it's where I now help organize Zoetermeer Tech Night — because the community that taught me how to build deserves someone building it back.