Ten years of building — from founder to fractional CTO.

I'm Hendrik, a 36-year-old full-stack developer and technical consultant — born in the Netherlands and based there again today, after ten years in Berlin. For over a decade I've been helping startups and SMEs turn ideas into shipped, scalable products — first as a founder, now as an independent consultant.

My path started as a part-time web developer in Utrecht while studying business and economics in Amsterdam. Instead of a corporate career, I moved to Berlin and co-founded two ventures: Shopboostr, a funded e-commerce machine learning startup that went through the EXIST program and picked up several awards, and Karyan Daze, a 15-person dev agency that delivered more than 30 client projects in two years.

Since 2017 I've run an independent practice serving 60+ clients across the DACH region and France — leading tech teams, managing cloud infrastructure, and consulting on MVPs and architecture. These days my focus is AI infrastructure: RAG pipelines, agent orchestration, and everything it takes to get generative AI reliably into production.

What hasn't changed along the way: I care about long-term solutions over quick fixes, and about relationships that outlast the project.

Professional experience

  1. Freelance Web Developer & Technical Consultant

    Current

    Independent practice · Berlin, DE 🇩🇪 · Mar 2017 — Present

    • Developing scalable web applications for 60+ clients across Germany, Austria, France and Switzerland — supporting startups through funding rounds, scaling phases, and internal tooling including automation workflows and custom CRMs.
    • Building AI infrastructures for RAG and agent orchestration (LangChain, vector databases, Pydantic AI) and generative AI.
    • Managing hosting infrastructures for clients on AWS, Azure, and DigitalOcean.
    • Leading and building tech teams from scratch for startups and SMEs.
    • Consulting clients on MVP building, architecture, and infrastructure — with a focus on long-term client relationships.

  2. Director & Co-founder

    Karyan Daze — Dev Agency · Berlin, DE 🇩🇪 · May 2016 — Feb 2018

    • Led a team of 15 developers, project managers, and designers building mobile and web applications.
    • Shipped 3+ mobile apps to the App Store and Play Store, and delivered 30+ client projects — e-commerce, web applications, mobile apps, and websites — across AngularJS, Ruby on Rails, Swift, and WordPress.
    • Key role in capacity planning, deadlines, and the overall choice of stack and infrastructure.
    • Responsible for finance, HR, client communication, and marketing.

  3. CTO & Co-founder

    Shopboostr GmbH · Berlin, DE 🇩🇪 · Nov 2014 — May 2016

    • Developed the MVP and launched the final version of a recommendation system for e-commerce: an API layer, custom JS tracking libraries, and machine learning models in Python.
    • Maintained and continuously developed the application in Ruby and Python, scaling the infrastructure to handle production traffic.
    • Directly managed and hired a team of 7 developers, establishing coding best practices, documentation, and client support.
    • Won 2nd place in the Business Plan Berlin Brandenburg startup competition and several other awards; part of the EXIST funding program.

  4. Freelance Developer

    Self-employed · Amsterdam, NL 🇳🇱 · Dec 2013 — Dec 2014

    • Worked on a variety of projects for startups and SMEs, mainly PHP and JavaScript applications.
    • Consulted SMEs on the interface of marketing and development.

  5. Part-time Web Developer

    Rosier Web Design Studio · Utrecht, NL 🇳🇱 · Sep 2012 — May 2013

    • Maintenance work on existing client platforms.
    • Built internal platforms, including high-profile projects for a major Dutch bank, an architecture firm, and a mentoring platform for university alumni in the Netherlands.

Education

2008 — 2013

MSc Business Administration (MBA)

University of Amsterdam · GPA 7.8

2008 — 2012

BSc Business & Economics

University of Amsterdam

Beyond the desk

Vintage bikes

Builder and collector of vintage bicycles — restorations and finds documented for 2,500+ followers on Instagram.

@oldrides_vintage_bikes

Sailing

Over 20 years of experience sailing the North Sea and the Mediterranean.

Speed skating

Marathon skater — including a 50 km marathon in Finland, alongside plenty of 20 km races.

Always moving

Fanatic runner and swimmer, with rollerblading and bouldering in the rotation.

Languages

Dutch

Native

English

Natural fluency

German

Basic fluency

Greek

In progress — six-month course completed ;)