Hi there, I am Wouter, a code specialist from the Netherlands (MSc UTwente). I am versatile with backend, mobile, and web technologies, comfortable with complex IT challenges in new technologies.
For over 20 years I have been IT. I have worked with many technologies, like ruby, java, .net, kotlin, php, javascript, scss and python, and supporting technologies like sql, big data and ai. In the past I had my own company with some partners and employees, but currently I prefer the freedom of being a freelancer. I like to learn new stuff. Some of the things I wrote myself are an object relational mapper (orm), api mapper, runtime form generator, android hot code reloader, and many other things. A side project of mine was an incremental java compiler with advanced type inference.
Below you can find some highlighted experiences of my career so far.
Groendus
Groendus supports companies on all their matters related to energy: contracts, usage, generation, investments, and billing. Groendus was founded by NPM capital after acquiring and merging several players in the Dutch market.
In the founding stage of Groendus, I created an artificial intelligence that detects different scenarios of excessive usage of electricity and gas. Whenever excessive usage is detected, their customers should get a notification on how they could save energy. Known variables were the customer's buildings, their coordinates, and their usage history of gas and electricity.
During the course of the project, the dataset was enriched with historical weather data. Additionally, usage profiles were created through various dimensions, giving insight into matters like opening hours of each location and use of the air conditioning. The language of the project was .Net, hosted on Azure.
14 different scenarios of excessive usage where requested, ranging from simple to more complex. Examples were: excessive gas usage (customers pay an extra charge for their peak use), estimating the temperature isolation efficiency for each building, and detecting air conditioning usage during closing hours. They asked me, because their in-house engineers did not have the right skills, and it turned out to be too challenging for an MSc AI-specialist they hired before me. Within time and budget of the project, all of the 14 scenarios where supported.
Dott
Dott is a micro mobility supplier that recently merged with TIER. They offer shared e-scooters and e-bikes in European cities. In the founding stage they collected investments of €50 million combined.
In the founding stage of Dott, together with one other engineer I was responsible for the initial architecture and implementation of their Android frontend app. It was the typical thrill of joining a startup. During my time the company grew from 12 employees to several hundreds, and there were frequent changes in technical design, product, and planning. Deadlines were strict.
Anecdotally, for the first few months we kept having a bug that we couldn't put our finger on. Initially I left my colleague to fix the bug, because he seemed to be more enthusiastic about the new technology we were using (Kotlin Coroutines). Coroutines contain a threading mechanism, and bugs related to threads are one of the hardest kind of bugs to fix. But Dott was going to launch its product soon (in Brussels), and we needed to have our app clean. Every now and then my colleague kept on spending time trying to find the bug.
Three weeks before launch, I dropped my work, and started to help my colleague, who still could not fix the bug. Within a few hours I was able to manually reproduce the bug, and within one day I fixed it.
Moop
In the early 2010s with two partners we company and some employees. Our company was called Moop, holding an office in Amsterdam in Pakhuis de Zwijger. We developed Android and iPhone apps, backends, and websites, mainly through using the technologies of ruby, swift, java, php, and javascript. We worked for companies like PayPal, Vodafone, Sanoma, RDW, NRC Media, Vebego, NS (Dutch Railways), CataWiki, ANWB, Blendle, RET, GVB, the Dutch Red Cross, RWS, Veolia, the Dutch government and Google.
We won awards at contests organized by Google, Accenture, SpinAwards, European Newspaper Award, iCulture.nl and some others. Apple recommended our NRC Reader iOS app as ‘great subscription’ in the app store; a place which is only reserved for work that Apple sees as meeting a standard of high quality. Several of our products were featured nationally; in newspapers and on television.
IT is mostly an enabler, sometimes it creates entirely new propositions. We enabled process and proposition innovation in the markets of facility management, publishing, and public transit. We made a multitude of apps in other markets.
Eventually Uber acqui-hired Moop, and I was not interested in joining. I continued on my own, preferring the freedom and flexibility of new projects.
Self development
Next to IT, my great passion is personal development. At the end of my twenties I was simply unsatisfied about how I looked towards myself and other people. Since then, I am on a quest to understand and feel my deepest beliefs, and giving myself a choice to evolve them. Throughout my journey I have been to all kinds of trainings for over 250 days, and I received over 350 private sessions in personal development.
As a result, I enjoy innumerable benefits, like being more at ease, having more energy, a better posture with less injuries, sleeping better, and having deeper connection to myself and others. In the workplace, when in the past I would be witnessing a heated discussion, I would just stand by and hope for the best. With my newfound qualities, I find it easier to understand where people are coming from, including the reality of the context. As a result, I frequently see opportunities to support mutual understanding and acceptance.