CAPTURING MOMENTS, CREATING CHANGE.
My journey to 38.
Choose life. Choose tech. Choose wandering the streets of the Netherlands with a camera, capturing moments that tell stories no one else sees. Choose hanging with friends, thinking this is all there is, this is all you need. But life, that vicious bastard, it's got other plans for you, doesn't it?
Fourteen years old, and my body's already turning against me like a traitor. Colitis, they call it. A fancy medical term for your insides trying to tear themselves apart. While other kids are chasing girls and dreaming about their futures, I'm visiting doctors and facing some tough decisions to make about my health.
Three years of this hell, and then the doctors come at me with their knives. Not once, not twice, but three times they're cutting me open. Taking out bits like they're gutting a fish. The whole large intestine, gone. Just like that. Seventeen to nineteen, prime of my life spent in hospital beds, watching everyone else move forward while I'm stuck in place.
But here's the thing about being stuck in bed – you get time to think. Time to plan. Time to figure out what kind of mark you want to leave on this world, assuming you'll get a shot at making one.
Recovery's a funny thing. While everyone else is settling into their lives, I'm just starting to live mine properly at twenty. Catching up, they call it. Like life's some kind of race you can fall behind in. But I'm not just catching up – I'm back with a vision and plan.
2008. Twenty-two years old and I'm founding Firmhouse. Not because I want to be some startup hotshot with a fancy title. No. It's about creating something that matters, something that leaves a mark. Building a team of people who actually give a damn about making real change. The kind that sticks.
Then 2009 hits, and I discover this thing with cameras. Not your usual vacation shots and social media garbage. I'm talking about catching people as they are, in the streets, in their moments. Raw. Real. The same way I want my business to be. Because that's what it's all about – the people. Always has been.
Now I'm pushing forty, running a platform that's changing how commerce works. We help brands build real relationships with their customers - not just one-time sales, but ongoing connections that last. It's bigger than that though. It's changing how people consume, transforming how economies can operate, and it's built to leave society and the world in a better place. Building a team that gets it, that sees the bigger picture. Coaching them, watching them grow, pushing for that lasting impact.
Some people, they look at success and see numbers. I see faces. Whether it's through my lens or in my team, with my customers, our partners, it's always been about the humans. The strugglers, the fighters, the ones who refuse to let life's shit define them.
Choose life? No. Choose your own path. Choose to build something that matters. Choose to see people as they are, capture them through your lens, help them grow. Choose to take the crap life throws at you and turn it into something meaningful. That's what I did. That's what I'm still doing.
And I wouldn't have it any other way.
Approach
Podcast
How to create a mood-board for your project.
An older podcast and recording I've done in Rotterdam with Madam Rotterdam about my founders' story and why I'm building Firmhouse. Some of it is dated, but most of it still applies today.
1 hour
