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Hi, I am Valentijn
LOOKING FOR
PEOPLE-FOCUSED OPERATIONS WORK
I am a generalist with a soft spot
for mission-driven organizations
and kind people
Founding Courseroot
Founded and developed a search engine for online courses, which hosted over 80,000 of the best educational resources available on the internet.
Sold in 2019
see this wayback archive
Garnished #1 of the Day on Product Hunt with 1700+ upvotes
Product Solutions Manager
A position of 2 years at a B2B SaaS company. We licensed an LMS to organizations and built client-specific customizations on top.
Managed 70+ client specific product customizations
Successfully implemented processes for product- and client management
Nifty Metrics Co-creator
Co-founded and developed software that helped identify and execute on NFT trading opportunities on the Ethereum blockchain.
Reached $100k/MRR within 2 months of founding
Managed back-end that interacted with Ethereum and 3rd party marketplaces
TECH THAT I HAVE WORKED WITH OVER THE YEARS
Javascript
React
ExpressJS
NodeJS
Python
PHP
SQL
HTML/CSS
MongoDB
Solidity
Truffle
Web3.js
Infura
Git
Gitlab
Github
Heroku
Monday
Airtable
Notion
Jira
HelpScout
Google Analytics
Hotjar
Slack
GPT4
Loom
Figma
BalsamiqExperience
Mixed
March 2023 – Present
Programmer, operations assistant, creator
Over the past year, I have been engaged in many different types of work such as working as contract based carpenter, freelance development jobs, creating side projects like chessspots.com, and helping to launch Screenless Under 6 (bizopps and programming).
Nifty Metrics
October 2021 – August 2022
Co-founder and programmer
Co-founded and developed software that helped identify and execute on NFT trading opportunities on the Ethereum blockchain. Main responsibility was providing and continuously updating the back-end code (Node.js) that interacted with the Ethereum blockchain and 3rd party marketplaces.
Academy of Mine
September 2021 – February 2022
Director of Customer Success
Bearing responsibility for increasing the value received by our clients
across all stages after sign up, including product quality, onboarding,
customization request process, and interaction with support. Additionally still holding the Product Solutions Manager role, managing a select few clients.
Academy of Mine
April 2020 – September 2021
Product Solutions Manager
Leading client communication to discuss requirements for custom functionality, designing and writing proposal specifications, and overseeing the development of those customizations and communication with clients. Additionally responsible for onboarding clients onto the platform with detailed platform walk-throughs and providing custom go-to-launch playbooks. This role included product management responsibilities, exploring and incorporating new functionality into our core product based on my understanding of the needs of our clients.
Academy of Mine
October 2019 – April 2020
Account Manager
Onboarding new clients onto our platform, providing ticket support, conducting regular account management calls, and manage projects for a big portfolio of clients.
Courseroot
2017 – September 2019
Founder
Created a search engine to help online learners sift through over 80,000+ resources on the internet made by top professionals, schools, companies, and creators. First real programming experience where I programmed the entire platform in vanilla code and without a proper framework; HTML, CSS, JS/jQuery for front-end, PHP and SQL for back-end. Sold in 2019. For an impression of what it looked like when sold, see this Wayback Archive. It won #1 of the Day on Product Hunt with +1700 upvotes.
Education
Udacity
October 2018 – April 2019
Blockchain Developer Nanodegree
Highly acclaimed online degree for becoming a blockchain developer. First 3-months of the program where primarily focused on cultivating a high-level understanding of how blockchains work, including programming first-layer blockchains ourselves. Second 3-months were hands-on smart contract and decentralized application development on the Ethereum blockchain.
Tilburg University
February 2017- January 2018
MSc Strategic Management – Consultancy
A Master study covering implementation strategy, strategy consultancy, data analytics, international management, and more. The study provided a great deal of hands-on and real-world experience with consultancy projects for a variety of startups and more established corporations.
Tilburg University
September 2013 – May 2016
BSc Liberal Arts & Sciences – Business and Management
A Bachelor study providing the student with a diverse curriculum by combining different fields and a first year focused on research, writing, and public speaking skills. This was followed by a specialization in Business & Management covering finance, management, micro- and macroeconomics, statistics, as well as a Minor in Entrepreneurship.
Side projects
The Bitcoin Journey
July 2022 – October 2022
Creator and writer
The Bitcoin Journey is an online resource that I created to make it easier for friends, family, and strangers to get a grasp of what makes Bitcoin so fundamentally innovative and impactful. It is a curation of videos, articles, and stories that I have structured such that it gradually introduces additional layers of complexity, hopefully bringing across why it can be a valuable resource, not merely for those privileged enough to consider it as an investment vehicle, but in particular for millions of people around the world as a method to protect themselves and their savings from censorship and confiscation.
Jackattach
April 2015 – June 2016
Founder
My first real entrepreneurial experience building a product. Jackattach was a silicon cable wrap that attached itself seamlessly to the jack of an earbud system, allowing the user to wrap the cable within a second or so, preventing them from getting tangled. Although I regrettably decided to not pursue distribution and bulk production, I ended up using the prototypes for over 2 years because they worked so well.
