For 25 years, I've been building things: software, workflows, companies. The projects change. The instinct stays the same.
The Builder Pattern
It started at KPN in 2000. System administration, billing infrastructure, a 200-seat cybercafe that was part of the first ADSL rollout in the Netherlands. I was nineteen and already more interested in building the systems than using them.
By 2007 I was doing two things at once: co-founding ditisfris (the Netherlands' first photo marketing agency, clients like Converse and Puma and Tommy Hilfiger) and joining Team Peter Stigter as photographer and in-house developer. Fashion weeks in New York, London, Milan, Paris. Official photographer for Amsterdam Fashion Week. Viktor & Rolf, Karl Lagerfeld, Iris van Herpen, Claes Iversen. Work in Vogue and Elle. And the whole time I was also building the studio software, because no existing tool did what we needed.
TPS Studio was where the operational instinct got tested at scale. I built the creative production machine for Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein: the technical systems and the team running them. Production crews of 10-20 people, high-volume e-commerce, lookbooks, DAM systems, workflow automation. Six years with PVH. Also operated an event space and theatre that hosted fashion shows, which is exactly as much fun and as much logistics as it sounds.
The OS (2021) applied the same pattern to e-commerce and digital marketing: a full-service agency with in-house creative teams (3D, design, copy, art direction, localisation) and performance marketing under one roof. Belkin, Linksys, Ember. Amazon EU across six markets, Bol.com, Shopify. Not just running campaigns; building the infrastructure that makes multi-market operations work.
Photography never stopped. Corona at both Olympics (Paris, Gold; Milan-Cortina) and on Copacabana for Todo Mundo no Rio. Budweiser at the FIFA World Cup (Titanium Lion at Cannes). Stella Artois at Roland Garros. Schiphol's New Dutch Horizons. All via WINK. And, increasingly, spatial work: the materialisation of a concept, from interiors and exteriors to the visitor journey through a space.
Now: Verain. Private enterprise AI for the mid-market. The thesis is "One Brain, Many Minds": one private intelligence built from your organization's data, many specialized agents that run inside your workflows (Finance, Brand, Legal, HR, Sales). It runs on the model you choose, in the infrastructure you control, and your data stays yours. Verain Finance is live with paying customers; Verain Brand in parallel. And Skerp (skerp.io) shipped this year: photo-proofing SaaS, solo build, live with paying customers. Latest evolution, same thread: create the technical foundation, then get out of its way.
The Unusual Combination
Most photographers don't build software. Most technical founders haven't run creative companies at enterprise scale. Most agency operators don't shoot fashion weeks across four countries.
I've done all three. Different outputs, same instinct.
Current Focus
Verain: private enterprise AI platform, Finance live + Brand in parallel (Co-founder & CTO). Skerp (skerp.io): photo-proofing SaaS launched 2026, live with paying customers. Bruring Ops runs production infrastructure for agencies and brands (DAM, file management, collaboration, AI search), self-hosted, end-to-end. Hands-on AI consultancy alongside: private AI systems built for clients, on infrastructure they control. Photography: fashion, brand campaigns, and increasingly spatial work, the materialisation of a concept (interiors, exteriors, the visitor journey), shot with a contextual, observational eye. Previously founded The OS (Belkin, Linksys, Ember). Always building something.
Based in Amsterdam. Resides seaside in Zandvoort.
Home Lab
Compute
- RTX 4090 workstation
- RTX 3080 workstation
- Apple Silicon (M-series)
- Intel NUC9 (Xeon, 64GB)
Server
- Dell PowerEdge R720xd
- 40 cores, 256GB RAM
- 216TB storage (TrueNAS)
- 10GbE · UPS-backed
Network
- 10Gbit wired backbone
- 4Gbit symmetrical fiber
- UniFi infrastructure
- pfSense firewall
AI-Augmented
- Documented runbooks
- AI-driven automation
- Home Assistant
- Zigbee / Z-Wave / Matter
Enterprise hardware, beach house. AI-augmented via documented runbooks. The house knows when I'm home before I do.
Recommendations
"Beyond the great quality and consistency... I appreciated his service to customer, his flexibility, his enthusiasm and solution oriented mindset... Joris went beyond the role of a service provider by proving several times to be a real partner, willing to go the extra mile."
"Joris is one of the most versatile content creators I've worked with. By combining his technical skills, creative vision, team spirit and fashion expertise he will push every project to the next level. He is constantly raising the bar on the quality of his team and their achievements."
Let's create something.
AI systems, creative operations, or photography.