About me
Martijn Veldkamp
Enterprise Architect. Virtual CTO. Farmer. Sarcastic Realist.
I spend my days architecting global-scale solutions for the world’s most complex organizations and my evenings staring at the horizon on a farm in North Holland. It’s a contrast that keeps me sane: I deal with the cutting edge of AI and cloud architecture by day, and things that actually work. Like gravity, old Volvos, and slow-drip coffee from my Mocca Master.
The Professional Side: Cutting Through the Hype
I operate with a CTO’s mindset. I don’t just “implement” software; I align organizational DNA with technical infrastructure.
If your digital transformation feels like a disorganized choir, I’m the one who simplifies the score. My philosophy is borrowed from Colin Chapman: “Simplify, then add lightness.” In a world obsessed with adding more “features” (and currently, throwing “AI” at problems like it’s magic dust), I focus on:
- Strategic Architecture: Building systems that don’t crumble under their own weight.
- Conway’s Law in Action: Understanding that your software will only ever be as good as your communication structure.
- The “Autocomplete” Reality: I have a healthy skepticism for the current AI gold rush. To me, most Generative AI is just a very expensive, very advanced autocomplete. It’s a tool, not a savior, and I know how to tell the difference.
The Analog Life: North Holland & Old Tech
When I’m not untangling enterprise technical debt, you’ll find me leaning into the slower side of life. I believe the best ideas don’t come from a Slack notification, but from the silence of a farm.
- Older Volvos: I have a soft spot for the “bricks” cars built when “planned obsolescence” wasn’t a boardroom KPI. There’s something honest about a machine you can actually fix with a wrench.
- Slow Coffee & Single Malts: Whether it’s a meticulously timed pour-over or a peaty Islay whiskey, I appreciate the craft that takes time.
- Old Sci-Fi: I prefer the classics. They predicted the future with more imagination and fewer privacy concerns than we managed to actually build.
- New Ideas: I’m always hunting for the next “Big Thing,” provided it has actual substance. I’m a fan of iterative progress, release-early-release-often, and anything that genuinely challenges the status quo.
Why Work With Me?
Because I’ll tell you the truth. If your roadmap is a mess of technical debt and buzzword-compliance, I’ll call it out. I bridge the gap between “What the board wants” and “What the architecture can actually handle.”
I build for scale, I design for simplicity, and I do it all while keeping a very sharp eye on the exit strategy.
Let’s Connect
If you want to talk Enterprise Architecture, the future of Agentic AI, or why the Volvo 240 is the pinnacle of automotive design, find me on LinkedIn.
Work with me — Virtual CTO and architecture consulting.
