My story starts on the early web. I began blogging in 2004 and ran css3.info, one of the first sites tracking the CSS3 standard as browsers started to support it. Alongside that, I consulted on some of the biggest SEO projects in the world, like the Guardian's site migration from .co.uk to theguardian.com. I founded Yoast in 2010.
I wore a few different hats there. For almost 9 years I was the CEO, then I became Chief Product Officer when my wife Marieke took over as CEO. We sold Yoast to Newfold Digital in August of 2021, after which I became Head of WordPress Strategy at Newfold for a while. I then came back for a 6-month stint as interim CTO (because they were suddenly without one) in 2022-2023. I finally left the company in April 2023.
When we left Yoast, Marieke and I started investing through our company, Emilia Capital. We invest in companies that play at least partly in the digital space (and often in WordPress). Because of that, I'm on the board of Patchstack and Atarim. We also started our own new company, Progress Planner. In June 2026, Progress Planner and our whole team joined Your.Online, a hosting group with strong European roots. I'm now Group Head of AI & Growth there, and Marieke is Group Head of Brand & Community.
In my spare time, I can often be found coaching kids' soccer at AWC, where I'm also a board member. On holidays, Marieke and I love spending time in our holiday home in Tuscany or traveling to other places in the world.