MICHEL(1)

General Commands Manual

NAME

Michel de Graaf - CTO / Tech Lead

SYNOPSIS

michel [--role cto] [--exp 22_years] [--stack full_stack]

DESCRIPTION

I design and build complete systems from the ground up, frontend through infrastructure, and lead the teams that ship them. Mostly fintech startups, where I build financial information systems; sometimes enterprises like IKEA, ING and Tele2.

METRICS

SEE ALSO: projects(1)

17 years of recoverable git history • 256 projects • 4.3M LOC • 20K commits • 18 organizations

Languages

Ruby (116) • TypeScript (38) • JavaScript (35) • Java (24) • Elixir (23) • Rust (5)

Frameworks

Rails (87) • React (20) • Express (6) • Next.js (2)

Enterprise Clients

IKEA (8 projects) • ING (7 projects) • Tele2 (33 projects) • Philips (3 projects)

Largest Projects

homerun — 64K LOC, 2K personal commits (ING) [2022]

beequip_platorm — 57K LOC, 2K personal commits (BEEQUIP) [2022]

peliqan-platform — 153K LOC, 1K personal commits (Peliqan) [2026]

gaudi-portal — 66K LOC, 1K personal commits (Yellowbrick) [2016]

dealer-portal — 94K LOC, 1K personal commits (Financial Lease) [2026]

Statistics

208 personal/solo projects
Worked on teams up to 39 engineers (gaudi-portal)
Maintained open-source projects
15 currently active projects

EXPERIENCE

Peliqan - Chief Technology OfficerApr 2026 - Present

Amsterdam, North Holland, Netherlands · On-site

Building the Peliqan platform. Investors see their whole portfolio and can act on it: sell a position, finance a commitment, plan ahead. Institutions have had that for decades; everyone else hasn't.

Re-invention (Founder)2004 - Current

My consultancy company: specialized in advanced (web-based) software solutions.

Revive Capital B.V - Tech Lead (Freelance)2024 - Current

Leading engineering at Revive Capital, a fintech leasing startup. Built their asset-backed lending platform for brokers from scratch.

[ TypeScript, TDD, OpenAPI, OpenAI, Basikon, Salesforce, Apex, textract, OCR, Docker, Serverless, Terraform, CI/CD, GITOPS ]

Financial Lease - Tech Lead (Freelance)2023 - 2024

Built a dealer portal for car leases. A dealer takes a customer's request, finalises the lease and hands over the car in the time it takes to drink two coffees.

[ TypeScript, GraphQL, tRPC, MUI, React, AWS, Node.js, Next.js, Serverless, Terraform, CI/CD, Salesforce/Apex ]

IKEA - Tech Lead (Freelance)2022 - 2023

Led the IKEA Content Coworker Experience program: getting shop-floor coworkers the information they need, personalised per person, on top of a knowledge graph.

[ Neo4J, TypeScript, GraphQL, Apollo, React, Azure, Node.js, CI/CD ]

hypotheekrente.nl - Tech Lead (Freelance)2022 - 2025

Built the lead system that matches people looking for mortgage advice with an advisor who can take them on.

[ Ruby on Rails, TypeScript, Apollo, GraphQL, Docker, CI/CD, GITOPS, K8S ]

ING / Homigo - CTO (Freelance)2019 - 2022

At Homigo, a corporate startup backed by ING Neo, I led the technical implementation of a SaaS productivity platform (mobile/web) for contractors and homeowners to manage home renovations. I designed and implemented the hard parts: real-time chat, file sharing, resource planning, and other domain-specific tools.

[ Ruby on Rails, TypeScript, React Native, Apollo, GraphQL, Docker, CI/CD ]

BEEQUIP - Tech Lead (Freelance)2016 - 2019

Developing BEEQUIP's (startup, fintech) online leasing platform from the ground up and helping build the technology team. Designed and implemented BEEHIVE, an information system that captured and automated core business processes, exposing a GraphQL API consumed by the dealer portal and customer portal (BEEPORT). In 2022, BEEQUIP provided €735 million in lease financing, and in 2024, the company was acquired by Apollo Global Management.

[ Ruby on Rails, Python, TypeScript, JavaScript, Node.js, React, Apollo, Salesforce, Dynamics NAV, GraphQL, Docker, AWS, CI/CD ]

Backpackapp - CTO2015 - 2018

Building a travel agency platform for backpackers on the go, tackling challenges such as automated document classification and recognition, and developing an offline-first, cross-platform mobile app.

[ Elixir, React Native, JavaScript ]

Tele2 - Software Engineer (Freelance)2015 - 2016

Maintaining a software system for commissioning and provisioning 4G network devices. Developed a consistency-checking tool to audit device configurations and enhanced overall software quality by improving tests and engineering practices.

[ Ruby on Rails, EventMachine, RabbitMQ, Backbone.js, MongoDB, Redis, JavaScript, Docker ]

Postinitial - CTO2014 - 2016

Building an e-learning platform for Corporate Finance.

[ Ruby, JavaScript, Rails, React, Flux, Docker ]

Kabisa - Software Engineer / Lead / DevOps / Consultant2008 - 2015

Kabisa builds enterprise software in Ruby on Rails and Java. I joined at the start and worked as scrum master, DevOps engineer, lead developer, consultant and architect for clients including Philips, Media Groep Limburg, Seacon Logistics and Yellowbrick.

Philips - Internship2007 - 2008

Internship where I developed an internet-connected television prototype where users can share photos and play games over the internet.

EDUCATION

University of Amsterdam - Master Software Engineering2008 - 2009

For my master's thesis, I researched Intelligent fuzzing of web applications.

Avans Hogeschool 's-Hertogenbosch - Bachelor Computer Science2005 - 2008

Graduated cum laude
Graduation internship at the Philips Innovation Lab worked on the European-funded Amigo project

LANGUAGES

Dutch (mother tongue) • English (fluent) • German (basic)

HONORS & AWARDS & CERTIFICATES

Graduated cum laude for bachelor degree computer science
Professional Scrum Master certificate (Scrum.org)
Coursera: Neural Networks and Deep Learning
Placed first at the RubyenRails 2009 rumble
Dutch Drivers license (B)

HOBBIES

Ricing and customizing my development environment (Neovim, Alacritty, Tmux)
Weight training, running (Marathon runner / iron man)
Hiking, camping, mountains and nature, traveling
Music and DJ-ing (soundcloud.com/herrgraaf)

AUTHOR

Michel de Graaf <michel@re-invention.nl>