A working agent that no one trusts gets unplugged on Tuesday. The systems I ship behave well and communicate what they’re doing — because a decade thinking about how products feel turned out to be the right training for the AI era.
A working session to see the real problem — the data, the existing tools, the people who’ll live with it. We define the smallest version that can actually ship.
Agents, internal tools, automations — built end-to-end. Research the problem, design the thing, build it, ship it, instrument it, watch it run, fix what breaks. No silos, no handoffs.
Structured evals, regression suites, human-in-the-loop checkpoints. The boring infrastructure that lets the clever part keep shipping without breaking trust.
Best work happens when I own a system end-to-end: research the problem, design it, ship it, instrument it, fix what breaks. Allergic to ceremony, strong bias toward shipping, and the right team size for most problems is “smaller than you think.” What I want from a team: real users, real decisions, and a high tolerance for me asking “what is the simplest version of this” out loud a lot.
Comfortable picking up adjacent tools — these are the ones I’ve put real production miles on.
Four countries on three continents before settling in the US. The through-line is meeting systems — and the people inside them — where they actually are, not where the documentation says they should be.
Before any of the work below, I spent a year in Paramaribo teaching HIV prevention in schools and neighbourhoods, then lived in South Africa from 2016 to 2017. Four countries on three continents before I settled in the US. I mention it because it’s the through-line for everything else: most of my career has been about meeting systems — and the people inside them — where they actually are, not where the documentation says they should be.
I’m Dutch, trained at VU Amsterdam in Web Science. The programme was about how information moves through technology and culture — how you make it accessible, what new tools do to the people who use them. It turned out to be the right first-principles lens for everything I’d build later.
The work itself started in Amsterdam — eight years running Kosmos Agency, building websites and creative for European clients. Then three years in New York producing and editing video for international brands at Lats x Longs. In 2019 I moved to Philadelphia and launched Dutch Mike: AI-powered content systems and marketing automation built as one operating system per client. Websites, CRM workflows, and content pipelines stitched together so a small team can act like a much bigger one.
Since December 2023 I’ve run the AI automation stack and content production engine for Ryann Reed Design Build — n8n agent workflows, LLM pipelines for content scaling, CRM automations across the marketing and sales pipeline, and the video assets that ride on top of it.
Today I lead with AI engineering: agents, automations, retrieval systems, internal tools. The video and brand background is still part of how I ship — I care what the thing looks like, what it sounds like, how it feels when it’s used. That’s the difference between a tool the team opens every day and one that gets quietly disabled.
Same throughline across all of it: build the thing, ship the thing, watch it run, fix what breaks.
Ryann Reed Design Build · Contract
I run the AI automation stack and content production engine for Ryann Reed’s in-house marketing team.
n8n · GPT-4 · Claude · CRM Workflows · API Integration · Content Automation · Video Production
Dutch Mike · Self-employed
AI-powered content systems and marketing automation for business owners and in-house teams.
n8n · Zapier · OpenAI API · CRM Automation · Website Development · Performance Marketing
Lats x Longs · Self-employed
Produced and edited video content for international brands across multiple industries — teams and clients on different continents. Planning, filming, editing, final delivery, plus broader marketing support including promotional campaigns and branded web assets.
Kosmos Agency
Eight years building websites and creative work for clients across Europe. Where I learned to ship — and where I first hit the wall of “every client needs the same plumbing built by hand.”
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU) — Web Science, 2011–2013. The programme is about how information and communication technology lives inside business and culture: how you make information accessible, how electronic commerce actually works, what new technologies do to society. First-principles training that still shapes how I design automated systems.
Also: 10X Marketing — Cardone Ventures, 2026.
