About the Keeper of the Hollow

"Every wanderer has a tale, and every tale finds its way to the hollow..."

The Song Before the Code

In the beginning, my voice echoed through the grand halls of German opera houses, where I learned the sacred arts of performance. Each aria was a spell woven for audiences, each stage a world where stories came alive through voice and movement. Little did I know that these early incantations—understanding your audience, orchestrating complex elements, delivering something that truly resonates—would become the very essence of my craft in digital realms.

The transition from soprano to code-spinner wasn't planned by any grand design, yet it feels as natural as morning mist settling in the hollow. Both require mastering your craft, understanding the materials you work with, and transforming intricate ideas into experiences that touch hearts.

Adventures in the Digital Realm

After establishing my own web-weaving guild and discovering the creative enchantments possible with technology, I ventured deeper into the tech forests. Each company became a new village on my journey, each challenge a quest that taught me something precious.

At the ancient halls of Trolltech and Nokia, I crafted their first social media enchantments for fellow code-weavers, growing the Qt Developer Network into a thriving village of 2 million monthly visitors. In the quieter realm of CFEngine, I became their first design mage, transforming their enterprise applications through careful study of user needs and mystical feedback rituals.

The hollow whispered of greater challenges ahead. At Ardoq, my role evolved like morning into day—beginning with design but gradually embracing the broader mysteries of product creation, reshaping both interface and the very processes by which teams build together. At VIBBIO, I rebuilt an entire guild of engineers while redesigning their tools and owning the complete vision of what they would create.

Most recently, in the towers of BRYTER, I shepherded four new creations into existence, including three AI-powered spirits that I began conjuring in the early months of 2023—well before the great AI awakening that followed.

The New Chapter

Now, after years of building within established kingdoms, I've embarked on the most mysterious quest yet: co-founding a stealth startup hidden deep in the entrepreneurial woods. Here, I weave together everything learned about product strategy, team building, and emerging technologies into something entirely unprecedented.

Beyond the Hollow

My contributions extend beyond these walls—I've added my magic to open source grimoires like KDE and Rails Girls, helped orchestrate the Web Rebels JavaScript gathering, and shared tales at tech festivals across European lands. These days, family adventures keep me closer to the hearth, but I'm always ready for good conversation about design mysteries, product strategy, or the surprisingly numerous parallels between performance arts and software creation.

The University for Dance and Music in Cologne granted me mastery in opera and stage performance—knowledge that still serves me well when presenting to fellow travelers at conferences.

In the hush of the hollow, where pixel-light dances with shadow, I tend this garden of digital dreams. Each project is a small spell cast into the world, each line of code an incantation that might just change everything.