Nerd who fell in love with marketing & growth.

Available for keynotes and short advice calls

Nicholas D'hondt

Big news: I'm officially a (late) co-founder of JobRunr 🚀

A year ago, I joined as Head of Growth. 

The deal with Ronald? 

Date for one year. If the spark is there, we make it official. 💍

We negotiated everything upfront so we could spend the rest of the year focused on one thing only: healthy growth.

End of last year, the verdict was in.

Both of us felt it. 

This is it.

Looking back, it almost feels like a roads led here.

👉 My first startup Plann3r with Ruben Meul? We coded the entire back-end in Java. (JobRunr is a tool built for the Java world.)

Now my Java background helps me understand the product and follow dev conversations.

👉 Then I co-founded GrowForce with David & Amaury, where I led all B2B marketing and learned how to do B2B sales.

My marketing skills let me translate technical stuff into language their managers also get.

My sales experience helps me navigate corporate procurement.

And my entrepreneurial drive lets me co-create JobRunr's strategy and vision.

And if that was not enough, JobRunr's values completely align with my own. 

Everything we do is with the intention to leave the planet better than we found it. 🌍

Thanks Dirk for setting up that first date. 💚

Head Of Growth at JobRunr | Turning creative ideas into measurable results | Public Speaker - Available for keynotes

I thought my content was driving revenue. But I couldn't prove it. 🤦‍♂️

If you market to developers, you know the pain: 
Ad blockers, Privacy extensions, "Do Not Track" headers.

And I totally get why people are using this.

I knew our blog posts were working because sales prospects kept mentioning them. 

But my HubSpot dashboard? It was a ghost town of unassigned attribution. 

Thanks to my background in Growth Marketing, I wanted hard data, not just "gut feeling."

So, I tried to build a manual map.

The Setup:
- Google Sheets: To list every closed deal.
- HubSpot Breeze: To see company-level page visits.
- Scarf: To track open-source package usage.

The Failure: 
It was a mess. HubSpot Breeze didn't talk to the Deal view. Scarf data lived on an island. I spent more time copy-pasting rows than analyzing them.

So I wanted something more efficient. 

I wanted to be able to ask: "Hey, for all deals closed in January, which blog post was visited the most?"

So I just Vibe Coded it this afternoon.

I built a custom MVP that aggregates: 
✅ HubSpot Deal data 
✅ Website traffic (even the anonymous stuff) 
✅ Scarf package downloads

Now, I'm able to ask questions like: "Show me the user journey for Deal X." "What common technical docs do closed-won deals read?"

It’s super basic (for now), but it works. 

I believe this is where marketing ops is going. 

We aren't just using software anymore; we're glueing it together with AI to get to the exact insights we need.

👇 Question for the builders: Has anyone else used Vibe Coding (or cursor/replit) to build their own internal marketing tools?

And if you target devs... how are you solving the attribution black hole? 

Drop a tip below! 💡

Your app is not the future of customer experience.

I was interviewed last week by Claire Charlier who's building ENGIE's future CX vision.

One question stuck with me:

"What's the biggest misconception companies have about customer experience?"

My answer: They're still too obsessed with their own channels.

The best customer interactions happen where your customers already are.

WhatsApp. Messaging apps. Maybe even an AI that calls them 10 seconds after signup.

Not another app they'll forget to open.

Here's the shift I see coming:

Soon, customers won't interact with companies directly.

Their personal AI will.

"Siri, switch me to an energy provider that matches my values." Done.

Sure, some people will just ask for the cheapest option.

But many will want their spending to reflect who they are and what they believe in.

Their AI agent will need to understand which brands align with those values.

That's why your brand story matters more than ever.

Not just for humans, but for the algorithms that will decide on their behalf.

Thanks Claire Charlier, Steven Geerinck and Birger De Rese for the conversation,  it triggered some thinking I hadn't done before.

Excited to see what comes out of this project at ENGIE.

Marketing to Java developers is like playing the game on hard mode 🎮

And yes, I signed up for it willingly. And I would do so again in a heartbeat.

At JobRunr, our main audience is Java developers.

People with world-class BS detectors.
People who skip anything that smells like fluff.
People who want proof, depth, and usefulness. Or they are gone.

Early on, I thought classic B2B marketing would work.

Nice lead magnets.
Clean value props.
Some paid traffic.

Spoiler. It didn’t. 💡

What did work was changing how we think about marketing entirely.

👉 Treating content as documentation, not promotion
👉 Explaining the "why" behind every decision
👉 Showing the how and sharing it all transparently
👉 Brushing off my Java skills to speak the same language as our users

That mindset helped us grow an open-source project into something companies in finance and healthcare trust in production.

And now, I want help scaling that.

We are hiring an All-round Growth Marketer.

Not to "run campaign".

But to own the full journey together with me:

✅ From open-source users to paid customers
✅ From experiments on LinkedIn and Reddit to creative ABM plays
✅ From technical blog posts to simple video edits and clean visuals

This role is not for everyone.

But if you believe marketing only works when it genuinely helps people, it might be for you.

More info:

Open article: Hiring All-round Growth Marketer at JobRunr by jobrunr.io

Hiring All-round Growth Marketer at JobRunr

Built For Endurance

Built For Endurance teaches leaders and teams to balance performance and recovery and reach great resilience.
We use biometrical insights, immersive nature experiences and combined lifestyle interventions to support lasting behavioral change.

Founder & Managing Partner

Nova Reperta

Management Consultant

Slow Cabins

Operational Director

Project Manager (freelance)

huzelo

CEO & Co-Founder

SOLVINT Supply Management

Freelance consultant

ENGIE Electrabel

Senior Buyer CAPEX (Freelance)

Delhaize Belgium

Senior Buyer (Freelance)

Reynaers Aluminium

- Responsible for purchasing & quality strategy development for the Reynaers Group
- Management & coaching of team of strategic buyers (total 8 FTE)
- Strategic supplier development & start up of commodity teams within the group
- Focused on procurement savings with direct impact on the company results
- Operational KPI development on purchasing & quality

Group Purchase & Quality Director

- Responsible implementation Group Quality strategy in different Reynaers markets
- Support start up local suppliers through quality audits
- Coordinate international improvement projects with focus on operational excellence
- Create and implement operational performance indicators

Group Quality Manager

- Management of quality department (13 FTE) at Reynaers Duffel. 
- Developing local quality strategy. 
- Responsible for customer complaints, product quality controls, supplier quality assurance and quality management system
- Auditing of potential and existing suppliers. 
- Managing improvement projects related to the internal processes. 
- Responsible for ISO 9001 certification.

Quality Manager

I got promoted multiple times at an early age, became a director in a multinational at age 27 and finished multiple long-distance endurance races along the way.

Yet, all these superficial - externally oriented - achievements left me disengaged, unfulfilled and disconnected from my authentic self. The result? I got divorced, lived a financial unstable life and was not able to have healthy love relationships.

The best thing I did was quitting...literally stopping; during a 360 km endurance race I stopped after 120 km. Completely drained, but convinced to live life in a different way.

I started exploring science based immersive modalities such as ice baths, different intense breathing techniques and rediscovered connection with nature, my true nature. I now work at the intersection of science and spirit, combining ancient wisdom with modern science and technology. As an engineer, I still love to use technology to support me in my own process of self-development. 

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐈 𝐝𝐨?
𝙄 𝙝𝙚𝙡𝙥 𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙚𝙧𝙨 𝙤𝙥𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙞𝙨𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙞𝙧 𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙢𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙚 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙧𝙚𝙘𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮 𝙩𝙝𝙧𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝 𝙗𝙞𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙩𝙧𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙡 𝙞𝙣𝙨𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩𝙨 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙞𝙢𝙢𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙞𝙫𝙚 𝙚𝙭𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚𝙨.

𝐋𝐢𝐟𝐞 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬:
- Finisher Marathon des Sables 240 km (29th out of +1000 participants)
- Finisher Jungle Marathon Brazil 260 km (5th out of +50 participants)
- Quitting the 360 km Swiss Peaks after 120 km
- Divorcing during my eMBA training

𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐜𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐜𝐭 𝐦𝐞?
L&D managers, Wellbeing leaders or executives contact me when they or leaders from their organisation face "Energy Depletion". Overloaded by complexity, an agenda packed with meetings and decision making which is compromised. On the surface, they often look agitated and reactive. Deep down inside, they are suffering, surviving and longing for help.

𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐈 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐩?
- Starting with a biometrical assessment (complemented with scientific supported surveys) to get awareness around the impact of lifestyle on energy levels
- Learn immersive and impactful tools which can be done on a daily basis and support sustainable performance
- Design leadership programs to drive resilient leadership within the company

𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐛 𝐚 (𝐯𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐥) 𝐜𝐨𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐞:
DM or lieven@builtforendurance.com

Lieven Van Linden

After a long and conscious process...


I decided to stop with Built For Endurance.

After many beautiful years, converting a joint passion into a business, Steven will continue the Built For Endurance journey on his own.  

The entrepreneurial road the past years was not easy...navigating difficult economical conditions, experiencing financial uncertainty, wearing 20 hats at the same time, balancing between what you LIKE to do and MUST do,...

So the decision was a tough one, but sometimes it's better to take a tough decision, then no decision at all.

I'm deeply grateful for all the lessons this entrepreneurial journey has brought to me, for the warm friendship with Steven and I'm sure that he will continue the mission with a lot of authenticity and enthusiasm. Our roads will cross many more times in the future.

2026 will nevertheless not be a quiet one...
- continuing in supporting people performance and change with Nova Reperta
- keynotes and workshops with Speakersbase and Read My Lips
- the launch of the English version of Fully Charged during summer, together with Kogan Page Publishing
- and some other exciting projects ahead

And soon, my new website www.lievenvanlinden.com will be online.

✌

Human Performance Advisor for C-Level leaders & entrepreneurs above 40 | Author Fully Charged | Keynote Speaker | Helping midlife leaders thrive under pressure using biometrics and immersive experience

3 leadership lessons from NLP


Last December, I completed the NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) Practitioner course at YourCoach BVBA in Ghent. It was already for a long time on my "to practice" list.

In essence you can call NLP the study of successful behavior. It teaches you how to use communication (verbal and non-verbal) to help people change. For this, you can use a huge toolbox of effective techniques.

I thought about 3 lessons which any leader could apply, being more effective in the teams they work with:

1. People don’t respond to reality. They respond to their perception of it. Try to understand the reality of others, before pushing through yours.

2. It's not what you say that matters, but how the other person understands it. So if your message doesn't land, change your approach.

3. Feeling stuck is often a signal of limited perspective, not limited options. There is always another choice.

A big thanks to Rudi Genbrugge for his wise words during the past months.

And of course all the humans who were part of the journey. 

Anja Anthonissen, Lukas Vervondel, Naomi Verhelst - Martens, Shiu T., Isabelle B., Mathieu Van Driessche, Alejandra theus, Klaas Van Dorsselaer, Leen Godyn en Rosy Hoppe.

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