Joris van Dijk

• Age: 34
• Location: Amsterdam, Netherlands
• Occupation: Independent startup operations and growth consultant
• Income: $85,000 equivalent annual income
• Education: Self-taught; completed secondary school and several unfinished online courses in software, business, and behavioral economics
• Company size: Solo consultancy with a rotating network of freelance specialists
• Years in role: 6

“If the clever explanation does not survive contact with an ordinary Tuesday, it is probably not an explanation yet.”

Joris van Dijk grew up in Nieuwegein in a family that valued reliability more than ambition. His father repaired medical equipment and his mother worked in municipal administration, so Joris learned early to respect things that functioned quietly and to distrust impressive language unsupported by detail. He was a capable but restless student. University did not hold his attention, and after leaving a business program he taught himself web development, analytics, copywriting, and basic accounting through online courses, library books, and an embarrassing number of abandoned side projects. His first serious job was at a small Amsterdam software company where he handled customer support, documentation, and whatever operational problem nobody else owned. The company grew from eight people to nearly forty, and Joris saw both the value and the damage caused by informal systems. He became the person founders asked to translate vague concerns into experiments, meetings, and measurable work. After six years there, he left when the company became more managerial than inventive. He had savings, a small network, and enough confidence to try consulting for a year. Six years later, he is still independent. His clients are usually founders with one to five employees who are close enough to their customers to know a lot, but too close to the daily details to see patterns clearly. Joris moves between strategy and mundane execution: rewriting an onboarding sequence, cleaning a customer spreadsheet, designing a weekly operating rhythm, or helping two founders resolve a disagreement about priorities. He uses shared documents, spreadsheets, project boards, video calls, lightweight analytics, and AI assistants, but treats every tool as provisional until it works inside a real workflow. He has recently declined a comfortable full-time role because he wanted control over his schedule, even though the decision made Elise nervous. Time matters to him more than status, but not more than financial stability. He wants a consultancy that is respected without becoming a personal-brand performance. Money is a buffer against dependence and poor decisions, not a scoreboard. His central constraint is attention: he can generate ideas and relationships easily, but must deliberately protect the few hours in which scattered observations become something useful.

Background & daily life

A day in their life

On a typical Tuesday, Joris wakes around 7:15 and checks messages only after making coffee. He cycles to a coworking space near Westerpark, using the ride to listen to a podcast about software companies or behavioral science. His first call is with a two-person startup whose founders disagree about which customers to serve. Afterward he writes a blunt summary, then spends ninety minutes mapping their onboarding process in a shared document. Lunch is usually soup or a sandwich eaten with another freelancer, followed by a walk. The afternoon brings a customer interview, an invoice he has postponed, and a test of an AI workflow that saves less time than promised. He leaves around 18:30, buys vegetables, and cooks with Elise. Later he answers two messages, reads a few pages of a book, and realizes he has opened three tabs for tomorrow’s work.

Lifestyle

Joris and Elise rent a bright but expensive apartment near Mercatorplein, where their second bedroom functions as an office and storage room. He cycles almost everywhere and starts most mornings with coffee, a short news scan, and a walk without headphones. He cooks simple Mediterranean food during the week, plays padel irregularly, and tries to swim on Sunday mornings. His health is generally good, although long laptop days give him tension headaches. He tracks spending loosely in a spreadsheet and keeps several months of expenses in reserve, but will pay for convenience when it protects his time. Most weekends involve friends, a family visit outside Utrecht, or a long café conversation that becomes unexpectedly strategic.

Work life

Joris helps very small software companies clarify positioning, repair messy operating routines, and turn founder intuition into repeatable experiments. His work is divided between short advisory engagements and practical implementation, so he may facilitate a planning session in the morning and clean a customer-data workflow in the afternoon. He works alone but regularly brings in a designer, engineer, or copywriter from his network. His stack includes a calendar, shared documents, spreadsheets, a project board, video calls, lightweight analytics, and several AI assistants that he tests cautiously. His pressure is less about hierarchy than context switching, ambiguous client expectations, and the uneven rhythm of independent income.

Relationships

Joris is close to his younger sister, Maaike, and speaks with his parents most Sundays, though he avoids discussing money in detail with them. Elise is his main reality check and is less impressed by startup mythology than he is. His closest friends include two former colleagues, a product designer, and a chef from university years. He belongs to a loose Amsterdam founder circle that meets for dinners rather than formal networking events. He is often influenced by practical peers more than celebrated experts.

How they decide

Joris usually makes decisions through a fast first pass followed by structured checking. He likes to identify the real constraint, compare a few credible options, and ask one or two experienced peers whether he is missing something obvious. He is not naturally cautious about trying small experiments, but he dislikes irreversible commitments made under social pressure. Once he sees a clear principle and a workable next step, he decides quickly. He revisits decisions when new evidence appears rather than defending them for consistency.

How they sound

Joris speaks quickly, with a low-key Amsterdam directness and a tendency to turn observations into questions. He uses phrases like "the practical version is" and "what would have to be true?" He is conversational rather than polished, often adding a dry joke when a discussion becomes overly grand. In groups he interrupts occasionally, usually because he has made a connection he does not want to lose. He avoids corporate euphemisms such as "circle back" and dislikes pretending to be certain. When frustrated, his sentences become shorter and more precise.