2025 in review

2025 has been a special year for me. Financially, it was the best year I've ever had. But besides that, it was also a year that was very different from the previous years and I did a lot of new stuff personally and professionally.

From SaaS to consultancy

In September 2024, I found myself bored working full-time on my SaaS. I'm privileged that my SaaS Nusii, covers my complete salary and provides more than enough to live very well in Spain. But I needed something different. So I tweeted that I was looking for consulting work, just for a couple of months. A chance to work with other people and do something new.

That tweet led me to ClickFunnels, where I was invited to work on a brand new app called OfferLab with just a team of 5 people. By surprise, it turned out to be the best job I've ever had. It was my first time working for a US company with a US rate, alongside the most talented people I've ever worked with. Together we built a really cool app that lets you sell products in a completely new way. It is interesting that most of the people in my team own a SaaS on the side. Everyone knows the game, is motivated, works independently, and we have shipped so much software in 2025. A tip for companies that are looking to hire programmers that ship fast: Hire SaaS founders that are plateau'ed, bored, or really early in their journey.

What wasn't my intention was to work for them this long. I ended up working the full year. Meanwhile, Nusii became a side project again. But here's the surprising part: Nusii didn't decline at all, the revenue stayed exactly the same. This meant I had two full-time salaries in 2025.

Even though I didn't need it, this extra income was really welcome. We're trying to buy a house in the Spanish village where I live. It's very touristy and house prices have doubled in the last five years, so the extra money has helped a lot. I've built a big financial cushion for a new car in case ours break, holidays, house down payment, etc, etc.

Right now I work part-time: three days a week for ClickFunnels and two days a week back on Nusii. Eventually I want to transition back to working full-time on Nusii, but right now I'm still having too much fun.

My first conference talk ever

This year I stepped way outside my comfort zone and gave my first conference talk at Friendly.rb. When they accepted my talk about building a SaaS, I was really surprised, especially because I had never given a talk before and it is a well known conference in the Ruby community.

The night before, at the speaker dinner, I confessed to Adrian, the conference organizer, that fitting everything into 30 minutes felt impossible. Could I have just a bit more time? He smiled and shook his head. "Cut more slides. You'll only be left with the great ones."

I barely slept that night. At 6 AM I sat down and ruthlessly deleted 17 slides. I was very lucky that I was the 2nd speaker, so I could only be nervous for a short time. I was especially nervous because in the crowd were some Ruby heroes of mine. Some were famous 18 years ago when I just started programming in Ruby. I think the talk went very well, luckily it was about a topic I know very well. I wouldn't dare to give a presentation about Ruby. There were just so many people that were inspired to create their own SaaS.

After the talk, the conference was on easy mode. I’d never experienced this before, I usually have to approach people at conferences. This time, dozens of people came up to me, said positive things, and asked for tips, because many developers have the dream to create their own SaaS eventually.

I also attended Microconf Europe in Istanbul. Microconf stays my all-time favourite conference. So many highlights, the biggest highlight was during dinner, my favourite customers were selling the heck out of Nusii in front of my face to a German couple. That was such a great moment.

Mastermind

This year I kept doing a biweekly call with my friends Benedikt Deicke and Chris Kottom. We have been doing this since 2018! As SaaS is lonely, it is so good to have a group of friends to talk about business and life in general. Planning to keep at it in 2026!

Music

I played my whole teenage years guitar but abandoned it 15 years ago. I got my love back for playing music during the pandemic and started playing the drums. This year I played in some bands for the first time. Most of them were just jamming with some friends and some strangers. Later in the year, me and my girlfriend joined band practice with the local music school. 4 people and a teacher. It has been really awesome and playing together with people is so much fun. More this year!

I also kept doing the weekly accountability sessions with my friends, Benedikt Deicke and Onur Ozer. A weekly call where we practise together remotely to keep each other accountable. Just now, we started the 30 day independence course by El Estepario Siberiano.

Holidays

This year we did some great trips with the family, the biggest was a trip to Denmark. We went to Copenhagen, Aarhus, Billund (Lego land!) and Vordingborg. This year I did something different and visited some of my SaaS friends during the trip (Peter Suhm, Mathias Hansen, and Michele Hansen). It was so cool to do this with the whole fam and kids.

Besides the big Denmark trip, we did many small trips in Spain and The Netherlands. Also, I went with my old Dutch village friends to Edinburgh. Each year we go to another city somewhere in Europe. We have this tradition for more than 15 years already.

Sports

I set myself to do 100 CrossFit sessions this year, but I got injured before the summer, my shoulder and hamstring, so I had to take a break unfortunately. This year I'm going to set the same goal. Funnily I almost made the 100 workouts in 2024 (99 workouts to be exact!) so I know it isn't impossible. I also did three 10km runs in 2025. I'm hoping to do a half marathon next year.

One thing that was a lot of fun this year, I brought my kids with me at CrossFit many times. In our local gym, you are allowed to bring kids. They are super excited and motivated to join, which was great to see.

Overall it was a great year with many highlights. Both personally and professionally. I'm going to start 2026 exactly the same as where I left 2025, no need to change anything at the moment. Eventually I want to go full time again on Nusii.