Software engineer at Elfsquad in Groningen, working on CPQ software for manufacturers with genuinely complicated products. Outside of that I ship small tools nobody asked for.
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I'm René — a software engineer based in Groningen, Netherlands. I studied HBO-ICT Software Engineering at Hanzehogeschool Groningen, and these days I work at Elfsquad on CPQ software: the thing that lets a manufacturer configure a product with ten thousand valid combinations and still quote it correctly.
It's the kind of problem I like. Lots of rules, lots of edge cases, and a very unhappy customer if you get the price wrong.
The rest of the time I build small things — web components, a compiler I wrote because I wanted HTML autocomplete, a logger, a virtual pet. Most of them solve a problem only I had. I'd argue that's the best reason to build something.
Configuration rules, pricing logic, integrations. I like the problems where the hard part is understanding the domain, not the syntax.
Java one week, TypeScript the next, a self-hosted deploy pipeline the week after. New stack, same curiosity.
Real things, on real infrastructure, with real domains. Half this site exists because I wanted to test a deploy setup.
Bouldering taught me more about debugging than any tutorial. Try, fail, adjust one small thing, try again.
Some of this is my day job. Some of it is 1am curiosity that stuck.
Building CPQ (Configure, Price, Quote) software used by manufacturers worldwide. Full-stack work on the features that let businesses configure complex products, generate accurate quotes, and keep their sales process from turning into a spreadsheet.
elfsquad.io →A library of free, easy-to-use web components — no framework, no build step, just import and go. My most actively worked-on side project, with a live demo page that gets rebuilt whenever I get an idea.
github.com/reneoun/Open-Web-Components →An autonomous agent that uses Ollama (llama3.2-vision) plus Playwright to visually test cloud platforms — clicking through interfaces, spotting what looks broken, and writing up structured reports. Scheduled with n8n.
Final-year HBO-ICT project at Hanzehogeschool Groningen. A business simulator modelling enterprise integration patterns — connecting systems, automating data flows, and finding where the communication bottlenecks hide.
github.com/reneoun/EAI →“Typescript & HTML Compiler — I just want HTML intellisense when doing document.body.innerHTML”
“It's nothing like Microsoft Word 😂”
TypeScript“Virtual pet + a quick input for running scripts”
TypeScript“Just a simple console logger Bruv”
TypeScript“Hopefully a chrome-extension which allows users to edit specified urls as they please”
TypeScript“cool”
TypeScript
When I'm not at a keyboard I'm usually staring at a wall, working out where to put my left foot.
Bouldering is basically debugging with more chalk. You look at the problem. You try the obvious thing. You fall off. You change one small detail — a different grip, a hip turned slightly in — and suddenly the move that was impossible is fine.
It's also the only hobby I have where “it worked on the third attempt” counts as a triumph rather than a bug report.
Hanzehogeschool Groningen
A four-year bachelor built around software engineering, enterprise development and a lot of real project work. Java, system design, agile, and a final year spent on enterprise application integration.