Iwo Szapar

Hybrid Work Expert

🚀 Remote-First Activist | Top 50 Remote Influencer | Since 2017, shaping the future of remote-first world

Aloha, I'm Iwo Szapar! Over the years, I've helped transform how over 3,000 companies approach work, leading to more efficient and enjoyable professional lives. 🌍

Key Achievements:

▪️Co-created the AI Maturity Index with Harvard researchers, democratizing access to enterprise-grade AI readiness insights
▪️Advised Ministry of Communications and Technology of Saudi Arabia on AI up-skilling for startups
▪️Launched world's first certification program for remote workers: Remote-how Academy, back in 2018.
▪️Established strategic partnerships with 150 companies, including Asana, Deel, Remote, and Safetywing.
▪️Created an expert community of 250+ consultants from companies such as GitLab, Netflix, and Hubspot.
▪️Co-organized 3 editions of Remote Future Summit, reaching over 11,000 attendees and featuring 140 speakers.

Born in Gdansk, Poland, I've embraced the 'slowmad' lifestyle, living in various countries while working remotely. This journey has enriched my perspective and fueled my passion for innovation. When I'm not working, you can find me reading history books, following international affairs, or indulging in my hobbies as a dog lover, amateur surfer, and DJ.

Connect with me to explore how you/your company can work smarter! 🚀

🚀Remote Work Advocate & Co-founder

Remote-how helps companies make remote & hybrid work, work. Since 2017. 

🤓 Remote-how Marketplace - the world’s leading remote & hybrid work experts marketplace. Work on your consulting and advisory projects with 200+ pre-vetted practitioners from top distributed companies. 

🚀 Remote-how Campus - a community where leaders of hybrid teams come to connect, learn and grow together with access to live leadership development programs, mentoring services, and more.

🚀 Our AI Maturity Index got acquired by ISG (Information Services Group).

Didn’t think a random virtual coffee with a stranger would turn out this way...

18 months ago, Eryn and I started talking about AI adoption chaos.

Everyone had opinions.
Nobody had data.

We launched this as a research project.

It evolved into a diagnostic tool.
Using AI to assess… AI maturity in under 15 minutes.

Our system interviewed 6,000+ professionals across 75 countries.

The data was clear:
• 92% of companies are increasing AI investment
• Only 1% consider themselves AI-mature

Companies weren’t struggling with AI tools.

They were struggling with knowing where to start.

ISG noticed.
They partnered with us.
Then became our biggest client.

Today, they acquired us.

That’s not how acquisitions usually work.
But maybe it’s how they should.
They knew the product deeply.
We knew their vision.
The fit was obvious.

ISG brings research capabilities we couldn’t build alone.
Global reach to take this from thousands to millions.
Resources to turn our platform into enterprise infrastructure.

I’m genuinely excited about what we’ll build together.

Now, zooming out for a second.

It’s been 8 years of building.

First Remote-how.
Then Remote-First Institute.
Now AI Maturity Index.

Many mistakes.
Many lessons.

And now — first exit.

I’m relieved before I’m excited 😅

Eryn — you made this possible.

That “virtual coffee stranger” became an incredible co-founder who pushed me, challenged me, and helped me grow fast.

Thank you. Truly. ❤️ 

Fun fact: we met only twice in real life. 
Once in Lisbon (where we decided to launch the company together - see picture), and second time in Saudi Arabia.

This entire journey was 100% remote.

To the 6,000+ people who took the assessment and trusted us with their data:
You made this possible. Every benchmark came from you.

To Steven, Hannah, and the entire ISG team: You believed in the platform long before the acquisition. That partnership gave us confidence this would work. Thanks a bunch!!!

And to everyone who thought:
“Just another AI survey” — fair skepticism.
We had to earn trust with data quality.

Now we close the 92% / 1% gap.

At scale.

With resources that matter.
Companies investing in AI need to know where they stand.
We’re building the infrastructure to show them.

PS. Yes — I am VERY excited. Like… a lot.

PS2. Full press release → link in comments 👇

Co-Creator of AI Maturity Index (Acquired by ISG) 🤙 Vibe Worker

Available - JAVA Developer - Freelance - June 2023

Senior Java Developer / Application Architect [ DUTCH | ENGLISH | ITALIAN | FRENCH  ]

Specialist in greenfield projects ( I have worked on or managed 12 )
Specialist in securing REST APIs

26 years designing and developing complex Java systems. A full stack 
Developer, used to hitting the ground running and resolving problems unaided.

I have years of consultancy experience and can offer a full solution: analysis, design, architecture, security and development.

I have a track record of delivering high quality, adaptable software in short periods of time in both Dutch and English spoken teams.

I am usually the most experienced developer on the team and happy to lead and coach up to senior level 

What I can offer
 - I can help analyse your requirements
 - I can design the architecture of your Java system.
 - I can design and configure the services
 - I can advise on suitable middleware and storage solutions
 - I can design and implement the application security
 - I can design and setup the front end structure
 - I can design, build and secure your REST Api’s
 - I can lease between teams. Dev, Product manger, testing, operations
 - I can lead the project / team
 - I can coach from junior to senior level
 - I can analyse your workflows and optimize them with software

What I am looking for
 - 100% remote in Europe.
 - 110+ euros per hour ex tax for 40 hours per week
 - Long term projects where possible ( Minimum 3 months )

Education
 - Honours Degree IT and Computing ( Open University )
 - Diploma IT and Computing ( Open University )

About Me
I am originally from the UK and spent 16 years living in the Netherlands, eventually gaining Dutch citizenship. I now live in the south of Italy.

I like to travel and learn languages. I spent a 8 years travelling between Noordwijk and Lille and now live in Scalea in the South of Italy  where I have been coming for the past 20 years and now, with remote working have the possibility to live here full time. 

I have developed my own commercial product. Arenella-ICT. This is 100% my own product and used by 770+ IT recruiters and 54000+ IT Candidates for recruitment purposes.

Skill Summary

- 26 years experience
- Spring ( Core, boot, security, data [DB and Elasticsearch], cloud, mvc, test )
- Hibernate / JPA
- Mockito / JUnit
- Elasticsearch / Kibana
- Kafka
- Rabbit
- Azure
- Angular / Typescript

- Monolith / Microservices / Event driven

DUTCH | ENGLISH | ITALIAN | FRENCH

110 euros ph ex tax
40 hours per week 100% remote

- No hybrid
- No Perm
- No Payroll/Detachering

kparkings@gmail.com
0031 643 220 866

Kevin Parkings

Reasons why as a senior Developer I have no interest in using AI

1. Before AI Tech companies, software companies and developers were all making good money. There was no major need to introduce AI apart from making tech companies richer

2. This is a new technology. It brings new security concerns. With traditional development we know pretty well how our systems will be attacked and can defend from those attacks. With AI totally new attack vectors are appearing. We cant defend against what we don't know exists and attackers will learn vulnerabilities before we do.

3. There is a real risk of a bubble. If your system is too tied into a specific implementation and that product fails your product fails.

4. If the same input can produce different results it is very hard to test how your system is going to behave in production

6. AI companies are still working out how to make money. The subscriptions may be low to attract you now but once your locked in nobody knows how much that subscription will cost and if your system is based on that product you have no choice but to pay.

7. Also regarding cloud and not just AI. If the political situation between the US and Europe deteriorates they can turn off your access. They also have all yours and your clients data. 

8. The AI products have been rushed out to keep investor interest. Their marketing teams say AI hallucinates. Software doesn't hallucinate. In our industry we have a word for software that provides an incorrect result based upon a given input. That word is BUG. AI products have simply been released with bugs and the marketing teams are spinning it as a side effect of intelligence.
 
9. If juniors are using AI they are not going to have the same level of knowledge as todays seniors. Seniors become seniors by resolving issues and writing software, not prompting. Unless AI develops to the point that it can also replace seniors and architects before the current seniors leave the market there will be nobody who is capable of reviewing generated code and fixing it. 

New technology is always interesting but it should be chosen carefully to ensure the quality and safety of the system. Often old and boring is better than new and flashy. Old and boring is what has survived previous rounds of hype and proved its worth in production systems over a number of years.

Senior Java Developer / Architect - REMOTE EU - Available Dec 2025

Open Position: Full Stack Java Developer (medior & senior)

Location: NETHERLANDS

https://lnkd.in/dfrzFqQ6

#openposition #itjob #itjobs #ictbaan #ictbanen #itjobboard #cvdatabase

taplio

The Battle

Iwo Szapar

Kevin Parkings

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreIwo Szapar's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreKevin Parkings's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Iwo Szapar

Kevin Parkings

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Iwo Szapar's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreKevin Parkings's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreIwo Szapar's LinkedIn Performance