Marc van Neerven

Independent Software Business Consultant

Fractional CTO 💡 Top Startups Voice⚡ Helping startups make better SaaS

You’ve got vision.

I help you turn it into something that actually ships, scalable, beautiful, and built to last.

As a Fractional CTO, I help founders and leadership teams:

Turn strategy into execution: translating boardroom vision into working code and real traction.

Build lean, high-performing tech teams: in-house, remote, or hybrid, with just the right balance of structure and speed.

Adopt AI the right way: embedding an AI mindset into products, workflows, and decision-making before it’s too late.

Create SaaS that sells itself: through a Product-Led Growth approach that puts value before friction.

Design for humans, build for scale: applying design thinking, solid architecture, and open-web standards to grow sustainably.

My work is transformational: when I leave, your company keeps moving faster, smarter, and with more clarity than before.

I’m not a slide-deck strategist. I still code, design, and build proof-of-concepts myself, focusing (and advocating for) the Open Web, and native cloud to prove what’s possible.

You want your SaaS to grow leaner, smarter, and more human.
Let’s build it.

Startup Expert

Writing blogs about the life of a CTO at Startups and Scaleups. 

Has the world gone mad? 🤯

I just read Paul Hebert's deep dive on the Shadcn radio button ¹.

It’s thoughtful. Detailed. Carefully engineered.

And it perfectly illustrates the problem.

We are writing React components, layering abstractions, wiring state machines, and debating micro-patterns…
…to recreate something the browser does natively (and very well).

What a radio button should be:

<input type="radio" name="beverage" value="coffee" />

That’s it.

Accessible. Keyboard-navigable. Screen-reader compatible. Form-compatible. Zero JS required.

And yet the modern stack says:
- Hide the native control
- Rebuild it with divs and spans
- Reimplement focus logic
- Synchronize state with React
- Hope accessibility survives the refactor

All to achieve… styling.

But styling is not a JavaScript concern.

Styling should come from your Design System, or at least from CSS that lives in a shared asset and is cached separately.

And styling radio buttons has long been extremely easy with pure CSS.

The deeper issue isn’t Shadcn however.
It’s that we’ve normalized rebuilding HTML in JavaScript.

When your design system requires a component layer to render a radio button, something fundamental shifted.

Not everything that looks modern is progress.

Sometimes the most radical move in 2026 is to trust the platform again.

The browser ships a radio button.
Maybe we should start there.

Article in the comments.

¹ Shadcn components have become a sort of automatic goto for LLM agents - together with React and Tailwind 😔...

#puredesignsystem #webstandards #shadcn

Fractional CTO 🚀 AI Mind, SaaS Soul, Human Heart

Alpine Editions

Alpine Editions creates custom editions of classic board games including Monopoly, Cluedo, Trivial Pursuit and Top Trumps with a focus on France, Germany and Italy.

We develop custom games for corporate clients in several sectors including luxury hospitality, consumer goods and apparel. We also develop custom editions of Monopoly for carefully selected towns in France and Germany.

My primary focus is on product and content development, but I also take a leading role in key commercial areas, including contract negotiations, pricing strategy, quotations, partnership agreements, and sponsorship deals.

Director of Product and Content

Market Logic Software

Skilled in leading cross-functional teams in product, design, and UX research, managing multiple product backlogs through a structured Agile approach. Experienced in sprint planning and Scrum ceremonies, with a track record of establishing a six-week roadmap cadence using Lean feedback processes to keep goals aligned and adaptive.

Hands-on in business analysis, user story creation, and wireframing, with expertise in developing a user-centered Definition of Done (DoD) that integrates end-user feedback into sprints. Known for creating prioritization frameworks that turn conflicting stakeholder needs into transparent, objective decisions.

Operationally strong in streamlining processes, including integrating 2,000+ support tickets into Scrum, and driving UX/UI transformations to launch DeepSights, an AI-powered, data-driven interface. Proficient in building analytics suites with MixPanel to deliver data-driven insights and premium products that support user-focused product development.

Senior Director, Product and Design

Qwist

Led cross-functional teams to deliver key products, including launching the finX financial API within four months to enable third-party bank account access and assessments. Established a user-centric culture with “model” user stories that address real-world challenges, aligning team efforts to deliver end-user value.

Integrated Agile workflows with formal client operating models, bridging Agile and Waterfall practices for regulated, mission-critical projects. Defined technical debt management guidelines and set OKRs in partnership with stakeholders, aligning quarterly goals with business priorities.

Skilled in managing remote teams and creating KPI suites for C-suite insights into product progress. Delivered a branded data service for customer notifications, launched a bulk payments project, and streamlined the content management system, enhancing accuracy and operational efficiency.

Director of Product Management

Managed a team of product managers and designers to build three major audit products using Scrum and Agile methodologies, employing tools like Monday.com and Jira for task, project, and backlog management. Administered key Scrum ceremonies, including sprint planning, reviews, and retrospectives, and led refinement sessions to adjust requirements and strategy in response to mid-sprint changes, ensuring alignment across globally distributed teams.

Led the development of the Disclosure Checklist, an automated solution transforming a 250-page, manual audit process into an efficient online workflow. Utilizing Lean Startup methods, an MVP was delivered in six weeks, with a custom UI supporting simultaneous multi-user access and stringent security protocols. This solution streamlined the audit process and integrated critical resources like training information, regulatory requirements, and prior audit responses.

Delivered the Securities Portfolio Valuation (SPV) and Trade Receivables products, which automated complex, high-stakes financial evaluations and reconciliations for global use across 50 countries. The SPV product provided real-time, multi-currency valuations via API integrations with global exchanges, while the Trade Receivables solution leveraged OCR and localization for automated invoice matching across multiple countries and languages, overcoming regulatory and localization complexities.

Associate Director, Product Management

PwC UK

Led a highly innovative project at PwC focused on transforming cross-platform video content consumption measurement in an ‘any screen’ environment. 

The innovative solution involved a user panel who were equipped with smart glasses (wearable tech) that featured clip-on cameras. These cameras interacted with a companion mobile app, cloud-based analytics software, and advanced video watermarking technology based on AI and point-based tracking on a frame-frame basis.

Used Lean Startup methods to successfully assemble a multidisciplinary project team, developed a complete technical solution, and crafted a detailed prototype plan to drive project execution.

Director of Product Development

Generator Research

Developed a cloud-based content management system (CMS) and an associated set of content templates that allows research content to be published to the company website

Wrote 1000s of pages of highly technical industry research reports aimed at highly discerning corporate readers who has high expectation on quality and accuracy

Wrote multiple press releases for distribution on press release wires such as BusinessWire and PRNewswire

Successful wrote research content for the company’s flagship research offering, Digital Media Insight, which was used by a roster of prestigious corporate clients worldwide including Adobe, BBC, McKinsey & Co., Deutsche Telecom, Google, Apple and Microsoft.

Head of Technology Industry Research

Anthropics Technology Ltd

Conceived, planned and conducted a programme of focus groups at Ealing Studios in London aimed at understanding user needs and requirements

Led the team that build the company’s next-gen product, FaceWave, which was a mobile app that allowed users to send animated messages to each other using a character of their choice.

Worked closely with the CEO and Chairman to define the company’s transition from a supplier of novelty mobile apps to a leading vendor of photo-editing software.

Product Management Consultant

Cambium Networks

Developed a prototype for an innovative non-line of sight (NLOS) RF transceiver for small business customers using Agile methods, while managing a comprehensive product portfolio including subscriber terminals, base stations, and network management tools.

Provided frontline product support to account managers in France, the UK, and the U.S., supporting business growth through detailed product brochures, business proposals, and technical documentation tailored for non-expert users.

Built and led a team of five product managers, overseeing technical editing and ensuring accurate, user-friendly documentation from complex radio planning content.

Head of Product Management

Telstra

Managed a team of three product managers

Managed a portfolio of data communications products including primary rate access (PRA), leased lines, and a virtual private network, (VPN) product

Used user-centered design principles to conduct a range of usability tests on the effectiveness of the various provisioning documentation used across the company and re-wrote a range of highly technical documents used every day by sales support and customer success to provision new customers and also to perform moves, adds and changes (MACs)

Built a video conferencing product using leased lines for low latency and high video quality which was used by the New Zealand government.

Senior Product Manager

Nortel Networks

Responsible for a range of point-to-point and non line of sight (NLOS) subscriber terminals that were used in Latin America, Australia and Mexico to effect voice and fax communication in 

Extensive international travel throughout Asia, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Latin America and North America to support sales and evangelise the product

Wrote a set of very detailed user guides, onboarding documents and workflow descriptions to allow the product to be deployed successfully.

Speaking at industry conferences in London, Vienna and throughout the U.S.

Product Manager

Lead engineer responsible for the work of 12 RF engineers  including antenna design, analog electronics, digital electronics, low noise oscillators, RF filters, synthesisers and microwave power amplifiers

Architected a highly novel 3.5 GHz transceiver unit that involved a range of innovations including a curved stamped diplexer with inverted input and output, shared up/down active mixer and the usage of a low cost circuit board (G200) rather than RT Duroid which was prohibitively expensive.

Lead engineer on an adaptive antenna electronics unit that was used as part of an anti-jamming system used by the Finnish Army. This unit operated in the 400 MHz band and I as responsible for designing an extremely high performance beamformer unit that delivered ‘best ever’ performance

Principal Engineer

Builder | Engineer | Entrepreneur | Science Advocate | Brings Content

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