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. 

Constant Contact

Front end specialist.
With functional prototypes, presentations, and lots of discussions, led the development of a new front end for the flagship email authoring tool.  We are now seeing this new front end plugged into the same workflows our customers already loved, and reaping the benefit of a more modern platform for creating new features and integrations. 
Environment: WebPack, Node.js, ES6, Babel, RequireJS, git, grunt, React.js, AWS, Java, Ruby.

Senior Principal Engineer

Virtusa

Enterprise JavaScript expert providing training, analysis, and solutions for Banking and Financial Services clients. Building Web UI competencies within the practice organization.

Director, Technology

Wayfair

JavaScript Exorcist / Front End Lineman for this vast, fun-to-use e-commerce platform.

Front End Architect (JavaScript)

Architecture and technical leadership for Virtusa's ECM consulting practice.
Delivered web applications using HTML5 Canvas/SVG graphics, Backbone.js MVC/MVVM, jQuery, Handlebars templates, and lots of hand-made JavaScript. 

Major Contributions
Benchmarked major HTML5 charting libraries, created a test harness for mobile/desktop presented the results in a live demonstration to client. Developed a lightweight, unobtrusive tag management engine that ran 100% client side, working with an existing web analytics stack comprised of Adobe, Google, etc. Integrated solution with the Ensighten TMS. Built an intranet application for managing shared data assets across a global IT organization.

Apollo Group

Senior Rich Internet application developer. Principal liaison across UI/UX designers and web developers. Participated in the evaluation and selection of the core technologies for Apollo Group’s new online learning platform, including open source LMS frameworks, LCMS systems, content management systems, and javascript frameworks.

Major Contributions
Ensured our new user experience was faithfully delivered as a GWT application. Developed techniques to apply corporate UI design patterns to custom GWT Widget library. Provided knowledge transfer and documentation for this innovative process.

Client Software Technical Lead

Avaya

Technical lead for remote R&D team. Re-design of thin clients using RIA frameworks. Used automated test tools and frameworks and continuous integration to ensure quality and monitor development issues in near-real-time.

Major Contributions
Extended voice messaging client support to Mac OS X in 5 months. Prototype of 100% browser-based messaging client.

Client/UI Technical Lead, Modular Messaging

Kasenna

Lead a team of experienced IPTV developers to take on the steep challenge of overhauling Kasenna's PortalTV solution. This involved a complete re-write that was nearly 100% backward compatible. Our business objectives were customization, stability, and performance. Our greatest obstacle was the rapidly evolving set-top box market, with pressure to support HD resolution and multi-program hard disk recording.

Major Contributions
New version was built on an object-oriented JavaScript framework supported by a lightweight service-oriented server architecture. Unlike its Web 2.0 cousins, this framework was fine-tuned to work well on weaker, embedded, hardware with limited memory. Applications were designed from a template using inheritance, and the user interfaces could be customized with 100% WYSIWYG web design tools such as DreamWeaver. This new PortalTV was successfully deployed to DTC Communications in Tennessee in 2008.

IPTV Client Software Lead

Alcatel-Lucent

Designed, built, and delivered Interactive TV applications for the Microsoft TV IPTV Edition platform. Lead a small, quick team of developers to make it happen.

Major Contributions
TV Applications for AT&T U-Verse, Prototypes for CenturyTel and Turner.
Thin client framework for Microsoft TV, integrated with SOAP web services, automatic JSON serialization.
Delivered Turner prototype to lab in Atlanta. Customer delighted. Team of 3 developers.

IPTV Applications Architect

Made IPTV applications using Alcatel's OMP solution for Telmex in Mexico, AUNA in Spain. Team lead for CeBIT demo.

Major Contributions
Co-developed the Television Services Framework, a thin client toolkit for IPTV, including middleware that allowed Alcatel to bridge data and services across IPTV platforms. CTO’s office responded with recognition and a bonus. Team of 5 developers. As Alcatel prepared for its vendor role in AT&T Project Lightspeed, I was one of six Alcatel Mountain View employees to participate in the Microsoft IPTV Technology Immersion Project. Developed prototype applications for Microsoft TV, IPTV Edition on the Microsoft Silicon Valley campus. This work led to my next role in Alcatel.

Senior IPTV Developer: Alcatel OMP Platform

Cramer

Jack of all trades interactive programmer.

Major Contributions
Delivered interacive applications for Serono, Gillette, and Bayer.

Senior Interactive Developer

Inflexxion

Brought software development process in house. Provided technical requirements analysis for grant application process. Mentored junior staff on programming, best practices.

Major Contributions
Delivered interactive projects for Pacificare, Ely Lilly, and grant-funded web sites.

Senior Software Engineer

As a Senior Principal Engineer at Constant Contact, I lead the development of a new front end for the flagship document authoring tool, using modern web technologies such as WebPack, Node.js, React.js, and AWS. My role involves creating functional prototypes, presentations, and discussions, as well as collaborating with the design team and the backend engineers to deliver a great customer experience.

With over 30 years of experience in software development, I have a passion for innovation and integration of new and different technologies. I have designed high-performance, technically challenging applications for various domains, including e-commerce, banking, and financial services. I have also provided training, analysis, and solutions for enterprise JavaScript projects, and built custom JavaScript frameworks and tooling. My specialties include strategy, philosophy, prototyping, product definition, feature prioritization, risk management, cross-disciplinary communication, team alignment, and hands-on problem-solving. JavaScript is my forte, but I also have skills in Java, SQL, NoSQL, GraphQL, web service development, full-stack application architecture, and API design.

taplio

The Battle

Marc van Neerven

Benjamin Tremblay

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?