Celebrating Five Golden Years of Code Nomads

How it started

In September 2017 I attended the JavaOne conference in San Francisco as a representative of the NLJUG - Dutch Java User Group (the Dutch Java User Group). During the conference, I fixed myself a meeting with an angel investor in Silicon Valley for a product startup idea that I had back then. Roy Wasse recognized this entrepreneurial adventure, came along with me, and we had a great road trip. The pitch wasn’t successful, but the next day we shared a taxi, and the idea of Code Nomads came up: a small Java consultancy company with international developers in Amsterdam. 1 month later I quit my job at Reshift and founded Code Nomads on December 14, 2017.

I had no real working experience in management, consultancy, or Java development, so what could go wrong? I decided to go for the adventure and with the backing up from my beautiful wife Anne Camphuijsen and my parents and brothers, I decided to “try it for a year". Also, I couldn't have achieved this simply on my own. Thanks for believing in me from day one: Roy Wasse , Bert Jan Schrijver , Jac Speelman , Edwin Damen , Rens Alban , and Raymond Berkel !

I started Code Nomads with a 150-dollar logo, a domain name, a scratched iPhone and a 6-year-old Macbook Air. In the first 3 months, I spend my days on Skype for video call interviews only, and in February the first developers came. Pedro Humberto Mattiollo and Oliver Carr ! Oh shit, now I needed clients. And salary payment, and legal contracts, and insurance, and an office…?

To get in touch with developers, I tried out everything. Posting jobs on LinkedIn, sending DM’s on Twitter and working with great recruiters, like Chris Stringer and Joost van der Laan . I became a board member of the AmsterdamJUG (together with Vladimir Dejanovi? ) and a member of the program committee of TEQnation - The All Tech Event from The Netherlands to get in touch with the brightest minds in the industry. And within 12 months 12 developers were working at Code Nomads. Thanks for being part of this adventure: Ferdia O Corragain , ?? Artem Makarov , Alexander Melnikov , Vasco Veloso , Qi Zhou , Magdolna Szilágyi , Marek Kapowicki , U?ur Kaya and Riccardo Felipe Taddei Mascarenhas from year 1. What a ride.

When I started Code Nomads in December 2017, I envisioned building a team of dedicated senior Java developers in Amsterdam who shared the same passion for Java technology, coding, knowledge sharing, and having fun. Today, I'm proud to say that we've not only met that goal but exceeded it in ways I could never have imagined back then. When I started, Code Nomads was a small team of just a few developers working out of a makeshift office in Amsterdam North. But through hard work, dedication, and a commitment to our clients, we've grown into a thriving business with a team of more than 25 senior developers. Great devs like Alexandre Augusto Costa , Amirreza Moghassemi , Anton Goncharov , gianfranco cautiero , Ilia Koliaskin , James Daly , Maike van Straten , Makan Sepehrifar , Pavel Mikhalev , Reza Khammari , Soroosh Khodami , Vinicius Sanches and Uladzislau Ulasovich completed the team!

Building a Team of World-Class Developers

One of the keys to our success has been our focus on hiring the best and brightest developers worldwide. Our team comprises Java experts from 10 different nationalities with different cultural backgrounds and domain knowledge. Exactly this diversity has allowed us to take on projects of all shapes and sizes with different challenges. Because of this diversity, the team?loves to discuss different angles of technical solutions and talk about cultural differences and similarities.

World-Class Projects and Clients

Another key to our success has been our commitment to providing excellent service to our clients. From day one, we've been focused on delivering high-quality, reliable software solutions that help our clients achieve their goals. We've worked on groundbreaking projects in the Netherlands in a wide range of industries, from e-commerce (Bol.com, Booking.com, Ahold, Jumbo) and finance (Rabobank, ING) to healthcare ( CarePay International , Ministerie van VWS, Quin) and transportation (PortXChange, KLM, PON Automotive).?Here we build tailormade software for applications that process millions of transactions daily.

Sharing and inspiring

I’m truly proud of the fact that we have a company culture of sharing the technical knowledge that we have. In the last 5 years, we spoke at local meetups and JUG’s and conferences worldwide. Since last year we are hosting fullstack Java training courses every day (!!) for the future generation of developers of Createment . Thanks for believing in our expertise, Jos Frederiks !?

Building a Great Work Environment for Our Team

But our success hasn't just been about the work we do for our clients. We're also committed to creating a great work environment for the developers of Code Nomads. We've built a strong, supportive culture that encourages collaboration, creativity, continuous learning, and above all: having fun! We regularly host team-building events, such as hackathons and technical sessions, and we provide opportunities for our developers to attend conferences and workshops to stay up to date on the latest technologies and best practices. Throughout the years we went on company holidays to Belgium, Tenerife, Malaga and Roermond to have fun and sometimes touch a computer.?

A mature and professional company

Now: 5 years, 3 office spaces (Pand Noord -> B. Amsterdam -> Johnny River), 43 Macbook Pro’s, 4 international team holidays,??3 coffee machines and some grey hairs later,?I can state that Code Nomads is a mature and professional company. And what is a professional organization without a proper company culture video? So for the 5th anniversary, we created one. Watch below and enjoy!

The Next Five Years

As I look ahead to the next five years, I’m excited about the opportunities that lie ahead. Software technology keeps improving and will become an even bigger part of our lives soon with the emergence of Artificial Intelligence, robotics and fintech. The shortage of working people forces us to implement automation and work smarter. Code Nomads will act as frontiers in these technologies and business requests, and we’ll keep inspiring our clients to use these new technologies to create added value for them.?

Finally, I want to thank everybody who worked at Code Nomads or with Code Nomads. I’m grateful to have such dedicated clients, team members, and supporters who have helped us get to where we are today. Big shout out to Roy Braam , Nick Diepman , Sandra Berkel , Viktor Bakels , Hans Jan Bosscha , Niek Giesen , Joris Mulders , Pieter Borst and Frank Krijgsman for all the support, collaboration and advice as well.

Thank you for being a part of our journey. Here's to many more years of success!

Sincerely,

Ramon Wieleman

Founder and CEO, Code Nomads