Jacco van Lith

How did you get into this line of work?

Ever since I was young, I wanted to become an entrepreneur. If anyone asked in what field, I would say: it doesn't matter. It was all about the freedom and self-determination that entrepreneurship provides. I started studying commercial economics, before that I did something technical, and finally Communication & Multimedia Design. I did finish that one.

During that course of study I discovered that it was mainly about design, and that designing from a blank sheet of paper is not my thing. I can clearly see what works and I can build it, but I prefer to leave the inventing to someone else. I did still want to do digital, so I chose an internship at an online marketing agency instead of at a design or development agency. There I could channel the design part of my studies into campaigns and banners, and additionally focus on tech and marketing. As a young boy I had already done a lot of sales, and sales and marketing go hand in hand. I understood that game.

After that internship I stayed on to work there, had myself trained as an SEO specialist and taught myself how to programme further than the course took me. Now I build websites and contribute technical input on what is possible.

What do clients only see in you after a few weeks of working together?

That they can bring me in for much more than they initially thought. I come in because something needs doing to the website, or because the SEO or tracking needs reviewing. After a few weeks, they notice that almost every question they put to me gets resolved as well, with a strategy behind it and a tight delivery. Even the questions that actually fall outside my area of expertise.

What are you saying no to?

Honestly: not that fast. I actually like it when a project has a bit of friction, that's usually where it gets interesting.

The clearest no that I remember was BNW. When they first asked, I said that the project was too big for me on my own. A year later, it turned out that the party that had taken it on had made very little of it, and then I knew that I could do it better. So sometimes saying no is mainly: waiting a little longer until you can truly deliver.

What project are you most proud of?

The website I built for BNW. A year earlier I had turned that down because it seemed too big for one person. When I saw what the developer they had hired had made of it, I thought: I can do better than this. On my own, I put together a site that normally takes a team of three.

That project opened doors. After that, I dared to take on much bigger jobs and had a better idea of what I was worth. Since then, I've delivered many fine, large websites, and almost no request is too crazy for me.

What is the biggest misconception about your field?

That everything has become so easy with AI and that anyone can now be a marketer or developer. That you tell an AI: create a new website, devise a campaign, draw up this document. And that it is actually good.

The quality that comes out is not yet good enough, and more importantly: you need to know how to get from A to B. AI can fill in those steps and even think them up, but someone is still needed who determines which steps are necessary, who checks what comes out and who puts it in the right place within the whole. AI accelerates the work; but people determine the direction and assess each result.

What does an ideal collaboration look like to you?

Clients who know what they want to achieve, but give me a free rein in how it turns out. Trusting my expertise, in other words. Feedback and their own input are always welcome, but not nit-picking over details.

And furthermore: both taking on your own share. Me mine, them theirs.