A lot of what Boudewijn van der Laan does, and loves to do, revolves around solving puzzles. He is a freelancer in the IT space, whole main work is with HubSpot—a platform used by businesses for marketing, sales, and communication. It’s a space where tech meets people, and Boudewijn enjoys working with the balance of these two.

He has been part of the Contact community for about a year and a half now. What he enjoys most is the mix of disciplines and personalities—it’s casual, collaborative, and full of different ideas. It feels like having colleagues, but everyone is doing completely different things.

Right now, he’s working on a few different HubSpot projects, including helping a company structure how they run internal and external events. Outside of that, he is planning to build a marble table and host a pizza party at Contact this summer. Not all of his interests revolve around digital projects.

What drives him is the process of figuring things out—tweaking systems and solving puzzles until they work better, even if that means bending the rules a bit. One of his favourite past projects was when he worked for a company called Hoomie. The company is no longer around, but the sense of being a part of a team that he experienced there stuck with him. As a freelancer, feeling part of something can be hard, especially if working from home all the time. With his studio at Contact, he has found that sense of community again.