Behind every
request.
Backend work and module ownership at Rentman, a Utrecht SaaS for the event industry. Most of it boring infrastructure modernisation. Some of it (the first AI feature in production) genuinely fun.
- Client
- Rentman · event-industry SaaS
- Years
- 2024–2025
- Role
- Backend dev + Scrum Master (employed)
- Scope
- Backend, AI integration, team org
- Status
- ● Shipped, in production
Rentman is a SaaS that helps event-industry companies plan crews, equipment, and logistics. Its backend grew on top of a custom PHP framework originally written by the CEO. It worked. It also locked the team into assumptions made years before the company looked anything like it looks today.
I joined the backend team to ship features, modernise the foundation, and act as Scrum Master for my team. Most of the work you couldn't show in a screenshot. Some of it ran behind every single request the product handled.
The most satisfying work at Rentman was the unglamorous kind: replacing the request and response pipeline with Symfony's HttpFoundation. Surface-area-tiny, blast-radius-huge, every endpoint in the codebase now flows through cleaner abstractions. The kind of change that doesn't earn a launch post but makes every future change easier.
On the more visible side, I shipped the company's first AI feature: a small, well-scoped ChatGPT call that fills product data from a photo. And alongside the code, I was Scrum Master for my team, working closely with my engineering manager on communication, planning, and the rhythms that make a team work.
Request / response, modernised
Replaced the framework's home-grown request and response handling with Symfony's HttpFoundation. Small surface, whole codebase impacted: every controller, every endpoint went through the new layer.
First AI feature in production
Shipped the team's first ChatGPT integration: a product-data autofill that reads an item's photo and pre-fills the catalogue fields. The first AI thing the company put in front of real users.
Laravel microservices
Built and maintained backend microservices in Laravel, including an HTML-to-PDF service used across the product. Kept them small, scoped, and replaceable.
Scrum Master for the team
Ran the team's ceremonies and worked closely with my engineering manager on communication, planning, and organisation. The people side of the work, which is half the work.