About
I build software. I understand the business around it.
My work has included PHP and Laravel applications, ecommerce, integrations and software products. Running my own webshop and niche websites also meant dealing directly with traffic, customers, orders, billing and day-to-day problems.
I'm Carsten. I'm Dutch, and I've lived in Malaysia since 2013.
I studied mechanical engineering and worked in industrial automation and maritime engineering before software became my full-time work. I started building websites as a teenager. Over time that became PHP, ecommerce, Laravel and custom software for businesses.
I still like the same part of the work: understanding how something works, finding the problem and building a practical solution.
I care about clean code, but the code is not the point. If the software handles orders, leads, billing or customer communication, those things have to keep working. I think about migrations, monitoring and what happens after launch because I've had to deal with them in my own businesses and client systems.
The useful history
How I ended up doing this.
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Mechanical engineering and automation
Before software became my full-time work, I studied mechanical engineering and worked in industrial automation and maritime engineering. I enjoyed understanding how the different parts worked together. That is still the part of software I enjoy now.
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Ecommerce
I ran my own Magento store and later worked on established Magento and Shopware stores for clients. When software sits underneath a live store, changes affect real orders, customers and revenue.
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Niche websites
I grew a niche website to 2,000–3,000 visitors a day and an email list of 20,000 people. That meant learning SEO, content, email, products and how to turn traffic into income by doing the work myself.
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Five years with one client
A small Laravel project for a Belgian company became five years of work. I wasn't handed isolated tickets; I learned how the business worked and kept changing the software as the company changed.
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Building products now
I'm currently building SitePerfector, a multi-tenant Laravel SaaS with billing, queues, crawling, search data and AI workflows. I still design and write the software myself.
The work I like most
I particularly enjoy working with business owners who know where they want to go but aren't sure what software they need to get there.
The first request is often fairly small. As we talk through it, a bigger problem sometimes becomes clear. I might build that one thing and we're done, or it may become the start of working together for years.
Both are fine. Longer relationships often work especially well because I already know the business and can get straight to the next problem.
How I work
- You work with me
- There's no account manager, and the work isn't handed to a junior developer after the first call. I'm the person you speak with and the person who reads the code and builds the software.
- We can start with one thing
- You don't have to commit to a six-month project. We can start with one feature, integration, migration or clearly defined build. If it makes sense to continue, we do.
- I can work with what you already have
- Not every codebase needs to be rewritten. I'm comfortable getting into an existing PHP/Laravel application, understanding it and improving it in steps.
- I think beyond launch
- Deployment, monitoring, data migrations, support and the awkward cases that appear after software goes live are part of the work.
- I'm based in Malaysia
- I have lived in Malaysia since 2013 and have worked with European clients for years. I work asynchronously by default, and we find overlapping time for calls when needed.
Get in touch
Have something you need help with?
Tell me what you're trying to build, what isn't working or what has been sitting on the list for too long.
Most things start with a short email — info@pawon.dev. I usually reply within one working day.