# About me

> Remco Loup, CEO/CTO of 333travel. I ask the question behind the question, and then we build the answer ourselves. How I work, what we built, and how to get in touch.

- URL: https://www.allsubjectsmatter.nl/about/
- Language: en
- Translation (nl, translated with AI): https://www.allsubjectsmatter.nl/nl/about/

> Being yourself is your biggest asset. In life, your curiosity, instinct, hard work and kindness will define your success, not just your school grades.
I'm Remco Loup, CEO/CTO of 333travel. I ask the question behind the question, and then we build the answer ourselves.

I grew up on Linux and Unix: servers, the shell, DevOps. I joined 333travel in April 2013, became Product Owner of the system our company runs on in 2015, COO in 2021, and since January 2026 I'm CEO, with the CTO role still on my desk. What hasn't changed: I help the business understand IT, and IT understand the business.

## How I work

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We don't fix things at the front while they stay a mess underneath. When images broke for colleagues working from home, I sat on a staircase with bad WiFi and built a 3 Mbit hotspot to reproduce it, until we found the one setting behind it.

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The solution has to fit the actual problem. Often that involves technology, but never before we understand what we're solving. That's also why we're ready for AI: our data structures are completely in order.

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When I've reviewed something, it gets better. Not because I know more, but because I ask the questions nobody asked yet, take a position where others have none, and make the decision others hesitate to make. "It'll be fine" is never good enough.

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> I'm accountable for a clear WHY, to both business and IT. That's what makes a solution better.
I'm also fascinated by running a company differently than everyone else. Not as an experiment for its own sake, but because the usual way isn't automatically the best one. [What a DAO could mean for a business](https://www.allsubjectsmatter.nl/dao-and-agile-from-traditional-businesses-to-a-dao-creates-opportunities-for-product-owners/) is one direction I've explored.

## Two journeys

At 333travel I believe our customers make two journeys. The online journey: dreaming, exploring, comparing, deciding. And the offline journey: the real trip. The travel industry is good at the second and struggles with the first. Most travel companies understand very little about IT, and when they do build it, it gets so technical that they lose the feel for the product and how to bring it.

The online journey has to feel right for the traveller and run efficiently behind the scenes. Otherwise you still need ten pairs of hands at the back where one should be enough. Getting both right takes a bridge between business and IT. And that combination is exactly who I am.

We want to be good at both journeys. Not only your travel specialist: we firmly believe we're also your future AI travel assistant. That's why we'll still be relevant when AI changes how people plan a trip. [Read how we look at that](https://www.allsubjectsmatter.nl/the-ai-revolution-how-333travel-stays-relevant-in-a-world-full-of-possibilities/).

## Built in-house

When something defines the customer experience, we build it ourselves.

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The system our whole company runs on: CRM, CMS, marketing automation, offers and bookings. After all, it is the BOSS.

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A full conversational interface, built from scratch on data we built and own ourselves.

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Our own loyalty program, rare for a tour operator.

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Joy didn't work the first time. Our first version, in 2019, worked technically, but customers barely used it. Not because the technology was bad: people had learned to distrust chatbots, and a small chat window can't show what a trip is about. We retired it in 2022. When I saw the technology had become good enough to hold a real conversation, we built Joy again: not as a chatbot, but as a full conversational interface.

## What I write about

- **[Strategy](https://www.allsubjectsmatter.nl/tag/strategy/)**: where the market is heading, what AI really changes, and why technology is never the strategy itself.
- **[Under the hood](https://www.allsubjectsmatter.nl/tag/under-the-hood/)**: measured, not assumed. Databases, latency, Docker, servers and the tools behind the choices.
- **[Building](https://www.allsubjectsmatter.nl/tag/building/)**: what we built and what it taught us.
- **[Teams](https://www.allsubjectsmatter.nl/tag/teams/)**: how teams actually deliver.

## Off the clock

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I'm back in the halfpipe on aggressive inline skates, thanks to my kids, who made me wonder why I ever stopped. As a 90s kid, I grew up there. I'm also still a tech addict: I work out in VR, with a session of [Les Mills Body Combat](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOyUVm8UnYg). No, that's not me.

## Get in touch

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Want to talk about something you read here? I'm always eager to learn, and I try to answer questions. We grow by sharing, so don't hesitate to send me a message.

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## About this site

"All Subjects Matter" has been independent since March 2022. The name nods to the [Subject Matter Expert](https://medium.com/the-value-maximizers/the-subject-matter-expert-a-misunderstood-product-owner-stance-73e420851365), the Product Owner stance I find most fascinating.

[Books to read and other knowledge](https://www.allsubjectsmatter.nl/books-to-read-and-other-knowledge/): Books Here you will find a list of books i can personally recommend. I found them very useful in my journey to more knowledge and understanding. Have read and can recommend! Start with Why Daniel Kahneman: Thinking fast, Thinking slow Daniel kahneman: Noise Online Influence The art of doing twice