Yvo Schaap
Builder & entrepreneur in Amsterdam. On the web since 2005.
I built one of the web's largest lyrics sites (a billion-plus users, later sold to Spin Media), a string of web-tech projects, was CTO at rental platform Pararius, and spent years advising companies on (technical) organic growth. Today I'm founder & CTO of vastgoed.ai, an AI real-estate business and run Mailbook on the side.
Twenty years, roughly segmented
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2003 – 2010
Music, lyrics & cracking Google's ranking algo
1 billion usersObsessed with music and how search really works: I grew two lyrics sites to the top of Google (Completealbumlyrics, then DirectLyrics past a billion users) and Kiesjestudie.nl, a student-review site. Greenbookings, a sustainable-travel platform, arrived a decade too early.
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2009 – 2013
Whitehat hacker fun
$4.5k from FacebookPoking holes in Facebook and MySpace security for the thrill of it, hooked on the rise of the social web — and co-founding Fanity, a music startup, to ride it.
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2014 – 2017
Becoming the CTO
10+ dev teamDeep into scale and performance as CTO of Pararius, the Netherlands' leading rental platform — a million-plus visitors a month, and the growth behind it.
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2016 – 2023
Organic growth consulting
10+ clientsAll in on how search actually ranks — advising large consumer platforms like Poki and ecommerce brands like Maxima and Flinders on winning organically — and building SEOBrowse to watch it happen.
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2018 – 2024
Products that (sometimes) stick
10,000+ products shippedBuilding again. Many launches. Some died early, others, like Mailbook, became hugely popular.
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2024 – now
All in on AI
In progressPicking real estate combined with AI as an area with potential. Now scaling that up.
Current projects
- vastgoed.ai Real-estate software for rental housing.
- jip.ai Free games for kids, no ads.
- Mailbook Collect addresses from friends & family, online.
- Envelopie Digital gift envelopes: a personal card plus a money gift.