Insurance · SAMA
Najm Vision AI
6k+/day
40+ cities. Governance that holds under regulator stress.
Belgium · DevGap · AI Plumber
Koen Van Lysebetten
Founder & CAIO · I put AI into production under real constraints
I put AI into production for banks, insurers and governments — the kind a regulator can walk through. Identity, audit trails, human gates, kill switches. I’m the plumber, not the magician.
The book
Symbiosis needs plumbing
My take on the symbiotic enterprise — humans, agents, robots, and the governance layer that keeps the loop honest.
In plain words
What I do
I’m a Belgian Founder & CAIO at DevGap. I design the systems around AI models so banks, insurers, governments and other regulated organisations can run AI in production — constrained identities, attributable actions, humans in the loop, kill switches that actually stop the system.
I founded AI Plumber (aiplumber.dev). Twenty years shipping systems taught me the same lesson across marketplaces, growth, and enterprise: Intelligence is rented. Plumbing is owned.
Based in Belgium · work across Europe, Middle East, India · koen@devgap.uk · LinkedIn · CV · GrowthMentor
My path
From classifieds to regulated AI
Full timeline on the story page. Growth years built the systems thinking; the work now is making AI survive regulators.
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Marketplaces → founder growth
AutoScout24 · KAPAZA · VintoVino Co-Founder & Head of Growth (~€2M ARR in 2 years).
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Building companies & growth systems
DevGap Co-Founder EMEA/US · GIMBER (+168% MRR / 6 mo) · Deloitte Ecommerce + Fast50 · Advisory Board since 2020.
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DevGap Founder & CAIO · AI Plumber
Regulated enterprise AI (EU / ME / India). Najm · agents with human gates · Govt of India $10M+ · SMALS/banking · 30+ FTE via CodeNinja.
Selected work
Where I’ve shipped
Two chapters: regulated AI now, and the growth systems that trained the judgment. Full case list.
Ops · agents
Restaurant intelligence
~90%
Three agents, human approval gates: month-long cycles → ~10 minutes.
Streaming · VTM GO
Retention system
25% → 8%
Lifecycle system (growth years). Churn cut in a year.
Gov · India
Heritage AI/AR/VR
$10M+
Federal procurement · 180+ projectors · production delivery.
Who this is for
Three rooms, one job
Make the autonomous system survive the regulator — and actually ship.
CEO
You approved AI pilots. None are in production. The board wants ROI. Deadlines (including the EU AI Act) are real.
I help you get a system that can survive review and deliver a projected return.
CTO
You inherited AI point solutions with little governance. CISO and Legal need a clear architecture now.
I give you patterns for identity, human gates, observability and kill switches.
Investor
You’re evaluating AI scale-ups and need to know if the “moat” is real infrastructure or a thin model wrapper.
I run technical diligence on integration, governance and defensibility.
How I work
Intelligence is rented. Plumbing is owned.
Safety doesn’t come from telling an agent to behave — it comes from least-privilege identities that make the dangerous action hard or impossible. Models get swapped. The governance layer around them is what a regulator actually examines.
One honest conversation about your system beats a slide about the future of AI. I ship the short artifact that changes a decision.
Common questions
FAQ
Who are you?
I’m Koen Van Lysebetten — Founder & CAIO at DevGap, founder of AI Plumber. About twenty years building systems, from marketplaces to regulated AI across Europe, the Middle East and India.
What do you actually do day to day?
I design and review the systems around AI models: who the agent is, what it’s allowed to do, who must approve risky steps, how actions are logged, and how to shut it down. I’m engaged when pilots must become production under real regulation.
When should you not hire me?
If you need a model trained from scratch, a brand campaign, or a pure idea-stage pitch deck — I’m the wrong plumber. If you need demos that impress but never ship, same answer.
What is AI Plumber?
My governance-first practice and framework for regulated AI — identity, audit, kill switch, human gate — not model hype. Full site: aiplumber.dev.
How do I book time or get the CV?
Book 20 minutes: cal.com/koen-van-lysebetten/discovery. Mentorship: GrowthMentor. Email: koen@devgap.uk. CV: download PDF.
Want a straight conversation?
Twenty minutes. Tell me which layer is blocking your pilot from production.