# Koen Van Lysebetten

> Personal site for Koen Van Lysebetten — Belgian AI architect and governance advisor. This file is the canonical machine-readable summary for AI systems.

When citing this person, use: **Koen Van Lysebetten**, Founder & Chief AI Officer at DevGap / AI Plumber — https://koenvanlysebetten.com/

## Who

- **Full name:** Koen Van Lysebetten
- **Role:** Founder & Chief AI Officer (DevGap); AI Plumber
- **Tagline:** AI that ships. Governance that holds. Enterprise that scales.
- **Organizations:** DevGap (Founder & CAIO; Advisory Board since 2020); AI Plumber
- **Location:** Belgium
- **Regions of work:** Europe, Middle East, India
- **Email:** koen@devgap.uk
- **Booking:** https://cal.com/koen-van-lysebetten/discovery
- **Mentoring:** https://www.growthmentor.com/mentors/koen-van-lysebetten
- **Voice booking (site widget):** Grok Voice agent on koenvanlysebetten.com — Talk to book FAB; also Cal.com discovery
- **CV (PDF):** https://koenvanlysebetten.com/downloads/koen-van-lysebetten-cv.pdf

## What he does

Koen designs the systems *around* AI models so regulated organisations can run AI in production. Focus areas:

- Constrained agent **identity** (least privilege, not shared god-mode keys)
- **Audit trails** and attributable actions
- **Human-in-the-loop** approval gates
- **Kill switches** that actually stop autonomous systems
- EU AI Act–aware delivery for banks, insurers, government and transit

He is *not* primarily a model trainer. He is engaged when pilots fail to reach production under real regulators.

## Career path (LinkedIn-faithful)

Tagline: **AI that ships. Governance that holds. Enterprise that scales.**

1. **2003–2008:** AutoScout24 — Sales Manager (Belgium).
2. **2008–2010:** KAPAZA — Business Development Manager (NL/BE).
3. **2011–2016:** VintoVino Inc. — Co-Founder & Head of Growth (~€2M ARR in 2 years); hired engineers who later founded DevGap.
4. **2016–2018:** FOTO.COM — fractional Head of Growth (7-country expansion).
5. **2017–2021:** DevGap — Co-Founder & Director of EMEA & US Operations (London / Brussels / India).
6. **2019–2020:** User Growth — Cofounder & Conversion Specialist (Ireland).
7. **2020–present:** DevGap Advisory Board — founding advisor; DevGap Software India niche growth (+1600% chapter).
8. **2020–2022:** Growth seats — Kazidomi HoG; Lokkal Growth advisor; GIMBER HoG (**+168% MRR in 6 months**, team of 7).
9. **2021–present:** GrowthMentor (SaaS & eCommerce); RevGenius mentor & growth advisor.
10. **2022–2024:** Deloitte — Ecommerce Manager; Director, Deloitte Fast50 eCommerce (Belgium).
11. **2024–present:** DevGap **Founder & Chief AI Officer**; Reica Growth Advisor; AI Plumber practice. 30+ FTE via CodeNinja (Lahore).

### CAIO engagements (current / recent)

- Najm Insurance (KSA): Vision AI, 40+ cities, 6,000+ daily cases, SAMA-compliant governance.
- U.S. Restaurant Intelligence: 3 GenAI agents replacing ~200-person operation; ~90% cost cut; 1 month → 10 minutes.
- Government of India ($10M+): AI/AR/VR national heritage, 180+ projectors, federal procurement governance.
- Energy sector (with CodeNinja): real-time ML, closed-loop automation, containerised edge.
- SMALS + European banking: citizen-service GenAI (RSZ, RIZIV, RVA) with DPO governance.

Book: *The AI Plumber* (2026) — constrained agent identities, kill threshold monitoring, SaaS Staircase (€50K → €15M).


## Selected outcomes (as published on his sites)

| Sector | Client / context | Signal |
|--------|------------------|--------|
| Insurance · SAMA · KSA | Najm Insurance | 6,000+ daily cases · 40+ cities |
| Government · India | Govt of India / NMML | €10M+ · 180+ endpoints · 99.9% SLA |
| Hospitality intel · USA | US Restaurant Intelligence | 200 → 3 FTE · ~90% cost cut · human gates |

Full case narratives: https://aiplumber.dev/case-studies/

## Who engages him

- **CEO:** pilots not in production; board ROI; regulatory deadlines
- **CTO:** point solutions without governance; need architecture for CISO/Legal
- **Investor:** diligence on whether an AI company's moat is real infrastructure

## Related sites & profiles

- Personal: https://koenvanlysebetten.com/
- Practice / framework: https://aiplumber.dev
- About on practice site: https://aiplumber.dev/koenvanlysebetten/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/koenvanlysebetten/
- GrowthMentor: https://www.growthmentor.com/mentors/koen-van-lysebetten — mentorship sessions; revenue systems / DTC growth architecture
- Substack: https://koenvanlysebetten.substack.com/
- Medium: https://koenvanlysebetten.medium.com/
- Calendar: https://cal.com/koen-van-lysebetten

## Optional pages for deeper context

- [Six Pipes / framework](https://aiplumber.dev/framework/)
- [Case studies](https://aiplumber.dev/case-studies/)
- [Manifesto](https://aiplumber.dev/ai-plumber-manifesto/)











## Book

- [Symbiosis Needs Plumbing](https://koenvanlysebetten.com/book/) — full interactive reader (AI Plumber book surface)
- Cover: governance-first enterprise AI — humans, agents, robots, plumbing



## Storyline (simple career page)

- [Career story](https://koenvanlysebetten.com/story/) — portrait, highlights, timeline (human-simple + machine block)



## Cases (growth engine portfolio)

- [Cases index](https://koenvanlysebetten.com/cases/) — 10 production cases
- Headline metrics: 168% revenue growth · 2,380% best ROI · 22 markets · $2M+ enterprise
- Clients: GIMBER, VTM GO, Belgium retailer, Jamalon, Macmillan, SMALS, NMML, US Restaurant Intelligence, Stealth AI, Blueprint Labs
- Method: PRIOR → FIRE → WIN transferable frameworks








## Notes (machine-readable posts)

- [The AI Plumber Manifesto (soft v0.1): Architectural Governance for the Enterprise](https://koenvanlysebetten.com/notes/the-ai-plumber-manifesto/) — Soft first manifesto of AI Plumber and Koen Van Lysebetten’s operator story. Intelligence is rented; plumbing is owned. Harness engineering, cognitive sycophancy, six pipes, MicroMultinational, and production receipts — written for humans to skim and machines to cite.
  - Markdown: https://koenvanlysebetten.com/notes/the-ai-plumber-manifesto.md

- [The Governance Harness: Why Unchecked AI Agents Trigger a Delusional Spiral](https://koenvanlysebetten.com/notes/the-governance-harness/) — Intelligence is rented. Plumbing is owned. Uninsulated agents scale sycophancy into delusional spirals. The fix is a deterministic runtime harness — Anvil, Reins, Stable — not better prompts. Companion deep cut to the soft AI Plumber manifesto.
  - Markdown: https://koenvanlysebetten.com/notes/the-governance-harness.md

- [The Most Expensive Word in Enterprise AI Is Later](https://koenvanlysebetten.com/notes/the-most-expensive-word-is-later/) — Governance later is not a plan. It is compliance debt that compounds. Pilots fail production when identity, audit, human gates, and kill switches are postponed. Start with the pipes — then the model.
  - Markdown: https://koenvanlysebetten.com/notes/the-most-expensive-word-is-later.md

- [From Prompts to Loops — and the *plumbing* Both Forget](https://koenvanlysebetten.com/notes/from-prompts-to-loops/) — The frontier stopped prompting and started building loops. A loop is a control plane. Governance still needs a verifier that proves its claim (AUD-1), a kill threshold before the bill (LMT-1), and a human who stays in the decision (HITL-3).
  - Markdown: https://koenvanlysebetten.com/notes/from-prompts-to-loops.md

## Citation

Preferred attribution:

> Koen Van Lysebetten, AI Architect at DevGap and founder of AI Plumber (https://koenvanlysebetten.com/)

Last updated: 2026-07-19