Koen Van Lysebetten

Koen Van Lysebetten

Founder & Chief AI Officer · DevGap · AI Plumber

Intelligence is rented. Plumbing is owned.

I’ve watched tech cycles boom and bust for over 20 years — mobile apps, marketplaces, AR/VR, now generative AI. Vendors sell the magic; systems engineers inherit the reality. Enterprises run on rented intelligence: commercial models drift, APIs change, vendor code gets nerfed without notice. Demos look easy; production is brutal.

I don’t build the flashy storefronts. I’m the AI Plumber — governance, strict fallback logic, and data pipelines that turn unstable, non-deterministic AI into a production line that holds under regulated stress.

Today I’m Founder & CAIO at DevGap — AI-native consultancy for regulated clients across Europe, the Middle East, and India. Channel partnership with CodeNinja (Lahore); 30+ FTE across Brussels, London, and India.

6,000+ daily Najm Vision AI · 40+ cities · SAMA governance
~90% cost cut US Restaurant · 200 FTE → 3 agents · 1 mo → 10 min
$10M+ Govt of India AI/AR/VR · 180+ projectors · federal procurement
168% MRR GIMBER · 6 months · full-funnel growth seat

Career snapshot

  1. Sales Manager (Belgium) — early online classifieds and high-volume marketplace sales systems.

  2. Business Development Manager (Utrecht / Diegem) — classifieds marketplace BD through the Schibsted-era market.

  3. Co-Founder & Head of Growth — world’s first social wine marketplace; ~€2M ARR within 2 years via community-led growth. Recruited engineering talent who later formed DevGap’s founding team.

  4. Fractional Head of Growth — rebrand + growth strategy with MadKings; international expansion across seven countries.

  5. Co-Founder & Director of EMEA & US Operations (Jan 2017 – Mar 2021) — bootstrapped from London through Brussels, Noida, and Surat; eCommerce / headless / mobile. Closed Noida office during COVID while keeping remote ops and client continuity. Founder-first alternative to traditional agencies.

  6. Cofounder & Conversion Specialist (Ireland) — PPC + landing page / CRO agency; search, social, display, content for growth clients.

  7. Founding advisor — hybrid global teams; founder-first positioning; niche e-commerce focus; co-led DevGap Software India (+1600% growth via niche targeting). UX strategy, customer motivation, emerging tech (AI, AR, VR) aligned to local models in India.

  8. Kazidomi Head of Growth (Apr 2020 – Jun 2021) — AAARRR funnel, MRR scale. Lokkal Growth advisor (Mar–Dec 2021) — north-star alignment, marketing strategy, coached team + agency Dapper; reported to founder/CEO Gert Aerts. GIMBER Head of Growth (Jun 2021 – Mar 2022) — full-funnel strategy; scaled MRR +168% in 6 months; team of 7.

  9. GrowthMentor (Nov 2021 –) — full-funnel SaaS & eCommerce growth mentoring (paid social, SEA, SEO, analytics, automation, CRO). RevGenius (Aug 2021 –) — mentor & growth advisor for B2B/commerce leaders; AI as a collaborative sales tool.

  10. Ecommerce Manager (Oct 2022 – Mar 2024, Brussels) — end-to-end e-commerce from strategy to tech delivery; client relationships; agile execution. Composable commerce / MACH / commercetools. Director, Deloitte Fast50 eCommerce — Belgium’s premier scaleup programme; participation and spotlight for tech disruptors.

  11. Founder & Chief AI Officer (Mar 2024 – · Brussels Metropolitan · Hybrid) — transforming DevGap from delivery partner into AI-native consultancy for regulated enterprise. Governance frameworks, agentic architecture, production AI where compliance and operational risk are non-negotiable. Managing 30+ FTE (Brussels, London, India) via CodeNinja channel partnership. Published The AI Plumber (2026) — constrained agent identities, kill thresholds, SaaS Staircase (€50K → €15M).

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

  13. Growth Advisor (remote) — growth strategy, content, and customer experience for realistic media generation / GenAI marketing workflows for agencies and commercial brands.

Based in Belgium. I work across Europe, the Middle East and India.

Book a call GrowthMentor Download CV Full profile Manifesto