Available for conversations Rotterdam, NL

Maximiliaan
Dahmen.

Fourth-year IBA student at RSM, pursuing a double bachelor in Philosophy, with two years of hands-on finance administration experience and an incoming audit role at PwC.

Studying
IBA (Year 4) + Philosophy Erasmus University Rotterdam · top 20% of cohort
Working
Finance & Administration @ Sciential B.V. · Rotterdam, since June 2026
Incoming
Werkstudent Audit @ PwC Assurance · Rotterdam, from February 2027
01 / About

A short bio.

I'm a 21-year-old fourth-year student of International Business Administration at Erasmus University Rotterdam, now also reading for a double bachelor in Philosophy, in the top 20% of my cohort, operating at the intersection of finance, strategy, and AI.

Outside the lecture hall I work in finance and administration at Sciential, handling accounts payable, receivable, and bank reconciliation, and I lead external relations for the Socrates business society. Earlier I built and ran Bijlesmaatje, an AI-first tutoring platform, which I wound down deliberately in 2026 once it was clear it wouldn't reach sustainable paying demand.

I'm drawn to the intersection of finance, philosophy, and technology — building clear thinking and clean systems, and learning as much from what I close as from what I start.

Finance Audit & assurance Philosophy Logic & epistemology Sustainability Outdoors
How I Think
01
First Principles
Break assumptions to fundamental truths, then reason up from there, not from analogy.
02
80 / 20 Rule
Identify the 20% of inputs driving 80% of outcomes and ruthlessly prioritise those.
03
Second-Order Thinking
Ask not just "what happens next?" but "what happens because of what happens next?"
04
Inversion
Define failure first. Avoiding the worst outcome is often the clearest path to the best.
Currently Reading
The Six Disciplines of Strategic Thinking
Michael D. Watkins
Strategic thinking is a trainable skill built on pattern recognition: the ability to see what others miss, then act on it decisively.
Tools I Master
Analysis
R Panel Regression Excel Financial Modeling
AI Leverage
Claude Code Zapier AI Replit Agent
Finance
REMS AP Systems Reconciliation
Relations
HubSpot
Personal anchor

The three shapes that guide everything.

A logo is not decoration. Mine encodes the qualities I want to embody, the values I refuse to compromise, and the aspirations I am quietly working toward.

Cross
Quality
Resilience
Strength through hardship.
Value
Sacrifice
Giving for a higher purpose.
Aspiration
Transcendence
Rise beyond the mundane.
Diamond
Quality
Clarity
Clarity of thought and purpose.
Value
Integrity
Unbreakable ethical character.
Aspiration
Excellence
Pursuit of the highest form.
Circle
Quality
Wholeness
Harmony, balance, inclusiveness.
Value
Unity
Equality, community, connection.
Aspiration
Eternity
Create something enduring.
03 / What I built

A tutoring platform I built, ran, and closed.

2024 – 2026 · Wound down

An AI-first tutoring platform for Dutch university students. I built an automated layer for intake, scheduling, progress reports and study prep, so that every hour spent with a student went to teaching rather than admin. After a go/no-go test in October 2026, I closed it deliberately when it didn't reach sustainable paying demand.

Automated the ops. Built client intake, scheduling, and progress reporting on Zapier, Typeform and Chatbase — saving ~3 hours per week.
Built from zero. Self-designed site, SEO funnel, and social playbook, reaching top-3 local search rankings within six months.
Measured outcomes. 90%+ of tutored students reported a one-point grade improvement after a structured cycle, across 5+ RSM courses.
Closed on purpose. When the numbers said the model wouldn't convert to paying customers, I wound it down cleanly — a call I stand behind and learned a lot from.
bijlesmaatje / results
Students taught15+
Courses covered5+
Grade lift rate92%
Ops hrs / wk saved~3h
Peak local SEO rankTop 3
Sponsorship Pipeline · Socrates 6 won
Prospects
22
Outreach
18
Meetings
12
Proposals
8
Won
6
01↓
Input · The Eyes
Student uploads a photo
A photo of homework or a textbook page arrives via the Web Library or WhatsApp. No manual re-entry — the image is the trigger.
WhatsApp APIWeb Library
02↓
Analysis · Vision & OCR
The AI reads the image
A vision model processes the pixels: text is extracted via OCR and the subject and level are identified automatically.
GPT-4o VisionGemini Pro VisionOCR
03↓
Transformation Layer
Four engines run in parallel
The analyzed content fans out to four specialised engines simultaneously.
Smart Summarizer
Filters key points into a concise summary.
Quiz Generator
Creates multiple-choice questions from the text.
Flashcard Engine
Converts concepts into spaced-repetition flashcards.
AI Buddy
Loads the content as context for the Socratic chatbot.
04↓
Gamification · The Hook
Survival Mode keeps students engaged
Wrong answers cost lives; correct streaks build momentum. Practice feels earned, not forced.
❤ Lives🔥 StreaksSurvival Mode
05↓
Retention · Socratic Method
The AI Buddy guides, never just tells
When a student gets stuck, the AI Buddy asks targeted questions that lead them to the answer themselves — no spoon-feeding.
06↓
Distribution · Accessible Everywhere
The full chain lives in your pocket
A message to the WhatsApp Business number triggers the entire pipeline within milliseconds. No app to download, no account to create.
WhatsApp API<500ms responseZero friction
04 / Experience

Things I've done.

05 / Let's talk

Working on something interesting?

Happy to chat about finance and audit, philosophy, AI, or anything at the intersection of clear thinking and clean systems.

How it's built
DevelopmentAI-Assisted · Claude Code · Replit · VS Code InfrastructureGitHub Actions · DNS management ArchitectureHTML / CSS / JS