I help ideas become things
you can hold.
A one-person prototype studio in Spanbroek. Started because too many good ideas were stuck waiting for a workshop.
I stopped waiting. I started making.
By day I'm a process technologist — eight years of fixing, optimising and shipping production lines for some of the larger food companies in the Netherlands. By instinct I'm a tinkerer with a head full of ideas.
For a long time, the only way to get those ideas out of my head and into the world was to send them to a third party — and wait months. So a year ago I bought a 3D printer, learned using CAD programs on a professional level, and started making things myself. Suddenly nothing felt impossible anymore. Three-day loops instead of three-month ones. Real iteration. Real progress — and along the way, prototyping in-house saved the company over €100,000 and 220 days of lead time.
Mike's Prototype is the studio I built around that change. The point is to give you the same thing — short loops, fast turnaround, and a partner who treats your idea the way I treat my own.
Three principles that shape every project.
Test before you commit.
A part you've held for a day will teach you more than a render you've stared at for a week. Together we make rough things real, early and on purpose.
Cheaper to be wrong now.
The point of a prototype is to fail in low-stakes ways. Three quick revisions cost less than one over-considered final draft that turns out to be wrong.
No layers between us.
You speak to the person doing the CAD and the person at the printer. Same person. No relayed messages, no lost context.
A short version, in case you want it.
Started after a year of self-teaching CAD on a 3D printer at home. Spanbroek-based prototype studio for startups, engineers and makers — discovery, CAD, FDM, small-batch CNC.
Cross-functional prioritisation of production and process improvements. Coordinating between departments, owning key operational processes, and identifying where to change things to keep the line moving.
Three years of plant-floor process technology across two sites — practical problem-solving, line optimisation, and learning that the fastest fix is usually the one you can prototype on the spot.
Specialised nutrition R&D — running development projects from concept to pilot scale. The first taste of what I really enjoy: shrinking the loop between an idea and something you can actually test.
Let's see if we're a fit.
Best way to find out is a short conversation. Send what you have — even a paragraph is enough — and I'll come back with a candid read.