The founder
Levi Van Zele
Founder & CEO · Product and tech lead
Levi founded Punfyre and leads both product and engineering. From the first sketch to the code that ships, he is who you deal with directly, with no account manager in between.
Day to day
What Levi actually does
Not a figurehead role. These are the three things the work is made of.
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Shapes the product
Turning a vague brief into a scope you can sign off, and deciding what gets built first.
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Writes the software
Hands on in the code and the architecture, on Punfyre Forge and on the products we run.
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Runs the studio
Delivery, support and the company itself, so what ships keeps working afterwards.
What drives him
Because too much software in care and social services works against people
Care and social services run on tools the people using them did not choose and cannot change. Where there are only one or two options, there is not really a choice at all.
So the focus is on contexts where trust and diligence matter, and on solutions that help people first. What Levi is best at: turning a complicated problem into something simple enough to decide on.
How he got here
15 years of shipping software, then a company
Levi started writing software around the age of 10, modifying games through their config files, and meant to build a game studio. It went a different way.
- 2006 to 2008
Heilige Familie Ieper
Switched into IT at 16, the first year school allowed it. Development, networking and systems, after four years of modern languages.
- 2008 to 2011
Howest
Applied Informatics, graduated with high distinction. Built an AI-driven planning system for children with learning difficulties, which is what first pointed him at care.
- 2011 to 2015
Honeywell Elster
Energy management software, then leading the frontend team on a smart energy platform used by clients worldwide.
- From 2012
The family business
His parents took over the company they had managed for years. Seeing it up close was his first real taste of running one, and he started taking on freelance web work alongside his job.
- 2015 to 2017
Bayer Crop Science
Leading teams on data-intensive analysis tools alongside researchers and data scientists, inside a life sciences group where the work already sat close to health and care.
- 2017 to 2019
Smappee
Rebuilt the dashboard that is still part of the core platform today, connecting IoT devices for real-time energy management.
- 2019 to 2021
Amicimi
A personal alarm platform for real-time safety. It later moved into Punfyre as a product of its own and is now Alarmira.
- 2019, then 2020
Punfyre
Started under the Punfyre name as a sole trader, and incorporated Punfyre BV in Wevelgem in 2020.
Beyond the code
Things not on the CV
The things he gets his energy from, and what you will probably get him talking about.
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A chef on paper
He holds a restaurateur and catering contractor certificate. Cooking is how he steps away from a screen, on the evenings that are not already going into Punfyre.
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First aid and prevention
Trained first-aid responder and level 3 prevention advisor. Handy in a small company, and a habit of thinking about what goes wrong before it does.
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Raised on LAN parties
The interest in networks and systems started by hauling desktops to LAN parties across Belgium. These days that is close to the only stretch of gaming he still gets.
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Japanese, slowly
A lasting interest in Japan, its language and above all its food. He can order with confidence and understand roughly half of the answer.
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Four languages at work
Dutch natively, English fluently, French professionally, and enough German to follow a meeting.
Ask Levi directly
A short call is usually the fastest way to find out whether we are a fit.
Plan a short call