Stef Appelhof // AI & AUTOMATION

AI on the screen, not in a slide

I build AI that makes teams faster, and I come from your world

I'm Stef, technical SEO and Web Specialist at Exact. I build AI and automation solutions for myself and my team: prototypes that take work off people's plates and help them decide faster. But I come from a different world. In 2017 I co-organised the Amsterdam Dance Event conference, where among other things I arranged permits with the city of Amsterdam and designed the on-site signage at DeLaMar. First Impression tells that same story on screens, so I know that physical space and that audience. I was co-owner of dance magazine This Is Our House (marketing, website, finances, content) and spent years behind the decks as a DJ and producer, so I know AV equipment and the live entertainment world from the inside out.

See the work Send an email
● 3 products live in production ● SearchOps millions of rows, built from scratch ● Folio live on folio.wedding ● AP-Pie nearly 600 games checked ● metadata tool 0 SEO knowledge needed ● since 2017 on-site signage

Why First Impression

Two passions that come together

POINT 01

At First Impression my two passions come together: the AI solutions I build every day and a love for events and AV that I never let go of. Exactly the place to combine advising, training and building things myself.

POINT 02

I'm looking for an organisation of your size: big enough for serious projects, small enough to take ideas quickly from concept to production.

POINT 03

I work independently and take initiative. On your self-managing teams I have the room to pick up ideas right away and bring them to life myself.

POINT 04

I know your world from the inside: audiovisual concepts, on-site signage, live work under pressure. I don't advise from the sidelines, I know how it works on the floor.

Proof of work · 3 cases

No endless concepts. Working tools and apps.

CASE 01 SearchOps · internal SEO platform

SearchOps: from idea to working SEO platform, built with AI

SearchOps is the internal SEO platform I built at Exact. It pulls data from five sources, such as Google Search Console, Analytics and Ads, together into a single dashboard. That way the team sees at a glance how the website is performing and where the opportunities are, without first wading through separate tools and exports. I built it end to end with Claude Code: the data pipeline, a database I set up myself that now holds millions of rows, AI analyses that flag opportunities and content gaps, and a dashboard that updates itself every day. That saves the team time and leads to better decisions. One of the tools inside it is a metadata generator: it uses AI to propose an SEO title and description, at the right length and with the right keywords.

  • One dashboard for all SEO data from five sources
  • Database and data pipeline built entirely from scratch
  • AI analyses that flag opportunities and content gaps
  • Updated automatically every day, saves the team time
0
marketing
sources
Mln+
rows in the database
built from scratch
metadata tool / live SERP preview
stefappelhof.com › example
Your title appears here
Type a topic and click Generate. Title and description are created live with Gemini, through a secure server-side router.
title 0/60 desc. 0/155
Generated live with Gemini. The key stays server-side.

CASE 02 Folio

Folio: from spreadsheet chaos to a wedding ERP

When Patricia and I were planning our own wedding, we kept running into the same thing: you have to keep track of everything, but spreadsheets are clunky and don't talk to each other. So I built Folio: a kind of ERP for your wedding, one place where guests, budget and planning come together. It started as a solution for our own wedding and is now a real product. A wedding planner runs a couple on it, and besides Patricia and me two more couples use it. Privacy-first, with its own isolated database per wedding. I built all of it myself, from the React app to the infrastructure and the marketing site, with AI as my build partner. Live on folio.wedding.

  • Started as a solution for our own wedding
  • Live on folio.wedding: 1 planner and 3 couples use it
  • Privacy-first: an isolated database for every wedding
  • Built solo, with AI as build partner
live // folio.wedding
0
builder,
solo
0
privacy-
first
LIVE in production
1 planner and 3 couples use it

CASE 03 AP-Pie

What I build in the evenings: AP-Pie and an AI that keeps games safe

Archipelago is a community that ties a huge number of different games together into one big puzzle: an item you need is hidden inside a friend's game, and the other way around. To take part, everyone runs small extensions that other people made. The problem: that's code from strangers on your own computer, and nobody was checking it. So I built AP-Pie (ap-pie.com). Players use it to set up their sessions, but the real win is in the safer list of games behind it: every game is first checked automatically in a sandboxed environment, after which an AI assesses the code and gives it green, orange or red before it makes the list. By now nearly 600 games have been reviewed this way. Alongside it I built Pokepelago, a game with its own active community. I always have ideas ready to go, the difference is that I also finish them and put them online.

  • AP-Pie helps players set up their game sessions, live on ap-pie.com
  • Every game is first checked automatically in a sandboxed environment
  • An AI assesses the code and gives green, orange or red
  • Nearly 600 games reviewed this way
live // ap-pie.com play // Pokepelago, guess every Pokémon
0
games checked
automatically
3 colours
green, orange
or red
AUTO check
every game checked first before it makes the list

Adoption

How I bring AI into an organisation

I don't start with a tool, I start by listening. First I shadow the teams and look at where time and quality leak away. From there I shape a concept and, where possible, build a working demo, so management sees what it delivers before any big investment is made. After that I implement the solution and give the team the tools and knowledge to run with it themselves. I work within the stack and security that's already in place, whether that's Azure or something else, and build nothing outside the existing agreements. And I measure what it delivers in hours and quality. No hype. Working tools.

STEP 01

Listen

First shadow the teams and see where time and quality leak away.

STEP 02

Concept and MVP

A concept for sign-off, with a working demo where possible.

STEP 03

Implement and onboard

Implement the solution and give the team the tools and knowledge to get going.

STEP 04

Make it measurable

Within existing stack and security, everything measurable in hours gained.

Work experience

Where I learned the craft

2024 – now

Web Specialist · Exact

Technical SEO within the web team. Owner of the internal SEO platform SearchOps, and work on exact.com and the other brands.

2022 – 2024

SEO Specialist · AIM Digital

Technical SEO for a range of agency clients.

2021 – 2022

SEO Consultant · Leadrs

SEO advice and execution for the agency's clients.

2020 – 2023

Co-owner · This Is Our House

Dance news platform: marketing, website and editorial.

since 2011

Own company · Dowlle

Freelance (web) projects and work as a DJ and producer.

The facts

For those who still want to know

EDUCATION

Fontys Academy for Creative Industries, Tilburg. Bachelor of Commercial Economics, specialisation International Event, Music & Entertainment Studies (CE-IEMES), 2015 to 2021. Before that a foundation year in Industrial Engineering and Management (analysing and improving business processes) and pre-university education in Science & Technology.

ALSO DONE

Co-owner of dance magazine This Is Our House, years as a freelancer working as a DJ, producer and in event production, and chair of the communications committee at student association #CLUBACI, where I led a team of 8 to 10 people.

BASE

Lives in Breda. Speaks Dutch and English. 31 years old.

CONTACT

stefappelhof@gmail.com
+31 6 28 91 14 97
linkedin.com/in/stefappelhof

Rather see it than read it? I'll run it live.

Book a meeting and I'll give a live tour through SearchOps and AP-Pie. On the screen, not in a slide.

Email me & book the demo Or scroll back to the work

A live demo of SearchOps and AP-Pie is available · stefappelhof@gmail.com