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Max Hindrik Helmantel🐲

@maxhelmantel

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Shaping stories with tech & design
Walking & building @backtobeingtech
Founder @kaires_nl
📍 Haarlem—Amsterdam

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“ik ben op die party girl” ❤️‍🔥🪩✨

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127 kilometres later, we made it to Santiago 🫶

Our final day started the way quite a few had before: in the rain.

Halfway to Santiago, we stopped for coffee and unexpectedly ran into three British students we had met earlier on the Camino. This time, they were with Charlie, a 78-year-old walking all the way from Porto.

Charlie was full of energy and even better stories. Including how he once slept under a tree in a park because every hotel was full.

We said goodbye, continued walking and a few hours later finally stepped onto the square in Santiago. Six days, 127 kilometres and an almost finished app behind us.

And then, as if the Camino wanted to give us one last surprise, Charlie walked onto the square too. Already with another new friend.

It felt like a fitting ode to everything the Camino had been: unexpected people, unexpected stories and very little going according to plan.

We made it. Pilgrims of the future.

Now, time for some rest.

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HvA-alumni Max Helmantel, Stijn Smit en Caesar Schoorl bouwen een app terwijl ze een deel van de Camino de Santiago lopen. 😲🥾

Tijdens de tocht bouwen ze een app voor Stichting MIND waarin mensen kunnen invullen hoe ze zich voelen.

Daarmee maakt de app een soort weerkaart van Nederland waarop je ziet waar de mentale donderwolken hangen. ⛈️

Doel is dat we hierdoor net zo makkelijk over gevoelens als over het weer gaan praten.

En hoe programmeer je terwijl je over bergpaadjes loopt? Met laptops in je rugzak, Xreal-brillen op je neus, gamecontrollers en AI-agents di de app voor je bouwen. 🤖🥾

De drie hebben de Associate degree Smart Media Production gedaan. Max en Stijn volgden daarnaast de minor ondernemerschap.

Vandaag bereiken ze hun eindbestemming: Santiago de Compostela. 🎉🙌

#hogeschoolvanamsterdam #hva #camino #appbouwen #ondernemerschap

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100 KM DOWN. RECAP DAY 5

Today we had one milestone in mind: 100 kilometres

The rain had other plans…

Ponchos on, backpacks on, and kilometre after kilometre through the rain. With building on our glasses mostly impossible, we spent more time talking. About the app, MIND’s feedback, the documentary — and eventually about life, family and what actually matters to us.

Somewhere between the rain, coffee stops and soaking wet socks, we crossed the 100 km mark.

And somehow, our bodies are starting to get used to this.

Good timing, because tomorrow is the finale.

27 kilometres. Almost 800 metres of climbing. One app to finish. And Santiago waiting at the end.

Tomorrow, everything has to come together.

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RECAP DAY 4. DID THE APP WORK?

22 kilometres ahead of us. Rain from pretty much the moment we left.

But today wasn’t just about walking.

After 12 kilometres, three soaked pilgrims walked onto a café, took off their backpacks, switched on Starlink and started the meeting.

Time to show MIND what we had been building while walking for the past four days.

And luckily: they were impressed.

We got plenty of feedback to take with us, but more importantly, confirmation that we’re heading in the right direction.

Backpacks on. Back into the rain.

Somewhere along the way we also crossed another milestone: we’re officially halfway to Santiago.

22 km closer. A lot of feedback richer.

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RECAP DAY 3. RACING THE STORM

Alarm at 06:00. Back on the Camino at 07:00.

Behind us: a yellow weather warning and a thunderstorm slowly moving our way.

Most of the route ran through forest, so we packed almost all of our tech away and picked up the pace. Walking 14 kilometres while building an app was the plan. Beating the thunderstorm became the priority.

For three hours, we kept moving while checking the rain radar far too often.

We reached Pontevedra just in time. Minutes after finding a café, the rain started pouring down. Then came the thunder.

By then, we were safely inside, laptops open.

And by the end of the afternoon, the first version of the app was ready.

Tomorrow: our first feedback session with MIND.

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RECAP DAY 1 + 2. 45 KM IN & BUILDING AN APP WHILE WE WALK

Two days into the Camino and we’ve already walked 45+ kilometres with our backpacks.

We also seem to have brought the Dutch weather with us.

Day 1 started at 04:45 to stay ahead of the rain. We managed to get a few kilometres of building in before everything had to disappear back into our bags.

Day 2: more rain. And what we thought would be a relatively easy 16 km somehow turned into almost 25 km.

So far, building while walking has involved slightly more walking and slightly less building than expected.

But we’re moving. The app is moving. And Santiago is getting closer.

45 km down. A lot more to go.

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RECAP DAY 0. ON OUR WAY TO THE START.

Our trip started early. Very early.

At 02:00 we left home for Schiphol, and at 05:00 we flew to Porto.

We had five hours before our train left. Enough time to walk around the city, grab some food and get our first taste of Portugal.

Then we took the train to Valença. A small town in the very north of Portugal, right next to the Spanish border.

Two hours later, with a little sleep caught up along the way, we arrived.

Tomorrow’s forecast: a lot of rain. So the plan is simple. Alarm at 04:45, start early and try to stay ahead of it.

Tomorrow the real work begins.

Camino, here we come.

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Meet the three of us: Max, Stijn and Caesar. Today we started walking.

Over the next 6 days we’re walking the Camino Portugués, 120 km from Valença to Santiago de Compostela. While we walk, we’re building software completely handsfree, with our voice and AI. Everything we build goes to Stichting MIND.

Back to Being starts with a simple question: now that everything is possible, how do you decide how you work and what you build? AI can give us our time back. The real question is what we do with it, and whether the way we work still fits the way we are as humans.

Walking gives me the space to really be with myself and process what’s going on in my life.

At the same time, in the startup life I stepped into this past half year, I see how much is possible with AI. My creative brain goes in every direction with it. That’s exactly why it feels important to stand still at the way you work. That can be different now, and maybe that makes you more creative.

My father cycled the Vía de la Plata when I was very young, so the Camino has always fascinated me. The Alchemist got me thinking about the bigger questions in my life. I always wanted to walk it one day. Doing it this way feels special: exploring a new way of working, with joy, conversations and creativity in it.

As a kid i’ve had the chance to see beautiful places in this world. The past few years, that’s been a lot less. I ended up in a pretty performance-driven life, between studying and work.

The Camino is my way of taking a step back. I’m really grateful for the opportunities I’ve had, and it’s good to actually stand still at that for a moment. When I backpacked through Australia I met so many great people, and this has that same feeling. I hope the Camino brings me that again.

And as a tech lover: this lays two of my worlds on top of each other. We want to find out if they can really be combined, or if it’s just a completely crazy idea.

I’m walking the Camino because this past year I put a lot into everything. A lot of cool things, but also things that cost energy and kept me from going outside. And being outside, especially walking, is exactly what I love.

With today’s technology we can walk and work

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You guys asked how we trained for 120km. This is how it’s going. Safe to say we’re ready 🥾

#CaminoDeSantiago #CaminoPortugues #vibecoding #Hiking #BackToBeing

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We came here to build something meaningful.

Then the moon decided to join the process. 🌑

Back to Being.

#BackToBeing #Camino #AI #XREAL #BuildInPublic MentalHealth CaminoDeSantiago

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The Camino training is going well.

This time, we walked 25 kilometres from Castricum to Egmond and back, carrying our hiking gear and covering a large part of the route on sand.

We also tested Starlink at home, because internet will be essential if we want to build an app while walking 120 kilometres in August.

Next up: bringing the full setup onto the trail and finding out whether everything works together.

#backtobeing #caminotraining #caminodesantiago #buildinpublic #starlink

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