Episode 3. So once you try Clojure, there is no way back, with Marten Sytema, CaterMonkey

About this episode

Marten Sytema shares his journey from solo engineer to product creator with CaterMonkey, discussing the impact of Clojure on his development process.

In the third episode, join our hosts Vadym Kostiuk and Artem Barmin as they walk through the journey of Marten Sytema, founder at Catermonkey, a solo engineer turned product creator. Explore Marten's vision about Java, Haskell, and Python, his passion for Clojure, and how this technology transformed his approach to software product development. Marten told the story behind CaterMonkey, a smart CRM solution for catering businesses, and the competitive edge Clojure offered for his company. We highlight the practicalities of building a startup with Clojure, both challenges and triumphs, including hiring practices, effective use of technology, and fostering a productive development culture. CaterMonkey CRM: https://catermonkey.com Simple Made Easy: https://www.infoq.com/presentations/Simple-Made-Easy Freshcode Clojure team: https://www.freshcodeit.com/services/clojure-development-company #clojure #productdevelopment #productmanager #python #java #haskell

People in this episode

Hosts: Vadym Kostiuk, Artem Barmin

Guest: Marten Sytema

Topics covered

• Clojure
• software development
• startup challenges
• CRM solutions
• product development
• engineering

Keywords

• Clojure
• CaterMonkey
• software product development
• startup
• CRM
• Java
• Haskell
• Python

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: CaterMonkey, Freshcode, CaterMonkey CRM, Clojure, Java, Haskell, Python

Books & works: Simple Made Easy

More episodes of Clojure in Product. Would you do it again?

• Episode 12: It allows a small team to achieve really great goals, with Marcin Maicki, Dentons · January 28, 2026 · 56 min
• Episode 11. Clojure still gives the biggest performance boost, with Jeremiah Via, NYT · November 28, 2025 · 44 min
• Episode 10. Open-source is like all eyes looking at it, with Cam Saul, Metabase · February 17, 2025 · 57 min
• Episode 9. You need boundaries to do a meaningful work, with Alexander Johannes, JustOn · February 10, 2025 · 1h 8m
• Episode 8. ClojureScript is a Clojure killer app, with Jereme Corrado, Mobot · February 3, 2025 · 1h 9m
• Episode 7. And until you get to that point, you should be living in pain, right?, with Nathan Marz, Red Planet Labs · January 27, 2025 · 1h 6m