Ten years ago, Sam Verschooten walked away from a successful career at McKinsey Digital Labs to start Hatch. Shortly after, CTO Maarten Thoelen joined him to help build the company from the ground up. In 2023, Head of Mobile Don Pironet completed the partner team.

In this first episode of Behind the Screens, we look back at where Hatch started, what has changed over the past decade, and why the original mission is more relevant than ever.

Sam, you had a successful career at McKinsey Digital Labs. Why leave that behind to start Hatch?

Leaving McKinsey was one of the hardest decisions I've ever made. The company gave me incredible opportunities; I worked in New York, Mumbai and London, and experienced almost every role imaginable, from developer to manager.

But eventually I realised something about myself: I'm a builder, not a consultant.

There is nothing more satisfying than shipping a product and seeing people actually use it. That feeling is completely different from delivering a presentation or facilitating a workshop.

That's really why Hatch exists. We wanted to bridge the gap between strategy and execution. Not just helping clients imagine products, but actually building them.

What do you mean when you say Hatch is a company of builders?

As builders, we're accountable for what we say. If we recommend a technology or make a bold claim, sooner or later we'll have to deliver it ourselves.

That naturally makes you more pragmatic. Our job isn't to chase hype, it's to help clients make decisions that still make sense months or years from now.

Where does the name Hatch actually come from?

In the early days we were completely focused on the beginning of a product journey: ideation, design sprints and prototypes. The phase where you actually 'hatch' an idea.

Today we've grown far beyond that and build mature digital products as well, but helping ideas come to life is still what gives us the most energy.

Maarten, you made the leap with Sam from the very beginning. Why?

Timing played a big role. I was also at a point where I was looking for the next challenge, and the idea of starting our own business came at exactly the right moment.

What convinced me most was how complementary we were. Sam has always been incredibly strong on product strategy and customer value, while my passion has always been technology and engineering. It felt like we could build something together that neither of us could have done alone.

Ten years later at Hatch: what has changed the most?

In the beginning we deliberately focused on smaller companies. After working with large enterprises, we wanted to get our boots back in the mud and work closely with founders and product teams.

Over time, we realised that our enterprise experience was actually one of our biggest strengths. Today we combine both worlds: we still move with the speed of a small product studio, but increasingly help larger organisations validate ideas, build prototypes and launch products much faster.

(Maarten) Personally, the biggest shift has been learning to let go. In the early days Sam and I built almost everything ourselves. As the team grew, our role changed from building every feature ourselves to enabling others to do their best work. That wasn't always easy, but today we have a team we trust completely.

Don, you joined the partner team in 2023. What convinced you this wasn't just another digital agency?

What stood out immediately was that Hatch genuinely thinks in products, not projects.

The conversations aren't about delivering features, they're more about solving the right problem for the client. That product mindset is deeply embedded in the company, and it was something I really wanted to help strengthen.

Has Hatch become the company you imagined ten years ago?

(Sam) Pretty much, yes.

I never wanted to build a huge company. My ambition was to create the kind of product studio I would've loved to work for as a developer.

What I probably underestimated in those early days was everything that comes with building a company around that vision. In a project business, you're constantly thinking about what's next: for your clients, your team, and the company itself. A big part of the job is creating stability for everyone else.

What has never changed?

(Maarten) The culture.

From day one we've consciously invested in working together in one place, not as a distributed team. That daily collaboration has shaped who we are.

(Sam) If there's one thing I'm proud of, it's that we've managed to preserve that culture while growing. We have very little employee turnover, people genuinely enjoy working together, and that's something we protect fiercely.

Looking ahead, what excites you most about the next chapter of Hatch?

(Sam) AI is changing our industry dramatically, but I'm actually very optimistic.

If AI continues to evolve the way it is today, developers will spend less time writing code and more time thinking about products, architecture and solving the right problems. That's exactly where we already enjoy making the biggest impact.

(Maarten) We've never been "just developers." We've always built products from end to end. AI changes how we build, but not why we build. If anything, it makes product thinking even more valuable.

One final question. What's one principle you've never compromised on?

(Sam) When working for clients, we often ask ourselves one simple question: "If this were our own company, what would we do?"

That mindset influences almost every decision we make. Sometimes it means giving advice that's not in our own short-term interest, but we'd rather build long-term trust than optimise for the next invoice.

I think that's one of the reasons clients keep coming back. We're not here to sell as many hours as possible. We're here to be honest partners who genuinely care about building the right product, and building it right.