Elie Kaat is co-founder of sixtynine, the Rotterdam digital marketing and branding agency he started with Emre Namlı in 2022. He leads the technical and creative side of the work: web development, digital marketing, and content strategy. Before any of it, he spent eight years as a professional chef, and that kitchen background still shapes how he runs projects today. Precision, timing, and the habit of watching a whole service rather than fussing over a single dish.
This profile is a short, honest interview about how he works, what he has learned building an agency from the ground up, and the thinking behind the strategy-first approach sixtynine is known for. If you want the framework itself, his guides on our marketing methodology and our marketing philosophy and approach lay it out in full. What follows is the person behind them.
Elie at a glance
- Role: Co-founder, technical and creative lead at sixtynine
- Based in: Rotterdam, Netherlands
- Focus areas: Web development, digital marketing, content strategy, brand systems
- Background: Eight years as a professional chef before moving into digital
- Co-founded sixtynine: 2022, with Emre Namlı
From the kitchen to the agency
Q: You were a chef for eight years. How does that connect to what you do now?
A: "It shaped a lot about how I work. The importance of precision, understanding how two very different things can come together to make something great. I feel like this is comparable to how we approach client projects. In a kitchen, you cannot just focus on one dish. You need to see the whole service, how everything connects. That is our holistic approach at sixtynine. I learned what it means to be productive under pressure, and it is still how I work best now."
Q: What does a typical day look like?
A: "Because we work for such a wide variety of clients, each day is pretty different. I might be setting up ad campaigns for a wine supplier, or in discovery with a fiscal firm that needs a CRM system and a complete digital marketing strategy. I am always working on at least three projects simultaneously."
Q: What is your favourite part of the job?
A: "Three things: diversity, impact, and accelerated development. Clients come to us because they trust our expertise. We are talking directly to business owners, which means something will actually happen with our advice.
And we are forced to take responsibility for everything, which means our professional development goes ten to twenty times faster than in a conventional job. You are challenged constantly. Overall, my day to day does not feel like work. It is the project we are building."
Q: And the hardest part?
A: "The financial side. Keeping cash flow healthy and consistent. It is stable now, which is good, but as a founder you always need to be thinking a few months ahead."
How sixtynine actually works
Q: What is something about sixtynine that surprises clients?
A: "We are a young company, and people do not always expect the full range of what we can do. We can run video shoots, build custom software, develop complete brand strategies, and much more. People are constantly surprised: 'Wait, you can also do that?'
We can do it. In my opinion, being a bit of a generalist actually makes your work better. You understand how everything connects. That is our holistic approach."
Q: How would you describe your working style?
A: "I am a calm extrovert. I also consider myself to have strong intuition. I often feel when it is time to call a client before they call us.
My focus is best in the first two to three hours of the day. That is when I really get work done, so I try not to plan meetings in the morning. No questions, no distractions, no sounds.
Between me and Emre, I am the realistic one. He is optimistic and gets excited easily. I ground things. We need both perspectives."
Q: What is the biggest risk you have taken with sixtynine?
A: "Starting was the biggest commitment risk. What is the reward at the beginning?
But operationally? Hiring two new people at the same time when we were only three FTEs, and investing heavily in our own SaaS tools. Those are big bets."
What Elie writes about
Elie is a named author across the sixtynine know-how library, mostly on the strategy and cost side of choosing and working with a marketing partner. If this profile is your introduction to how he thinks, these are the guides where that thinking is put to work:
- Our Marketing Methodology: From Strategy to Impact
- Our Marketing Philosophy and Approach
- Wat Kost Marketing Uitbesteden in Nederland? De Eerlijke Gids
- How to Choose a Marketing Agency in the Netherlands
- Marketing Bureau Kiezen: De Eerlijke Gids voor het MKB
- Marketing Budget Bepalen voor je MKB
- Rebranding Kosten in Nederland
- Wat Doet een Marketing Bureau Eigenlijk?
- B2B Email Marketing is not B2C Email Marketing
Work with Elie
Elie and the sixtynine team work with businesses across the Netherlands, from startups finding their first channels to established companies tuning a full omnichannel engine. If you want an honest read on where your marketing actually stands and what the right next move is, get in touch. No pitch, just a straight conversation about your stage and what it would take to move to the next one.