ABOUT DEAR JOHN
The story behind Dear John and the question that still drives it.
35+
Years Of Experience
The person behind Dear John
I am Marjan, and I studied Computer Sciences back in The Netherlands when the century still started with 19 and built my first website in 1995; when the internet still screeched at you while dialing in.
Images took three minutes to load. You felt lucky when they did.
Since then: design, coding, strategy, conversion, copywriting, automations, integrations, AI.
And it is not because I collect skills. No, it is because I kept asking the same question.
Why isn’t this working the way it should? How can this be better, faster, more efficient, heck..even cheaper?
These questions stil drive Dear John.
What I actually do
I spot what is broken or could be better. Then fix it. Websites that don’t convert. Tools that don’t talk to each other. Processes you’re still doing by hand because nobody ever set them up properly. AI that everyone’s talking about and almost nobody’s actually using in a way that saves time. That’s the territory.
I have a Computer Sciences degree from back when you had to understand what you were building – not just prompt your way through it. That matters now more than it ever did.
How Dear John started
Kris Lockett and Lis Sowerbutts started Dear John, well, many moons ago. Kris with a typography obsession and a design eye that predates flashing banner ads. Lis with a gift for making technical things make sense to actual humans and a conviction that technology should serve business, not the other way round.In 2025 they handed the keys to me, Marjan. I kept the conviction and added a few more services.
why the name dear john?
Weird name for a business technology company. Fair point.
A Dear John letter is a breakup letter. You’ve had enough. You’re done letting something run your life.
That’s still the idea – just applied to your business technology. The tools that were supposed to help you, but somehow ended up owning your Monday mornings. The website that needed constant attention. The processes you kept doing by hand because nobody ever fixed them properly.
Dear John is what you write to all of that.
The name comes from an old NZ song (not the Taylor Swift one ) that used to play on TV back when you couldn’t skip the commercials. The sentiment stuck.
Sometimes you just need to say: enough. Here’s what’s not working. Let’s sort it out.
You know what needs fixing. So do we.
not a three-month experiment
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