If you’ve spent any time on tech Twitter, you probably know levels.io (Pieter Levels). In his bio, he has this legendary, completely transparent breakdown of all his different independent projects and income streams. As an entrepreneur and a creator, that “open builder” philosophy resonates with me deeply.
My goal is to build a portfolio career with multiple, interconnected streams of income. I’m not going to post my bank statements, but in the spirit of absolute transparency, I want to share the exact blueprint of my business ecosystem: what they are, who they are for, how they make money, and the beautiful synergies that link them together.
Here is how I am structuring my freelance empire under one single company umbrella.
🗺️ The Ecosystem at a Glance
Before diving into the details, here is how the pieces of the puzzle actually talk to each other:
AI was used to create this flow
🏢 Pillar 1: The Corporate Freelancer (Solution Architect)
This is my core professional background and the financial anchor of the entire operation. It provides the stability and capital required to bootstrap and fund the more experimental projects.
- What I do: I design high-level infrastructure, cloud systems, and software systems to solve complex business problems.
- Target Audience: Mid-sized to large corporate clients.
- How it makes money: B2B contract day rates and consulting retainers.
🎬 Pillar 2: The Production House (Travel Documentaries)
This is where my lifelong passion for filmmaking and storytelling meets my love for hitting the road on my Triumph Bonnie.
- What I do: Create raw, character-driven, episodic travel documentaries. The focus isn’t on racking up miles or visiting “exotic” places just for show; it’s about wandering into small villages or local neighborhoods and bringing human stories to life.
- Target Audience: Travelers, history buffs, and anyone who loves authentic human connection over hyper-polished, fake influencer travel content.
- How it makes money:
- Traditional YouTube AdSense revenue.
- Short-form monetization via Instagram Reels and TikTok.
- The Physical Angle: I capture physical Polaroids on my trips, which I plan to auction off to the community.
- The Long-Game: Eventually publishing a travel book compiling the stories, chaos, and lessons from the road.
🌐 Pillar 3: The 360° Content House
This branch was born directly out of my travel workflow. When I realized what it actually takes to create, stitch, and publish 360-degree footage to Google Maps, I saw a massive business opportunity back home.
- What I do: Create high-quality 360° virtual walkthroughs for premium spaces and publish official “Blue Lines” on Google Street View.
- Target Audience: Real estate agencies, indoor museums, and massive open-air cultural or nature reserves (think places like Het Zwin nature reserve here in Belgium).
- How it makes money: I charge a flat fee to shoot the content and upload the footage to Google Maps with the venue’s branding/logo seamlessly integrated.
- The Synergy & Marketing: When I travel for the Production House, I drop Blue Lines to organically drive traffic to my channel via watermarks. When I do a commercial gig in Europe (like mapping a park), I can create cool behind-the-scenes YouTube videos showing how we built the 360° tour. Content feeds the agency; the agency feeds the content.
📊 Pillar 4: Niche Price Trackers
The “indie hacker” software side of the business. These are highly automated web utilities that run quietly in the background.
- What I do: Build data-driven price tracking websites for specific consumer goods.
- Target Audience: High-intent shoppers who know exactly what item they want to buy and are waiting for the perfect moment to pull the trigger.
- How it makes money:
- Affiliate Revenue: Earning a percentage when a user clicks through our tracker and buys the item.
- The Anti-Subscription Paywall: I know everyone is sick of monthly subscriptions. Instead, we use a small, one-time flat fee to unlock premium tracking features forever.
- Targeted B2B Advertising: Because we know exactly what products users are searching for, we can partner with relevant advertisers using highly specific, intent-driven data.
🧸 Pillar 5: Toys by Jelle (The Web Store)
When I am home in Belgium, not traveling or consulting, I clear my head by building things with my hands. Because I live in an apartment in the city, I don’t have access to a workspace to work with wood, instead I have found I really love sewing. And more particularly little plushies like whales:
- What I do: Design and hand-craft high-end, plush toys—like little decorative whales. These aren’t cheap plastic toys meant to be destroyed by a toddler; they are designed as fancy, high-quality home decorations.
- The Travel Tie-In: I refuse to source cheap materials from giant factories. Every fabric will have a story. I want to source textiles from historic European mills, or better yet, buy local fabrics with traditional patterns directly on my travels. Think authentic tartan sourced straight from Scotland to build a limited run of Scottish whales.
- Target Audience: Interior design lovers and fans of my travel documentaries.
- How it makes money: Direct e-commerce sales. Instead of putting out a lazy, uninspired merch store with low-quality logo T-shirts, my community can buy a piece of beautiful home decor that carries a literal piece of fabric from the journey they watched on YouTube.
The Bottom Line
Being a modern freelancer doesn’t mean you have to do just one thing for 40 hours a week until you drop. By treating my skills as an interconnected ecosystem, my corporate work funds my creative gear, my travel documentary channels market my B2B 360° services, and my physical journeys directly supply the raw materials for my web store.
It’s an interconnected web of code, cameras, consulting, and hand-stitched whales. I wouldn’t have it any other way.
