My name is Clifford. Born in Limburg, in a small village called Altweerterheide. Half Javanese, half German, and raised speaking the Limburg dialect. In primary school, my report cards always said: “Clifford daydreams a lot and is easily distracted.” While most people went towards HAVO or VWO, I chose technical engineering school. Working with steel and technology felt closer to who I am.
Shaping and Creating Is My Passion
After that, I earned my business diploma with a focus on the toy industry, where conceptual thinking and design were central. Later, I attended the Vocational School for Goldsmithing in Amsterdam. Detailed and precise work suited me well. I am a perfectionist and have always had the urge to create things that match a vision or feeling.
From Precious Metals to Digital
During the rise of SMS technology, I saw opportunities. Without any IT knowledge, I started my first platform, which became successful immediately. Today, I have been running an IT company for more than 23 years. Entrepreneurship is not just something I do, it is who I am. I love the unknown, adventure, taking risks, building, creating and continuously developing myself. I prefer following my intuition over following the beaten path. But entrepreneurship also comes with uncertainty, stress, extreme workweeks and periods where I completely lose myself in the process. That is part of it too.
Creation Over Theory. Intuition Over Rules
I do not follow a fixed path. I build on vision and intuition. Always thinking, always creating. Besides entrepreneurship, I am also a PADI diving instructor, and from my passion for diving I built Blend Diving. In my free time, I enjoy sports, boating, sauna days and adventurous travel.
Who I am
Why Who Ayam exists
After years of entrepreneurship, I became much more conscious about how I live. I realized how important nutrition and sports are for my energy, focus and mental balance. Healthy food helps me perform, while sports help keep my constantly active mind in balance.
Healthy Food Should Be Accessible
Because I am always busy, I noticed how difficult it is to find food that is truly healthy, flavorful and fast. Together with my partner, with whom I have been together for 17 years and run our businesses, we kept running into the same problem. We never drink alcohol and live consciously. Not because we have to, but because we notice how much influence it has on how we perform and feel.
Healthy options are scarce, and when they do exist, they often lack flavor, quality or experience. Meanwhile, we are constantly surrounded by cheap, fatty and sugary food, while society expects us to live healthy lives.
Learning to Cook from My Javanese Grandmother
With my Javanese roots and the recipes passed down by my grandmother, something inside me kept growing stronger. Why is truly good food not just as accessible as fast food? That simply did not feel right to me anymore. I wanted to change that.
The journey of Who Ayam
That’s why, three years ago, I slowly started stepping back from my IT company and entered a completely new world: hospitality. A world in which I had literally zero experience. In June 2024, Who Ayam was born.
Falling, Standing Up and Improving
From day one, it was all about falling, getting back up and improving. Workweeks of 140 hours were normal. Financial risks, building processes and creating a completely new team in a city I did not know. But it is exactly that unknown that gives me energy.
Who Ayam is bigger than just a restaurant
It is the beginning of a national fast casual concept where healthy, high-quality and truly flavorful food becomes just as fast and accessible as traditional fast food, without compromising on quality, health or experience.
My journey
This journey has confronted me with myself once again, my strength, restlessness, perfectionism, perseverance and imperfections. But that is exactly Who I Am.