Rhys Van Der Waerden
Founder at Effort Star
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Summary
🤩
Rockstar🎓
Top SchoolRhys Van Der Waerden is a Melbourne-based founder and software engineer with 15 years building web and game projects from prototype to production. He has co-founded multiple ventures (FEED Interactive, Effort Star) and brings hands-on backend expertise, contributing to well-known open-source projects like Knex.js and DefinitelyTyped where he improved query builder functionality and TypeScript typings. Rhys has strong Node.js/ORM experience (Bookshelf, Knex) and a history of shipping stability and test-driven fixes that reflect attention to maintainability. His background in games graphics programming and roles at RMIT and indie studios give him a practical product-minded perspective on UX and engagement. He blends entrepreneurial leadership with deep implementation skills, often working across the full stack to turn fuzzy requirements into reliable software.
14 years of coding experience
7 years of employment as a software developer
Bachelor of Information Technology, Games Graphics Programming, Bachelor of Information Technology, Games Graphics Programming at RMIT University
Stackoverflow
3,686reputation
270kreached
33answers
16questions
javascript
top-5%
visual-studio-code
top-5%
Github Skills (26)
javascript10
typescript10
typescript-definitions10
type-definition10
knx10
webpack10
orm10
sql10
webpacker10
typescript-types10
nodejs10
typescripts10
knexjs10
visual-studio-code9
databases9
Programming languages (22)
Github contributions (5)
bookshelf/bookshelf
Feb 2015 - Aug 2016
A simple Node.js ORM for PostgreSQL, MySQL and SQLite3 built on top of Knex.js
Role in this project:
Back-end Developer
Back-end DeveloperContributions:216 commits, 136 PRs, 187 pushes in 1 year 6 months
Contributions summary:Rhys primarily focused on enhancing the functionality and stability of the Bookshelf.js ORM. Their contributions included implementing the `require:true` option for model destruction, fixing a virtual setter to a noop, correcting binding issues in relation parsing, updating integration test models, and fixing foreign key issues in collection create. They also addressed documentation inaccuracies and improved timestamp handling.
mysqlnode-jsjavascriptsqlsqlite3
knex/knex
Jul 2015 - Feb 2018
A query builder for PostgreSQL, MySQL, CockroachDB, SQL Server, SQLite3 and Oracle, designed to be flexible, portable, and fun to use.
Role in this project:Back-end Developer
Back-end DeveloperContributions:116 commits, 90 PRs, 110 pushes in 2 years 8 months
Contributions summary:Rhys primarily focused on adding and improving the Knex.js query builder's features. They introduced a changelog entry for version 0.9.0, including fixes and enhancements. The user also released version 0.9.0 and updated the version number in the build files. Further, they fixed an issue by including the `_debug` property in `QueryBuilder#clone`, adding a test case. These contributions suggest a focus on improving the library's functionality and maintainability.
sql-serverjavascriptsqlite3sqlitedatabase
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