About

I'm Machiel Reyneke. I live in the Cape Winelands, South Africa with my wife Michela and our two daughters.

What I do

I lead product at 10X Investments, where we're trying to make investing less confusing and less expensive for South Africans. I spend most of my time figuring out what to build, why, and whether we're actually solving real problems.

Before product management, I was a fire engineer — yes, that's a real job. I investigated fires, modeled smoke spread in buildings, and learned to think in systems. Then I spent nearly a decade in tech startups, shipping apps and leading teams.

What I'm interested in

I like to tinker. Most of my projects start as "I wonder if I could..." and end up as tools I actually use. I'm drawn to Nassim Taleb's work on risk and uncertainty, Adlerian psychology, and Stoicism — philosophies that put responsibility where it belongs.

I'm fascinated by AI and what it means for how we work. I built Slate, a todo app, almost entirely through AI-assisted development. It took three weeks. That would have been months before. I'm still processing what that implies.

I run. I've learned more about training from understanding fat oxidation than from any "run more miles" advice.

What this site is

A record of things I've done and thought about. I write for myself first — to clarify my thinking and have something to look back on. If you find something useful here, that's a bonus.

I'm not trying to build an audience or sell anything. I'm just putting my work somewhere it can be found.

Nothing here represents 10X or anyone else. If I write about finances, it's personal opinion, not advice — I'm not a financial advisor.

Get in touch

Best way is LinkedIn. I read everything, though I don't always reply quickly.