About Ben
Ben Seymour lives near Oxford, U.K. with his wife Emma and two children aged 18 & 15. As Director of Field Engineering at Vercel, he leads technical pre-sales and post-sales teams across EMEA and APJ regions, helping organizations leverage Next.js and the Vercel platform to create exceptional digital experiences.
With over two decades in the technology sector, Ben has been an early European hire for multiple Silicon Valley startups, helping them establish and scale their international presence. This experience has provided him with unique insights into the challenges and opportunities of global technology adoption and implementation.
You cannot live at all, unless you live fully now. Alan Watts
Professional Expertise
Ben specializes in:
- Technical field engineering leadership
- Next.js and React ecosystem
- Web performance optimization
- Frontend architecture
- Technical pre-sales & post-sales
- Global team leadership
Author & Technologist
As an author, Ben wrote "Practical Responsive Images," a guide to optimizing web imagery for performance and user experience. The book explores techniques for delivering appropriately-sized images across devices, a practice that has become increasingly important in our mobile-first world.
He was also a co-author of the Web Almanac 2020, contributing his expertise on web technologies and performance optimization. His technical interests span front-end development, web performance optimization, and creating intuitive developer experiences.
His technical interests span front-end development, web performance optimization, and creating intuitive developer experiences. Ben is particularly passionate about the intersection of technology and usability, finding ways to make sophisticated technical solutions accessible and valuable to users.
Entrepreneur & Founder
Ben is co-owner of See More Potential Ltd. (2011-2018), a multifaceted company involved in publishing, photography, and investments:
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Publishing: Released "Practical Responsive Images" (by Ben Seymour), initially for the publisher 'Five Simple Steps' and subsequently available independently in Europe, North America, and Japan. The company also published "Effective Primary PE Teaching" and "The Common Health Home Games" by Emma Seymour.
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Content Creation: Contributed as an industry expert to Net Magazine's Exchange section (August 2015) and authored "Getting Kids into Coding" for the popular '12 Devs' community site.
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Photography: Completed accredited photography work for the Bodleian Library (Oxford University) and product photography for various independent artists.
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Investment: Angel investor in SaaS and DevTools companies through DevTool Angels.
Beyond his corporate roles, Ben is an entrepreneur with a passion for creating technology that enriches people's lives:
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Storyus - A "Slow Social" family-friendly storytelling platform that puts users in control of how their stories are told, without likes, follower counts, or advertisements
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Haktive - An initiative to encourage children and their families to be more active together, providing resources, ideas, and tools to make physical activity fun and accessible
His other ventures have included OX10 (a small website agency and hosting company), Grokwith (a professional social platform), The Barley Moon artists collective, Save Your Past (currently dornamt), and the inspirational Unslump Me, and .
Beyond Work
When away from the desk(s), Ben and his family are pretty active: members of Hockey, Rugby, and Rowing clubs, and enthusiastic explorers of the countryside by foot, paddle and peddle. He believes in the importance of balancing digital innovation with physical activity and real-world experiences - a philosophy that influences both his personal life and the products he helps create.
Thank you for visiting.
Portrait photography by Zoe Seymour (then 11), inspired by the Steve Jobs biography cover.