From Minecraft Servers to Full-Stack Development. The Artisan of the Day Is Matilde Enevoldsen.
For Matilde Enevoldsen, the path into software development started with curiosity. At 13, she wanted a website for her Minecraft server, so she dove into WordPress and quickly found herself fascinated by how the web actually works.
That early interest grew into professional work. In 2018, she landed her first freelance role as a React developer. Soon after, she moved from Copenhagen to London to work with Laravel and Drupal, officially stepping into full-stack development.
Today, Matilde is a PHP developer, working with Laravel and Vue to build scalable applications. Her approach combines hands-on coding with a deep focus on developer experience and pragmatic tool choices.
Building a Learning Platform
Matilde’s current focus is on tillythecoder.com, her own course platform covering Laravel and PHP. She’s migrating her existing YouTube tutorials and creating new, exclusive content for paying students. Her role blends backend and frontend development with content creation, product design, and improving the learner experience.
By day, she builds and ships features as a PHP developer, writing tests, maintaining code quality, and scaling systems for real users.
Discovering Laravel
Matilde first encountered Laravel around version 5. What struck her immediately was its emphasis on developer ergonomics: expressive syntax, a thoughtful ecosystem, and a strong community. It offered a clear, enjoyable alternative to the tools she’d used previously and became her go-to framework for backend and full-stack development.
Her Go-To Stack
Matilde uses Laravel as the backbone for backend and full-stack apps, handling APIs, jobs, background processing, and authentication. For the frontend, she reaches for Livewire for form-driven apps and Vue 3 with shadcn components for more complex interfaces. Pest, Pint, and Larastan round out her quality and testing toolkit.
Typical stack:
- Backend: Laravel (PHP)
- Frontend: Vue 3 / Livewire
- UI Components: shadcn
- Testing & Quality: Pest, Pint, Larastan
Community and Conferences
Matilde is an active part of the Laravel community. Laravel Live Denmark 2025 was her second Laravel Live event, following Laravel Live UK earlier that year. She frequently attends meetups and other community events, finding them invaluable for sharpening ideas and connecting with peers in the ecosystem.
Advice for Fellow Developers
Matilde’s advice is grounded: “Be pragmatic. Don’t chase every shiny new thing: pick tools that solve your current problems and let you ship.”
She emphasizes focusing on fundamentals like testing, clear APIs, and solid defaults. Building real projects and sharing what you learn is, in her view, one of the fastest ways to level up. Investing in automation and tooling frees developers to focus on the parts of the product that really matter.
Your Story Belongs Here
You don't need to have a course, a talk, or a big launch. If Laravel has been part of your journey (a pivot, a side project, a moment of growth), we'd love to hear about it!
Answer Taylor's questions at laravel.com/stories.
We're always looking to feature developers from every corner of the community. Beginners, builders, behind-the-scenes folks. If Laravel helped you do something you're proud of, that's a story worth telling.