Commemorating the Enduring Legacy of Stefan Tilkov

We are saddened to learn of the passing of Stefan Tilkov. 

Stefan was a regular presenter in the global software development conference industry, with close ties to GOTO Conferences. He leaves a digital legacy comprising many insightful presentations and talks. Stefan started gracing the GOTO stage in its early days in 2012 and continued to do so until the last one in Amsterdam in 2023. 

Stefan’s commitment to knowledge-sharing created a ripple effect, nurturing the growth of aspiring developers who looked up to them as a beacon of expertise. He mentored, guided and instilled confidence in others, helping shape the next generation of software innovators. Stefan was well known for his expertise in SOLID architecture and he became a leader within the microservices and wrote several books forming our business and ways of working

Stefan shared many hard-won lessons about building loosely coupled software architectures. Some of his most popular content was designed to make the audience stop, think and learn, such as “Is Domain-Driven Design Overrated?”, “Good enough architechture,” and “Blockchain: The Slowest (and most Fascinating) Database in the World”.

Various well-known software experts, such as Martin Fowler and the ThoughtWorks team, Josh Long, and Kevlin Henney, wrote online tributes and shared messages of condolence for Stefan. We miss him. 

Written by Preben Thorø, CTO at Trifork, on behalf of the GOTO team