Over the last decade, I built and scaled AI startups from student projects into international companies with more than 130 employees and 5 European offices. Along the way, I raised millions from top-tier investors, spoke at the UN, made Forbes 30 Under 30, and sold one of my companies for $60 million to a NASDAQ company from the US.

From the outside, it looked like success. Inside, I was struggling. Years of pressure, responsibility, and always chasing the next milestone eventually led to burnout.

Around the same time, I lost my mother. It was a painful reminder that life is finite, and it forced me to step back and question everything I thought success was supposed to look like.

So I booked a one-way ticket to South Africa. Surfed almost every day, worked on social projects, spent time with people who couldn’t care less about startup valuations, and slowly began figuring out what I wanted the next chapter of my life to look like.

When I returned, I started writing about burnout, pressure, loneliness, identity and what happens after the exit. What began as a small newsletter has since grown into a community of more than 30,000 Founders & CEOs as well as 10,000 newsletter subscribers.