About me
Just a little bit about myself.
I am the CEO of upcoach, a platform built especially for group coaching, and a veteran entrepreneur who has been building in the SaaS and E-com space for over 20 years. I had multiple exits including MaxCDN.
My passion is to help individuals and their organizations reach their full potential.
Aside from upcoach I have a small portfolio of startups including LTVplus, (Modern Business Process Outsourcing) TaskDrive (Sales Development) Shortlist.io (SEO Agency), 50saas (Laravel app Marketplace) and his passion project Managing Happiness (Peak Performance Group Coaching)
Growing up
I was a misfit growing up…
Just to give you an idea, I went to 13 different schools in total, until I completely dropped out of school. I went to the Arbeitsamt (employment agency) in Germany in the spirit of finding my calling and an ideal job. I looked through every possible type of job they had listed…But I hated all of them.
I was pretty lost for a while until a friend of mine reached out to me with a job proposal. I was really good with computers, so it was a great opportunity to start a business with him doing tech support for mid-sized businesses.
This changed everything!! I found my calling – Entrepreneurship
Startup life
I have been bootstrapping businesses for the past 20+ years and I must admit, it has been an amazing ride!
I have been bootstrapping businesses for the past 20+ years and I must admit, it has been an amazing ride!
I’m originally from Germany, but always had the dream of living in the States — Los Angeles in particular. I loved the city and was fascinated by the startup culture that was happening in the US.
Since nothing was happening on the startup front in Germany, I sold my e-commerce business in 2008. That way, I had enough money to get my investor visa for the US. Together with my wife and our two doggies, I moved to Los Angeles where I co-founded MaxCDN.
After a successful exit, we decided to move back to Europe to be close to family.
Managing Happiness
Applying business principles to our family life made me a better father, spouse and business leader.
As an entrepreneur, balancing my personal and professional life was a challenging task. But over the years, my wife Yurda and I perfected a system that allows us to lead a happy and fulfilling marriage while running a startup.
It worked so well for us that I became obsessed with sharing it with others.
Listen podcast on:
Today
I’m back in business.
I’m back in business. After MaxCDN, I wanted a change and decided to focus on a people business (Talent as a Service) and not on tech/SaaS for a while. I started LTVplus with my business partner GQ and acquired TaskDrive from my old business partner Samir.
I’m also an investor/advisor in several startups. You can find the list here.
Want to learn more about me? Check out my core values and the things I believe in.