About

Hi, I’m Xaver 👋

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.

I 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 back to Germany, I started writing.

Not about the things that everyone writes about but about: burnout, pressure, loneliness, identity, ambition, 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 8,000 newsletter subscribers across Substack and Linkedin.

Today, my mission is simple:

To help ambitious founders build exceptional companies without losing themselves in the process.

What this newsletter is

Every Tuesday (free): I write about what it’s actually like. Building companies, recovering from burnout, figuring out what matters after the exit. The stuff most founders think about but don’t say out loud.

And if you ever want to go deeper, you can join the Slack community and get access to my Founder OS and AI Coach Replica.

More details here.

What else I do

1:1 Coaching. I work with a small number of founders - usually people going from zero to one, feeling stuck at a plateau, raising capital, or trying to figure out what’s next. More here.

Angel investing. I invest in early-stage startups, mostly in AI and B2B SaaS. My current portfolio includes Neotaste, Fonio AI, MMI, and Peec AI. See more here.

Sponsorships. If you want to reach founders, CEOs, and operators who are actively building and scaling companies, I offer sponsorship placements in the Tuesday newsletter. Get in touch or checkout options here.

Beyond business

I support causes that matter to me. Wildlife conservation in South Africa through AMES, and early childhood education through Handsandfeet in Cape Town.

I was listed in Forbes 30 Under 30 (Europe and DACH).

I live in Munich.

Welcome to the community!