From 0 to $60m: The story I was afraid to tell.

What building, scaling, and selling a startup really feels like - behind the scenes.

After speaking with a few close friends and family members, I began to question whether writing about my entrepreneurial journey was a good idea.

The fear of revealing too much felt overwhelming. The fear of failing as a writer even more so.

And yet, ever since selling the company, I’ve felt a deep and constant urge to document my experience and share it with the world.

Even though some people advised against it, I reminded myself: If I had always listened to others, I would’ve never founded an AI company in the first place.

Back then, most people especially the so-called experts in AI and tech warned us not to do it.

The odds of starting a company without any prior experience and money in a highly competitive field were close to zero.

To make it worse, my co-founder and I were still university students and neither of us knew how to write a single line of code.

But we did it anyway.

The desire to build something of our own was stronger than the fear of failing.

We didn’t want to work for anyone else. And frankly, we had nothing to lose. We each put in €700 and launched the company at the age of 23.

Five years later, we sold it to a U.S. NASDAQ listed company for $60 million. It was one of the highest exits in the industry ever recorded.

By then, we had grown to 130 full-time employees, ran five offices across Europe, and received more than 30 awards including being named one of Forbes’ Top 30 AI Companies.

We were also included on the Forbes 30 Under 30 lists in both DACH and Europe.

But it wasn’t all success. The journey was full of extreme highs, lows, burnouts, breakthroughs, and unforgettable lessons.

I am going to share personal stories, deep insights, but also valuable resources and perks to help you build a great company and staying healthy doing so.

This is me undisclosed and vulnerable as I have ever been.

Enjoy the ride!