Grew up in Germany and studied computer science. Founded a first startup at 19 and served as CTO, but the venture lacked founder-market fit and was discontinued after months. Decided against returning to a CTO role and did not want to program. Pursued consulting to break into business, preparing with intensive mock interviews and case studies before joining Boston Consulting Group in Berlin. Consulting accelerated business skills, teaching communication, presentations, teamwork, executive correspondence, and client-facing meeting conduct. Consulting provided broad industry exposure and strong camaraderie. Later left consulting to found Leaping AI, an AI voice agent startup that participated in Y Combinator; founding work is demanding but more enjoyable.
When I was 19, I founded my first startup and I was the CTO, but it really wasn't a founder-market fit, so we discontinued it after a couple of months and went back to school. I knew that I didn't want to be a CTO again. I didn't want to program. I was interested in business, but to do business as someone who studied computer science was hard.
I think consulting is great for a young grad. You learn business within two years. You learn how to communicate, how to present, how to work in a team, how to write emails to CEOs of companies. You learn how to be in Zoom meetings with them and not mess up. You learn about different industries; I worked for so many different and interesting clients. It's a business school MBA in real life.
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