I thought I use this first post to introduce myself and tell you the story of how I got here. The past six years have been a journey of several million Euros in revenue and leading a team of 20 geeks. Let me share some of the learnings and adventures along the way.

Humble Beginnings

Everything began in 2018. I was studying at a university in Japan. Back then, my roommate and I were hyped about games and crypto.

One evening in our dormitory after some beers we were reviewing a smart contract on Ethereum. The contracts held a lot of money back then. It was one of these mini-games that popped up everywhere on blockchains, at that time.

Within 20 minutes we found several critical bugs. Just by looking at the code. This was clearly the code of someone who didn't know what they were doing.

At that moment we decided that we could do better. So we started developing our own blockchain-enhanced video game.

From then on the days looked something like this: get up in the morning. Hit the gym. Start coding until dinner. Eat Ramen. Repeat.

We were passionate about the game we were building. Had so much energy and everything we did was playful and felt effortless. Even though we were working long days.

Back then on that balcony in Japan, I knew I would never be able to work for a traditional company again. The freedom I built for myself back then changed me forever.

Scaling the Team

We both had a tech background, so we needed someone to do the art of the game for us. So we hired designers, then more devs. This continued until we were a team of 20 people and a payroll of 100k.

Suddenly we weren't developing a game anymore. We now had to manage a team, pay bills, and see to legal topics. Everything that comes with running a company.

At that point, we were working 60, 80, 100-hour weeks. We were only reacting to the next problem that waited for us around the next corner. And we had some bad hires, that cost us about 200k EUR in total.

It wasn't fun anymore. We were burning out, and work didn't come easy to us anymore.

This is when my co-founder and I sat together and decided that it couldn't continue this way. We needed to get back the playfulness. We wanted to get back to the passionate playground we started with.

Building the Playground

From the earliest beginnings of the company, we knew we wouldn't want to have offices. We didn't want to be limited to one place the whole time.

We are living as digital nomads so why do we need offices?

As a result, we were 100% remote, and location-independent from the start. This saved us heaps of money, that would usually be burned for office spaces.

Instead, we used this money to fly the whole team halfway around the world for team-building. We did this once or twice a year. Once we went to a villa on Crete in Greece. Another time we climbed Kilimanjaro in Tanzania together.

Additionally, we had 100% flexible time management and a flat rate on holidays. Do you want to work on Sundays instead of Thursdays? Good with us.

Still, we stepped into the traps of scaling a team quickly.

Processes got tedious. Meetings got long and filled our calendars. We knew we needed to change something to get out of there.

To solve this, we simplified our process and cut everything that wasn't essential. We kept only what we had to do to reach the main goals of the company.

Additionally, we moved more ownership into the team. This meant working outcome-driven instead of time-driven. This means everyone took responsibility for the project as a whole. Not just for their little piece of it.

We arrived at this conclusion by investing a lot of time in finding and shaping the identity of our company.

A clear identity for the company could have saved us a lot of money and lengthy discussions within the team.

One of the core company values we noticed was freedom. And you can only be free when you take the responsibility that comes with it. To take responsibility, you need to have ownership over your decisions.

Company identity or culture is not just a buzzword thrown around by executives. It is the foundation upon which every single decision in a business is built. If your foundations are blurry and mushy, the house you built on top will crumble.

Implementing these strategies in our company turned it back into a playground. We were designing again, not just reacting.

The Present

In the meanwhile, I left the company I built for the past years. Developing games has a big space in my heart, and I will return to it at some point.

Right now I burn even more for designing healthy, playful, environments. Environments for people to play, create, and grow in.

So I'm helping entrepreneurs and founders like you who find themselves in the same situations as I was in:

Overwhelmed by all the roles you need to fill.
Hustling endless hours.
Constantly fighting the next fire that threatens to burn down your company.
And you are burning out in the process

Life as a business owner can be easy and fun.

You just need to find ways to transform your company back into a playground.

And you can do that while scaling your team sustainably.

I want to create playful and creative environments for as many people as possible. I can't do this alone. Let's win together.

Never forget: happier teams create happier products.

I love learning and talking about these topics. So let's have a chat, if you're also passionate about building a sustainable company.

How I Got Here