My name is Leo and I grew up on the countryside in Europe, in the small country of Austria. When I was 20 years old, I naively boarded a plane with a one-way ticket to San Francisco to found a startup. The startup rollercoaster brought me close to being out on the street, penniless, but luckily didn’t end there. I continued on and with my co-founder and team managed to turn a small idea into a fledgling and eventually booming business. The company was called Buffer and it became one of the biggest brands in its industry and is generating north of $20 million dollars a year in revenue today

Through my experience as a founder, I had a chance to make every mistake in the book, learn about growing a fully remote team to around 100 people, make millions of dollars and shape the startup industry with unique ideas about transparency and how to run a business where humans come first. I also came face to face with the grueling reality of intense co-founder conflict, working 7 days a week, 10-12 hours a day for years straight, and an overall lack of self-care and support in my life.

The latter led to my eventual departure of the tech and startup world for several years to examine myself and my patterns more deeply and to find my footing again. For over 2 years I journeyed, living in remote Buddhist monasteries, practicing meditation for hours daily with monks and nuns, attending to my inner world, seeking out the best therapists and coaches I could find, and shifting the camera lens from outward striving to inner exploration. This led to profound shifts and understanding about old pain and drivers in my life that were no longer serving me.

With the support of in-depth meditation practices, the tools and training of non-violent communication, and the therapy modality of Somatic Experiencing my life changed. I gained access to parts of myself that I didn’t know existed. The tender and vulnerable places inside I had once abandoned in favor of fame and success had a wonderful story to tell once I learned how to reconnect with them. They taught me about feeling weak and fragile in order to become emotionally strong and resilient. My insight is that it’s through having access to these dark, alienated places that most of our wisdom is held. As we recover them and bring them back to our conscious awareness life naturally unfolds with beauty and joy.

As I deepened my understanding of the human body and mind and its emotional resilience, I started working with others to help them uncover their own wisdom in this way too. I found that the unique blend of my experiences as an entrepreneur together with the skills of being present honed in the monastery and the therapy and coaching offices and training struck a deep chord with other founders and people that experienced often outsized success in their lives. They too felt that there was a part of their human experience that was missing and that they wanted to expand into, without compromising on their work and wish for impact and growth.

I feel tremendous gratitude to make that a focus in my life today and to see that hundreds of people have sought me out to partner on that journey with them. People have told me that the unique experience of running a successful business, as well as learning deeply about the inner world of human nature has helped them reconnect to parts they themselves had lost. And at the same time, to step into their lives more powerfully than they ever had before to go after their deepest dreams.

To learn about journeying with me, check out the link below.

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