One day a week to build a company and why that’s enough for now
I write this in between breastfeeding and drywall construction. When I decided to leave meshcloud shortly after having my second baby, and a couple of months after we bought a new house, people thought I was crazy. And I think I am, well, the good kind of crazy. The kind that lets you dream and do things you will remember for the rest of your life. If you are curious about how it’s going, keep reading.
Why Now?
I think there are only a few things in life as drastic as losing a parent. When my mom died in 2023 at the age of 63, four weeks between being a healthy working grandma to us mourning her on Christmas Eve, it shook my world to its core. It changed how I see the world and how I want to spend the time I have.
I was raised with a high need for security, and while that had shifted slightly over the years, it shattered completely during that time. It made me painfully aware of everything I had been holding back on out of fear. It became very clear to me that if I were to receive a terrible diagnosis, there were things I would deeply regret not having done.
A friend of mine suggested I sit down and draw a picture of how I wanted my life to look in the future. And suddenly there it was: the house and my own company.
What Now?
During my time as Head of Product at meshcloud I became very good at creating, improving and rolling out new workflows, often within a matter of days or weeks. In a company of that size, without millions to throw at problems, it is absolutely vital to focus on what really matters, reinvent along the way and be efficient about it. It felt amazing to make a real impact with a small team and reshape the way we work together. That experience made something very clear: I am passionate about the moment a team clicks — when the right processes, the right tools and the right focus come together and suddenly a small group of people creates something way bigger than the sum of its parts.
In Germany alone we lose around 400,000 people from the workforce each year as the boomer generation retires. Digitalisation, automation and AI give us a real chance to strengthen our economy — not by replacing people, but by helping teams do more with what they have. That is what I want to contribute towards.
I also see very real risks when AI is not implemented thoughtfully. The debate out there ranges from “replace everyone with agentic AI” to “avoid AI entirely.” I want to be the voice of reason that helps companies navigate this exciting but also complex topic.
One Day a Week
For now, that means one focused day a week, squeezed between a eight-month-old, a toddler, and a house we are renovating with our own hands. It is slower than I imagined. Some days it feels like barely enough. But I have learned that progress does not always look the way you expect it to. Sometimes it looks like a finished wall. Sometimes it looks like a finished blog post.
This is mine.
