What led me here

Working with new colleagues in Japan is a lot of fun! My life took a new turn when I did a sabbatical in 2023, working with ETIC in Japan to learn how they’ve supported founders for 30+ years.

Entrepreneurship was instilled in me at a young age, beginning at my father's engineering business after the fall of the Berlin Wall. I experienced first hand how he built a business from scratch. My first job was cleaning machinery but my eyes were always on the "boss chair" and being able to create new opportunities. I then completed a 3 1/2 year metal engineering apprenticeship before moving to London in 2001 to seek new opportunities.

Living through the tumultuous years of the regime change in East Germany provided ample opportunity to invent yourself, explore new things, whilst remaining rooted in whats good.

When I got tot the UK, I had the fortune of working with the CEO of a homelessness charity, shadowing my first social entrepreneur. This encouraged me to embark on my own mission to start a social business and to support young adults into work. In 2004 I co-founded my first social enterprise in London, supporting over 1,500 young adults to explore their professional ambitions through structured work placements. Whilst growing this social venture, I completed a BSc in Business Administration and Social Anthropology (Roehampton University) to gain in-depth knowledge of business, and human behaviour. This led on to a Masters degree in Social Anthropology from Goldsmiths College shortly after, figuring out how organisations work, which has greatly enhanced my social enterprise, business and human understanding.

My first trip to Japan in 2009 was the beginning of a whole new adventure, which resulted in some 5,000 kilometres travelled by bike through the country across 3 journeys. But the first one will be the most memorable: 6 weeks, no phone, no Japanese language knowledge, just a compass a map - my bike and tent!

I was awarded "London Leader" in 2013 by the Mayor of London and "Top 100 Influential" by the Sunday Times for my work with entrepreneurs in the capital. Whilst I continued to grow a number of businesses from 2004, from a construction and home refurbishment company all the way to a solar panel installation and education company, I continued to travel to Japan to continue my studies of traditional Japanese budo (martial arts), having been fortunate enough to start this journey in Germany in 1997. When I got to Japan the first time in 2007 I was completely blown away by the overall experience of being instructed by Japanese teachers/ sensei, who’ve taught with a keen mind, ruthless precision and often a big smile as they strike you to the ground in ways you couldn’t possibly understand.

Living legend and Japanese national treasure, Dr. Masaaki Hatsumi, 34th grandmaster of a 900 year old martial arts school. Being fortunate to meet him and train with him and his students, who are all now grandmasters themselves, has provided new opportunities for understanding life, love, war and business. Over the last 2 decades I’ve been to Japan 15+ times and lived there for over 2 years, a couple of months every year. Understanding and feeling the Eastern ‘way of life’ has opened my eyes to alternative ways of thinking and doing, deeply inspired by tradition and a circularity we hardly know ‘in the West’.

In 2013, I started Hatch Enterprise to support diverse and impact entrepreneurs. Hatch has become an award-winning organisation and we have worked with 10,000+ entrepreneurs to launch and grow their ventures. We've grown from our humble beginnings in Brixton, South London to becoming one of the largest national charities being among the top 5% across the UK by income. We’ve built partnerships with JP Morgan, UBS, NatWest all the way to tech companies like eBay, Facebook and Amazon. I’ve not just learned how to build an organisation from scratch but also how to make really difficult decisions, from restructures to downsizing when the funding environment deteriorates. When COVID hit in 2020, we pivoted hard from being a local, London based and operating charity with about £500K income to a £2.5m and nationally operating organisation supporting 1,000 founders every year by 2024. As they say, when life gives you lemons…This organisational ‘step-up’ was inspired through a deep and meaningful mentoring conversation I had with one of my mentors, where we explored what it would mean to 10x the organisation, the necessary vision, ambition, behaviours and processes. This was one of the most meaningful journeys of ‘scaling an organisation’ rapidly, whilst staying true to our roots and commitment to deliver deep and meaningful impact for entrepreneurs.

Working with amazing colleagues at Hatch has shown me that if you want to go far, go together!

After a sabbatical in 2023 - and 10 years after founding Hatch, I went back to my spiritual home, Japan, where I joined Japan’s longest established entrepreneurship support providers called ETIC. I became part of their international team, advising on strategy and fundraising, whilst delivering workshops and seminars for a number of stakeholders from large multi-national corporations to impact investors. This was an exciting time as Japan has started to implement national frameworks for impact investing, many of which came from the UK and were updated for the Japanese context. Being able to live and work in both worlds, it was clear to me that there are many synergies and opportunities to start, scale and finance impact businesses like never before.

Joining ETIC Japan for the 3rd year to work with them on strategy, enterprise programme development and fundraising provided interesting insights how a self-designing and self-managing organisation works.

Fast forward to 2025, my next chapter involves financing overlooked founders through Korra Ventures, our angel investment syndicate, together with my partners Thomas and Tania.

Partner meeting for Korra Ventures, good things often start in coffee shops, pubs and the like. Yes, the original business plan is on a napkin!

“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards” (Søren Kierkegaard). As we move through life, we often find ourselves navigating uncertainty, making choices without knowing where they will lead. It’s only when we look back that the threads reveal themselves — the lessons, the growth, the deeper purpose behind the steps we took.

In my coaching practice, I hold space for this unfolding: helping founders, leaders, and changemakers trust the path they are on, even when the future feels unclear. Because true transformation doesn’t come from having all the answers — it comes from having the courage to live forwards, and the wisdom to understand backwards.