Hi, I’m Sven.

For over 20 years, I have been building.

I worked at seven startups, mostly in product roles across online marketing, advertising and lead generation. We grew fast, several got acquired, and each time I found myself back in corporate until the next startup came along.

That cycle became my career.

I loved joining a new company and figuring things out while everything was still messy. Who is the customer? What problem are we really solving? What is missing from the market? What can we build that people will use and pay for?

Most of the products we built helped other companies reach people, win customers and grow.

That was the work that energized me. I got to solve the same big puzzle again and again across different products, customers and markets. And I became pretty good at it.

The acquisitions also taught me how different the two worlds are.

In corporate, I had teams, budgets and established ways of doing things. At a startup, we had little time, few resources and no idea whether something would work.

Startup life taught me to be resourceful, focus on what matters and move before everything feels ready.

That builder mindset eventually became part of who I am.

Why Midlife Founder Academy

After my last established-startup role, I knew I was done with the cycle.

On paper, I was successful. But work had taken over more of my life than I wanted to admit. I lived only a few steps from the beach and barely saw it during daylight.

I still wanted to build. I wanted the work, the decisions, and the business to be mine.

That is where the Midlife Founder Academy started.

For most of my career, I spent years building one company at a time. Now I work alongside experienced professionals and help them build companies around what they are good at and love to do.

The business questions are familiar. What should you sell? Who needs it? How do you reach them? What will make them choose you? What should you focus on now?

But building a company around yourself makes those questions much more personal.

You are also deciding how you want to work, what you want to be known for, and who you want to become when your old corporate identity no longer fits.

I know that transition because I left corporate three times.

For me, becoming a founder brought my work and life closer together. I no longer feel like I have to perform one version of myself at work and return to another one when I get home.

The name Midlife Founder matters to me because it describes more than an age group.

It is an identity.

You have decided that independence will be part of your life now. You are building the business, learning to lead it and becoming the founder you want to be through the process.

My mission is to help you build a profitable business, become a founder you are proud to be and create an independent life that feels like yours.