Meet Petra

Connecting with people, and creating relationships – professionally and personally, lights me up. 

That, and seeing startups soar!

“Conventional” was never my thing. I often felt out of place in the traditional corporate world.

I found myself drawn to startups.

Over the last 20 years I’ve moved around in many different industries in Germany and the US in vastly differing roles, leading teams of all backgrounds, shapes, and sizes in very small to large global organizations.

I found my purpose in being a people-first leader and strategist and helping others reach their full potential.

I have been an early member of a number of startups in publishing, tech, SaaS, and quick commerce. Some failed, some went on to become successful, and one of them reached Unicorn status in record time.

You + I Know the Beautiful Things About Startups:

• I love the energy, and the ability to create something new every single day.
• I love seeing the accelerated growth in people that’s rarely possible in a more traditional work environment.
• I love the opportunities and unconventional ways of people find career passions they never expected.
• I love the rapid successes, excitement, and motivation propelling the organization and its people forward
• And I love the rapid failures that are much more common and appreciated, allowing for accelerated growth.

But there are downsides, too – and that’s where coaching comes in.

While all these opportunities were exciting and demanding in their own ways, I noticed they all had very similar leadership and management challenges:

• Employees being promoted to managers based on performance but without leadership development support
• Founders turned CEO continuing to be Founders
• Bad leadership and poor management cause frustration, create distraction, causing high turnovers.
• Loss of essential early institutional knowledge as employees drift away
• Burnout among employees being overworked and undersupported
• Layoffs and job loss as a direct result of lacking leadership. YOU may be the one to tell employees that they are out of work.
• Big egos and personal insecurities as the cause of losing TOP talent.
• Worst case scenario – the lack of Startup leadership excellence causes startups to fail!

All these reasons and more were the catalysts to focus on Startup Leadership development.

My training, expertise, and 15+ year of coaching and leadership experience uniquely position me to work with Startup Leaders looking to accelerate their own growth and leadership skills.