a personal story.

on july 17 2019 i flew to LA. just 13h after leaving my job

my entire life in this bag. i told people, that i'll go on some travels. and i wasn't starting a company, really. but i did.

i was sitting in venice. sketching and drawing the very beginning here.

the street abbot kinney won me in a second. it felt like the right place to start a journey. that would require all my creativity

i listened to the many people telling me to take the car from LA to SF.

i slept in the car. the first night without a sleeping bag (bad idea). the second night with one next to the beach (good idea)

california is truly amazing.

"In photography, the biggest difference between an amateur and a professional is the size of the wastebasket."

a hobby photographer, this quote made me realize what this journey will be about.

too save money, i shared beds with jack and malte. two of my friends from berlin.

jack had a hotel booked with a not-too-big bed. without hesitation he shared.

malte (photo) and i took a ride to lake tahoe. what a place.

eventually i arrived in new york to spend the month of august.

Amie is truly made out of countless museum and gallery visits.

the guggenheim and basquiat exhibition were special. it was also my friend Eduard's birthday.

edu (left), timo and i shared a flat in soho. i didn't realize how important daily little sparring would be.

it was such a fragile idea back then.

we also might have gotten caught up eating ice cream. a lot of ice cream.

(i barely cut my hair since that photo btw hah)

this is one of the first prototypes. i was experimenting with chatbots to build habits.

admittedly, it wasn't a fun product. all those great products aren't intuitively perfect. they are 10.000 times changed and often change their appearance fully.

i had a flight booked from JFK back to SFO.

it was for a potentially life-changing meeting.

it didn't work out and bothered me for much longer than it should've. i was exhausted.

back in ny we had SO much pad thai and thai ice tea here.

being a photographer in ny is playing on easy mode. new aesthetics everywhere.

we spent $14 per bagel at russ and daughters. it sounds ridiculous.

it was so good ??????

spending a month here was right. it was an exhausting trip.

but it filled me with ideas.

back in germany, this was the last thing i read before taking off to cape town.

where the focused journey Amie began.

looking back at this, none of this is linear.

it could've very easily ended. in favor of security, a full-time job and friends close by.

i am glad it didn't.

~ join the waitlist on amie.so :)