What makes a founder? The case of Basti.

Do you ever wonder where founders come from? Are they made or are they born? It is a question I ask myself all the time and today I want to look at the story of Basti (aka Bastian Meyer ), the founder of handly .

For context: handly aims to be Shopify for homes services, and we’ve just backed it to the tune of €3.75M alongside our friends Harry Stebbings and Kieran Hill at 20VC , Caroline Broder at Base10 Partners and others

The story of Basti highlights how his life shaped his path towards becoming an entrepreneur, and interestingly for me also highlights how doing "deep internal work" did not dent his intensity but gave him a much stronger grounding from which to operate.

Let's dive in.

Waking up to tech.

Basti was an avid gamer, like most kids his age.?At the age of 11, he got curious about how games were made, walked to the local bookstore in his small town in the Rurhgebiet and picked up a book about software development in Java.?From there he started coding random things, some useful and some fun, and realised that his brain and a computer were enough to actually build things, and that he could.?No matter your background, tech is the great leveller.

Waking up to entrepreneurship.?

In 2014, Basti built a digital version of the Panini football sticker album for the World Cup. ?It hit 20.000 users in 10 days. Every time he refreshed the database, the number of entries kept growing. The excitement, the feedback, and the rapid growth—it all did something to him: “at that moment, I knew this was what I wanted to do with my life. I didn’t even know what it was called back then, but I knew I was hooked.”

Dark Days, and Heeding the call.?

Back home, Basti suppressed his ambition because his entourage disliked it. To many, drive can come across as arrogance. ?But?to Basti: “the truth was, I always needed to work on something that felt bigger than myself”. For a long time, he thought that meant becoming an athlete. That dream ended after overtraining and developing myocarditis (all fine now). He committed everything he had to tech—it was the only other thing in his life that he genuinely loved doing.?

Everyone in his family worked in home services or did something practical in the real world, and he was the first to aim for higher education. That did not go down well. After a year of conflicts, his parents kicked him out while he was still in high school. A dark day.?He couch-surfed for quite some time before finding a flat (paid with state money, because he wasn't allowed to freelance while being in school).

At the same time, he found it deeply liberating and made a personal commitment: to dedicate his life to solving the hardest problems, the ones that would demand the most personal growth: “I wanted to be undeniable and to work on something bigger than myself. To me, that’s what greatness meant. I quickly realized that entrepreneurship was the vehicle to achieve it”.

Finding Role models ... and becoming his own?

When he was younger, Basti always had an idealized version of himself 10-20 years into the future: “the standard I hold for myself has never matched anyone I’ve known”.?Nowadays, he looks up to Brian Chesky and Travis Kalanick (minus the controversies). “They are the definition of grit—no matter what happened, they don’t quit. Neither Airbnb nor Uber were obvious from the start, but Brian's and Travis' desire to win forced these companies into existence. What I admire about Airbnb is their obsession with creating a 10-star customer experience and focusing on the core of their business. I love that. On the other side, Uber’s aggressive execution, intensity, and scrappiness resonate deeply with me—I can identify with that mindset a lot”.

Basti today - and going back to his roots with Handly

Basti is a guy who’s done a lot of personal work and has lost none of his determination.?He is a better human for having looked deeply inside, and yet his energy and determination are indented.?

Going full circle, he has dedicated his energy to helping folks like his father - brilliant craftsmen who don’t necessarily have the tools to run a business, to empower people like him.

His father was an incredible roofer—detail-oriented, deeply passionate about his craft, and highly technical, sought out by his clients. But he never started his own business; not because he didn’t want to—but because he felt he couldn’t.?“I can’t help but think there are so many more people like my father—skilled, hardworking, and capable—who should start their own businesses or take over existing ones but don’t, simply because they’re held back by not having full certainty over managing the business side”.

A Classic Hero's Journey

You can tell the tale of Basti fits incredibly well into the classic narrative of the Hero's Journey. Thank you Joseph Campbell!

• The call to adventure: The hero is challenged to leave their ordinary world and embark on a quest?(the Panini experience)
• Refusal of the call: The hero may initially be eager to accept the quest, but then has second thoughts or doubts?(Basti trying to fit in, suppress his ambition, not stand out).
• Meeting the mentor: The hero is guided by a mentor who provides support, wisdom, and physical items?(Brian and Travis).
• The ordeal: The hero faces a test or crisis?(Basti gets kicked out and needs to survive).
• The reward: The hero is victorious and receives a reward?(Basti starts a business and get funded; the rest we will see :-)).
• The return: The hero returns home changed or transformed?(Basti oozes wisdom and kindness).

Conclusion

That is a man and a mission worth backing.

Onward.