Hi everyone,

Two conversations recently showed me something I couldn't ignore: we're not meant to do this alone.

First: A Podcast About Building Community

I sat down with Sam Huntington on the Hill Climbers Show thinking we'd talk cycling and business. Within minutes, we were past the surface - talking about family, purpose, mental health, and what it actually costs to build something meaningful.

Sam said something that captured it perfectly: "It's pretty rare these days to sit down with someone that you don't know well and just kind of like get right into what matters in life."

We talked about the woom journey - how my brother Marcus and his partner Christian started in a Vienna garage because they refused to put their kids on the junk bikes they saw in shops. How I bootstrapped to $20M in revenue in less than 6 years and made the Inc. 5000 with a 1,666% growth rate.

But we also talked honestly about what that journey required:

"I flew 30 trips to Vienna in 18 months." The challenge of balancing a growing global business with being present for my family. The toll of running what I called "a 10-year time trial" - full effort, no coasting.

Through it all, I learned something that changed my perspective completely: "On the grave, it shouldn't say what I did. It should say who I was. It's not about doing, it's about the being."

Community Has Always Been the Answer

Then we talked about the loneliness no one mentions - and why community matters so much.

"When you're the CEO of a business, the bigger the business, the more lonely it becomes. Surrounding yourself with other business owners and like-minded people can really help you tremendously."

What struck me during this conversation was how community shows up everywhere:

At woom, we built micro-communities organically. One parent would see a kid on a woom bike at Ramsey Park in Austin, ask about it, buy one, and tell other parents. Neighborhoods became woom communities. Our customers became fans who supported each other. We even have a Facebook group - not run by us, but by parents - where they buy, sell, and trade woom bikes. That's community building itself.

With Hill Climbers, Sam and Stephen have created something special - a cycling community that goes beyond the ride. Those early Mellow Johnny's group rides weren't just about training; they were about connection. Sam's building the same thing now - a place where people come together around cycling, support each other, and have real conversations. The Hill Climbers community embodies what drew me to Austin in the first place.

And now with Birthing of Giants, I'm helping business owners find their people - the cohort that understands what it's like to carry the weight of leading a company.

If I'd had a cohort during those 30 trips to Vienna, during the hardest scaling decisions, during the moments when I felt completely alone at the top - how different would that journey have been?

You don't need to lone wolf it. In fact, you shouldn't.

​Read the full article and watch the conversation here - we also talk about seeding Austin's next generation of cyclists (including Sam's son Art on his woom bike) and what community really means.

Then: Watching Community Form in Real-Time

Shortly after that podcast, I stood in front of a room at the Indeed Tower with Lewis Schiff hosting the first Birthing of Giants info session for Central Texas.

Fifteen business owners filled the room. And I watched everything I'd just talked about on the podcast unfold right in front of me.

The energy shift happened before I even started presenting. Owners were introducing themselves, discovering they lived in the same neighborhood, realizing they were facing identical challenges.

This is what happens when you bring the right people together. The loneliness dissolves. The isolation disappears. Suddenly, you're not the only one dealing with cash flow timing issues, or struggling to delegate, or wrestling with whether to bring in outside capital.

The most powerful moments weren't during Lewis's presentation about the 6 Steps to a Bigger Business. They happened in the margins - during the exercises when people leaned over to share strategies, after the session over food and drinks when they exchanged real stories about what's actually hard right now.

That's when it crystallized: business owners aren't just looking for frameworks. They're starving for their people. They're desperate for community.

​Want to read more about what happened at that info session? Click here​

You Don't Have to Do This Alone

Here's what happens when you try to lone wolf it:

• You make million-dollar decisions in isolation - while cohort members pressure-test ideas with peers who've been there
• You repeat expensive mistakes - while others learn from each other's failures in real-time and save years of trial and error
• You miss your biggest blind spots - because you're too deep in the business to see what a cohort spots immediately
• You build without trusted sounding boards - while cohort members develop the relationships that only come from the same group meeting quarterly over two years
• You add years to your timeline - figuring out alone what your cohort could help you solve in one quarterly session

As I told Sam: "I wish I would have had the knowledge back 8, 10 years ago that I have now. I could have maybe had a little bit of a smoother ride." I guess that's called experience or wisdom.

At that info session, I watched people find their smoother ride. Before they left, several founders had already scheduled follow-up conversations with each other. That's not networking - that's the beginning of trust. That's community forming.

The Central Texas Cohort Launches February 27th - Find Your People

After the info session, interest has been strong. This cohort is intentionally small to maintain the intimacy and trust that makes it work.

Here's what Birthing of Giants offers:

• A cohort of 12-15 business owners
• Quarterly full-day sessions over two years
• A one-week fellowship program in Princeton
• A trusted, safe space to work on your business, not in it
• The people who finally understand

After February 27th, the next opportunity is a year away.

A year of making decisions alone. A year without your people in the room. A year of missing the connections, insights, and accountability that could change everything.

The biggest lesson I've learned - from building woom's community, from connecting with Sam's Hill Climbers community, from watching that room at Indeed Tower come alive - is this:

We're better together. You don't have to lone wolf it.

If you're tired of carrying the weight alone, let's talk.

If you're in Austin, join the Hill Climbers community for episodes, rides, and the kind of authentic connection that's rare these days: [link]​

Stay tuned - I'll be launching an online course soon. More on that in the next newsletter.

Onward,

Mathias

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About Mathias

Mathias Ihlenfeld is father of Luca (13) and Sofia (11) and an award-winning entrepreneur and the Austin, TX Cohort Leader and Coach for the Birthing of Giants Regional Cohort (birthingofgiants.com/regional-cohorts), a selective fellowship program for growth-focused founders and CEOs building high-impact companies. He is also the creator of The R.E.C.L.A.I.M. Code (Elite Personal Optimization Framework for divorced high performers). His proprietary 6-stage framework helps divorced founders rebuild identity, attract aligned love, and ignite purpose-driven business performance.

As the founder of woom bikes USA, Mathias built one of North America’s fastest-growing direct-to-consumer kids’ bike companies, earning multiple Inc. 5000 honors—including a 742% three-year growth rate in 2020—and recognition as one of the fastest-growing private companies in the U.S. In 2021, he played a pivotal role in merging the U.S. and European operations, leading the combined $100M global business as CEO in 2022 and 2023. His leadership has been recognized with honors such as Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year finalist and the Vistage Impact Leadership Award.

A graduate of the Birthing of Giants Fellowship Program, Mathias brings decades of expertise in entrepreneurship, business transformation, and conscious leadership. Through his coaching practice, he works with founders, executives, and high-achieving men navigating personal reinvention, guiding them through identity rebuilding, emotional mastery, business growth, and relationship alignment.

Today, Mathias mentors with SKU, invests in purpose-driven brands, and writes on his Substack—sharing hard-earned lessons, strategic insight, and stories from his journey building global brands and leading life transformations.