There's a moment in every entrepreneur's journey where the fantasy meets reality. For me, it happened in 2014, staring at a garage full of unsold bikes.
I had what I thought was the perfect formula: the best product on the market, a strong brand, crystal clear vision. My brother and his business partner had built these incredible children's bikes in Vienna - woom bikes - and I knew they were special. I'd seen my son Luca's face light up riding one. I'd watched my neighbor practically throw money at me to buy one without even asking the price.
This was going to be easy. A slam dunk.
I sold 13 bikes that first year.
Thirteen.
I recently sat down with Henrik Johansson on the Innovator Insights podcast to share the full story of building woom bikes - not just the highlights, but the parts most entrepreneurs hide. The maxed-out credit cards. The broken dishwasher I couldn't afford to fix while running a $5 million business. The loneliness that comes with being the person everyone looks to for answers.
But more importantly, we talked about what happened after I stepped away as CEO in 2023, and why I'm spending my days now helping other entrepreneurs avoid the mistakes I made.
The Beginning: When Great Products Don't Sell Themselves
Let me take you back to 2013. I was running a successful SAP consulting practice, managing my own hours, building a comfortable life in Austin, Texas. Then my brother Marcus sent me a birthday present from Vienna for my son - one of the first woom bikes he and his partner Christian Bezdeka had built in their garage.
The moment I saw Luca riding it, I knew something was different. This wasn't just another kids' bike. The design, the engineering, the way it made cycling intuitive and joyful for children - it was special.
When my neighbor approached me asking where he could buy one (without even asking the price), something clicked. Maybe this could be more than a birthday present. Maybe this could be a business.
So I called my brother. "Can you send me another bike?"
That's how I unintentionally sold my first bike. And that planted a seed.
I thought: If this neighbor wants one just from seeing Luca ride by, imagine what happens when I really put effort into this.
I created an LLC, rented a small garage space, built a basic website, and ordered my first container of 400 bikes. I was going to sell out in the first year, easy.
Reality had other plans.
"It's easy to start something, but it's really hard to create awareness beyond friends and family to actually build something," I told Henrik. "I learned that the hard way."
Those first 13 bikes? They were the hardest sales of my life. Every single one was hand-to-hand combat. I remember the first bike I sold was to the person at the bank where I went to ask for a loan to finance the inventory. That's how grassroots this was.
"I thought this was going to be easy - best product, great brand, slam dunk. But I sold 13 bikes the first year."
The reality check was brutal. Having the best product on the market means nothing if nobody knows about it. I had assumed that quality would speak for itself, that customers would magically find us. But the market doesn't work that way.
The Side Hustle Years: Burning the Candle at Both Ends
I wasn't ready to quit my consulting practice. Not after selling only 13 bikes. So I did what many entrepreneurs do - I ran both businesses simultaneously.
"I could do my consulting job during the day and run my business at night and on weekends," I explained to Henrik. "But I was burning matches on both ends. My wife asked 'is this really worth it?' You really have to take into account the energy you spend on both."
During the day, I'd be on calls with IBM clients, managing SAP implementations, doing what I'd done for years. At night and on weekends, I'd be updating the website, responding to customer emails, partially assembling bikes in my garage, packing shipments, going to events - everything a early-stage startup requires.
It was exhausting. But something was starting to work.
Year two: $500,000 in revenue. Year three: $1.5 million. Year four: $4.5 million.
We were growing 300% year over year. The reviews were incredible. Parents were becoming evangelists for the brand. Every customer who bought a bike would tell other parents. We were creating what I call a "love brand" - not just selling products, but creating genuine emotional connections.
"Every time a parent would put a kid on the bike and go to the park, they would tell others," I said. "We were a love brand. I saw the kids' smiles, the parents' smiles. That gave me conviction it would work, even through the hard times."
But here's the part nobody talks about: that kind of growth, when you're bootstrapping, is incredibly capital intensive.
The $5 Million Dishwasher Problem
In 2017, I was running a $4.5 million business. On paper, I looked successful. In reality, I was drowning.
woom bikes are not cheap products. They're premium children's bikes, which means high dollar values per unit. And because we manufactured in Europe initially, then later in Asia, I had to finance everything six months before I could sell a single bike.
Put down the deposit to the supplier. Pay the balance when the container ships. Wait for ocean freight. Clear customs. Distribute to customers. Wait for payment.
The cash conversion cycle was brutal.
"I had to finance six months before I sold the bike," I explained. "I had to put money down to our supplier, then final payment once bikes left Asia. Top of mind was always: how am I going to finance all this?"
I became an expert in creative financing. And I mean everything:
- Maxed out every personal credit card
- Liquidated my retirement funds
- Took additional loans against our house
- Used AR receivable factoring
- Tapped UPS's ocean freight financing program (they'd finance 80% of a container's value)
- Used American Express financing
- Shopify Capital
- PayPal Capital
- Built relationships with regional banks for SBA loans
I was always highly leveraged. Always looking for the next financing tool. Always one step ahead of running out of cash.
And then came the moment that crystallized everything.
I walked into my house one evening after another exhausting day managing this rapidly growing business. My wife mentioned that the dishwasher had stopped working.
"Can we get it fixed?" she asked.
"No," I said. "We can't."
"What do you mean we can't? We have credit cards."
"They're all maxed out. There's no room on the credit cards."
"We grew 300% year over year. I was running a $5 million business, but I couldn't afford to fix my dishwasher because all my credit cards were maxed out," I told Henrik. "Sometimes businesses grow fast, but you need to be creative on how to finance that growth."
We hand-washed dishes for several weeks.
That's the reality of bootstrapping that Instagram success stories don't show you. Revenue growth doesn't equal cash flow. Success on paper doesn't mean you can afford basic home repairs.
What Actually Worked: Building a Love Brand
Despite the financial stress, we were building something real. And looking back, I can identify exactly what made the difference.
Customer Obsession
I made a decision early on that probably seems crazy in retrospect: I made my personal cell phone number the customer service line for woom bikes.
"One of the biggest mistakes I made was making my personal cell phone number the customer service number," I said with a laugh. "But it was important to take care of customers personally - they would tell others and come back to buy more bikes."
When a customer called, they got me. Not a call center. Not a ticket system. Me. And I would solve their problem, answer their question, make them feel heard.
We sent handwritten thank you cards with every order. We had every bike mechanic sign a quality certificate that went into the box, so customers knew exactly who had checked and assembled their bike. These weren't scalable practices, but they built something money can't buy: genuine loyalty.
"If I take care of that customer, they not only tell others about us, but they come back and buy more bikes," I explained. "That personal touch built the brand."
And it worked. Our repeat purchase rate was exceptional. Parents would buy the bike for their three-year-old, then come back for the five-year-old size, then the seven-year-old, then the nine-year-old. We weren't just selling bikes - we were becoming part of families' stories.
Strategic Experimentation
I didn't know what would work. So I tried everything.
"My superpower is creativity and problem solving," I told Henrik. "I try a bunch of stuff, see what works, have good discernment around what ended up working, then double down on that. Don't be afraid to experiment."
I tried selling on Amazon (learned it wasn't right for building our brand). I went to countless events and trade shows (time-intensive with limited ROI). I invested heavily in SEO and partnerships with review sites (this was the breakthrough).
Back in 2014-2015, before affiliate marketing corrupted the review space, there were a handful of trusted sites that dominated search results for "best kids bike" or "best bike for 5 year old." I reached out to them, sent them bikes, worked with them at night explaining why our bikes were different.
They tested them. They loved them. They ranked us #1 in every category.
When concerned parents searched for the best bike for their child, they found objective reviews praising woom. They'd click through to our site and buy. That single channel drove years of growth.
The Breaking Point: When Success Costs Everything
By 2017, I had to make a decision. The business was growing too fast to manage part-time. My consulting income was the only thing keeping my family afloat while the business consumed every dollar. But I couldn't scale woom bikes without going all-in.
It was terrifying. The business wasn't profitable yet. Quitting my consulting practice meant cutting off our stable income to bet everything on bikes.
"It was a very difficult decision to quit consulting and make it a full-time engagement," I reflected. "The business had gotten big enough. Sometimes you just have to take that jump, even when it's not perfectly profitable yet."
I jumped.
What followed was explosive growth. In 2020, six years in, we did over $20 million in revenue. At one point we had 40,000 people on our waitlist. The COVID pandemic had created unprecedented demand for outdoor activities, and we couldn't produce bikes fast enough.
In 2021, we made a strategic decision: combine the US business I'd built with my brother and Christian's European operation into one global company. By 2022, we were running a roughly $100 million business. I became CEO of the combined entity.
The growth was exhilarating. We had over 250 employees. We were in markets across the globe. We were making a genuine impact - millions of children were falling in love with cycling because of woom bikes.
But I was traveling to Vienna every three weeks. Managing a complex global operation. Dealing with supply chain nightmares post-COVID. Making decisions that affected hundreds of people's livelihoods.
My kids were in Austin. I was increasingly not.
"Any entrepreneur knows it only works if you're all-in," I told Henrik. "That's why I took a year off after 10 years - I really needed to reset and recharge. You can't pour from an empty cup."
The Loneliness Nobody Talks About
Here's what I wish someone had told me earlier: being a CEO is incredibly lonely.
"That CEO, that business owner - most of them are very lonely," I said. "They're the go-to person for everything. That's why bringing together business owners who face similar challenges is so valuable."
You're surrounded by people - employees, investors, board members, customers - but fundamentally alone in the weight of the decisions.
Should we expand into this new market? Should we change suppliers? Should we raise prices? Should we lay people off? Should I keep going or step away?
You can't talk to your team about your doubts - they look to you for certainty. You can't always be transparent with investors - they want confidence in your vision. You can't burden your family with every stress - they're already sacrificing enough.
So you sit with it. Alone.
I'd have calls at 2am with the Vienna team. I'd be solving warehouse problems in Germany while missing my son's soccer games in Austin. I'd be making decisions about people's jobs while wondering if I was making the right call.
The isolation compounds over time. And if you're not careful, it breaks you.
Stepping Away: The Hardest Decision
At the end of 2023, after 10 years of building woom bikes, I made the hardest decision of my entrepreneurial life.
I stepped away as CEO.
We brought in a strong leadership team to run the global business. And I took a full year off. Not a vacation - a real reset.
"I really needed to take time to reset and recharge," I explained. "I had been doing this for 10 years, all-in, traveling to Vienna every three weeks while having kids in Austin."
Some people thought I was crazy. The business was thriving. We were on track for another record year. Why would I walk away?
Because I'd learned something crucial: you can't sustain "all-in" forever. Eventually, you run out. And when you run out, you're no good to anyone - not your business, not your family, not yourself.
I needed space to figure out what I actually wanted. Not what I thought I should want. Not what would look impressive on paper. What actually aligned with my values and gave my life meaning.
"Listen to your inner voice," I said. "Be aligned with your purpose, your mission, and your values. Stay true to yourself. It's your baby, it's your journey - and that deserves attention from deep down."
What Comes Next: Teaching What I Learned
During that year off, I got clear on something.
I don't want to build another product business. I've done that. I proved I could do it. And while woom bikes continues to thrive (they just wrapped their best year ever with over $180 million in global revenue), that's not my purpose anymore.
My purpose now is helping other entrepreneurs avoid the mistakes I made.
"There's no reason why other people ought to make the same mistakes that I made," I told Henrik. "Now my purpose is to inspire others to become the best version of themselves through coaching and mentoring."
There's no reason another entrepreneur should max out their credit cards if I can teach them alternative financing strategies. There's no reason another CEO should feel isolated if I can create peer communities where they can work ON their business instead of just IN it.
That's why I'm leading Birthing of Giants cohorts here in Austin.
Birthing of Giants is a program specifically designed for business owners in the lower middle market - companies doing $5-50 million in revenue. These are the businesses that have proven product-market fit but are navigating the complexities of scale. They're too big to wing it, but often too small for the resources larger companies have.
The program brings together cohorts of business owners who meet quarterly for a full day. We work through specific curriculum around scaling profitably. We bring in expert speakers. We do strategic planning exercises. We problem-solve together.
But more than the curriculum, it's about the community.
"That CEO, that business owner - most of them are very lonely," I repeated. "Bringing together business owners who face similar challenges is so valuable - you can work ON your business, not just IN it."
When you're in a room with 15 other CEOs who are dealing with similar revenue ranges, similar growth challenges, similar people problems - suddenly you're not alone anymore. Someone else has solved the problem you're facing. Someone else understands the weight of the decision you're making.
It's transformative.
We're kicking off our first Austin cohort at the end of February, and I'm genuinely excited. Not the nervous-excited of launching a new product. The purpose-driven excited of doing work that aligns with my values.
The Lessons I'd Share With Any Entrepreneur
As Henrik and I wrapped up our conversation, I reflected on what I'd tell someone starting their journey today.
On Comparison:
"Don't compare yourself to other entrepreneurs. You are on your own journey, and no journey is the same. Just because I bootstrapped to $20 million doesn't mean you have to do it that way."
Your path is yours. Take what's useful from other people's stories and leave the rest. There is no "right" way to build a business.
On Experimentation:
"My superpower is creativity and problem solving. I try a bunch of stuff, see what works, have good discernment around what ended up working, then double down on that. Don't be afraid to experiment."
You don't need to know the answer on day one. Try things. Measure what works. Be honest about what doesn't. Then bet bigger on what's working.
On Customer Relationships:
"I made my personal cell phone the customer service number. I sent handwritten thank you cards. If I take care of that customer, they not only tell others about us, but they come back and buy more bikes."
Early-stage customer obsession builds brand loyalty that marketing budgets can't buy. Do things that don't scale until you absolutely have to scale them.
On Reality Checks:
"I thought this was going to be easy - best product, great brand, slam dunk. But I sold 13 bikes the first year. It's easy to start something, but it's really hard to create awareness beyond friends and family."
Great products don't sell themselves. Distribution matters. Brand awareness matters. Marketing matters. The work of building a real business is humbling.
On Conviction:
"Every time a parent would put a kid on the bike and go to the park, they would tell others. We were a love brand. I saw the kids' smiles, the parents' smiles. That gave me conviction it would work, even through the hard times."
Find the signal that tells you you're onto something real. For me, it was seeing the genuine joy on kids' faces and the organic word-of-mouth from parents. That conviction carried me through years of struggle.
On Self-Care:
"You can't pour from an empty cup. Any entrepreneur knows it only works if you're all-in, but you also need to know when to reset."
Taking time off isn't weakness. It's wisdom. The business will survive without you for a while. Make sure you survive too.
On Purpose:
"Listen to your inner voice. Be aligned with your purpose, your mission, and your values. Stay true to yourself. It's your baby, it's your journey - and that deserves attention from deep down."
At the end of the day, you're building this business. Make sure it's one that aligns with who you are and what matters to you. Otherwise, what's the point?
The Real Success Metric
As I look back on the journey from 13 bikes to a global brand, I realize the metrics I care about have changed.
Yes, the revenue growth was incredible. Yes, we built something that impacted millions of children. Yes, I proved I could bootstrap a business from nothing.
But the real success? It's that I learned who I am and what I value. I learned that I'm good at creative problem solving. That I care deeply about helping others avoid painful mistakes. That I need to be aligned with my purpose to do my best work.
And now I get to spend my days doing exactly that.
If you're a business owner in Central Texas running a company in the $5-50 million range, and you're tired of being the lonely decision-maker, I'd love to talk. Birthing of Giants might be exactly what you need.
And if you're anywhere in your entrepreneurial journey - whether you're at the "13 bikes" stage or well beyond - I hope something in this story resonates.
Your journey is your own. The struggles are real. The loneliness is real. But so is the possibility of building something meaningful.
Just make sure you're building it in alignment with who you actually are.
Listen to the full conversation:
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
Learn more about Birthing of Giants: birthingofgiants.net
Connect with me: mathias@mathiastx.com
About Mathias
Mathias Ihlenfeld is a proud father of Luca (13) and Sofia (11), loving partner to Doralicia, and an award-winning entrepreneur based in Austin, TX.
He serves as the Austin Cohort Leader and Coach for the Birthing of Giants Regional Cohort, 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, an elite personal optimization framework built specifically 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.
