Still exploring
Sojourner

A life
in progress.

marcoSven Mount Pulag

A German kid who left home at 15 and never stopped exploring. From Brazil to California, Porsches to software, fatherhood to climbing.

Explore
The thread
Some lives follow a straight line.
Mine has been shaped by curiosity, love, adventure, and a search for meaning.
What comes next. What remains the same.

The chapters

01
Growing Up
Germany → São Paulo, Brazil

Learning that the world is bigger.

I grew up in Germany and, just after turning 15, spent a year in São Paulo as a student. I arrived knowing almost nothing about Brazil and without speaking the language, but it did not take long to feel at home. I found a great group of friends, including skaters, musicians, and other young people who seemed to embody the openness and energy of the city. I never felt like an outsider. I felt welcomed into a culture that was vibrant, social, and very different from the one I knew.

I loved the everyday life of being there. The people, the friendships, the food, and the feeling of simply being part of a place. I still remember the churrascarias, the picanha, and bowls of feijoada shared around the table. Some of the friendships I made that year lasted long after I returned to Germany, and I reconnected with several of those friends soon after coming home.

More than anything, São Paulo changed my sense of what was possible. Germany was, and remains, part of my roots, but I began to understand that being connected to where you come from does not mean you have to stay there. I wanted to see other places, meet people from different backgrounds, and build a life that reached beyond what was familiar.

When I was 16, I began working alongside my studies. I wanted to earn my own money and become more independent, but I was also curious about work itself and willing to try different things. I worked at a design firm, waited tables at a café, and later worked in insurance. Each job put me in a different environment and introduced me to different people and ways of working.

Looking back, those years established a pattern that stayed with me: step into something unfamiliar, learn by doing, and see where it leads.

02
Porsches
Germany → California

Machines

I grew up with my father driving various classic sports cars, so it was perhaps inevitable that cars would capture my imagination. It began with Porsches. What started as a fascination with the machines became a fascination with how things work: mechanically, electrically, and in the small details that make something feel beautifully engineered.

Working on them taught me to look closer. Take things apart. Understand the problem. Figure out how to make something work better. That interest eventually led to an offer from Porsche to work in the United States, bringing me to California and opening a completely new chapter of my life.

I appreciated the opportunity and everything I learned along the way, but I always had the feeling it would be a short chapter. As much as I enjoyed the cars, I eventually realized I did not have gasoline in my blood. The deeper fascination was with understanding how things work. That part stayed with me.

03
Sabbatical
Around the world

A year to go somewhere.

After years of working with machines, I stepped away and took a year-long sabbatical to travel around the world. I wanted to slow down, see how other people lived, and follow my curiosity without a particular destination in mind.

I traveled through places including Namibia and Ethiopia, explored unfamiliar landscapes and cultures, and learned to scuba dive in the Red Sea and the Philippines. The year became less about checking places off a map and more about being open to whatever came next.

I returned with a different perspective and a stronger desire to build something of my own, contribute in a more direct way, and make the next chapter count.

04
Sustainable Business
San Francisco Bay Area

Turning an idea into something real.

I returned from that year of travel wanting to make a positive contribution. I founded an innovative refill business in the Bay Area, creating a practical way for people to reduce waste and make more sustainable choices in their everyday lives.

The venture received a Cool California Award from the State of California and was featured on local television and in San Francisco Magazine. But some of the most meaningful parts of the experience had little to do with those milestones. Through the business, I met countless small business owners, including the owners of some of my favorite local restaurants. Several became customers, and some became friends.

Running a neighborhood retail store also gave me a deeper connection to the community around it. I got to know the people who lived and worked nearby, learned the rhythms of the neighborhood, and watched familiar faces become regulars. I enjoyed hearing about people's lives, sharing small moments during their visits, and gradually becoming part of the fabric of the place.

It taught me that building a business is about more than a product or a solution. It is also about people, relationships, and becoming part of something larger than the business itself.

05
Fatherhood
San Francisco Bay Area

A different kind of exploration.

I dedicated five and a half years to being present for my son, from birth until he began kindergarten. During those years, I joined a Waldorf-inspired homeschooling group and made the rhythms of everyday life the center of our days.

Some of my fondest memories come from those ordinary moments. Meals prepared and baked at home with organic, locally grown produce. Naps, long walks, and afternoons outside. Lying in the grass, spending time at the beach, playing in the dirt, and building forest castles from sticks. We crafted, baked, and played alongside the other children in our homeschooling group.

Two or three times a week, when we weren't gathering with our homeschooling friends, we would visit the Academy of Sciences or the Bay Area Discovery Museum. Music filled the house, from classical and soul to jazz. On road trips, hip-hop and electronic filled the car.

Together, we explored the Bay Area, from Golden Gate Park and the Presidio to the forests of Marin and the Pacific coast. Learning happened everywhere: in the kitchen, on the trail, around the dinner table, and in the simple curiosity of a child discovering the world.

06
Technology
San Francisco Bay Area

From engineering to software.

I eventually returned to technology, initially working as a web developer with environmental nonprofits. I had started learning to code while building my sustainable business, teaching myself in my spare time. It was a natural way to combine the technical side of how I thought with my interest in sustainability.

From there, I found my way into startups and the fast-moving world of technology, eventually contributing to one of the world's leading platforms. I became deeply passionate about software engineering and spent more than a decade building my career in the field. I loved solving difficult problems, building things from scratch, learning new technologies, and working alongside smart, talented people. Over time, I moved into technical leadership, including serving as a tech lead, while staying close to the engineering work I enjoyed.

I also came to appreciate the freedom that technology could offer. The ability to work remotely or in a hybrid environment gave me more control over how I worked and helped me create the conditions in which I could do my best thinking. At the same time, I valued working closely with colleagues and teams, often across different locations. The combination of independence, collaboration, and continuous learning suited me well.

In many ways, the work felt familiar. Understand the system. Find the problem. Build a solution. Keep learning. The medium had changed from machines to software, but the instinct was much the same.

07
Sojourner
Around the world

Travel. Climbing. Connection.

Today, I'm traveling and climbing, following curiosity wherever it leads. Climbing has become a way to see new places, meet people, and find community. Every wall presents a different challenge: a problem to understand, a movement to figure out, and a new way to learn.

In some ways, it feels like a return to the beginning. I still want to understand how things work, I still enjoy stepping into unfamiliar places, and I still find the most interesting parts of life in the people I meet along the way.

The connection

Different worlds.
Same curiosity.

Growing up What lies beyond the familiar.
Machines How things work.
Sabbatical How other people live.
Business How things could work better.
Fatherhood How a child sees the world.
Technology What can be built with code.
Travel & People Different places. Different views.
Climbing Reading the wall. Finding the next move.
Continuing

Still curious.
Still creating
Still exploring.

From cars to code, fatherhood to climbing, the pattern remains the same: curiosity, creativity, and the drive to figure things out.