Still exploring
Sojourner

A life
in progress.

marcoSven Mount Pulag

At fifteen, I left Germany for a year in Brazil.
Porsches to software. Fatherhood to climbing.
One chapter unfolding into what comes next.

Follow the thread
The thread
Some lives follow a straight line.
Mine has taken a few turns.
Shaped by curiosity, love and adventure.
What comes next. What remains the same.

The chapters

01
Growing Up
Germany → São Paulo, Brazil

Learning that the world is bigger.

My mother shaped one of the earliest ways I learned to see the world. Some of my earliest memories are rooted in the rhythms of everyday life: cooking meals at home, visiting farmers’ markets, crafting, and making things by hand.

She would take the simple ingredients we brought home and turn them into something delicious. There was something very tangible about that way of living. Knowing where things came from. Making things yourself. Taking the time to turn them into something to share.

One of my chores was to visit a local farmer each week to buy fresh milk. We had a milk can that I would bring along and refill. I was fascinated by the cows, but I was just as fascinated by the machinery around them. The pumps, the pipes, and the way the milk moved through the system into the bottling station. The farmer would fill my milk can and always give me an extra cup of milk, still warm from the cows.

I loved the whole process. Seeing the animals. Watching the machinery at work. Understanding how something as familiar as milk made its way from the farm to our home.

Looking back, I think those experiences gave me a deep appreciation for the simple, physical side of life. Knowing where things come from. Reusing what you already have. Making things yourself. Paying attention to the process.

My grandfather shaped another side of that curiosity. I loved spending time with him, listening to classical music and having long conversations about philosophy and religion. He was also something of a tutor to me. We studied chemistry and biology together, translated Latin texts, and talked about philosophy, religion, and how the natural world worked.

Those conversations opened up a world of questions: how nature worked, why people believed what they believed, and how ideas could lead somewhere completely unexpected.

Then, just after turning 15, I left Germany for a year in São Paulo as a student. I arrived knowing almost nothing about Brazil and without speaking the language. It didn't take long to feel at home. I found 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 loved the everyday life of being there: the friendships, the food, the feeling of simply belonging somewhere. I still remember churrascarias, picanha, and bowls of feijoada shared around the table. Some of the friendships I made that year stayed with me long after I returned to Germany.

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 where you come from doesn't have to define where you go.

At 16, I started working alongside school. I worked at a design firm, waited tables at a café, and later worked in insurance. I liked being in different environments, meeting different people, and seeing how different kinds of work were done.

Looking back, those years taught me to step outside the familiar and learn by doing.

02
Porsches
Germany → California

Machines

My father owned a specialist classic sports-car business, so cars were part of my world from an early age.

I grew up around historic racing events, seeing what happened behind the scenes and occasionally getting out on the track myself. I saw the preparation, the mechanics, the noise, the obsession with details. But what I remember most is having something to share with my father.

It began with Porsches.

What started as a fascination with the machines became an interest in what was beneath them: mechanical systems, electrical systems, and the small details that made something feel beautifully engineered.

Working on them taught me to look closer. Take things apart. Understand the problem. Make something work better.

That 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 didn't have gasoline in my blood.

What stayed with me was the fascination with the systems themselves.

03
Sabbatical
Around the world

A year to go somewhere.

After years of working with machines, I felt ready for a change.

My partner and I were both at points of transition, and together we realized it was a good moment to step away from our respective paths and give ourselves a year to see what might come next.

So we left.

We had no grand plan for what the year was supposed to accomplish. We wanted to see how other people lived and give ourselves enough space to let the next chapter emerge.

We traveled through North and East Africa and down into southern Africa. We took a camel tour through the Sahara, explored the ancient churches of Lalibela, hiked the Simien Mountains near Gondar, and went white-water rafting near Victoria Falls.

In Namibia, we rented a little VW Golf and drove through Etosha National Park, Swakopmund, the Skeleton Coast, the red desert, and the abandoned diamond-mining town of Kolmanskop. We were surprised by how much German history and culture we encountered along the way. Seeing familiar architecture, names, and traditions so far from home was an unexpected connection to my own background.

We didn't have smartphones to tell us where to go. We had guidebooks, maps, recommendations from people we met, and whatever looked interesting down the road. Sometimes we stayed in a lodge. Sometimes we camped.

In Egypt, we met people along the way and ended up renting a boat together to sail down the Nile. I loved the food and culture of Cairo, just as I loved the very different landscapes and rhythms we encountered elsewhere.

The simplicity of it was liberating. We weren't collecting destinations. We were simply living somewhere new every day.

Some places felt almost like stepping into another era. In Ethiopia and Namibia, I encountered landscapes, histories, and ways of life that felt very far from the world I knew. At times, it felt almost like time travel.

Somewhere along the way, I discovered scuba diving. I'd always loved freediving, but scuba opened up another world. I became fascinated by the stillness underwater and the strange combination of calm, concentration, and control it required. I became obsessed for a while, got certified, and was grateful for it when we later traveled through the Philippines.

The year also introduced me to people who would influence what came next. Through someone I met while traveling, I was introduced to web development.

At the time, it seemed like a small encounter. It wasn't.

We returned without a detailed plan. But the year had changed something. Seeing how differently people lived made the world feel both larger and more connected.

I came home knowing less about what I wanted to do, and more willing to find out.

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.

Together with my partner at the time, 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 the awards weren't what stayed with me.

Running a neighborhood business meant meeting people every day: small business owners, neighbors, regulars, and people who came in for a refill and eventually became friends. I especially enjoyed getting to know other local business owners, including the owners of some of my favorite restaurants, several of whom became customers.

I liked becoming part of the fabric of a place, learning its rhythms, getting to know the people around it, and watching familiar faces become part of everyday life.

The experience taught me that building something isn't only about the thing you're building. It's about people, relationships, and becoming part of something larger than yourself.

05
Fatherhood
San Francisco Bay Area

A different kind of exploration.

When our son was born, life became much smaller—and much bigger.

I dedicated five and a half years to being present for him, 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 favorite memories are almost impossibly ordinary.

Meals prepared and baked at home. Naps. Long walks. Afternoons outside. Lying in the grass. Time at the beach. Playing in the dirt. Building forest castles from sticks.

We crafted, baked, played, and spent time alongside the other children in our homeschooling group.

A few times a week, we'd visit the Academy of Sciences or the Bay Area Discovery Museum. Music filled the house, from classical and soul to jazz. On road trips, it was hip-hop and electronic.

We explored the Bay Area together, 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.

I had spent much of my life looking for the next thing. Fatherhood taught me to pay attention to the thing that was already happening.

06
Technology
San Francisco Bay Area

From engineering to software.

Eventually, I returned to technology.

I had started teaching myself to code while building my sustainable business. At first, I worked as a web developer with environmental nonprofits. It felt like a natural combination of the technical side of how I thought and 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 spent more than a decade in software engineering.

I loved the work: difficult problems, things built from scratch, new technologies, and smart people who were constantly teaching me something. Over time, I moved into technical leadership while staying close to the engineering itself.

In many ways, it 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

Still moving.

Today, I'm traveling and climbing, moving through new places and communities.

I started climbing partly because I wanted something I could enjoy and practice with my son as he grew older. What began as something we could share became something I came to appreciate in its own right.

Climbing has become a way to see the world differently. It takes me to places I might not otherwise go, puts me among people I might never have met, and gives me a shared language wherever I arrive.

Every wall presents a different problem. Read it. Find the line. Make the next move.

In that sense, climbing feels strangely familiar. It asks for attention, patience, and a willingness to keep moving when the answer isn't obvious.

In some ways, it feels less like starting over and more like continuing.

The connection

Different questions.
Same instinct.

Growing up What lies beyond the familiar.
Machines How things work.
Sabbatical How other people live.
Business How things could be different.
Fatherhood How a child sees the world.
Technology What can be built.
Travel & People How differently we see the world.
Climbing Read the wall. Find the next move.
Continuing

The story
continues.

There are still places to go,
people to meet, things to make,
questions to ask, moments to notice.

marcoSven climbing