From Ashes to Innovation: How Personal Tragedy and Global Crisis Forged My Entrepreneurial Path

When people talk about the entrepreneurial journey, they often focus on the wins, the funding rounds, or the exit strategies. But for me, entrepreneurship has been a story of resilience—of persevering when everything falls apart, when life itself seems determined to test your limits.

The Beginning: A Telecom Dream

In 2019, I co-founded Telecom Luxembourg International with two friends. We were ambitious, driven, and perhaps a bit naive. We saw an opportunity to disrupt the B2B connectivity space, challenging the established players with innovative solutions and personalized service (https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/telecom-luxembourg-international). Luxembourg was small but strategic—a financial hub with connections across Europe.
The early days were exhilarating. We secured our first clients, built our infrastructure, and began expanding beyond borders. We had complementary skills: I handled sales and strategy, Jérôme managed operations and finance, while Jean-Paul oversaw technical development. We weren't just colleagues; we were friends with a shared vision.
Then came 2020.

When the World Changed

The pandemic hit our business model particularly hard. As an international telecom operator, we relied on global connections, business travel, and new corporate setups. Suddenly, everything froze. Projects were put on hold. Prospective clients disappeared. Our growth trajectory flattened overnight.
But that was just the beginning.
In November 2020, my co-founder Jérôme—my mentor and friend—contracted COVID-19. Within weeks, he was gone.
It's difficult to describe what losing a co-founder feels like. It's not just personal grief; it's watching a vital part of your company's foundation crumble. Jérôme wasn't just brilliant with numbers and operations; he was our emotional anchor. He knew how to navigate complex situations, how to keep morale high during difficult times.
We kept going because we had to—for his family, for our employees, for the vision we had built together. But navigating the legal and operational complexities of succession while processing personal grief was one of the most challenging experiences of my life.
Just as we were finding our footing again, history knocked at our door.

When War Hits Home

February 2022. Russia launches its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. For many, it was shocking news. For me, it was personal—my wife is Ukrainian. We have family there, friends whose lives were suddenly in danger.
I couldn't just sit and watch. I traveled to Ukraine, crossing into a war zone to help evacuate refugees. I remember the border crossings, the exhausted families, the children trying to comprehend why they were leaving their homes.
Back in Luxembourg, I established SLAVA UKRAYINI LUXEMBOURG (slava.lu), an NGO dedicated to supporting Ukrainian refugees. We provided housing, documentation assistance, emotional support—whatever was needed. For these efforts, I was honored with the European Citizen Prize (https://delano.lu/article/slava-ukrayini-received-the-eu), but honestly, I wasn't thinking about recognition. I was thinking about people I knew whose lives had been upended.
All this while trying to keep a struggling telecom business afloat. The mental and emotional toll was immense. Running on adrenaline can only last so long.
Then came another devastating blow.

The Second Loss

Jean-Paul, my remaining co-founder, complained of feeling unwell. Tests revealed cancer—aggressive and already advanced. Within months, he too was gone.
I had now lost both of my co-founders, my partners, my friends.
There comes a point when you have to acknowledge your limits. After Jean-Paul's passing, I made the difficult decision to sell the telecom company (https://delano.lu/article/luxnetwork-takes-over-telecom-). It wasn't just about business anymore; it was about my own survival, my mental health, my capacity to move forward.

Finding a New Path

Seeking something different—something that might let me catch my breath—I acquired a consulting company that placed professionals in financial institutions. It seemed straightforward: recruit qualified consultants, place them with clients, manage relationships. A business model I could handle while processing everything that had happened.
But even in this seemingly routine business, I encountered frustrations that would unexpectedly lead to my next chapter.

The HR Revelation

Anyone who's worked in staffing knows the drill: you wade through hundreds of CVs in inconsistent formats, conduct endless screening calls, coordinate interviews, follow up references—and repeat this cycle constantly. It's tedious, repetitive, and prone to human error.
One day, my Best friend, Philippe—who had been supporting me through these difficult years—moved to my office and watched me manually sorting through this mess. He said something simple that changed everything: "Why don't you automate this?"
That question sparked something. I started by creating basic automation workflows using Make.com. We built a system we called "Sandra" that could screen CVs, identify key qualifications, and even coordinate initial candidate communications.
What began as an internal efficiency tool quickly became more sophisticated. Sandra evolved into an AI-powered assistant that transformed our hiring process, saving hours of manual work and actually improving candidate experiences through consistent, timely communication.

From Necessity to Innovation

As our consulting business stabilized, I faced another challenge: maintaining a consistent social media presence without spending hours creating content. Again, we turned to automation, developing what would eventually become Linkeme—a platform that auto-generates, illustrates, and schedules social media content.
Something interesting happened: my clients became more interested in my automation tools than in my consulting services. They wanted to know how I managed everything so efficiently with such a small team.

That's when the lightbulb moment happened. We weren't just solving our own problems—we were solving universal pain points that businesses everywhere were experiencing.

The Pivot to AI

Philippe made a bold move, quitting his prestigious role as Head of IoT at AWS to join me. Together, we created Easylab AI (easylab.ai), focused on developing AI-powered solutions. SandraHR became a full-fledged product (sandrahr.com).
More importantly, we decided to fully commercialize Linkeme—transforming what began as an internal tool into our flagship product. We saw enormous potential in helping businesses overcome their content creation challenges, just as we had. Linkeme evolved into a comprehensive platform that not only generated and scheduled content but truly understood brand voice and audience engagement.
We embraced prompt-driven development, building and shipping faster than I ever thought possible.

Today, we're exploring agent-based development architectures, pushing the boundaries of what small teams can create with AI augmentation. We're not just using tools; we're building them, evolving them, and sharing them with other entrepreneurs facing similar challenges.

What I've Learned

Looking back on this winding path—from telecom to consulting to AI—I can see now that each challenge, each loss, each pivot contained seeds of what would come next.
Losing Jérôme and Jean-Paul taught me about time's precious nature. The war in Ukraine showed me what really matters and what true urgency feels like. The tedium of manual HR processes revealed opportunities for innovation that I might have otherwise overlooked.
Every entrepreneur talks about persistence, but few discuss what it really means to persist when you're emotionally depleted, when the foundations you've built upon crumble, when global events beyond your control reshape your personal and professional landscape.
True resilience isn't about never falling; it's about finding a way forward even when the path disappears. It's about honoring what's been lost while still creating something new. It's about transforming grief into purpose, challenges into innovation.

To My Fellow Indie Hackers

If you're in the middle of your own storm right now—whether it's a failed product, a dissolved partnership, personal loss, or simply the accumulated weight of trying to build something meaningful—know this: your story isn't over.
Sometimes the most innovative solutions emerge from our darkest chapters. Sometimes the skills we need for our next venture are forged in the crucible of challenges that seem unrelated. Sometimes what feels like an ending is actually a powerful beginning.
Keep building. Keep adapting. But most importantly, keep going.
Because entrepreneurship isn't just about creating successful products or companies—it's about creating a life where purpose and resilience intersect, where each challenge becomes part of a larger story that only you can tell.
My story continues with easylab.ai, Linkeme.ai, and whatever comes next. What about yours?