This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Luke Barwikowski, founder and CEO of Pixels. It has been edited for length and clarity.
I was raised in a very stereotypical Michigan family. My dad worked for a steel company, and my mom worked for a church. I’m hugely grateful for my childhood and my wonderful parents, but I knew that life wasn’t for me.
I started coding when I was 12. I didn’t tell anyone because I was embarrassed. Back then, coding wasn’t cool; it was weird. Plus, no one in my town knew anything about the tech world.
I studied computer science in college and thought I’d get a job as a software engineer. At the same time, I developed a passion for the outdoors after seeing the amazing places people were rock climbing on YouTube.
I felt torn, unsure whether to build my life around tech or pursue an outdoor career.
I left a good job to travel, and my family couldn’t understand
While I was still in college, a company offered me a fully remote job that paid $130,000. That was more than my parents made, and I was only 19. Still, I turned them down. I’m glad I did, because I needed my time at the University of Michigan to mature.
After college, I took what my family would consider to be a good job. It didn’t last long. I decided to start my own company. I thought I could work hard for a year and make enough money to travel.
Courtesy of Luke Barwikowski
I saved about $30,000 that year. It wasn’t a ton, but it was enough to get me to New Zealand. My family thought I was nuts. No one travelled far, and risk-taking wasn’t celebrated. They were worried about me and couldn’t understand why I’d left a good job behind.
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Fellow travelers didn’t get why I was working so hard
I was in New Zealand when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. I spent two months in a cabin by myself with no internet. I was almost constantly in a state of flow, and during that time, I invented the product that would become Pixels. I would work on it offline, then drive 30 minutes to access the internet to push my code.
As the world began to open up, I continued to travel. I sailed from New Zealand to Fiji on a sailboat with a broken bilge pump. The owners couldn’t afford to fix the pump, so each night I would crawl into the hull and sponge up water. After that, I worked on Pixels until the early hours of the morning.
Courtesy of Luke Barwikowski
None of the backpackers I was traveling with could understand why I was spending so much time on my computer. I figured I could build the business in a city apartment or from a sailboat and a tent in Kenya. I chose the adventure, and was willing to take some judgment from my fellow travelers.
I secluded myself again to figure out the problems with the company
Over the next few years, Pixels began to receive more attention from accelerators and investors. This was validating to me as a founder, and also really important. I didn’t have any entrepreneur mentors until then.
Still, there were plenty of low points. In 2021, I was convinced the company was going to fail — so convinced that I took a job farming potatoes in Idaho. During the drive, I was accepted into a Bay Area accelerator. By the end of the accelerator, I still hadn’t solved the problems, so I rented a cabin for a month by myself and set to work.
When I came out, I had Pixels as it exists today. The company gained traction like never before and experienced rapid growth. Last year, we did $20 million in revenue.
I sail and camp while running my company
Early on, I gave up a lot of my freedom to start the business. That left me feeling burned out.
After talking with one of my investors, I realized that I can be a CEO and also live a semi-nomadic lifestyle. Even as a founder, there are numerous inefficiencies in the day. I was doing busy work because I was anxious about the company.
Today, I’m in the Utah desert, camping in my van. Here, I have no distractions. I can really focus on work, and thanks to technology, I have a great internet connection anywhere. I can run my company and explore.
When I attended the Bay Area accelerator, the other founders were talking about how much money they needed to retire. They were naming millions, but I just wanted $100,000 to buy a sailboat.
I recently bought my boat for about that amount. Sailing and camping make me a better CEO. This lifestyle keeps me in the best possible mental state, allowing me to produce high-quality work.
