Access Point: October 2025

Access Mentor Andrew Brümmer is a fractional CEO and business advisor known for helping business executives uncover hidden efficiencies and build autonomous, high-performing cultures. His coaching empowers leaders to build teams they can trust, make clear decisions, and find a balance between work, family, and personal life. 

In this interview with Access, Andrew shares candid reflections and practical advice, revealing how effective mentorship extends far beyond the business space.  

How did you first get started in mentorship and advisory work? 

I got started in mentorship really as a way to find myself, honestly. I was at this life pivot point where I knew there were some changes I needed to make in my life. Before I arrived in the USA and got bound into the servitude of the H1B visa, I was very involved in church related volunteer work back in South Africa. In 2018, I got my citizenship and was involved in the startup LifeQ, which saw me through to September 2025.

In March of 2024 my close friend and CEO told me there was a great probability that we were going to close the startup. At 53, with no Atlanta network, no degree, facing ageism, I was literally like, “Oh crap, what am I going to do?” I immediately got involved in volunteering because it was just a default for me. It’s who I am. I quickly started building a brand as someone who was unconditionally here to help other people. I soon found out that I was actually gifted for this as a human being, and my skills and experiences both professionally and personally had placed me in the perfect position to help people.

I doubled down on platforms like PushFar and ADPList. I then started attending Atlanta Tech Village pitch events with the goal to find startups and founders I could help. That’s where I met a phenomenal human, Paul Miller at QWRBQL, who was selected into the Access Foundation’s Founders program. Through coaching Paul, I met Rattan, Paul, and Eric – all involved with TiE Atlanta and Access Foundation. The result was nothing more than a tornado experience – it just took off! It turned out that I am an absolutely fantastic resource for founders to help them put their feet down firmly on planet startup. I developed strong relationships with Eric and Paul, and from there, I’ve had the privilege of being involved in many startups. It’s been quite a journey!

What do you find most rewarding about working with small-business founders?

I find I am most impactful with people who genuinely want to change, find a new way, a different approach, or a better tomorrow. It turns out, my very wide business experience across different job titles, functions, countries, and business verticals has placed me in a phenomenally valuable position to be able to impact founders in meaningful ways. What I didn’t expect was how much my personal life challenges have megaphoned this ability. My life mantra is “Plant seeds that will grow trees that I will never sit under,” and this really drives how I approach mentorship.

The most rewarding part for me is watching a founder transcend from the “this is a cool title” stage to that moment where they genuinely get it – where you can see in their eyes that they truly understand what it means to be a founder. When a founder goes from being stuck or uncertain to having clarity and conviction about their path forward – that’s when you know you’ve made a real impact. My reward is observing their success and knowing I played a small part in helping them get there. It’s not about me getting credit or recognition. It’s about seeing them succeed and knowing that the seed we planted together is growing into something meaningful for them and their business.

Mentorship often flows both ways. How do you see mentors learning from founders, too?

It absolutely does flow both ways, and I think that’s one of the most beautiful parts of mentorship. I mentor globally, working with founders from Iraq, Botswana, Rwanda, Nigeria, Australia, India, Canada, Venezuela, the UK, and many other countries. Each founder brings their own cultural perspective, their own way of seeing the world, and their own approach to problem solving. This has helped me remain current on cultures, different worldviews, genres, technology trends, leadership styles, and generational challenges. 

I remain open minded and value-focused as a result of these interactions. Every conversation, every challenge they share, every success they achieve teaches me something new about resilience, innovation, and what it means to build something from nothing. The reality is, I probably learn just as much from them as they learn from me. Maybe even more. These founders remind me why I do this work, they challenge my assumptions, they show me new ways of thinking, and they constantly push me to be better at what I do. It’s not just about me imparting wisdom. It’s about us growing together.

Building a strong network early in a founder’s journey is critical. How do you advise early-stage founders to lay the foundation for ongoing peer learning and community building?

Growing a network, being socially aware, and being genuinely engaged is an incredibly deep and purposeful topic for me. I actually wrote an entire book called “You Decide: Supercharge Your Networking Starting with LinkedIn” around this very topic because I saw so many founders struggling with it. It is beyond critical that we ensure we are surrounded with people who can impact us and help one another in the delivery and extension of human value. 

My advice to early-stage founders is to start building their network intentionally from day one, not when they need something. I always tell professionals, executives, and founders to start with LinkedIn because it’s the most powerful professional platform we have, but you have to use it strategically. This means having a compelling profile that actually tells your story, being active in relevant conversations, sharing your journey authentically.

Beyond LinkedIn, I encourage founders to get involved in their local startup community. Attend pitch events, join founder groups, participate in accelerator programs if you can, and don’t be afraid to reach out to other founders who are slightly ahead of you in their journey. Some of the most valuable relationships I’ve seen founders build are with peers who are facing similar challenges at similar stages.

The foundation of ongoing peer learning and community building really comes down to three things: authenticity, consistency, and reciprocity. Remember, your network is one of the few assets that actually appreciates over time if you nurture it properly. Start early, be intentional, and focus on building relationships, not just connections. That’s the foundation that will serve you throughout your entire founder journey.

What’s your best advice for early-stage founders to avoid getting caught up in day-to-day operations and stay focused on long-term growth? 

I don’t have a single answer for this. There are actually three critical components that I think every early-stage founder needs to understand and implement.

My best advice is this: anything you do, and I mean anything, from the moment you wake up through the moment you go to sleep, should be focused on making new money for the company. EVERYTHING. If you are not working to generate new revenue, acquire new customers, or create new opportunities for growth, you are working in the rear-view mirror. You’re managing yesterday instead of building tomorrow. Every single thing you do must be focused on creating new money and new value. Everything else should be delegated, automated, or eliminated.

Second critical thing: hire smartly, strategically, and exit people quickly when it’s not working. Your most costly activity as a founder is the loss of time, and bad hires or misaligned team members will cost you months or even years that you can never recover. You cannot get time back; it’s the one resource you can’t buy more of.

Third critical component, and this is where a lot of founders get stuck in a fantasy: getting investor money is hard and very, very rare. In Atlanta specifically, it is INCREDIBLY improbable that you will attract meaningful investor funding if you are not already generating at least 500k in ARR and showing strong growth metrics. You should focus your financial strategy on being self-funded first, then friends and family funding, all while working to get to an MVP purchasable product as quickly as possible. Get something in the market that people will actually pay for, even if it’s not perfect. Revenue solves a lot of problems and opens a lot of doors. If you can’t get to revenue quickly through self-funding or friends and family, then you need to start looking for funding outside of Atlanta as soon as you’re able – places like Silicon Valley, New York, or even international markets where there’s more appetite for early-stage risk.

The bottom line is this: stay focused on revenue generation, build a team that executes (not just talks), and be realistic about your funding strategy. Those three things will keep you from getting buried in operations and help you maintain focus on long-term growth.

Much of your work is helping founders “get their life back.” How do you keep your life balanced? 

We are not here to just work and grind ourselves into the ground. We all need to make sure that life extends far beyond the office, beyond the startup, beyond the hustle. This means investing deeply in family and hobbies. At the end of days, no matter what you achieve in life, no matter how successful your company becomes or how much money you make, the only people that truly matter are family and the relationships you’ve built. Stay close and true to them.

Your hobbies are equally important because they help you retain your identity – that place you go where you are yourself, for yourself, by yourself. It’s the thing that’s just yours, not connected to your company or your responsibilities. 

My absolute passion and love is the Christmas lights. Our house has become a national destination and a place of tradition for people from across the USA who come to the area during the holidays to spend time with their families and enjoy what we’ve created. We have 35,000 lights synchronized to over 220 songs, and our cul-de-sac has become this magical gathering place where we’ve had upwards of 40 children and parents dancing in the street with us on any given night. All of them started as complete strangers, and many of them have become regular patrons who come back year after year, a beautiful community tradition that brings families and people together.

My words to anyone reading this: make life meaningful to others in every way you can. Invest in your hobbies, not just as an escape from work, but as a way to express who you are and bring value to the world in different ways. What you get back from living a balanced, rounded life is absolutely priceless. The memories, the relationships, the experiences – those are the things that truly matter at the end of the day, not how many hours you worked or how many emails you answered.

Take a look at some of Andrew’s work at Ardunan.com/andrew/hobbies.