A founder who quit his tech startup and moved to the mountains to become a lumberjack says he spent years not looking at a computer — until AI brought him back to the world of tech.
Ryan Courtnage is the 51-year-old Canadian co-founder of the donation-management platform Benevity. In 2020, he exited the company and bought 22 acres of land in the mountains.
Today, Courtnage is based in Creston, British Columbia, from where he spoke to Business Insider about his move from tech to the world of diesel engines and hydraulics.
Why founder quit his startup
After years of working in tech and building Benevity, Courtnage began to experience a sense of ennui. He said that instead of building something meaningful, he began to feel like he was spending all his time managing teams.
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“My cofounders and I built something from scratch that continues to make a positive change in the world. I wouldn't trade that experience for anything. Still, I didn't feel like I was building anymore.
{{/usCountry}}“My cofounders and I built something from scratch that continues to make a positive change in the world. I wouldn't trade that experience for anything. Still, I didn't feel like I was building anymore.
{{/usCountry}}“Eventually, being a founder gets to a point where all of your time is spent managing teams, which I found very tiring. I'm an introvert,” said Courtnage.
Moving to the mountains
After leaving Benevity, Courtnage wanted to do something different. “When I exited my last endeavor in 2020, I purchased a large piece of land out in the mountains. It's 22 acres,” he told Business Insider.
“That's when I was like: I'm kind of done with this. I need to do something different. I'm just going to get my hands greasy and go be a lumberjack for a while, which is what I did.”
Becoming a lumberjack was not easy. Courtnage says he had to learn about diesel engines and hydraulics, and how to properly fell a tree, and how to handle heavy equipment. But the work was very rewarding for someone who had spent years sitting in front of screens.
“It's really rewarding, hands-on work that is completely different from what I spent my career doing, which was sitting in a chair behind a monitor,” said the Canadian.
What’s next for Courtnage?
Courtnage says he spent years not looking at computers, until the AI revolution piqued his interest again.
“Moving out here was a rupture in my lifestyle. I didn't look at a computer screen for probably a couple of years. It wasn't really until ChatGPT came out that I really started paying attention again,” he revealed.
With AI coding, he rediscovered his love for building. “Now, the wheels are constantly turning because there's so much that I can accomplish so fast,” he said.
Courtnage has built a home assistant system powered by sensors and cameras across his property to monitor everything from water tanks to under-house temperatures. At its core is an AI setup, running from a laptop in his crawl space, which he has given a personality — one that “lives” there — and can flag anomalies or alert him if someone enters his land.