Tired of managing teams, this founder quit his startup and became a lumberjack

A founder who quit his tech startup and shiftd to the mountains to become a lumberjack states he spent years not viewing 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 shift 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 launched to experience a sense of ennui. He stated that instead of building something meaningful, he launched to feel like he was spfinishing all his time managing teams.

(Also read: 5 high-profile exits: Top CEOs who were ousted overnight)

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Becoming a lumberjack was not simple. Courtnage states 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,” stated the Canadian.

What’s next for Courtnage?

Courtnage states he spent years not viewing at computers, until the AI revolution piqued his interest again.

“Moving out here was a rupture in my lifestyle. I didn’t view 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 becautilize there’s so much that I can accomplish so quick,” he stated.

Courtnage has built a home assistant system powered by sensors and cameras across his property to monitor everything from water tanks to under-houtilize 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.

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Sanya Jain is an Assistant Editor with Hindustan Times Digital. She has nearly a decade of experience in covering offbeat stories that speak to the everyday experience – from viral videos to human interest copies that spark conversation. Her interests stretch across business, pop culture, social media trfinishs, entertainment and global affairs.
Before joining Hindustan Times, Sanya spent two years with Moneycontrol and five years with NDTV. She holds an undergraduate degree in English literature from St Stephen’s College, Delhi, and a master’s in journalism from the Xavier Institute of Communications, Mumbai.
Sanya has a sharp eye for spotting emerging trfinishs and viewing for newsworthy angles to elevate viral posts into meaningful narratives. She was the first one, for example, to cover Narayana Murthy’s remark on 70-hour work weeks that sparked a national conversation.
She is equally at ease writing about business leaders as about the common man, about issues of national importance and memes that amutilize social media. Sanya enjoys speaking with content creators, newsbuildrs and entrepreneurs to transform everyday moments into engaging, slice-of-life stories that resonate with readers.
When she is not working, Sanya can be found curled up with a good book. Born and raised in Lucknow, she has spent the last several years in Delhi. She is deeply interested in animal welfare and now spfinishs a lot of her time running after her destructive orange cat.
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