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KMAU
Kyle in a colorful Hawaiian shirt, overlooking the river in Budapest

I'm on a mission to help 100,000 people build a business that survives anything.

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Here's how I got here.

Budapest, along the way.

Here’s how I
can help.

Need to hire someone? Looking for your next job? I work on both sides of hiring.

HireUA

For business owners

Get the right people
on your team.

Tell us who you need. HireUA finds, screens, and introduces you to remote talent.

Hire remote talent
Unfair Careers

For job seekers

Land your
next job.

Interview advice and job-search help from the other side of the hiring table.

Get help getting hired

A few words from clients

Working with me.

“I think Kyle is an awesome mentor and a friend and he just has the ability to really understand my business from the inside and out… I just really needed someone who could go very in depth, take a really deep dive into our operations… and he just was awesome at that.”

Zach Scheiffer Founder, ZHS Ecom

“Kyle in particular, he works with so many different B2B businesses that he really has a lot of great context and he already comes in knowing my team structure… So I think Kyle absolutely crushed it and yeah, can’t recommend him enough.”

Name to be confirmed

“Time is money. If I can have Kyle and his team just get me the result ASAP, I can kind of cut the line, and it saves me a ton of time and resources.”

Zach Scheiffer Founder, ZHS Ecom
CaliforniaAge 14
An archival portrait of Kyle at age 14
Me at 14.
One year laterAge 15
An archival photograph of Kyle at age 15 outdoors beside the water
Me at 15.

California Ages 14–15

I was 14 years old, I was 220 lbs., and I had a World of Warcraft addiction.

I lost 80 pounds in 8 months. Around the same time, I started selling websites to friends and neighbors.

My first business made about $8,000 over a few years.

Then came the day job

California Before 2016

I Wanted Income That Didn’t Come From My Job.

I was an engineer in California, earning six figures. I wanted to build a passive income stream, so I started a dating blog on evenings and weekends.

I published a post every day for a year. At its peak, the blog reached more than 1 million organic readers a year.

The original This Is Trouble homepage, showing its original logo and photographs of Kyle before and after his weight loss
This Is TroubleThe original homepage of my dating blog.
1M+organic readers a year
at its peak

California → Europe 2016

I Quit a 6-Figure Job at 24 and Bought a 1-Way Ticket to Eastern Europe.

When I left California, the blog was making about $500 a month.

My first stop was Krakow. I visited Kyiv, then settled in Prague.

  1. 01
    KrakowThe first stop
  2. 02
    KyivA visit
  3. 03
    PragueSettled · 2017
Boarding passOne way
FromCalifornia
ToEastern
Europe
Passenger
Kyle Mau
Departure
2016
Ticket
One way

Prague 2017–2018

From $500 to $1,500 a Month.

My first year abroad, I got the blog to around $1,500 a month. I even hit about $3,000.

In Prague, I built my own desk and turned a closet into an office. That’s where I ran the blog.

Building the desk
Kyle sitting beside flat-pack furniture packaging while setting up his first office in Prague
Me, building the desk.
Before
A narrow unfinished room with an ironing board and exposed plaster, before it became Kyle's office
The shithole closet.
After
A desk, laptop, monitor, and chair fitted into the small room to make a working office
Where I ran the blog.

Prague The business grows

$5,000 a Month.
Then a Few $10,000 Months.

The next year, the business was consistently above $5,000 a month. A few months passed $10,000.

We moved to a nicer place in Prague. I got a view of the square and an office that wasn’t a closet.

Kyle's brighter Prague office with a desk, microphone, whiteboard, and blue curtains beside a large window
The next office.
A view from Kyle's Prague office over a leafy square, surrounding buildings, a church clock, and the television tower
And this was the view.
Prague · 2017–2018

I moved to Kyiv in 2018.

2018KYIV, UKRAINE

I Moved Back to Kyiv.

We moved back to Ukraine in 2018.

Over the next few years, we got engaged, got Hulk the Corgi, and bought apartments in Kyiv.

Kyle on a boat on the river in Kyiv, with the city and evening sun behind him
Back in Kyiv.
Kyle and Maryna smiling and holding hands as they walk through a hall
Maryna and me.

Making a home in Kyiv

We got married and, by early 2022, we were expecting our first child.

Kyle standing at the apartment development he bought into in Kyiv
At the development we bought into.
Apartment towers taking shape beneath a bright blue sky in Kyiv
The apartments.
Hulk the Corgi sitting outside the apartment development in Kyiv
Hulk, coming along with us.

2018SELO OLIVE

I Co-founded an Olive Oil Company.

In 2018, I co-founded Selo Olive. We sold extra virgin olive oil from a family farm in Croatia.

Olive trees in the family grove in Croatia at sunset
The family olive grove in Croatia.

01 · THE FIRST BATCH

The First 1,000 Bottles Were Bottled in a Garage.

A bulk olive oil tank in a garage beside a worktop of glass bottles being filled through a funnel
This was the bottling operation.
An early Selo Oils bottle with the original Croatian crest label and wooden stopper
One of our early bottles.

02 · THE WEBINAR

We Think We Ran the World’s First Olive Oil Webinar.

A camera, laptop, and early Selo bottles arranged on a kitchen counter for the olive oil webinar
Our webinar setup.
The Selo Oils Experience promotional graphic announcing January 23rd, 2019
The Selo Oils Experience · January 23, 2019.

I later exited the business.

2021KYIV, UKRAINE

In 2021, I Started ExecVA in Kyiv.

We helped business owners hire remote staff.

Kyiv → Poland 24 February 2022

We Left Ukraine With One Bag.

My wife shook me awake when the air-raid sirens started. She was pregnant. We left with Hulk and one bag.

Leaving Ukraine.
Maryna and Hulk while leaving Ukraine
Maryna and Hulk.

60hours to cross
into Poland.

A long queue of people with luggage waiting near buses at the border
Waiting to cross.

Back to California 2022–2023

Back to California.

We headed back to California to be near family for the birth of our first child.

Hulk was exhausted when we got to the hotel. Then we took a train to Amsterdam and waited there a few days before our flight home.

Hulk asleep on the hotel floor with his head tucked under the bed
Hulk was exhausted.
Travelers riding an escalator beneath the clock in a railway station
On the way to Amsterdam.
Hulk looking through a hotel window over the water and buildings in Amsterdam
A few days in Amsterdam.
Hulk sitting upright in the aircraft cabin on the flight home to California
Finally, the flight home.

Our daughter was born in 2022.

Kyle with his mom, Janelle, at his wedding
My mom, Janelle, at my wedding.

Weeks after we arrived, my mom was diagnosed with cancer.

She passed away in June 2023.

After the invasion · 2022

ExecVA Became HireUA.

After the war began, I split from my partner and rebranded the company as HireUA.

The original Executive VA logo
2021 · KyivFounded as ExecVA
HireUA
2022 · After the invasionRebranded as HireUA

Poland 2023–2026

Back to Poland. Growing HireUA.

I moved back to Poland in 2023 and continued growing HireUA.

Through HireUA, I help business owners find the right people for their teams. Through Unfair Careers, I help people find their next job.

Historic buildings around a square in Poland at sunset
Back in Poland.
Members of the HireUA team sharing a meal around a restaurant table
A team dinner.
Members of the HireUA team together at an indoor gathering
The HireUA team.
The HireUA team at an evening gathering overlooking the city
Time together outside work.
Kyle overlooking the river and Parliament in Budapest
Photographed in Budapest.

Today

The Mission Today.

I’m on a mission to help 100,000 people build a business that survives anything.

Read my essays

Writing

Selected Writing.

Essays, daily emails, and what I’m working on.

The Essays The Daily Email

Essays, daily emails, and notes on building a business.

On YouTube

Latest Videos.

Visit The Channel

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