Catalyst88
Founder profile

Meet Steve.

Steve Simonson is an executive coach for ecommerce founders — a lifetime entrepreneur with three decades founding, purchasing, building, and selling numerous companies across retail, ecommerce, and logistics. Based in Austin, TX. Operator. Mentor. Investor. Podcaster. Survivor.

  • 30+ years · multiple exits
  • 20,000+ founders mentored
  • Austin, TX
Steve Simonson — executive coach for ecommerce founders and serial entrepreneur

Steve Simonson is an executive coach for ecommerce founders — a lifetime entrepreneur with three decades founding, purchasing, building, and selling numerous companies across retail, ecommerce, and logistics. Based in Austin, TX. Operator. Mentor. Investor. Podcaster. Survivor.

Ask MyMentorSteve (free) · YouTube · Awesomers Podcast

Three decades, many companies.

Over the past few decades Steve has founded, scaled, and exited multiple companies, built global supply chains, led international teams, and created scalable systems across retail, ecommerce, and logistics.

His businesses have generated hundreds and hundreds of millions in revenue and earned wide recognition for operational excellence. He is the founder of SymoGlobal, Parsimony, Awesomers, MyMentorSteve, and Catalyst88, and an active mentor to thousands of operators worldwide.

Perhaps more importantly, Steve believes entrepreneurs succeed faster when they share knowledge openly. That belief led to Catalyst88 and the Chairman's Circle — because building a business should never require reinventing every wheel yourself. The argument is in why founders need a mentor.

The public growth system he runs with founders is the 50/50 10/10 2/2 Challenge — a New Year's resolution alternative built on six numbered commitments and a community scoreboard, not private goals that die by February.

Strengths-Based Leadership

Steve does not ask founders to be well-rounded. He asks them to know their top five, invest there, and hire the rest — the same Strengths-Based Leadership for founders he walked on Awesomers EP 18.

A founder's timeline

  • 1990s — First companies, first exits. Steve founds and sells multiple companies. Learns the hard way that hustle without systems is a ceiling, not a strategy.
  • 2000s — Global supply chains. SymoGlobal emerges — sourcing, manufacturing, and logistics across Asia, Europe, and the Americas. A million-dollar sales day lands.
  • 2010s — Operator's software. Parsimony ERP is born inside real operating companies — built to run actual businesses, not to win demos.
  • 2015 — Catalyst88 is founded. A private community for founders who want to move from owning a job to owning a scalable business.
  • 2020s — Awesomers + MyMentorSteve. A podcast network reaches hundreds of founders. MyMentorSteve, a free AI mentor, grows past 20,000 users in 69 languages.
  • Today — Chairman's Circle + AI Blueprint. Private CEO coaching for serious operators. A cohort-based AI execution engine for founders who want to deploy, not bookmark.

If you're ready to sit at the table — the Circle is open. Join Chairman's Circle