The JourneyLoop Origin Story

When Friendship Meets Opportunity

Author

Marco Lamina
July 25, 2025

JourneyLoop started with a conversation between two friends—one an executive coach, the other a tech wizard—who imagined a future where technology amplifies human wisdom.

One Conversation Can Change Your Trajectory

Earlier this year, my friend Michael and I were having beers and talking, as we’ve done for years.

He told me how, as a solo executive coach, he hits a ceiling. He wants every client to feel seen—but he never really gets feedback. He shared how he helped a client step into their confidence, then turned to me and asked, “What do you think?”

I told him: It’s brilliant.

To most, he’s the coach behind leaders at Netflix, Airbnb, and Duolingo. But to me, he’s my martial arts buddy. For ten years, we’ve trained together at Quantum Martial Arts in San Francisco’s Mission District. I’ve seen him teach white belts to kick, red belts to break concrete—and every belt in between how to lead.

More than that, I’ve seen how he never stops asking, “What can I do better?”

That night, I saw a problem behind his story: coaches like Michael give everything to their clients, but they often fly blind. No real feedback. No way to scale without sacrificing depth. No tools that actually serve the relationship. And I said: Maybe I can help with that.

After nine years in big tech, I was done with soul-numbing meetings and quarterly goals. This felt like something real.

Building From the Inside Out

Michael had a system: coach well, network hard, earn referrals. But behind the scenes, he was buried in admin—sending long recap emails, trying to track insights, manually connecting dots.

And the tools out there? They missed the point. They promised automation. But coaching doesn’t need automation. It needs amplification.

When you’re teaching someone to break cement with a knife-hand strike, you don’t scale. You slow down. You connect.

Coaching Tech, Reimagined

JourneyLoop wasn’t born as a business plan. It was a gift between friends. I brought the engineering chops. Michael brought the coaching mind. And we both brought a decade of trust.

Every feature had to answer two questions:

  • Does this make coaching more human?

  • Can we make it simpler?

If the answer wasn’t a clear hell yes, we scrapped it.

We weren’t building a productivity tool. We were building a mirror for insight. A spotlight for patterns. A quiet partner that helps coaches do what they do best—transform lives.

And that’s just the coaching side.

For clients, JourneyLoop offers clarity too. Insights that stick. Patterns they can see. Because sometimes, one conversation really can change everything. More on that in my next blog.

Why This Matters

I’ve seen great coaching. I’ve seen Michael change lives. And I’ve seen what gets in the way.

JourneyLoop wasn’t built from market research. It was built from the ground up: testing, reviewing, and learning. From the coaching seat, not the business lead.

That’s the origin story: friendship meets opportunity. Trust enables innovation. And tech finally serves the most human of all professions.

JourneyLoop is an AI-powered coaching platform that amplifies coaching intuition with session capture, client portals, and coaching dashboards. Built by engineers who understand coaching from the inside.

Visit journeyloop.ai or reach out—I’d love to hear about your coaching practice.