I founded Max Impact, a coaching practice for high-performing entrepreneurs, executives, and creatives who believe outer impact is a reflection of their inner world.

I’ve secured funding from Peter Thiel, train gymnastics as an adult, and build community—anything from Burning Man theme camps to Based in Austin.

You can book a [discovery session.](https://calendly.com/maxim-efremov/gifted-sessions)

A Life Story in Five Chapters.

Chapter 1: First 20 years - Russians in West Baltimore

I was born in Baltimore to a 5th-generation Irish Catholic mother and fresh-off-the-boat Russian father. My sister and I were raised in inner-city Baltimore, spending summers in post-Soviet Moscow. The ’90s were a Wild West of multiculturalism. Childhood was marked by fun-lovingness, my father’s alcoholism, and a latchkey freedom to roam, explore, and adapt, especially with people. Connecting with others virtually exploded once I got online in middle and high school and started meeting up with internet friends I met on forums or Reddit. That later turned into meeting my heroes—Scott Alexander, Tyler Cowen, and eventually Elon Musk.

Chapter 2: College, dropping out, and getting my hands dirty

I went to a state college, got straight As, but dropped out amidst disillusionment with my lack of purpose. I decided to get out of Baltimore and took a tour of national public service, spending my early and mid-twenties getting my hands dirty in a variety of ways—as a team leader in AmeriCorps (a “domestic Peace Corps”) to twelve 18-24-year-olds, responding to natural disasters, building hiking trails, traveling the country. These were formative years which gave me a strong sense that bone-deep meaning comes from service, not success. I went back to college at the riper age of 25 for a degree in economics. I picked up gymnastics at this point and started training four hours, five days a week, for nearly five years, and loved every minute of it.

Chapter 3: Twitter catapults my life, a visit to Austin

While traveling Southeast Asia in 2019, one fateful day I got back onto Twitter. I had no idea how much this would change my life. It was on that site that I discovered Austen Allred’s software bootcamp Lambda School, got my first remote tech job, and, in fall 2020, I visited Austin, Texas to meet a few mutuals, whereupon I fell in love with the city. I moved there two weeks later. I started my first entrepreneurial endeavor with a friend, a cohort-based coaching business that quickly scaled to $30k months, and I was hooked by coaching and business. I started Based in Austin, a monthly meetup for contra-woke internet natives that grew to a few hundred members. I started to grow a tech-heavy network, a group of Austin transplants galvanized by Covid. I even met Peter Thiel, who was interested enough in Based to offer funding a venture studio. All of it sparked by Twitter.

Chapter 4: The journey inward

My world up to this point was heavy left-brain: economics, technology, software development, political philosophy. It took falling in love to awaken the right-brain. My partner was a psychedelic-assisted therapist, and that relationship—and breakup—was what initiated a radical reorganization of my life around new fundamentals of meditation, prayer, emotional fluidity and mastery—by which I mean two years wandering the desert of grief, love, and ego death. I sat nearly three months of meditation retreat, studied under great teachers like Dustin DiPerna, Joe Hudson, and Anurag Gupta, and generally watched my identity disassemble and reassemble in front of my eyes. I learned the transformative power of presence—being seen, challenged, and cared for by those skilled in fearless inquiry and unconditional regard. In early 2024, I launched Max Impact LLC to offer others that same kind of transformational relationship.

Chapter 5: Now

Today I coach driven men—entrepreneurs, leaders, and creatives—who are ready to do the deep inner work that leads to outer impact. My approach is grounded in self-exploration, transformational presence, and my utter conviction of your greatness. The results are wholeness, clarity, and empowerment. When I’m not coaching, I’m training gymnastics or hiking around Austin.

If you think I can support you in some way, DM me on Twitter or email me at:

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