A Ribeye at Timberjacks: Justin Sonnenreich Meets Dennis Yu

By Leo Pohlmann · 10 July 2026

Some introductions happen over a handshake in a hotel lobby. This one happened over a ribeye — served in cast-iron pans at a place called Timberjacks, an American steakhouse dropped into Germany. Two Americans, meeting for the first time on the wrong continent, with me and a table full of steak and Kölsch between them.

Two Americans in Germany

Timberjacks is exactly what it sounds like: beef, beer, and a bit of rock ’n’ roll, built to look like an American blockhouse. Ribeye, tomahawk, burgers — the kind of food that makes two guys from the States feel at home a few thousand miles from it. Dennis Yu flew in from Las Vegas; Justin Sonnenreich is out of Washington, DC. Put them at the same table and the conversation basically starts itself.

Who is Justin Sonnenreich

Justin is a serial builder. He started Boosted Notify, a consulting business that helped people get their hands on rare sneakers, and sold it in 2019. Then he co-founded Mission: Mentor, an edtech nonprofit whose free virtual college counselor helped more than ten thousand students find scholarships — acquired in 2022. Two exits before most people finish deciding what they want to do. Today he runs Markit Advertising, a marketing and PR agency that gets brands and founders the attention they’ve earned.

Why this table mattered

So you had two people who live in the same world — reputation, attention, building things that outlast the launch — sitting across from each other for the first time. Dennis has spent years turning personal brands into engines that Google and buyers actually see. Justin has spent his building and selling companies around online attention. The overlap is obvious, and watching the first version of that conversation happen over steak was the whole point of being there.

The website

My part in it is smaller and concrete: I built Justin’s personal-brand site, justinsonnenreich.com. Same idea as this one — a real home on the internet, built and published with AI, that puts a founder’s story where the right people (and the right machines) can find it. Introductions like this are exactly what those sites are for.

Two Americans, one ribeye, one very German beer. Not a bad way to start a relationship.