Effective leadership practices are essential for the success of most companies. Authentic leadership practice is effective to foster team collaboration, and it will contribute to the company's success. The purpose of this study is to explore the lived experience of successful leaders, focusing on enterprising youth engaged in high-risk IT startups in China. The researcher attempts to understand how leader identity impacts success in their startup venture. In this research, constructivism-interpretive paradigm was employed, and the Interpretative Phenomenology Analysis (IPA) method used to collect unique data from 8 successful startup owners in the China Greater Bay area. This study used sensemaking theory as the theoretical framework. It adopted the phenomenological method to analyze the data to understand what the experiences of leaders of successful IT startups. Research findings emerged five themes which include character, meaning, relationship, trust and change. The result of this study indicated that brotherhood is a distinctive culture in startup firms where leaders and followers share common interests like a family. Thus, subordinates' passion, commitment, and engagement are crucial for company success. Also, the result reflects authentic/introvert leaders are more successful in the high-risk IT startup industry. Because they are risk avoidant, they are deep thinkers, they are more persevere, and realistic in facing risks and uncertainty. The results reflected that authentic/introvert startup owners are supportive and caring people; they focus not only on their interests but also on follower's welfare and interests. Authentic/introvert leaders act cautiously, slowly, carefully, prudently, and have the attitude of a marathon runner to strive for long-term goals, instead of taking risks for immediate benefits. Furthermore, they take serving people as a moral obligation as leaders, their innate personality traits like resilience, unity, and balance are unique characteristics for handling uncertainty that makes them more fit for survival in the turbulent IT market. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com.bibliotheek.ehb.be/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]