Fayl Tales
Episodes
googled it, didn't exist, so she built it
20 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Hey Crew! Imagine you've spent years building a company around live events. You just cracked your first million dollar year, you're training...
Watched a Founder Raise $360M and Shut it Down ~ Phaedon Stough
13 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
HHey Crew! What do you do when you build a recruitment firm from a cockroach-infested Surry Hills office into a nearly 100-person, $20M-a-year global ...
Too Lazy to Do It Himself. So He Built a Company ~ Haobo Zhang
06 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Hey Crew!Haobo Zhang is 20 years old. He has a full scholarship to study biomedicine at University of Melbourne, 30,000 users on his AI platform, and ...
Millie Marconi Left $100K on the Table Because a LinkedIn Post Changed Everything
30 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Hey Crew!Millie Marconi has been building for 9 years. In that whole time she's had exactly one real job, and it only lasted a couple of months. ...
He Bet His Life Savings on Limoncello and Its Working ~ Stefan Di Benedetto
23 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Hey Crew!Picture this. You win world's best liquor. You're in Qantas first class lounges. You're in over 500 venues across the country....
She Quit Corporate, Bought a Vineyard, and Built an AI Company in Tasmania ~ Fiona Turner
16 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Hey Crew!Picture this: you walk away from a successful corporate tech career, buy a vineyard in Tasmania with your partner, and dream about the simple...
"I Was Beyond Poor" ~ Megan Luttrell on Building Aussie Founders Club From Nothing
09 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Hey Crew! Ok so this one hit different. Megan Luttrell has built Aussie Founders Club into a community of thousands of founders, runs Kairos Recruitme...
The Startup Advice That's Leading You Astray
02 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
If you've ever read a piece of startup advice and thought "that doesn't feel right"... trust that instinct. This one's for yo...
I've Never Talked About My Own Failures. Until Now.
23 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Ok so this one is different. No guest. Just me.I've interviewed so many founders about their failures and mistakes but I realised I've liter...
"We Convinced Ourselves the Problem Was Real"... Alex Melocco
16 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Ok so this one is a ride. Alex Melocco studied law AND software engineering (overachiever energy), ditched the safe corporate path, and went full sen...
Would You Still Build This If It Took 10 Years? | Riana Shah
09 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Riana Shah was in second year uni with one unit of Python… and somehow ended up co-founding Dugong Technologies - an AI-powered drowning detection ...
Why Group Trips Never Happen and How Jay Raval Is Trying to Fix It
02 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
If you’ve ever tried to plan a group trip and watched it fall apart in the group chat… this one’s for you.In this episode, I sit down with Jay R...
Why Great Startups Still Fail: Timing, Trust, and Knowing What to Do “Properly”
26 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
What actually kills startups? Sometimes it’s not product… it’s timing.In this episode, I’m joined by Alan Jones: angel investor, startup ment...
Why Giving at Checkout Feels Awkward and How Tim Millbank Tried to Fix It with Change for Change
19 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
What if donating didn’t require a big monthly commitment… or an awkward “do you want to round up?” moment at the checkout?In this episode I’...
Built & Raised $180M for V2 Food, Now Nick Hazell is Tring To Make Algae as Cheap as Oil
12 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Nick Hazell raised $180M building V2 Food, Australia’s market leader in plant-based protein, before exiting and turning his focus to an even bigger ...
Move With the Fear: Roxane Bandini-Maeder on Building Climate Tech
05 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Some founders build products. Others build the future.In this episode of Fayl Tales, I sit down with Roxanne Bardini-Medio, CEO and co-founder of GeoN...
Behind the Mic: What I’ve Learned Interviewing Founders
30 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome to the first ever solo episode of Fayl Tales.After interviewing founders across Vienna, Sydney, Melbourne and Tasmania, Loveth has noticed the...
Making Big Moves From Unexpected Places: Amy Fogarty
22 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
From booking bands to backing founders in Tasmania. Amy Fogarty has lived multiple lives. And somehow they all make sense.In this episode, Amy shares ...
“The Hire That Nearly Broke Me” ~ Steve Grace on Bad Hires & Pivots Into Wild Ventures
15 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What do you do when your first hire steals from you, your business partner stops working, and your media company burns nearly half a million dollars?F...
Raising VC Too Early? Taryn Williams on Airtree, Singapore Expansion & Boardroom Pressure
08 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Australian founder Taryn Williams built Wink Models at 21, then launched marketplace startup theright.fit, raised venture capital from Airtree, expand...
Georgie Healy: The Startup That “Wasn’t VC-Backable” and the Pivot to AI
01 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What happens when you realise you’re building the wrong kind of success?In this episode of Fayl Tales, Georgie Healy ~ engineer, founder, ex-VC, AI ...
Quit Thheir 6-Figure Jobs With No Plan, And Now We’re Betting Everything on This Startup: Daniel Jo & Justin Yang
24 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What happens when two consultants walk away from stable 6-figure careers… with no idea what they’ll build next?Meet Daniel Jo and Justin Jang, the...
Too Much Cash, Not Enough Clarity - Adam Murray on the Messy Middle
17 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Strategist Adam Murray on the real startup killers: resentment, complacency, and fuzzy reality. We dig into scale-up breaking points, the danger of to...
Desmond John on Finding Purpose After Failure
10 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Before running startup pitch nights and ecosystem tours, Desmond John was showing backpackers around Melbourne’s bars and laneways. When COVID hit, ...
Dr Sam Donegan: From Saving Lives to Startups, Cofounder Breakups, Burnout, and Building Again
03 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Dr Sam Donegan is a medical doctor turned AI founder and the creator of SupportSorted, one of Australia’s fastest-growing digital health startups.In...
Why Ego Kills Progress - Ray Yee with Lessons from Fintech
27 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Product dies where onboarding breaks. Fintech product adviser, founder and podcast host Ray Yee shares Buy Now Pay Later lessons, audits without the b...
Anton Roe: He Scaled a Team to 50 People… Then Lost Half of Them
20 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Anton Roe thought he was doing everything right - growing fast, hitting targets, building teams. But somewhere along the way, things broke. People sta...
From Teen Game Developer to Thousands-a-Day: Michael Reitzenstein’s Flash-Era Rise & Reckoning
05 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
At 15, Michael Reitzenstein was already selling games. By 21, he’d helped build one of the first web-game businesses with in-game payments - pulling...
Dietmar Gombotz on when a breakthrough polymer meets market reality
07 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, entrepreneur and technologist Dietmar Gombotz shares the story of founding UGP Materials, a spin-out built around a novel high-perfor...
Building Before Validating: Katja Lisanskaya and the Rise & Fall of Everent
25 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we sit down with Katja Lisanskaya, a talented software engineer and creative thinker, who shares the story behind Everent, her ambi...
Startups, Succession, and Scale: Dieter Rappold on Building What Others Overlook
06 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Dieter Rappold has been at the forefront of the digital and startup scene for over two decades - as a serial entrepreneur, business angel, and founder...
Krisztina Szarvas: Unexpected CEO to Health Tech Pioneer
09 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Krisztina Szarvas always knew she wanted to build something of her own—but she didn’t expect to take over a family medical business while caring f...
Christian Schopper: The Startup That Could Have Beaten WhatsApp
07 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What happens when two industry heavyweights—one from high finance, the other from cutting-edge tech—join forces to create a revolutionary startup?...
Too fast, too hedgey with Nasib Fathi
19 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this debut episode of Fayl Tales, I sit down with Nasib Fathi, co-founder of AristoQuant, a startup that aimed to disrupt the hedge fund industry...