Fayl Tales

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 climate problem. Now the founder of Algenie , Nick is betting that algae biomanufacturing could one day compete with crude oil and become a scalable solution for food, fuel, and materials. In this episode, we cover: Raising $180M and scaling V2 Food n...

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 Geoneon , a climate tech company using geo-intelligence and data science to help governments and communities prepare for natural disasters like bushfires, floods, and deforestation. Roxanne shares her journey from earth sciences and disaster risk rese...

Welcome to the first ever solo episode of Fayl Tales. After interviewing founders across Vienna, Sydney, Melbourne and Tasmania, Loveth has noticed the same themes appearing again and again, regardless of industry, experience or geography. In this episode, she unpacks the truths founders whisper privately, the lessons they wish they’d learned earlier, and why failure is rarely catastrophic but alw...

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 how she went from booking talent for live gigs, coordinating hundreds of performers and managing the chaos of the creative economy, to becoming a leader in the startup world. She explains why those early chapters, with all their pressure and unpredi...

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? For Steve Grace , founder of The Nudge Group and private members’ club The Pillars , the answer has always been the same: you keep going, even when the chaos feels personal. In this episode, Steve opens up about: The shocking betrayal he uncovered th...

Australian founder Taryn Williams built Wink Models at 21, then launched marketplace startup theright.fit, raised venture capital from Airtree, expanded into Asia and exited to international acquirers – all while surviving hyper-growth, chaos, and burnout. In this episode of Fayl Tales , we dive into how she rebuilt a broken modelling industry, the real economics of the creator and influencer spac...

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 podcaster and leader of one of Australia’s biggest accelerator programs ~ unpacks the real story behind her pivots. We dive into: Leaving chemical engineering and consulting to chase more meaningful work Building a playground discovery app as a new mu...

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 co-founders of Attentv, who went from whiteboards and frameworks to late-night pub installations, broken TV systems, and a crash-course in hospitality, hardware, AI and co-founder conflict. In this episode, they share: why they quit without a plan the...

Strategist Adam Murray on the real startup killers: resentment, complacency, and fuzzy reality . We dig into scale-up breaking points, the danger of too much cash , “ warm data ” for better decisions, and a co-founder alignment ritual that prevents blow-ups. Plus a turnaround story, and how impermanence  reshaped his approach to work and life.  Follow us on all platforms! Instagram ~ @fayltales Ti...

Before running startup pitch nights and ecosystem tours, Desmond John was showing backpackers around Melbourne’s bars and laneways. When COVID hit, it all collapsed, but that collapse became the blueprint for something new. In this episode, he shares how curiosity, connection, and failure led him to create Vibe Guide Ventures and help founders go further together. Follow us on all platforms! Insta...

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 this candid episode, Sam opens up about his leap from medicine to healthtech, co-founder breakups, VC pressure, burnout and rebuilding. He shares what he got wrong at his first startup, Fora (validate before you build, GTM > perfect UI), what most...

Product dies where onboarding breaks. Fintech product adviser, founder and podcast host Ray Yee shares Buy Now Pay Later lessons, audits without the blame game, scaling teams as risk increases, and why FastlaneIQ is helping charities modernise payments.  You'll learn: Why “progress = happiness” in onboarding How to run low-risk experiments regulators can live with The people problem behind ri...

Anton Roe thought he was doing everything right - growing fast, hitting targets, building teams. But somewhere along the way, things broke. People started leaving. The board lost confidence. And Anton had to face the kind of feedback no one wants to hear. In this episode, he opens up about what it’s really like to lead through failure, and how those moments reshaped his approach to leadership, gro...

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 in thousands per day - while hiring fast, navigating co-founder tensions, and learning on the fly from an island off Auckland. In this Fayl Tales episode, Michael opens up about: Early wins and why product-market fit isn’t passion The dangers of scali...

In this episode, entrepreneur and technologist Dietmar Gombotz shares the story of founding UGP Materials , a spin-out built around a novel high-performance polymer with a greener, water-based production process. Early traction with aerospace partners and major corporates suggested a clear path forward - until COVID hit, timelines stretched, and co-founder dynamics shifted. Dietmar opens up about:...

 In this episode, we sit down with Katja Lisanskaya, a talented software engineer and creative thinker, who shares the story behind Everent , her ambitious peer-to-peer tenting platform for everyday items. Katja rapidly built a sleek, functional product, but soon discovered a hard truth many creators face: a great solution doesn’t matter if it’s not solving the right problem.  Follow us on all pla...

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 of one of the DACH region’s largest independent agencies. In this episode, we dive into Value Lab , his venture aimed at solving Europe’s SME succession crisis. Dieter also reflects on the growth engine behind Speedinvest Pirates and why taking risk...

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 for a newborn. In this episode, she shares how that unexpected challenge shaped her as a founder and led to her next big venture: rethinking respiratory machines during the pandemic. It’s a story of resilience, rapid learning, and turning vision into tang...

What happens when two industry heavyweights—one from high finance, the other from cutting-edge tech—join forces to create a revolutionary startup? In this episode of Fayl Tales , I sit down with a guest who has worn some of the most prestigious titles in finance: Vice President at Morgan Stanley, Director at Merrill Lynch, and a guiding force behind multiple IPOs. Together with a tech visionary, h...

 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. While pursuing his Master’s in Finance, Nasib and his team quickly gained interest, built a team of over 10 volunteers, and pivoted multiple times in just a few months. But in their rush to shake up the industry, they realized they had taken on too...