Founders in Motion with Thea Ngo

The D1 Athlete Who Built a $100M Voice AI Company | Will Bodewes, Phonely (YC S24)

Will Bodewes wrote a sticky note to himself on day one of building Phonely: "there are no shortcuts for you, Bodewes." That note sat on his desk every day for 2 years. We talk about building a category before it exists, keeping customers through a 30% failure rate, the SMB-to-enterprise pivot, the cycling LinkedIn post that landed a $16M Series A, and what building a company actually costs in your 20s. For: early-stage founders in B2B SaaS, athletes turned entrepreneurs, founders exploring voice AI, anyone weighing whether to start a company. If this episode helped you, leave a review on Apple Podcasts or follow on Spotify so you never miss an episode. It takes 30 seconds and it's how the next founder finds us. CHAPTERS 00:00 - Intro 01:18 - The D1 Athlete Grind 03:18 - Melbourne Bet 04:11 - Why We Win 10:14 - Spoke Sound Dies 13:37 - First Customers 15:46 - 30% Failure Rate 19:27 - Y Combinator 21:52 - No Shortcuts 23:04 - The Cycling Post 27:01 - Don't Do It FOLLOW US ⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@FoundersInMotion⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.youtube.com/@FoundersInMotion] ⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/thea.yaps⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.instagram.com/foundersinmotion] ⁠⁠⁠https://www.tiktok.com/@foundersinmotion⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.tiktok.com/@foundersinmotion] ⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/theango/⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/theango/] Hosted by Thea Ngo, a Wharton grad, venture capital investor, and (your new favorite?) interrogator behind Founders in Motion. Subscribe for the stories that don't make the headlines yet. Subscribe for the insider playbook on building companies, growth tactics, and founder stories.

$40M FinTech Founder on Raising Millions Before He Had a Business Idea | Shakeel Lala, Marloo

Shak quit his job, convinced a VC to back him with no business idea, and spent nine months running 800 conversations with financial advisors before building Marloo - the AI doing the actual work inside financial advice firms, now raised $10M and live across seven markets. For: founders still searching for the right idea, operators thinking about AI and vertical SaaS, anyone who's ever over-engineered their way through uncertainty, people building B2B tools who want to see what real customer discovery looks like. If this episode helped you, leave a review on Apple Podcasts or follow on Spotify so you never miss an episode. It takes 30 seconds and it's how the next founder finds us. CHAPTERS 00:00 Intro 01:18 Starting a company without a business idea 02:56 3 lessons from 9 months of market discovery 09:59 What is Marloo? 12:38 The vibe-coded conference demo 15:43 How they got VC-backed before finding the idea 18:40 Pressure, mindset & momentum 19:43 Building across Sydney, London & Wellington 25:29 The mission: making financial advice accessible 29:20 The $10M raise & vision 32:38 Most valuable founder lesson FOLLOW US ⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@FoundersInMotion⁠⁠ [https://www.youtube.com/@FoundersInMotion] ⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/thea.yaps⁠⁠ [https://www.instagram.com/foundersinmotion] ⁠⁠https://www.tiktok.com/@foundersinmotion⁠⁠ [https://www.tiktok.com/@foundersinmotion] ⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/theango/⁠⁠ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/theango/] ABOUT FOUNDERS IN MOTION Hi, I'm Thea. I started this series because I wanted to find out how to build incredible companies from the ground up. I work in venture capital by weekday and act as an interrogator during the weekends. If you like this content, hit subscribe, that's the best way to support me and it means more than you know. Subscribe for the insider playbook on building companies, growth tactics, and founder stories.

He Turned Falling Socks into an Eight Figure Global Brand | Nathan Yun, Paire

Nathan Yun built Paire into an eight-figure brand by doing almost everything the DTC playbook said not to: engineering fabric from scratch, opening a physical store, and turning Shark Tank into a sales channel rather than a funding pitch. This is the story of building an iconic brand from the least sexy product in fashion. We talk about manufacturing from the yarn up, pricing strategy, the Shark Tank pivot, and why DTC doesn't mean online. For: consumer brand founders, DTC operators, early-stage product builders, and anyone who's wondered if boring products can build great companies. If this episode helped you, leave a review on Apple Podcasts or follow on Spotify so you never miss an episode. It takes 30 seconds and it's how the next founder finds us. FOLLOW US ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@FoundersInMotion⁠ [https://www.youtube.com/@FoundersInMotion] ⁠https://www.instagram.com/thea.yaps⁠ [https://www.instagram.com/foundersinmotion] ⁠https://www.tiktok.com/@foundersinmotion⁠ [https://www.tiktok.com/@foundersinmotion] ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/theango/⁠ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/theango/] ABOUT FOUNDERS IN MOTION Hi, I'm Thea. I started this series because I wanted to find out how to build incredible companies from the ground up. If you like this content, hit subscribe, that's the best way to support me and it means more than you know. Subscribe for the insider playbook on building companies, growth tactics, and founder stories.

This Stanford Dropout Wants to Help You Fall in Love | Celeste Amadon, Known

Celeste Amadon left Stanford, cancelled her job offers, and raised her seed round in four days before Known had a single paying user. Her thesis: dating apps aren't broken by accident. They're engineered to keep you swiping, paying, and single. We talk about the loneliness epidemic and why it's already your problem too, how Known uses voice inference to understand personality beyond what you say, the business model flipping dating on its head, and what it took to raise from Forerunner as a 21-year-old first-time founder. For: founders building consumer products, anyone exhausted by dating apps, operators thinking about AI and matching problems, people considering leaving school to build. If this episode helped you, leave a review on Apple Podcasts or follow on Spotify so you never miss an episode. It takes 30 seconds and it's how the next founder finds us. CHAPTERS 0:00 - Intro & Cold Open 1:13 - Meet Celeste 4:33 - Dating Is a Political Problem 6:50 - Seed Round in 4 Days 8:05 - Pitching Forerunner at 21 11:34 - Why Apps Keep You Single 16:36 - Leaving Stanford 22:13 - The Marina Green Moment FOLLOW US https://www.instagram.com/thea.yaps [https://www.instagram.com/foundersinmotion] https://www.tiktok.com/@foundersinmotion [https://www.tiktok.com/@foundersinmotion] https://www.linkedin.com/in/theango/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/theango/] ABOUT FOUNDERS IN MOTION Founders In Motion brings you honest, tactical conversations with early-stage founders building companies from the ground up. Hosted by Thea Ngo, the show goes beyond the headlines to reveal the real decisions, trade-offs, and mechanics behind building startups. Past guests include founders from YC-backed companies, edtech leaders, SaaS operators, and global entrepreneurs. Subscribe for the insider playbook on building companies, growth tactics, and founder stories.

How He Turned 3 YC Rejections into a $25M AI Governance Company | Nam Nguyen, TruthSystems (YC S25)

Nam got told to come back in 5 years by major law firms. A year later he was YC-backed, had raised $4M in 48 hours, and was serving some of the biggest law firms in the world. But the harder story is what it took to get there, January in Poland, rejections piling up, a parental deadline looming, and 20 something selling AI governance to people with decades of experience. We talk about how to sell to the most risk-averse buyers in the world, why their first customer came from a cold LinkedIn comment, what actually changed between YC application #1 and #4, and why speed alone is no longer a startup advantage. For: early-stage founders, legal tech builders, aspiring YC applicants, anyone who's been told they're too early. If this episode helped you, leave a review on Apple Podcasts or follow on Spotify so you never miss an episode. It takes 30 seconds and it's how the next founder finds us. CHAPTERS 0:00 - Intro 5:16 - Selling as a 21-Year-Old 7:07 - First Customer 13:12 - The YC Journey 15:05 - The Fundraising Sprint 18:12 - Hardest Founder Moment FOLLOW US ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@FoundersInMotion⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.youtube.com/@FoundersInMotion] ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/thea.yaps⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.instagram.com/foundersinmotion] ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.tiktok.com/@foundersinmotion⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.tiktok.com/@foundersinmotion] ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/theango/⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/theango/] Hosted by Thea Ngo, a Wharton grad, venture capital investor, and (your new favorite?) interrogator behind Founders in Motion. Subscribe for the stories that don't make the headlines yet. Subscribe for the insider playbook on building companies, growth tactics, and founder stories.