Fayl Tales

i messed up. here's everything.

Hey Crew! It's just me today. No guest, no founder story, just a proper behind the scenes of what building Fayl Tales actually looks like. We just hit 10,000 subscribers on YouTube. And I have made a lot of mistakes getting there. I'm spilling all of it. The guest incidents I haven't talked about publicly. The stuff that kept me up at night. And the honest truth about what it actually costs to build something like this while working full time. Plus the conversations nobody really has about monetization, geography, and what it feels like to be one of very few female voices in Australian startup media. We cover: - Behind the scenes mistakes I've never talked about publicly - The real cost of doing this while working full time - Honest talk on monetization at 10k subscribers - Imposter syndrome as a female voice in startup media - What I want to do better as an interviewer Follow Fayl Tales on all platforms @fayltales Follow Loveth on LinkedIn and Instagram @lovethochayi #startuppodcast #buildinginpublic #podcastbehindthescenes #femalefounder #podcastgrowth Follow us on all platforms! Instagram ~ @fayltales Tiktok ~ @fayltales  LinkedIn ~ @fayltales

investors ready, product built, yet she closed it ~ Sam Garven

Hey Crew!  Sam Garven spent 10 years watching HR get left behind while every other team got the shiny new tools. So she built Hello Canopy to fix it. Got into Techstars pre-MVP. Pivoted live on stage at SXSW. Had hundreds of users and angel investors ready to back her next raise. Two weeks ago she chose to close it all down. Not because she ran out of money. Not because she lost her team. Because she spent six weeks rigorously testing every signal she needed to feel confident moving forward. And not all of them stacked up. This is the full story of that decision, what it felt like, and why she has zero regrets. We get into 👇: ★ 10 years watching HR get left behind while everyone else got better tools ★ The workplace harassment that made building Hello Canopy feel personal ★ Getting into Techstars pre-MVP on a pitch deck and a janky prototype ★ The six week validation framework that led to closing it down ★ What it feels like to wind your identity around a startup and then let it go ★ Why closing is sometimes the bravest move a founder can make Let's keep the crew together 🤝 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fayltales/ 🎵 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fayltales 💼 LinkedIn: https://au.linkedin.com/in/loveth-ochayi-a67491152 Follow us on all platforms! Instagram ~ @fayltales Tiktok ~ @fayltales  LinkedIn ~ @fayltales

two controversial names, one strategy ~ Loughlan Dalton de Burgh

Hey Crew!  Loughlan Dalton de Burgh named his cafe Pyramid Scheme. On purpose. Got a cease and desist from his landlord, went viral with 400,000 views, and had people driving two hours for his falafel. Then his business partner overdosed in the kitchen, $30,000 went missing from the books, and he shut it all down. He missed 12 consecutive mortgage payments. Used a foreclosure notice to unlock his super and clear $68,000 in arrears. Nobody knew any of this. He just kept building. So he started Pretty Privilege. The names are always the least controversial thing about him. We cover: - How Pyramid Scheme went viral and fell apart at the same time - The $30,000 betrayal nobody knew about until now - Missing 12 mortgages while building a Forbes 30 Under 30 company - Getting kicked out of the Taylor Swift concert four times in one night - What "success is shameless" actually means when everything is on the line Follow Fayl Tales on all platforms @fayltales Follow Loveth on LinkedIn and Instagram @lovethochayi Follow Loughlan and Pretty Privilege at https://www.prettyprivilege.club/ Follow us on all platforms! Instagram ~ @fayltales Tiktok ~ @fayltales  LinkedIn ~ @fayltales

sought funding, got acquired ~ Ben Cull

Hey Crew! Ben Cull didn't set out to sell his company. He went to market for a $5 million funding round and came back with an acquisition offer from Fiserv at double what he thought the business was worth. Eight years. Two developers who hated selling. 2,500 merchants. One napkin sketch in a Sheffield pub. No hype. Just acquired. We get into what the acquisition process actually looks like from the inside, what developers consistently get wrong when they become founders, and what it feels like when the deal finally closes after six months of daily emotional whiplash. We get into 👇: ★ How a $5M funding round became an unexpected acquisition ★ Building Pinch from a napkin sketch to 2,500 merchants ★ The legal clause that nearly blew up the whole deal ★ Two developers who hated sales and how they fixed it ★ What developers get wrong when they become founders ★ Life inside a corporate after eight years of full autonomy Let's keep the crew together 🤝  📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fayltales/ [https://www.instagram.com/fayltales/]  🎵 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fayltales [https://www.tiktok.com/@fayltales]  💼 LinkedIn: https://au.linkedin.com/in/loveth-ochayi-a67491152 [https://au.linkedin.com/in/loveth-ochayi-a67491152] On the move?  🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/64449Kq2PDzlkVyCjlN5U8 [https://open.spotify.com/show/64449Kq2PDzlkVyCjlN5U8]  Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/fayl-tales/id1797274868 [https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/fayl-tales/id1797274868] Follow us on all platforms! Instagram ~ @fayltales Tiktok ~ @fayltales  LinkedIn ~ @fayltales

googled it, didn't exist, so she built it

Hey Crew! Imagine you've spent years building a company around live events. You just cracked your first million dollar year, you're training the Eventbrite team in Nashville, you're about to partner with one of the biggest ticketing platforms in the world. Then Friday the 13th of March 2020 hits and every single client calls to cancel and ask for their deposits back. That's where Nina McMahon was when COVID landed. What she did next is the part worth talking about. Oh, and she accidentally invented the whole product in 2013 because Wi-Fi at events kept breaking and she told a client "we'll just bring the internet" before confirming that was actually possible. We cover: - The Friday the 13th phone call that broke everything and what happened in the weeks after - How they accidentally invented portable Wi-Fi from a two-meter prototype that needed a truck to move - Tripling revenue through COVID without a playbook - Getting a cease and desist from Fox Media six events in (and why it was the best thing that ever happened to them) - Powering a SpaceX launch without knowing it was SpaceX until the GPS said Cape Canaveral - Why their company motto is "don't work with dicks" and how long it took to actually listen to it ANNOUNCEMENT I've just launched our very own Fayl Tales substack!! If you love a good story, especially one from the trenches, with the ups, pivots and figuring it out, then search Fayl Tales on substack! Follow Fayl Tales on all platforms @fayltales Follow Loveth on LinkedIn and Instagram @lovethochayi Follow Nina and Pop-Up Wi-Fi at popupwifi.com YouTube Chapters: 0:00 the teaser 1:21 friday the 13th, every client cancelled, and what dissociation actually feels like 3:22 pivoting in under a month and why COVID was their volkswagen moment 6:08 why the industry refused to trust remote networks (until jimmy fallon had no choice) 8:35 accidentally inventing pop-up wifi because venue internet kept breaking 16:14 scaling without a sales team, a love letter to producers, and a cease and desist from fox 30:47 coachella, taylor swift in lake tahoe, and going all in on the US market 38:44 hardware advice, the "don't work with dicks" rule, and trusting your gut #fayltales #startuppodcast #hardwarestartup #femalefounder #founderstory Follow us on all platforms! Instagram ~ @fayltales Tiktok ~ @fayltales  LinkedIn ~ @fayltales