Perspective X with Pauline Fetaui

From Police Officer to AI Pioneer to Psychedelics: Dr. Catriona Wallace’s Unfiltered Story (Part Two)

From policing the streets of Sydney’s King’s Cross to founding one of the world's first enterprise AI companies, Dr. Catriona Wallace has navigated a career arc that defies convention. As one of the few women globally to list an AI company on the ASX, she scaled Flamingo AI to New York and back, all while raising five children and operating on a frontier that barely had a name. But behind the milestone of a $20M capital raise and the adrenaline of the public markets lay a deeper story of personal cost, identity, and the "sacred wounds" that fuel high-performance leadership. In this deep-dive episode of Perspective X, Dr. Cat shares her unfiltered story of transition: from the corruption and shadow-side of law enforcement to the high-pressure world of venture capital, and eventually, to the jungles of Peru. We explore the "hard thing about hard things," the brutal reality of having your product commoditised by tech giants, and why she chose to sit with ayahuasca the same day she exited her company. This isn't just a talk about technology; it’s a masterclass in the human operating system. We dive into why AI poses a 1-in-10 existential risk, the intersection of ancient ritual and modern innovation, and why Dr. Cat believes the next generation of leaders must undergo a "rapid transformation" of consciousness to ensure humanity isn't left behind by the machines we’ve built. SPONSORS: PERSPECTIVE X IS SUPPORTED BY OUR WONDERFUL SPONSORS: Deel: Founders scale faster on Deel. Set up payroll for any country in minutes, hire anyone anywhere, and get visas handled fast, so you stay focused on scaling. Deel takes care of onboarding, HR, IT, EOR, benefits, and compliance, so your team can grow without borders. It’s why more than 40,000 fast-growing companies trust Deel to move fast. Visit https://www.deel.com/dayone PERSPECTIVE X IS PART OF DAY ONE. DAY ONE HELPS FOUNDERS AND STARTUP OPERATORS MAKE BETTER BUSINESS DECISIONS MORE OFTEN. To learn more, join our newsletter [https://dayone.fm/newsletter] to be notified of new Perspective X episodes and upcoming shows. Mentioned in this episode: Deel x PX_Script 1 Deel x PX_Script 2

From Police Officer to AI Pioneer to Psychedelics: Dr. Catriona Wallace’s Unfiltered Story (Part One)

Win $2,000 in credits with the Day One Network — take our 2-minute audience survey before 30 June: dayone.fm/survey From policing the streets of Sydney’s King’s Cross to founding one of the world's first enterprise AI companies, Dr. Catriona Wallace has navigated a career arc that defies convention. As one of the few women globally to list an AI company on the ASX, she scaled Flamingo AI to New York and back, all while raising five children and operating on a frontier that barely had a name. But behind the milestone of a $20M capital raise and the adrenaline of the public markets lay a deeper story of personal cost, identity, and the "sacred wounds" that fuel high-performance leadership. In this deep-dive episode of Perspective X, Dr. Cat shares her unfiltered story of transition: from the corruption and shadow-side of law enforcement to the high-pressure world of venture capital, and eventually, to the jungles of Peru. We explore the "hard thing about hard things," the brutal reality of having your product commoditised by tech giants, and why she chose to sit with ayahuasca the same day she exited her company. This isn't just a talk about technology; it’s a masterclass in the human operating system. We dive into why AI poses a 1-in-10 existential risk, the intersection of ancient ritual and modern innovation, and why Dr. Cat believes the next generation of leaders must undergo a "rapid transformation" of consciousness to ensure humanity isn't left behind by the machines we’ve built. Mentioned in this episode: Deel x PX_Script 1 Deel x PX_Script 2

Dr. Prash on Building a $100M+ Crypto Brokerage and Pioneering Psychedelic Therapy

Win $2,000 in credits with the Day One Network — take our 2-minute audience survey before 30 June: dayone.fm/survey EPISODE SUMMARY From surgeon to psychiatrist, Bitcoin investor to billion-dollar crypto brokerage founder, Dr. Prash Puspanathan has lived one of the most unconventional founder journeys in tech. After co-founding and scaling Caleb & Brown into a global crypto powerhouse, later acquired by SwiftX in 2025, Dr. Prash is now pioneering the future of mental health with Enosis Therapeutics, using VR to transform psychedelic-assisted therapy integration. In this episode of Perspective X, Dr. Prash shares how a single psilocybin experience completely reshaped his worldview, steering him away from surgery and into psychiatry, entrepreneurship, and eventually, crypto. He reveals the parallels between fiscal freedom in decentralized finance and cognitive freedom in mental health, the scrappy early days of arbitrage trading, and the challenges of scaling a white-glove brokerage to serve high-net-worth clients worldwide. We also dive into the future of psychedelic medicine, why integration is the “real work,” how technology can lower costs and increase access, and why prevention, not just treatment, will define the next era of mental health. From paradigm-shifting psychedelics to building billion-dollar ventures, this is a conversation about liberation, of thought, finance, and human potential. TIME STAMPS 00:00 – Intro: Dr. Prash’s unconventional founder journey 02:00 – From surgery to psychiatry: psychedelics as a turning point 06:30 – The transformative psilocybin experience and shifting paradigms 10:30 – Understanding psychedelic therapy and integration work 16:00 – Why psychedelics challenge power structures and cultural norms 22:00 – Fiscal freedom and cognitive freedom: psychedelics and Bitcoin 30:00 – Founding Caleb & Brown and building a billion-dollar brokerage 37:00 – Global scaling, high-net-worth clients, and leadership transitions 42:00 – Preparing for acquisition: the 9-month journey to SwiftX 50:00 – Running a dual life as psychiatrist and founder 55:00 – Enosis Therapeutics: VR-powered integration for psychedelic therapy 01:02:00 – Building tools for patients, therapists, and the future of mental health 01:10:00 – The vision for a psychological digital twin 01:15:00 – Psychedelics in the next 10–50 years: from treatment to prevention 01:20:00 – Translating research into real-world impact and future mission RESOURCES 💰 Caleb & Brown – Global crypto brokerage: https://calebandbrown.com 🩺 Enosis Therapeutics – Tech for psychedelic-assisted therapy: https://www.enosistherapeutics.com/ 👤 Dr. Prash on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drprash/ SPONSORS: PERSPECTIVE X IS SUPPORTED BY OUR WONDERFUL SPONSORS: Deel: Founders scale faster on Deel. Set up payroll for any country in minutes, hire anyone anywhere, and get visas handled fast, so you stay focused on scaling. Deel takes care of onboarding, HR, IT, EOR, benefits, and compliance, so your team can grow without borders. It’s why more than 40,000 fast-growing companies trust Deel to move fast. Visit https://www.deel.com/dayone PERSPECTIVE X IS PART OF DAY ONE. DAY ONE HELPS FOUNDERS AND STARTUP OPERATORS MAKE BETTER BUSINESS DECISIONS MORE OFTEN. To learn more, join our newsletter [https://dayone.fm/newsletter] to be notified of new Perspective X episodes and upcoming shows. Mentioned in this episode: Mighty Partners_PX_May 2025 Deel x PX_Script 1 Vanta_PX_May 2025

The Hidden Criteria Behind a YC Yes: Yotam on Founder Signals, and the Real Work Behind a Yes

Win $2,000 in credits with the Day One Network — take our 2-minute audience survey before 30 June: dayone.fm/survey Episode Summary Yotam Rosenbaum never planned to be a startup founder, let alone one of Australia’s most active investors in Y Combinator companies. He started out as a musician, marketing his own band in Los Angeles, until the frustration of promoting music online became the spark for building Earbits, a platform once described as “Google AdWords for music.” What began on a traffic-jammed freeway turned into a five-year journey through Y Combinator, product-market chaos, and a successful exit. Since then, Yotam has backed over 400 YC startups, built one of the only Australian-led funds inside the program, and helped founders at home think far beyond local markets. He reflects on what actually matters at the earliest stages, why founder relationships trump early traction, and how to spot the quiet signals of a breakout team. There’s also a reality check for anyone raising capital: most investors won’t give you a clear no, and that’s the real cost. From Craigslist drum lessons to portfolio unicorns, Yotam’s story is anything but typical. But it’s proof that trusting your sense of direction, without needing the whole map, can still get you somewhere remarkable. Time Stamps 00:01:17 – Embracing Uncertainty: Yotam’s Philosophy on Direction Without a Map 00:06:41 – From Funk Band to Founder: The Origins of Earbits 00:11:05 – The Aha Moment: Building the Google AdWords for Music 00:14:58 – Joining Y Combinator: Early Traction & Getting In 00:20:04 – Life at YC: Feeling Out of Place, Finding Belonging 00:24:29 – Investing in 400+ YC Startups: How It Started Post-Exit 00:31:19 – Moving to Australia: The Hot DesQ Bet That Paid Off 00:36:35 – Comparing Ecosystems: SF vs Brisbane Startup Mindsets 00:41:09 – The Importance of Community: No Founder Builds Alone 00:45:39 – The 77 Partners Venture Challenge: Who It’s For 00:50:24 – What Investors Look For (It’s Not Just Revenue) 01:03:01 – How Founders Can (And Should) Think About AI Resources Mentioned 🥇 First Peak Ventures - https://www.linkedin.com/company/first-peak-ventures/ 🤝 77 Partners – http://www.77partners.vc/ 🙋🏻‍♂️ Yotam Rosenbaum on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/yotamrosenbaum/ 👂🏻 Earbits – https://www.earbits.com/ SPONSORS: PERSPECTIVE X IS SUPPORTED BY OUR WONDERFUL SPONSORS: Deel: Founders scale faster on Deel. Set up payroll for any country in minutes, hire anyone anywhere, and get visas handled fast, so you stay focused on scaling. Deel takes care of onboarding, HR, IT, EOR, benefits, and compliance, so your team can grow without borders. It’s why more than 40,000 fast-growing companies trust Deel to move fast. Visit https://www.deel.com/dayone PERSPECTIVE X IS PART OF DAY ONE. DAY ONE HELPS FOUNDERS AND STARTUP OPERATORS MAKE BETTER BUSINESS DECISIONS MORE OFTEN. To learn more, join our newsletter [https://dayone.fm/newsletter] to be notified of new Perspective X episodes and upcoming shows. Mentioned in this episode: Vanta_PX_May 2025 Mighty Partners_PX_May 2025 Deel x PX_Script 1

What It Really Takes to Scale to $100M: Ricky Sevta on Burnout, Breakthroughs, and Building Again

Win $2,000 in credits with the Day One Network — take our 2-minute audience survey before 30 June: dayone.fm/survey EPISODE SUMMARY Ricky Sevta isn’t afraid of hard truths, or hard problems. As the former Chief Revenue Officer at simPRO, Ricky helped scale the company from $10M to $100M ARR, led a $550M capital raise, and expanded the business into global markets. Now, as CEO of Deep Space and a partner at Venture On, he’s back at the beginning, building again. In this episode, Ricky shares the behind-the-scenes realities of scaling a company beyond product-market fit, why founders underestimate the cost of growth, and the personal sacrifices that come with chasing unicorn status. He also reveals how Deep Space is tackling fragmented workflows in construction with modern, AI-powered software, and why pricing, timing, and hiring are all about ruthless clarity. From celebrating too little, to learning how to protect time with family, Ricky unpacks the emotional toll of leadership, how to spot premature market entry, and why customer obsession isn’t optional, it’s survival. TIME STAMPS 02:00 – Ricky’s transition from engineer to CRO and global scale-up leader 05:30 – The messy middle: scaling simPRO from $10M to $100M ARR 08:20 – Building structure into chaos: onboarding, playbooks, and the “Lego” method 11:00 – Why product-market fit is never static—especially across geographies 13:30 – Market trumps team: Ricky’s framework for evaluating expansion risks 16:50 – Don’t skip the customer: 40% of Ricky’s time was spent on the ground 19:00 – What “Chief Revenue Officer” really meant at simPRO 22:00 – The traits Ricky looks for when hiring early-stage startup leaders 24:40 – The emotional cost of startup life: family, friendships, and isolation 28:00 – Why founders often create businesses to fix something in themselves 33:00 – Leaving simPRO: starting again with Deep Space and Venture On 37:00 – Building in public and launching an AI-powered construction OS 43:10 – Why the construction industry isn’t “behind”—it’s been underserved 50:00 – Deep Space’s AI agent “Kai” and the platform’s competitive edge 56:00 – How modern architecture unlocks personalization and speed 01:02:00 – Ricky’s take on AI disruption, job loss, and market overreactions 01:10:00 – Pricing strategy: why Deep Space chose fixed pricing over revenue-based models 01:16:00 – Signs it’s time to enter a new market (hint: it’s not when you are ready) 01:22:00 – Product feedback loops and building a customer-driven roadmap 01:27:00 – Celebrating small wins and creating a culture of recognition 01:30:00 – Ricky on joy, drive, and why he’d do it all again—burnout and all RESOURCES MENTIONED 🔧 Deep Space – AI construction management platform https://www.deepspacegroup.ai/ 👤 Ricky Sevta on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickysevta/ SPONSORS: PERSPECTIVE X IS SUPPORTED BY OUR WONDERFUL SPONSORS: Deel: Founders scale faster on Deel. Set up payroll for any country in minutes, hire anyone anywhere, and get visas handled fast, so you stay focused on scaling. Deel takes care of onboarding, HR, IT, EOR, benefits, and compliance, so your team can grow without borders. It’s why more than 40,000 fast-growing companies trust Deel to move fast. Visit https://www.deel.com/dayone PERSPECTIVE X IS PART OF DAY ONE. DAY ONE HELPS FOUNDERS AND STARTUP OPERATORS MAKE BETTER BUSINESS DECISIONS MORE OFTEN. To learn more, join our newsletter [https://dayone.fm/newsletter] to be notified of new Perspective X episodes and upcoming shows. Mentioned in this episode: Deel x PX_Script 1 Vanta_PX_May 2025 Mighty Partners_PX_May 2025