Flip the Focus

Jen Dobbie
  • 5.0 (20)
  • Technology
  • Updated Fortnightly

Flip the Focus is the factory reset for tech. Jen Dobbie and Producer Nico spotlight the Founders, Funders and Leaders asking big tech questions that flip the industry on its head. From shaking up funding, to putting the status bro on notice, they’re building new systems to keep tech human. Join us each time and find out what got them focussed on tech, how they’re flipping it, and where they’re building community to give bad tech the bird.

  1. 2 days ago

    When to walk away, with Sam Garven

    What happens when the bravest decision a founder can make is to stop - and how do you know when it’s time to let go of the thing you’ve built? In this episode of Flip the Focus, Jen and Producer Nico sit down with Sam Garven, co-founder of AI HR platform Hello Canopy, to talk about the decision to wind down the business and what happens when the founder journey doesn’t end the way you imagined. Sam talks about the emotional gymnastics of closing a startup; moving through the decision as a solo founder after her co-founder stepped into an advisory role; and the signals that helped her pressure-test whether to keep going. She shares how customer feedback and investor interest were encouraging, while economic conditions, changing HR budgets, market uncertainty and her own financial reality told a more complicated story. You’ll hear Sam talk about the implications of taking venture capital, hiring a team and committing to a growth trajectory when you’re no longer certain you can deliver the upside investors expect. She explains why founders need to think carefully about the decisions they’re making today—and where those decisions could leave them, their employees and their families in one, two or three years. Sam also reflects on the fear and shame attached to closing a business, why she chose to be public about winding down Hello Canopy, and the overwhelming response from the startup community that helped her reframe the experience. She challenges the idea that closing a company is the same as failing, and asks whether we need a different definition for a journey that has changed who you are and what you can do. For anyone considering a career change, Sam shares what it feels like to lose the identity you’ve built around a company, and how she began working out what comes next. She talks about taking time away from the internet, resisting the pressure to immediately sprint into another opportunity, and rewriting her résumé to identify the skills she developed as a founder. It’s about making pragmatic decisions in the middle of uncertainty, recognising when persistence becomes pressure, and understanding that the skills you build in one chapter can travel with you into the next. Because sometimes success isn’t about making the company work at any cost. Sometimes it’s about seeing the signals clearly, taking responsibility for the people involved and having the courage to change direction. If you love this episode, subscribe, leave a star rating and give us a quick review. It helps more people find the show and supports our mission to share honest stories from founders, funders and leaders asking big questions about tech, work and what comes next. This is Sam’s second conversation with Flip the Focus, and a very different chapter in the Hello Canopy story.

    When to walk away, with Sam Garven

  2. 5 days ago

    When to build, with Sam Garven

    Who gets to be a founder, and why do so many women not see themselves in the story… even when they’re already doing the work. In Part One of Two; Jen and Producer Nico sit down with Sam Garven, co-founder of AI HR platform Hello Canopy, to talk about what happens when someone who never planned to be a founder ends up building technology to fix the broken systems she saw every day in HR. Sam talks about tripping into founding after years in environmental science, tech recruitment and people leadership; the clunky legacy tools HR teams are still expected to use; and why the best use of AI sits somewhere between full automation and doing everything manually. She also shares why existing privacy laws still apply the moment you hit send on sensitive employee data, even if the AI interface looks like a search box. You’ll hear Sam talk about not recognising herself in the traditional founder archetype, why she needed someone else to reframe her “little side project” as a real venture, and how community, social capital and radical candour have shaped her journey. She shares why most career decisions are two-way doors, not irreversible life choices, and why tech succeeds only when the people closest to the problem help shape the solution. It’s about keeping people at the centre of tech, and building an industry whose success is measured by the opportunities it creates for everyone, not by how much it can automate or replace. If you love this episode, subscribe, leave a star rating and give us a quick review. It helps more people find the show and supports our mission to share stories from leaders shaping tomorrow’s tech, startups and impact-led innovation: like Brittany Fox, Amy McLennan, Victor Dominello, Cindy Gallop, Ida Tin and more. This is part one of two … there are BIG things to come in episode two.

    When to build, with Sam Garven

  3. 27 Aug

    Put people first, with Steven Miller

    This is an episode about keeping people at the centre of tech, and building an industry whose success is measured by the opportunities it creates for everyone, not by how much it can automate or replace. Jen and Producer Nico sit down with Steven Miller, VP of Microsoft Australia and New Zealand*, to talk about what happens when one of the world's biggest tech companies decides its real job is to help humans thrive. Steven talks about the realities of bias in AI, the productivity crisis, and why companies must be honest about the messy journey to progress rather than only the perfect end point. He hopes the industry gets serious about building for the people it serves. You'll hear Steven talk about the gender funding gap in tech, why diverse interview panels matter, the communities and mentors that shaped his thinking, and why inclusion is not just common sense but a structural requirement. He also shares how tech succeeds only when the people closest to the problem help shape the solution. If you love this episode, subscribe, leave a star rating and give us a quick review. It helps more people find the show and supports our mission to share stories from leaders shaping tomorrow's tech, startups and impact-led innovation: like Brittany Fox, Amy McLennan, Victor Dominello, Cindy Gallop, Ida Tin and more. * Steven is now the Vice President, Public Sector - Asia.

    Put people first, with Steven Miller

  4. 13 Aug

    Redefine success with Maddi Ingham

    This is a story about staying human while solving serious problems, and building a business whose success is measured by the size of the problem it helps solve, not by how long it remains the only company doing it. In this episode of Flip the Focus, Jen and Producer Nico sit down with Maddi Ingham, co-founder of GreenPay, Australia’s green payment processor, to talk about what happens when you take an ordinary piece of business infrastructure and give it a much bigger purpose. Maddi’s story begins in management consulting, moves through startup operations, hypergrowth and impact finance, and eventually leads to GreenPay: a full-stack payment processor that donates 50% of its profits to protecting Australian nature. Rather than reinventing how payments work, GreenPay is looking at how an existing, widely used system can become a force for good. Maddi is not building GreenPay from a place of commercial naivety. She talks about the realities of growth, funding, pricing and competition, and why she hopes GreenPay becomes enough of a threat that larger players are forced to do something significant for the planet too. This is also a conversation about redefining founder success. Maddi says individual success is not really a thing, and that if another company took GreenPay’s idea and delivered even greater environmental impact, that would be an excellent outcome. It’s a powerful challenge to the scarcity mindset that says there is only room for one winner. You’ll hear Maddi talk about the gender funding gap, the communities and mentors that helped her find her way into tech, the difference between progress and perfection, and why impact businesses should not be held to an impossible purity test. She also shares how GreenPay is thinking about brand, community and building a company people want to talk about when it is not in the room. If you love this episode, subscribe, leave a star rating and give us a quick review. It helps more people find the show and supports our mission to share stories from leaders shaping tomorrow’s tech, startups and impact-led innovation: like Brittany Fox, Amy McLennan, Victor Dominello, Cindy Gallop, Ida Tin and more.

    Redefine success with Maddi Ingham

  5. 5 Aug

    The Big Three: Brittany Fox

    What advice would you give younger you if you started over? What would you love to change about your industry? Whose name should we all be shouting? These are the big 3 questions we ask every guest on Flip the Focus. Their answers get real deep, real fast.

    The Big Three: Brittany Fox

  6. 29 July

    Find funding with Brittany Fox

    Why Brittany Fox stopped waiting for permission and built a funded customer journey mapping tool. In this episode of Flip the Focus, Jen and Producer Nico sit down with Brittany Fox, founder of Nevam, for a conversation about what happens when a sharp operator stops seeing mess as a nuisance and starts seeing it as a market. Britt’s story is one of founder conviction: she went from marketing and consulting across huge systems to building a customer journey mapping tool designed to expose the cracks, connect the dots, and turn invisible friction into something businesses can actually act on. Britt doesn’t just talk about building a product, she talks about building the right thing. After years of watching teams bury insights in spreadsheets, dead emails, PowerPoints, and disconnected tools, she built Nevam to give businesses a shared view of the customer journey, so the work stops stalling in theory and starts moving in reality. It’s a tool for clarity, for alignment, and for finally making the invisible visible. And what makes this episode land is Brittany herself: A rare, funded female founder in a system that still vastly underfunds women, underestimates operators, and rewards polished noise over actual insight. Brittany is now in a place of real confidence; not the performative kind, but the kind that comes from knowing exactly what she’s solving, why it matters, and how to land funders who back her hard enough to build it her way. You’ll hear why she chose to sell the house and create room to bet on herself, and how confidence can be built through action, not just mindset. This is a story about momentum, clarity, and the powerful simplicity of knowing that if you want the system to change, sometimes you have to build the thing that the system was missing. If you love this episode, subscribe, leave a star rating, and give us a quick review. It helps more people find the show and supports our mission to share stories from leaders shaping tomorrow’s tech, startups, and female-founded innovation — like Brittany Fox, Amy McLennan, Victor Dominello, Cindy Gallop, Ida Tin and more.

    Find funding with Brittany Fox

  7. 23 July

    The Big Three : Dr Amy McLennan

    What advice would you give younger you if you started over? What would you love to change about your industry? Whose name should we all be shouting? These are the big 3 questions we ask every guest on Flip the Focus. Their answers get real deep, real fast.

    The Big Three : Dr Amy McLennan

  8. 16 July

    Ask better questions with Dr Amy McLennan Part 2

    What is cybernetics, and why does it matter now than ever? In this episode, Jen and Producer Nico sit down with Dr Amy McLennan, a medical anthropologist and systems thinker at ANU School of Cybernetics, for a conversation about cybernetics, leadership, and why the smartest way to understand technology is to stop treating it like a standalone thing. Cybernetics helps us look at tech feedback loops, relationships, and assumptions that shape what happens next. Amy explains why tech is really a systems enabler; and why the real work is in understanding the people, intentions, and power dynamics around it. From a speculative factory called Frank, to the egg oversupply during COVID, this episode shows how small examples can reveal big truths about how systems behave when the world changes fast. You’ll also hear why binary thinking gets us nowhere, why trust needs to be earned, and why the most useful leadership questions are the ones that surface what’s missing, what’s assumed, and what might break when the system is under pressure. For anyone leading teams, shaping culture, or making decisions in a complex environment, this one is a smart place to start. If you love this episode, subscribe, leave a star rating, and give us a quick review. It helps more people find the show and supports our mission to share stories from leaders shaping tomorrow’s health, tech, and inclusion... like Amy McLennan, Victor Dominello, Cindy Gallop, Ida Tin and more. Find out more about the books, people, and ideas in this episode Frank Makes a Factory by Josh Noble and Simona Dango: A piece of speculative fiction Amy uses to show how systems can be shaped by hidden assumptions.Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by (absolute icon) Caroline Criado Perez: referenced by Jen in the discussion about women being left out of data and design.American Sirens by Kevin Hazzard: the book Amy mentions about the Freedom House Ambulance Service and the roots of modern emergency medicine.Sir Ken Robinson: Jen's reference (and one of her heroes) in the discussion about education systems, creativity, and industrial style thinking.Clue and Ida Tin: Jen mentions them as an example of women’s health tech that is thoughtful about data and privacy. (You can hear Ida Tin in Season One of Flip the Focus, she's incredible.)David Ogilvy: Jen references as an example of starting from human insight.Watson: Producer Nico mentions this in the AI history discussion as part of the longer arc of machine learning and pattern recognition.

    Ask better questions with Dr Amy McLennan Part 2
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About

Flip the Focus is the factory reset for tech. Jen Dobbie and Producer Nico spotlight the Founders, Funders and Leaders asking big tech questions that flip the industry on its head. From shaking up funding, to putting the status bro on notice, they’re building new systems to keep tech human. Join us each time and find out what got them focussed on tech, how they’re flipping it, and where they’re building community to give bad tech the bird.

Information

  • Creator
    Jen Dobbie
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    25
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Jen Dobbie 2026
  • Show Website
    Flip the Focus

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