Fayl Tales

Loveth Ochayi
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Behind every startup success story is a trail of mistakes, pivots, broken plans and brilliant comebacks. Fayl Tales is the podcast where entrepreneurs, founders, investors and early employees share the real side of building something new - the failures that shaped them, the lessons they learned the hard way, and the resilience it takes to keep going. Hosted by Loveth, each episode dives into the raw, funny and honest moments most business stories leave out - so you can learn faster, fail smarter, and feel less alone on your own journey. Follow the show for weekly conversations that prove: failure isn’t the end, it’s part of the story.

  1. 13 HR AGO

    Too Lazy to Do It Himself. So He Built a Company ~ Haobo Zhang

    Hey Crew! Haobo Zhang is 20 years old. He has a full scholarship to study biomedicine at University of Melbourne, 30,000 users on his AI platform, and a very public goal to build a unicorn by 25. He's also on a leave of absence from that scholarship, which is basically just a polite way of saying he dropped out. He's been building since he was 14, and not for the reasons you'd think. It started because he wanted money to buy video games. He wrote novels, sold them online, then hired someone else to write them because he didn't want to do it himself. At 15, he was running a YouTube creator agency while pretending to be an adult because he knew no one would take him seriously. His dad was signing the Shopify forms on his behalf. Now he's building Polarbear, an AI study tool for students, with 1,300 daily active users and a raise coming. But the most interesting thing about Haobo isn't the product. It's his philosophy. He calls himself lazy. And he thinks that's exactly why he's been able to build so much. We get into: - Why being lazy might actually be the founder superpower nobody talks about - How a random Antler hackathon accidentally created Polarbear - Why he markets to students instead of parents and why it works every time - Building a content machine without being a natural content creator - The reality of being 20 and building, the rent anxiety, the sleepless nights, calling 20 parents a day just to cover expenses - What he's had to sacrifice to get here - The unicorn by 25 goal and whether he actually believes it If this one hit, subscribe to Fayl Tales wherever you listen and follow Haobo on LinkedIn. His journey is very much worth watching in real time. Follow us on all platforms! Instagram ~ @fayltales Tiktok ~ @fayltales  LinkedIn ~ @fayltales

    34 min

  2. 30 MAR

    Millie Marconi Left $100K on the Table Because a LinkedIn Post Changed Everything

    Hey Crew! Millie Marconi has been building for 9 years. In that whole time she's had exactly one real job, and it only lasted a couple of months. She's the kind of founder who doesn't wait for permission, which is exactly why this episode hit different. We get into the LinkedIn post that nearly broke her (and ended up building her next company), how she walked away from $100K in revenue because the vision was bigger, and the AI product she built back in 2019 that she dropped, the one that basically became Heidi Health. Millie's current company is TestFeed, a synthetic audience platform for B2B market research. The industry is a $140B one, 70% of it is going synthetic by 2028, and she's already got 3000 people on the waitlist. She just pulled the B2C product and is going all in on enterprise. Raise is coming. But beyond the startup stuff, we talk about building as a neurodivergent person, what it means to be a dark horse, and the Italian grandfather who crossed the world with nothing and became a horse trainer. That part will get you. We cover: - The accidental origin story of TestFeed (a LinkedIn post gone very wrong) - Killing a $100K revenue product to go after something bigger - What synthetic audiences actually are and why B2B is the play - The AI note taker she built in 2019 (before the space blew up) - Her grandfather and the "build with what you've got" mentality #fayltales #founderlife #startuppodcast #buildinginpublic #startupstory  Follow us on all platforms! Instagram ~ @fayltales Tiktok ~ @fayltales  LinkedIn ~ @fayltales

    30 min

  3. 23 MAR

    He Bet His Life Savings on Limoncello and Its Working ~ Stefan Di Benedetto

    Hey Crew! Picture this. You win world's best liquor. You're in Qantas first class lounges. You're in over 500 venues across the country. And you got here by betting every dollar you had on a family limoncello recipe. That's Stefan Di Benedetto's story. Stefan is the founder of Solbevi, the world's first limoncello spritz in a can, born from an Italian family tradition and $300k of his own savings. He quit construction, watched three capital raises collapse at the last minute, ran out of stock before the Formula One, and kept going anyway. We cover: The Saturday afternoon that sparked the world's first limoncello spritz in a canHow he landed Dan Murphy's 9 days after launching by guessing a category manager's emailThree capital raises. Three last minute collapses.The Formula One stock disaster. He ignored his gut and paid for it.How a conversation with a stranger on a Qantas flight led to his cans being served in first class loungesHis fiancée's breaking point after two years of never seeing him and what finally changedWhy his advice to new founders is "don't do it" (and then the real answer underneath that)One of the most entertaining and honest episodes we've had on the show. Stefan is the kind of founder who just makes you want to back yourself. Check out Solbevi and follow Stefan on Instagram. Subscribe to Fayl Tales on YouTube and Buzzsprout, and follow us @fayltales everywhere. Follow us on all platforms! Instagram ~ @fayltales Tiktok ~ @fayltales  LinkedIn ~ @fayltales

    26 min

  4. 16 MAR

    She Quit Corporate, Bought a Vineyard, and Built an AI Company in Tasmania ~ Fiona Turner

    Hey Crew! Picture this: you walk away from a successful corporate tech career, buy a vineyard in Tasmania with your partner, and dream about the simple life. Then the vineyard goes haywire, you're burning through money, and you can't get anyone to come help. Most people sell up. Fiona Turner built an AI company instead. Fiona is the co-founder and CEO of Bitwise Agronomy — an AI platform now operating in 10 countries, with 3 petabytes of berry data (for context, ChatGPT was trained on 1), 89% revenue growth this year, and $5 million raised. All from Launceston, Tasmania. We get into: How a broken vineyard became a $5M AI companyThe pivot from wine to berries and why vineyards just wouldn't payBuilding drone swarms, vine rovers, and sensor networks from scratch with a kids robotics clubRaising capital as a female founder when only 4% of Aussie startup funding goes to womenHaving a baby mid-capital raise while Silicon Valley Bank collapsed (her daughter flew 50 flights in her first year of life)What it actually takes to become the Google of forecastingOne of the most honest, unfiltered conversations we've had on the show. Follow Fiona on LinkedIn and check out Bitwise Agronomy. Subscribe to Fayl Tales on YouTube and Buzzsprout, and follow us @fayltales — fayltales.com #fayltales #femalefounder #agtech #startupaustralia #founderjourneyFollow us on all platforms! Instagram ~ @fayltales Tiktok ~ @fayltales  LinkedIn ~ @fayltales

    47 min

  5. 9 MAR

    "I Was Beyond Poor" ~ Megan Luttrell on Building Aussie Founders Club From Nothing

    Hey Crew! Ok so this one hit different. Megan Luttrell has built Aussie Founders Club into a community of thousands of founders, runs Kairos Recruitment, just launched People Stack, won Victorian Ecosystem Hero of the Year, and landed a $200K grant from Launch Vic. But her first year? She was broke. Like properly broke. She got her partner to pay her to clean their own house just to have an extra 80 bucks a week. She borrowed money from her uncle. She tried a bunch of ideas that went absolutely nowhere. And the wild part is she didn't even think she deserved the Ecosystem Hero award. She literally told people not to nominate her yet. They did anyway. And when they called her name, she had her camera out recording someone else because she was so sure it wasn't going to be her. We get into the stuff nobody talks about when it comes to hiring in startups. Why most founders completely skip thinking about who they are as an employer before they start recruiting. Why culture fit is actually code for hiring people exactly like you. And why your first hires are the most make-or-break decisions you'll ever make. We cover: Why your first startup hires will either 10x your business or tank itThe difference between culture fit and culture contributionHow Aussie Founders Club went from a meetup with a 7-word name to thousands of membersWhy she spent her broke year building community instead of just chasing revenueThe compounding effect of showing up when nobody's watchingHer first startup experience where the CEO was allegedly high on the job and everyone quit on the same dayIf you're hiring, building a community, or just trying to figure out what the hell you're doing as a founder, this one's for you. Follow us on all platforms! Instagram ~ @fayltales Tiktok ~ @fayltales  LinkedIn ~ @fayltales

    27 min

  6. 2 MAR

    The Startup Advice That's Leading You Astray

    If you've ever read a piece of startup advice and thought "that doesn't feel right"... trust that instinct. This one's for you. This is another solo episode. No guest. Just me unpacking the startup advice that sounds great on a LinkedIn post but actually messes people up when they're in the thick of building. I've interviewed a lot of founders over the past year and I kept noticing the same thing. So many of them followed the "right" advice and it led them in the completely wrong direction. Move fast and break things. Your MVP should embarrass you. Passion is everything. Sleep is for the weak. We've all heard them. But when you actually sit with founders who've been burned by this stuff, you start to see the cracks. So I broke down 6 pieces of startup advice that I think are misguided, overhyped, or just straight up wrong depending on your context. We cover: Why "move fast and break things" can destroy trust before you even get startedThe MVP embarrassment myth and why scrappy doesn't fly in 2026Hiring for culture fit vs culture contribution and why echo chambers kill startupsHow passion can actually blind you from fixing your productThe difference between building a business and funding an expensive hobbyWhy hustle culture is a scam and burnout is not a flexFollow us on all platforms! Instagram ~ @fayltales Tiktok ~ @fayltales  LinkedIn ~ @fayltales

    17 min

  7. 23 FEB

    I've Never Talked About My Own Failures. Until Now.

    Ok so this one is different. No guest. Just me. I've interviewed so many founders about their failures and mistakes but I realised I've literally never talked about my own. A few friends and guests have called me out on it too so here we are. I also recap the first ever Fayl Tales Live event at Canva in Sydney, which sold out in four days (still a bit shocked about that). I talk about what worked, what I'd change, and what's coming next with Melbourne. And then I get into my own failure. A sports recovery product I spent months developing with a chemist who just... ghosted me. No contract. No IP protection. Just blind faith that it would work out. Spoiler: it didn't. I cover: How the Sydney event at Canva sold out in 4 days and what the format looked likeWhy I designed the event to feel like friends chatting, not a panelWhat's different about the Melbourne event at Stone and ChalkHow the podcast has pivoted from failed startups only to founders actively buildingWhy self-funding this has been the best investment I've ever madeMy sports recovery product that died because I trusted without a contractThe lessons I should have learned way earlier about IP protectionThis is me being vulnerable for once. More of this to come. Follow us on all platforms! Instagram ~ @fayltales Tiktok ~ @fayltales  LinkedIn ~ @fayltales

    16 min

  8. 16 FEB

    "We Convinced Ourselves the Problem Was Real"... Alex Melocco

    Ok so this one is a ride.  Alex Melocco studied law AND software engineering (overachiever energy), ditched the safe corporate path, and went full send on building startups.  First attempt? A tutoring marketplace that flopped because nobody actually needed it. Second attempt? A calendar app he built with a whole team for months only to find out people were basically like "yeah it's cool... I wouldn't pay for it though."  Brutal. Now he's building Mira, which pulls all your comms (Gmail, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, Slack, the works) into one feed so you can stop losing your mind. And the way they validated it is actually so good.  No demo, no fancy launch. Just a brochure, three promises, and a Stripe link. If you'll pay before it even exists, you actually care. We get into the messy stuff too. Convincing yourself a problem is real when it's not, the awkwardness of shutting something down when your co-founder's livelihood is on the line, why Aussie tall poppy syndrome makes it so hard to just be loud about what you're building, and why he's obsessing over making like 10 people love the product before thinking about scale. If you've ever built something nobody asked for, this one will hit. Follow us on all platforms! Instagram ~ @fayltales Tiktok ~ @fayltales  LinkedIn ~ @fayltales

    35 min
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About

Behind every startup success story is a trail of mistakes, pivots, broken plans and brilliant comebacks. Fayl Tales is the podcast where entrepreneurs, founders, investors and early employees share the real side of building something new - the failures that shaped them, the lessons they learned the hard way, and the resilience it takes to keep going. Hosted by Loveth, each episode dives into the raw, funny and honest moments most business stories leave out - so you can learn faster, fail smarter, and feel less alone on your own journey. Follow the show for weekly conversations that prove: failure isn’t the end, it’s part of the story.

Information

  • Creator
    Loveth Ochayi
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    31
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Fayl Tales
  • Show Website
    Fayl Tales