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. 1 DAY AGO

    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

  2. 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

  3. 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

  4. 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

  5. 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

  6. 9 FEB

    Would You Still Build This If It Took 10 Years? | Riana Shah

    Riana Shah was in second year uni with one unit of Python… and somehow ended up co-founding Dugong Technologies - an AI-powered drowning detection startup designed to flag incidents in real time. And then? When the mission started feeling heavier than the company (and the founders) could carry… she made the call most people avoid: she shut it down. In this episode we get into the messy, real stuff founders don’t post: why “don’t start building” is the most underrated advice (and why everyone ignores it)how she went from YouTube tutorials → MVP experiments → the brutal reality of data + oceanswhy AI isn’t “build once, deploy everywhere” (lake vs ocean = totally different game)the pressure of accelerators, hype, and not wanting to “let people down”tall poppy syndrome in Australia vs the no-ceiling ambition she saw in the USand how she went from feeling like “just an investor” to becoming an operator again with a bigger North Star: building healthcare impact for KenyaIf you’ve ever started something because it sounded cool… then realised you don’t want to spend 10 years of your life on it, this one will hit. 🎧 Listen now and tell me: when do you push through… and when do you walk away? Follow us on all platforms! Instagram ~ @fayltales Tiktok ~ @fayltales LinkedIn ~ @fayltales

    34 min

  7. 2 FEB

    Why Group Trips Never Happen and How Jay Raval Is Trying to Fix It

    If you’ve ever tried to plan a group trip and watched it fall apart in the group chat… this one’s for you. In this episode, I sit down with Jay Raval, co-founder of Troopa — an AI-powered travel planning platform built around one simple truth: someone always ends up doing all the work. Jay walked away from a stable consulting career to build a startup that’s part AI, part collaboration tool, and very human. We talk about what it’s actually like to make that leap — the self-doubt, the imposter syndrome, the messy middle, and the mistakes you only see once you’re in it. We cover: Why quitting consulting “sounded like a stupid decision”The reality of building an AI product (and how expensive APIs get… fast)Why “build it and they’ll come” is a lieUnderestimating marketing and distribution from day oneBeing told by a VC not to raise moneyBuilding in public without becoming a self-help guruAnd why travel planning is emotional, not just logisticalThis is a candid, grounded conversation about startups, risk, and learning as you go, not just the highlight reel. Follow us on all platforms! Instagram ~ @fayltales Tiktok ~ @fayltales LinkedIn ~ @fayltales

    36 min

  8. 26 JAN

    Why Great Startups Still Fail: Timing, Trust, and Knowing What to Do 'Properly'

    What actually kills startups? Sometimes it’s not product… it’s timing. In this episode, I’m joined by Alan Jones: angel investor, startup mentor, ex-founder, and co-manager at M8 Ventures (backing early-stage tech across Australia & New Zealand). Alan’s also the host of Pick My Brain, where founders pitch live and get the kind of feedback that’s equal parts practical and slightly brutal. We talk about: why timing is the variable no one can control (and why it quietly decides so many outcomes)Alan’s “life is a side-scrolling shooter” metaphor (and why it’s weirdly accurate for careers + startups)what he looks for in early-stage founders — and the red flags that make him pausewhy he says he likes to invest in time (not just money), and how relationship-building scales… until it doesn’twhy diverse teams are often more resilient than “perfect” monoculture founder duosthe balance founders need: what to do carefully vs what can be tested fast and messya classic story of moving fast… and sending the wrong cover letters (painful, hilarious, and a real lesson)If you’re building in a world where AI is speeding everything up — this one will make you rethink what you can control, what you can’t, and how to keep moving anyway. Follow us on all platforms! Instagram ~ @fayltales Tiktok ~ @fayltales LinkedIn ~ @fayltales

    59 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
    28
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Fayl Tales
  • Show Website
    Fayl Tales