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Series

2D AGO

How to Pick Pre-Seed Winners Before There's Any Data

Episode SummaryIn this 101 episode, Cheryl and Maxine go deep on the fundamentals of pre-seed investing, from how the stage came to exist to why the perceived risk gap between pre-seed and seed is much smaller than most investors think. They break down the history of how venture stages evolved from single rounds to alphabetized series, how seed investors eventually got pushed up the stack, and why pre-seed emerged around 2017 to 2019 as a distinct category. They unpack why PitchBook's definition of pre-seed as "whatever the investor calls it" muddies the water, how seed preempts from larger funds are inflating average valuations, and why thinking in risk stages rather than round labels is a better framework for evaluating early companies. You'll also hear why graduation rates from pre-seed to seed don't support the idea that pre-seed is two to three times riskier, why the Australian ecosystem is sitting on a talent surplus with a capital gap at pre-seed, and why this stage is particularly well suited for angels building diversified portfolios of 20 to 40 companies. Cheryl shares her framework for evaluating pre-seed opportunities through the lens of problem pain, frequency, and market size, and Maxine walks through how to think about return profiles, dilution, and valuation at a stage where there are no outputs to measure. Time Stamps00:00 Intro 01:56 – A brief history of venture stages: how pre-seed became a thing 07:14 – Why round labels are broken and risk stages are a better framework 09:23 – Seed preempts: how big funds are blurring the line between pre-seed and seed 11:48 – Is pre-seed actually riskier than seed? The case that it's not 16:41 – Graduation rates: what the data says about pre-seed to seed conversion 22:59 – Valuation dynamics: what pre-seed rounds look like in Australia vs the US 28:36 – Why Australian founders are leaving for the US at pre-seed and what that means 31:29 – How to evaluate pre-seed companies: inputs over outputs 35:05 – Cheryl's pain framework: frequency, intensity, and willingness to pay 38:28 – Why pre-seed is the best stage for diversifying who gets funded 43:44 – The AI revenue problem: why getting in early matters more than ever Sponsors:First Cheque 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 First Cheque is part of Day One.Day One helps founders and startup operators make better business decisions more often. To learn more, join our newsletter to be notified of new First Cheque episodes and upcoming shows. This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp Spotify Ad Analytics - https://www.spotify.com/us/legal/ad-analytics-privacy-policy/

2d ago

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47 min
02/09/2025

Scaling Sustainability: How Enaxiom is Driving Industrial Change with HydroCOOL

Episode Summary💧Revolutionising Water & Energy Savings in Industry – Mick Liubinskas dives deep with Tia Collings, co-founder of Enaxiom, to uncover how hardware innovation is transforming industrial water and energy usage. Tia shares Enaxiom’s mission to reduce water and energy consumption across industries like mining, data centers, and green hydrogen production through their breakthrough technology, HydroCOOL. Discover how her journey from sustainability consulting to hardware entrepreneurship led her to co-found Enaxiom with engineer Bijan Rahimi, and why they believe building better products is key to driving climate-positive change. From navigating risk-averse industries like mining to tackling the rapid growth of data centers, Tia explains how Enaxiom balances commercial value with environmental impact. Plus, learn how regulations in the EU and Asia are accelerating demand for sustainable industrial solutions, and why Enaxiom is gearing up for global expansion in 2025. 💡 Tune in to explore hardware’s crucial role in climate tech, the challenges of scaling globally, and why sustainable solutions must make financial sense to drive real impact! Time Stamps00:00 – Introduction: Meet Tia Collings from Enaxiom and their mission to save water & energy 00:27 – What is Enaxiom? The tech behind HydroCOOL and its industrial applications 01:46 – From Antler to entrepreneurship: How Tia and Bijan co-founded Enaxiom 03:57 – Why hardware innovation is key to climate solutions 06:16 – Building better products: Saving money and the planet 08:42 – Tackling mining vs. data centers: Navigating slow vs. fast-moving industries 12:04 – Balancing venture funding with self-sustaining sales growth 13:10 – Data centers' growing water & energy crisis: How Enaxiom is stepping in 16:41 – The global expansion roadmap: Piloting in Australia and scaling abroad 18:56 – Why EU regulations and U.S. market size both matter for climate tech 22:07 – Enaxiom’s 2025 goals: Scaling technology, closing funding, and growing the team 23:46 – The challenges of building a hardware team in climate tech 25:46 – The inevitable transition to net zero and what it means for businesses 28:52 – When will climate tech become the norm? Predictions for the next decade 32:17 – Advice for future climate tech founders: Validate fast and build better Resources Mentioned🔗Enaxiom – Learn more about HydroCOOL and their industrial solutions 📊Gartner Report – On data center growth and sustainability challenges 🌍EU Data Center Regulations – Mandating energy and water efficiency 🌱Climate Salad – Supporting climate tech founders and startups globally 🌍 Ready to discover more innovative climate tech solutions? Here's what you can do: ▶️ SUBSCRIBE to never miss an episode featuring amazing founders solving climate challenges! → / @climatesalad. . 🎧 Follow The Mix on your favorite podcast platform to listen on the go → https://the-mix-fm.captivate.fm/listen📧 Visit dayone.fm/shows/the-mix/newsletter and sign up for our newsletter to have these stories delivered straight to your inbox 🔄 Share this episode with others who care about climate innovation! --- The Mix is part of the Day One podcast network - dedicated to founders, operators and investors building a better tomorrow. 🌐 Website: https://dayone.fm/ The Mix is powered by Climate Salad. Join the Australian Climate Tech Community. Together, we help Australian companies build innovations to solve global environmental problems. 🌐 Website: https://climatesalad.com/ This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp Spotify Ad Analytics - https://www.spotify.com/us/legal/ad-analytics-privacy-policy/

02/09/2025

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37 min
05/04/2025

How Pocket Sun Built SoGal from Angel Checks to Institutional Fund

Win $2,000 in credits with the Day One Network — take our 2-minute audience survey before 30 June: dayone.fm/survey Episode SummaryPocket Sun is the Founding Partner at SoGal Ventures, the first female-led, millennial VC firm investing in the future of living, working, and staying healthy. In this episode, she shares how she made her first angel investment at just 24, and how her early bets like Everly Health and Lovevery reflected a conviction in underrepresented founders well before it was a trend. Cheryl and Maxine explore how Pocket launched SoGal’s debut fund, built a deal pipeline through global pitch comps and community, and mastered the art of getting onto oversubscribed cap tables. They also unpack her consumer investing thesis, how she’s navigating fund two with more geographic focus, and what it means to lead recaps and board restructures when the power law turns brutal. For anyone curious about building a fund from scratch, going global with limited resources, or backing change-makers the market misses, this episode is packed with both tactics and courage. Time Stamps00:00 – Pocket’s first angel check: $1K into an AI startup 05:30 – Angel investing isn’t just for the ultra-wealthy 09:45 – From building a global pitch comp to proving LP credibility 14:20 – Early wins: Everly Health, Lovevery, and chasing allocation 23:35 – “Land and expand”: getting on cap tables and earning super pro-rata 27:10 – Leading recaps and fighting for underestimated founders 35:00 – SoGal’s thesis: The future of living, working, and staying healthy 40:30 – Entering new verticals without prior expertise 46:00 – Pocket’s take on the Vancouver vs. Toronto startup ecosystems 53:00 – Betting on design-led, intentional consumer businesses 59:10 – Why consumer startups often graduate into enterprise giants 01:03:00 – Pocket’s Big Cojones moment: moving solo to the U.S. at 18 Resources🙋‍♀️Pocket Sun on LinkedIn – Connect with Pocket and follow her updates. https://www.linkedin.com/in/pocket 💰SoGal Ventures – A VC firm backing diverse founders in the future of living, working, and staying healthy. https://www.sogalventures.com/ Sponsors:First Cheque 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 First Cheque is part of Day One.Day One helps founders and startup operators make better business decisions more often. To learn more, join our newsletter to be notified of new First Cheque episodes and upcoming shows. Mentioned in this episode: Deel x PX_Script 1 FC Vanta Ad March 2025_02 FC Vanta Ad March 2025_02 This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp Spotify Ad Analytics - https://www.spotify.com/us/legal/ad-analytics-privacy-policy/

05/04/2025

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1h 5m
06/08/2025

How Paul Stovell Built Octopus Deploy to $100M by Ignoring Silicon Valley’s Rules

Win $2,000 in credits with the Day One Network — take our 2-minute audience survey before 30 June: dayone.fm/survey Episode SummaryPaul Stovell, founder and CEO of Octopus Deploy, shares his journey from coding side projects in a Brisbane library to building a $100M+ ARR global business in the competitive world of DevOps. Paul reveals how a relentless focus on product excellence, profitability, and customer value enabled Octopus Deploy to scale without relying on constant investor funding, becoming one of Australia’s most successful software companies. He delves into the benefits (and pitfalls) of building with transparency, why he rejected Silicon Valley’s growth-at-all-costs mindset, and how he structured Octopus Deploy for sustainable, long-term growth. Paul also unpacks the personal challenges of balancing family, co-founding with his wife, and maintaining passion for building, plus why he’s still at the helm despite the inevitable burnout moments. If you’re a founder, operator, or investor curious about bootstrapping vs. fundraising, scaling a product-led SaaS, or maintaining healthy relationships while building an empire, this episode is packed with raw insights. Time Stamps02:20 – Building Octopus Deploy: From Brisbane library to $100M ARR 05:00 – Bootstrapping and turning down a $400K early acquisition offer 08:30 – Co-founding with your spouse: Paul and Sonya’s partnership story 12:10 – Creating a contrarian culture: Remote-first before it was trendy 15:45 – How Australia’s startup ecosystem evolved from 2012 to today 20:30 – Becoming profitable from day one: The mindset behind sustainable growth 26:00 – Facing down Microsoft: Pivoting to survive industry giants 31:10 – Why transparency and building publicly were key growth levers 36:50 – Scaling to 100 employees without losing the original vision 43:00 – Raising $172M from Insight Partners (without needing the money) 50:10 – The realities of taking on investors: How Paul views venture capital 57:00 – Navigating burnout and founder stress while scaling globally 01:04:20 – Hiring mistakes, culture clashes, and leadership lessons learned 01:12:45 – Goal-setting without rigid KPIs: Paul’s unconventional strategy 01:22:00 – Personal life balance: Family, renovating classic cars, and keeping perspective 01:29:30 – What’s next for Octopus Deploy: Staying independent and profitable Resources Mentioned🐙 Octopus Deploy – https://octopus.com 📖 Octopus Public Handbook – https://handbook.octopus.com 📊 Octopus Investor Relations – https://ir.octopus.com 👤 Paul Stovell’s LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulstovell 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 to be notified of new Perspective X episodes and upcoming shows. Mentioned in this episode: Deel x PX_Script 1 Mighty Partners_PX_May 2025 Vanta_PX_May 2025

06/08/2025

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1h 39m
APR 15

Autonomous Healthcare: How Everlab is Building AI Doctors

Marc Hermann's dad died of a heart attack in his mid-forties. Fit, healthy, no warning signs. Then a doctor told him 99% of heart disease is preventable. We just don't catch it in time. That conversation became Everlab. Twelve months ago, Everlab had one doctor. Today they have 66. They've built their own patient management system from scratch, landed Bain, BHP and the AFL as corporate clients, and closed one of Australia's biggest seed rounds, $10M USD led by a New York investor who flew to Sydney on Easter Sunday and didn't leave without a term sheet. This week Brendan sits down with Marc Hermann, Australia's leading COO Gillian Findlay, and investor Rohen Sood, all angel investors in Everlab, to get into the real story. How do you hire obsessives, not just smart people? Why did a US fund get it before Australian investors did? And is B2B SaaS actually cooked? Gillian just launched Third Room, a community for the operators who actually scale these companies. Rohen breaks down why the gradient beats the y-intercept every time. And Marc is brutally honest about what it actually looks like inside a fast-growing startup. It's a shitshow. That's the point. Time Stamps 00:00 Trailer, Intro & Guests 02:53 What Even Is Autonomous Healthcare 05:30 Jill & Rowan's Everlab Experience 07:36 Why Marc Built Everlab, The Personal Story 10:27 Sponsor: Vanta 12:05 Inside the Platform: 100 Biomarkers & Minus 8 Years Biological Age 13:14 Why They Built Their Own Patient Management System 17:05 Everything Is Breaking, How Do You Even Start 19:11 Hiring Obsessives, Not Just Smart People 22:54 Referral Hiring & Why Pedigree Is a Trap 24:34 Sponsor: Ten13 Ventures 25:50 Why Marc Quit His Post-Exit Life & Moved to Australia 29:53 Is B2B SaaS Cooked 37:57 How Leftlane Flew to Sydney on Easter Sunday & Left With a Deal 42:42 US vs Australia, Why Local Investors Didn't Get It First 49:27 Safety Culture's US Expansion & The Kansas City Lesson 51:51 Jill Launches Third Room, Community for Operators 55:24 Everlab Corporate: Bain, BHP, AFL & the B2B2C Flywheel 1:03:40 What Does Marc Actually Think of Bryan Johnson 1:05:23 Is AI Killing Junior Hiring 1:07:13 Why Every Founder Needs a Chief of Staff 1:10:54 What a Chief of Staff Actually Does vs a Glorified EA 1:13:35 Why You Should Work at Everlab Oversubscribed is proudly supported by our sponsor Vanta 🦙 Vanta is the all-in-one solution for startups to become compliant quickly and build a security foundation with ease. Startup customers get $1000 off Vanta at vanta.com/oversubscribed The Day One Network Oversubscribed is part of Day One, the podcast network dedicated to founders, operators & investors. Guest Founders: Everlab: https://www.everlab.com.au/ Connect with Marc: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marc-hermann-3132ab5b/ Third Room: https://thirdroom.au/ Connect with Gillian: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gillian-findlay-7a792429/ Enduring Investment Partners: https://www.enduringinvestments.com.au/ Connect with Rohen: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rohen-s-b747a429/ Stay Updated: Listen to the Oversubscribed Podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6rZ9SajGVXkO8oxuvEHAsk?si=I2yR92GgRZa-Fdqbp8T4bw Listen to the Oversubscribed Podcast on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/oversubscribed/id1848789610 Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or financial product. Brendan Hill is an investor in Everlab, Relevance AI and A1Base. About the Host: Brendan Hill is a Venture Partner at TEN13 and an angel investor in Australia’s fastest-growing startups, including Everlab, Heidi Health, Relevance AI and Instant. If you are interested in finding out more about angel investing, connect with Brendan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/itsbrendanhill/

Apr 15

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1h 15m
MAY 4

Closing the Gender Investment Gap with Data with Noga Edelstein

Episode SummaryNoga Edelstein is the lead of the Equity Clear initiative, a not-for-profit effort to get Australian investors tracking pipeline diversity data with a common standard. She's also a former General Counsel at Yahoo, a multi-time founder, and has had her fingerprints across the Australian startup ecosystem for over a decade. In this episode, Cheryl and Maxine unpack why pre-seed funding to women is at its lowest level ever and how Equity Clear is building the data infrastructure to finally see where diverse founders are falling out of the pipeline. Noga shares what the UK's five-year head start has revealed, including that angel groups with at least 15% women invest in 10X the number of women-led companies, and why the mere act of tracking your own pipeline drives better outcomes. You'll also hear how a broken website form accidentally proved that women disproportionately use cold inbound to reach investors, why male founders and LPs should be asking their investors about diversity tracking, and what sport can teach us about leveling the playing field through systemic tweaks like funded childcare for founders. Noga closes with her Big Cojones moment: quitting her General Counsel role at Yahoo with a newborn to go all in on a startup. Time Stamps00:00 Intro 02:27 – Noga's first investment: dollar-mite savings accounts in primary school 10:02 – What is Equity Clear and why pipeline data is the missing piece 14:40 – Why closing the gender gap matters now: productivity, economics, and AI bias 19:27 – Pre-seed funding to women is at its lowest ever despite lower barriers to building 24:44 – Why collecting diversity data feels hard but isn't 28:32 – Lessons from the UK: what five years of tracking has revealed 32:02 – Maxine's accidental experiment: when a broken form hid all the women founders 37:39 – How male founders and LPs can push for change by asking simple questions 48:16 – Why funds are missing a trick on sourcing diverse founders 51:32 – Breaking the archetype: leveling the playing field with systemic tweaks 57:15 – Big Cojones moment: quitting law with a newborn to start a company First Cheque is part of Day One.Day One helps founders and startup operators make better business decisions more often. To learn more, join our newsletter to be notified of new First Cheque episodes and upcoming shows. Mentioned in this episode: Deel x PX_Script 2 Deel x PX_Script 1 This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp Spotify Ad Analytics - https://www.spotify.com/us/legal/ad-analytics-privacy-policy/

May 4

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1h 1m
APR 30

The New Rules of Design (with Andrew Hogan | Head of Insight at Figma)

"Code is getting cheaper. Which means taste is getting more expensive." That one idea from Andrew Hogan reframes everything people think they know about competing in AI right now. Andrew, Head of Insights at Figma, joins Georgie to make the case that features are no longer a moat, and that the companies quietly investing in how their product feels are the ones building something that's actually hard to copy. In this episode they get into why 56% of non-designers are already doing design work, why the job title "designer" isn't going anywhere, and why anyone who's still treating design as a finish-line coat of paint is going to get lapped. They also unpack what agent management platforms actually need to get right, why design matters even more when kids are the users, and what GeoCities taught us about creative ownership that most product teams have completely forgotten. Plus: the prompting-together technique that turns prototyping into a team sport, why "no tech at all" is unnecessarily painful for parents, Andrew's verdict on Australian coffee, and why the golden era of the side project might be the most important shift nobody's naming loudly enough. ✨ Connect with Georgie HealyWeekly Substack: https://georgiehealy.substack.com/ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/georginahealy/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/georginahealytech/ The Day One NetworkIn The Blink of AI is part of Day One, the podcast network dedicated to founders, operators & investors. Sign up to get your weekly insights into the up-and-coming AI startups: https://dayone.fm/newsletter Mentioned in this episode: Deel x PX_Post Intro

Apr 30

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45 min
APR 16

How to Stop Your AI Agents From Breaking with Josh Clemm, VP of Engineering at Dropbox

Win $2,000 in credits with the Day One Network — take our 2-minute audience survey before 30 June: dayone.fm/survey Josh Clemm, VP of Engineering at Dropbox, joins Georgie Healy to cut through the noise and get to what is actually happening with AI agents right now. Josh has scaled engineering teams at LinkedIn and Uber Eats, founded his own AI venture, and is now building Dash, Dropbox's context layer designed to make agents dramatically more reliable. This is someone who has been on the coalface of this technology longer than most. In this episode Josh introduces two ideas that will change how you think about AI at work. Context rot, the reason your large language models quietly get dumber the more information you give them. And work slop, the plausible sounding but completely hollow output that gets generated when AI tools are used without intention. He also delivers the most reassuring reality check of the year for anyone feeling overwhelmed by the idea that everyone already has a fully functioning team of AI agents working for them. They also get into how the index approach behind Dash solves what real time fetching cannot, why the next AI breakthrough might actually come from old fashioned software engineering principles, and the two engineers Josh considers the greatest builders of their generation and why neither of them was asked to build what they built. ✨ Connect with Georgie HealyWeekly Substack: https://georgiehealy.substack.com/ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/georginahealy/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/georginahealytech/ The Day One NetworkIn The Blink of AI is part of Day One, the podcast network dedicated to founders, operators & investors. Sign up to get your weekly insights into the up-and-coming AI startups: https://dayone.fm/newsletter Mentioned in this episode: Deel x PX_Post Intro

Apr 16

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1 hr
04/08/2025

Fixing Fitting Rooms (and Startup Pitches) with Olivya Munro

Win $2,000 in credits with the Day One Network — take our 2-minute audience survey before 30 June: dayone.fm/survey Episode Summary Olivya Munro, founder of Zello Studio, is on a mission to transform fitting rooms with smart tech. She shares how a frustrating shopping experience sparked the idea for Zello, how she turned that idea into a startup, and why retailers are eager to get on board. Alan puts her pitch to the test, offering advice on storytelling, investor questions, and scaling in a tech-resistant industry. Whether you’re a founder refining your pitch or just love a good startup origin story, this episode is packed with insights. Time Stamps1:33 – From fashion dreams to startup founder: Olivya’s unexpected career shift 3:32 – The moment that sparked Zello: a broken fitting room experience 4:22 – 91% of shoppers are dissatisfied—why retailers should care 5:58 – How Zello works: tablets, real-time requests, and upselling 7:14 – The “boyfriend seat” and retail design realities 9:28 – Addressing privacy concerns in the changing room 11:07 – First in-store launch and landing major retailers 13:00 – What makes a great startup pitch? 15:15 – The #1 investor question: progress toward commercialisation 18:41 – Hiring for growth: Who’s the first key hire? ResourcesOlivya Munro's Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/olyvia-munro-2038a6218/ Zello Studio – Learn more about Olivya’s smart fitting room assistant. https://www.zellostudio.co/ Startmate – The accelerator where Olivya pitched Zello. https://www.startmate.com/writing/gen-z-startup-zello-is-transforming-the-140-year-old-fitting-room-experience How to Pitch to Investors – A collection of pitching tips from Y Combinator. https://www.ycombinator.com/library/4b-how-to-pitch-your-company Sponsors:Pick My Brain 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 ___ Galah Cyber offers Application Security Assessment Get a clear, ten-minute snapshot of your AppSec maturity across the five core principles. Fast, practical insights you can act on straight away at https://www.galahcyber.com.au/assess The Day One NetworkPick My Brain is part of Day One, the podcast network dedicated to founders, operators & investors.To learn more, join our newsletter to be notified of new and upcoming shows. The only content we create is content that will help Australian founders. Mentioned in this episode: Deel x PX_Script 1

04/08/2025

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22 min
MAY 7

How to Build a Side Project That Goes Global Before You Graduate with Anna and Viv from Toastie

Episode SummaryAnna Zhou and Vivian Shen, the co-founders of Toastie, join Georgie Healy for one of the warmest and most personal conversations the show has had. Two software engineers at Google by day, they have quietly built one of the most thoughtful health tracking apps in the world by night, all without spending a single dollar on marketing. Toastie was born from a problem they were both living. Anna was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease and handed a few photocopied sheets to figure out the rest of her life from. Viv has been managing PCOS for years, experimenting with medications and diets on her own. They realised the tools available simply were not built for people like them, so they built one themselves. Today Toastie helps users track symptoms, food, body signals, lab reports and scans, surfacing the patterns and irregularities that would otherwise go unnoticed. In this episode they unpack why almost one in two Australians live with a chronic illness but no one talks about it, why slapping AI on everything is the wrong instinct and how they decide which features actually need it, and the cold LinkedIn email that landed them their first global partnership before they even had a product. They also share why ChatGPT and Gemini are not enough when the stakes are this high, what their users actually write to them in the feedback form, and the story of the user who quietly security audited their app and was so impressed they wrote in to tell them. Plus the early hackathon they won by faking the backend in real time, why they call themselves boomers when it comes to social media, the worst startup advice they have ever received, and a special offer just for In The Blink of AI listeners. 🎁 Use promo code ITBOA2026 to get a 90 day free trial of Toastie 🍞 Find your Toastie personality: https://toastie.au/quiz Time Stamps00:00 Intro 02:20 AI Hacks and Life at Google Sydney 07:00 How They Met and Their Hackathon Wins 10:51 What is Toastie and Why It Matters 13:50 The Personal Stories Behind the Product 16:23 How They Use AI (And Where They Don't) 17:37 The Cold Email That Landed a Global Partnership 20:00 Why General AI Models Aren't Enough 23:25 Building, Prioritising and the Competition 25:13 Why They Refuse to Call Themselves an AI Company 27:57 Trust, Security and User Feedback 30:00 Going Viral With Zero Marketing Spend 33:33 Handling AI Hate Online 35:43 Rapid Fire and What's Next 38:45 Special Offer for Listeners In the Blink of AI is made possible by our wonderful partnersDeelFounders 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 ✨ Connect with Georgie HealyWeekly Substack: https://georgiehealy.substack.com/ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/georginahealy/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/georginahealytech/ The Day One NetworkIn The Blink of AI is part of Day One, the podcast network dedicated to founders, operators & investors. Sign up to get your weekly insights into the up-and-coming AI startups: https://dayone.fm/newsletter Mentioned in this episode: Deel x PX_Post Intro

May 7

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41 min

Day One®, the podcast network dedicated to founders, investors, and operators.