Shak quit his job, convinced a VC to back him with no business idea, and spent nine months running 800 conversations with financial advisors before building Marloo - the AI doing the actual work inside financial advice firms, now raised $10M and live across seven markets.

For: founders still searching for the right idea, operators thinking about AI and vertical SaaS, anyone who's ever over-engineered their way through uncertainty, people building B2B tools who want to see what real customer discovery looks like.

If this episode helped you, leave a review on Apple Podcasts or follow on Spotify so you never miss an episode. It takes 30 seconds and it's how the next founder finds us.

CHAPTERS

00:00 Intro

01:18 Starting a company without a business idea

02:56 3 lessons from 9 months of market discovery

09:59 What is Marloo?

12:38 The vibe-coded conference demo

15:43 How they got VC-backed before finding the idea

18:40 Pressure, mindset & momentum

19:43 Building across Sydney, London & Wellington

25:29 The mission: making financial advice accessible

29:20 The $10M raise & vision

32:38 Most valuable founder lesson

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ABOUT FOUNDERS IN MOTION

Hi, I'm Thea. I started this series because I wanted to find out how to build incredible companies from the ground up. I work in venture capital by weekday and act as an interrogator during the weekends. If you like this content, hit subscribe, that's the best way to support me and it means more than you know.

Subscribe for the insider playbook on building companies, growth tactics, and founder stories.

📄 Full episode transcript + query the show notes → https://foundersinmotion.tech/episodes/27-shakeel-lala/

Nathan Yun built Paire into an eight-figure brand by doing almost everything the DTC playbook said not to: engineering fabric from scratch, opening a physical store, and turning Shark Tank into a sales channel rather than a funding pitch. This is the story of building an iconic brand from the least sexy product in fashion.

We talk about manufacturing from the yarn up, pricing strategy, the Shark Tank pivot, and why DTC doesn't mean online.

For: consumer brand founders, DTC operators, early-stage product builders, and anyone who's wondered if boring products can build great companies.

If this episode helped you, leave a review on Apple Podcasts or follow on Spotify so you never miss an episode. It takes 30 seconds and it's how the next founder finds us.

FOLLOW US

⁠https://www.youtube.com/@FoundersInMotion⁠

⁠https://www.instagram.com/thea.yaps⁠

⁠https://www.tiktok.com/@foundersinmotion⁠

⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/theango/⁠

ABOUT FOUNDERS IN MOTION

Hi, I'm Thea. I started this series because I wanted to find out how to build incredible companies from the ground up. If you like this content, hit subscribe, that's the best way to support me and it means more than you know.

Subscribe for the insider playbook on building companies, growth tactics, and founder stories.

📄 Full episode transcript + query the show notes → https://foundersinmotion.tech/episodes/26-nathan-yun/

Celeste Amadon left Stanford, cancelled her job offers, and raised her seed round in four days before Known had a single paying user. Her thesis: dating apps aren't broken by accident. They're engineered to keep you swiping, paying, and single.

We talk about the loneliness epidemic and why it's already your problem too, how Known uses voice inference to understand personality beyond what you say, the business model flipping dating on its head, and what it took to raise from Forerunner as a 21-year-old first-time founder.

For: founders building consumer products, anyone exhausted by dating apps, operators thinking about AI and matching problems, people considering leaving school to build.

If this episode helped you, leave a review on Apple Podcasts or follow on Spotify so you never miss an episode. It takes 30 seconds and it's how the next founder finds us.

CHAPTERS

0:00 - Intro & Cold Open

1:13 - Meet Celeste

4:33 - Dating Is a Political Problem

6:50 - Seed Round in 4 Days

8:05 - Pitching Forerunner at 21

11:34 - Why Apps Keep You Single

16:36 - Leaving Stanford

22:13 - The Marina Green Moment

FOLLOW US

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https://www.tiktok.com/@foundersinmotion

https://www.linkedin.com/in/theango/

ABOUT FOUNDERS IN MOTION

Founders In Motion brings you honest, tactical conversations with early-stage founders building companies from the ground up. Hosted by Thea Ngo, the show goes beyond the headlines to reveal the real decisions, trade-offs, and mechanics behind building startups. Past guests include founders from YC-backed companies, edtech leaders, SaaS operators, and global entrepreneurs.

Subscribe for the insider playbook on building companies, growth tactics, and founder stories.

📄 Full episode transcript + query the show notes → https://foundersinmotion.tech/episodes/25-celeste-amadon/

Nam got told to come back in 5 years by major law firms. A year later he was YC-backed, had raised $4M in 48 hours, and was serving some of the biggest law firms in the world. But the harder story is what it took to get there, January in Poland, rejections piling up, a parental deadline looming, and 20 something selling AI governance to people with decades of experience.

We talk about how to sell to the most risk-averse buyers in the world, why their first customer came from a cold LinkedIn comment, what actually changed between YC application #1 and #4, and why speed alone is no longer a startup advantage.

For: early-stage founders, legal tech builders, aspiring YC applicants, anyone who's been told they're too early.

If this episode helped you, leave a review on Apple Podcasts or follow on Spotify so you never miss an episode. It takes 30 seconds and it's how the next founder finds us.

CHAPTERS

0:00 - Intro

5:16 - Selling as a 21-Year-Old

7:07 - First Customer

13:12 - The YC Journey

15:05 - The Fundraising Sprint

18:12 - Hardest Founder Moment

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⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.tiktok.com/@foundersinmotion⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/theango/⁠⁠⁠⁠

Hosted by Thea Ngo, a Wharton grad, venture capital investor, and (your new favorite?) interrogator behind Founders in Motion. Subscribe for the stories that don't make the headlines yet.

Subscribe for the insider playbook on building companies, growth tactics, and founder stories.

📄 Full episode transcript + query the show notes → https://foundersinmotion.tech/episodes/24-nam-nguyen/

I walked into a top consulting firm interview fully prepared and lost the room in 15 seconds. Six months later, same resume, same experience, I got the offer. The only thing that changed was how I showed up.

We talk about reading the room in real time, how to research your interviewer like a journalist, and what to do in the 24 hours after the interview.

For: early career job seekers, career pivoters, anyone stuck in final-round purgatory

CHAPTERS

0:00 - Intro: The Rejection

1:00 - Before the Interview

5:26 - During the Interview

7:30 - After the Interview

FOLLOW US

https://www.instagram.com/foundersinmotion

https://www.tiktok.com/@foundersinmotion

https://www.linkedin.com/in/theango/

ABOUT FOUNDERS IN MOTION

Founders In Motion brings you honest, tactical conversations with early-stage founders building companies from the ground up.

Hosted by Thea Ngo, the show goes beyond the headlines to reveal the real decisions, trade-offs, and mechanics behind building startups. Past guests include founders from YC-backed companies, edtech leaders, SaaS operators, and global entrepreneurs.

Subscribe for the insider playbook on building companies, growth tactics, and founder stories.

Same resume. Same background.

First time: didn't make it past screening.

Six months later: six-figure consulting job in New York.

The difference was five invisible mistakes.

CHAPTERS

0:00 - Intro

1:15 - Mistake 1: Your Story Doesn't Add Up

2:40 - Mistake 2: You're Too Late

3:35 - Mistake 3: Wrong People, Wrong Questions

5:27 - Mistake 4: Bad Relationship Management

7:35 - Mistake 5: You Do Nothing Special

FOLLOW US

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https://www.tiktok.com/@foundersinmotion

https://www.linkedin.com/in/theango/

ABOUT FOUNDERS IN MOTION

Founders In Motion brings you honest, tactical conversations with early-stage founders building companies from the ground up and occasionally tactical career advice. Hosted by Thea Ngo, the show goes beyond the headlines to reveal the real decisions, trade-offs, and mechanics behind building startups. Past guests include founders from YC-backed companies, edtech leaders, SaaS operators, and global entrepreneurs.

Subscribe for the insider playbook on building companies, growth tactics, and founder stories.

Finnlay raised $6M from Accel VC weeks after landing in the US, no deck, no data room, just two pages. But the bigger story is what Fluency is actually building: a platform that maps how work gets done inside enterprises, heading toward AI models that can predict your business before it happens.

We talk about US fundraising, product-market fit vs. the pivot that came before it, and whether AI will displace more jobs than it creates.

For: early-stage founders, enterprise SaaS builders, anyone building with or around AI agents.

If this episode helped you, leave a review on Apple Podcasts or follow on Spotify so you never miss an episode. It takes 30 seconds and it's how the next founder finds us.

CHAPTERS

0:00 - Intro

1:48 - Raising From Facebook Investors

5:51 - What Does Fluency Do?

9:17 - World Models & AI Vision

12:45 - Agentic AI Hot Take

14:23 - The Pivot

17:24 - Tall Poppy Syndrome

20:07 - Unicorn Pressure

21:20 - What It's Cost

22:35 - If You Could Start Over

FOLLOW US

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⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/thea.yaps⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.tiktok.com/@foundersinmotion⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/theango/⁠⁠⁠⁠

Hosted by Thea Ngo, a Wharton grad, venture capital investor, and (your new favorite?) interrogator behind Founders in Motion. Subscribe for the stories that don't make the headlines yet.

Subscribe for the insider playbook on building companies, growth tactics, and founder stories.

📄 Full episode transcript + query the show notes → https://foundersinmotion.tech/episodes/23-finnlay-morcombe/

If you've been sending applications and hearing nothing back, you're not unqualified, you're just invisible. In this episode, why the job application is a dying channel and what to do instead: from crafting outreach that actually gets responses, to having conversations that make hiring managers remember you, to building a personal brand that makes opportunities come to you.

Three concrete strategies, no fluff. For students, recent grads, and anyone trying to break into a competitive industry without starting from zero.

CHAPTERS

00:00: Intro

00:59: The Networking Lie

03:12: Warm Introductions

04:50: Direct Outreach

06:30: Passive Distribution

07:52: Your Weekly Assignment

FOLLOW US

https://www.instagram.com/foundersinmotion

https://www.tiktok.com/@foundersinmotion

https://www.linkedin.com/in/theango/

ABOUT FOUNDERS IN MOTION

Founders In Motion brings you honest, tactical conversations with early-stage founders building companies from the ground up. Hosted by Thea Ngo, the show goes beyond the headlines to reveal the real decisions, trade-offs, and mechanics behind building startups. Past guests include founders from YC-backed companies, edtech leaders, SaaS operators, and global entrepreneurs.

Subscribe for the insider playbook on building companies, growth tactics, and founder stories.

Stephen Turban was two semesters into his Harvard PhD when he got called into a Zoom room and confronted with his own face on the Lumiere website. The ultimatum was simple: PhD or startup. He chose the company. Four years later, Lumiere is 100 people strong and doing eight figures.

We talk about using a startup as an exit strategy from academia, the hidden cost of scattered focus, content tactics that actually work, and why creating belonging matters more than preserving optionality.

For: founders, operators, aspiring entrepreneurs, content creators, anyone building globally

If this episode helped you, leave a review on Apple Podcasts or follow on Spotify so you never miss an episode. It takes 30 seconds and it's how the next founder finds us.

CHAPTERS

0:00 - Intro

1:10 - Derailing his PhD for Lumiere

5:00 - Research to Startup Mindset

6:30 - Focusing on a Niche

9:00 - Ageism, new kid on the block

11:15 - Why not raise money

13:20 - My Biggest Mistake: The Assistant Company

18:00 - Building a Controversial Public Persona

20:59 - Moving to a New Country

25:50 - Online vs Real Life Persona

FOLLOW US

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⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/thea.yaps⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.tiktok.com/@foundersinmotion⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/theango/⁠⁠⁠⁠

Hosted by Thea Ngo, a Wharton grad, venture capital investor, and (your new favorite?) interrogator behind Founders in Motion. Subscribe for the stories that don't make the headlines yet.

Subscribe for the insider playbook on building companies, growth tactics, and founder stories.

📄 Full episode transcript + query the show notes → https://foundersinmotion.tech/episodes/22-stephen-turban/

If I covered your name on your resume, could it belong to 5,000 other people? If yes, you're playing a losing game.

In this episode:

→ Why you're not getting callbacks: You're indistinguishable, not unqualified

→ What signaling actually is: Proving you're already doing the job (just not for them yet)

→ The Signal Equation: Specific + Relevant + Public (miss one = invisible)

→ The 48-hour challenge: How to build receipts this weekend

Best for: Early-career professionals, recent grads, career pivoters who are tired of hearing silence after applications