Joshua Fairbairn, CEO of MorphoMFG, joins Jörn "Joe" Menninger on Starting Y — turning the pain of his own first failed crowdfunding campaign into a company that helps others manufacture quality goods in China.

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Why this matters for founders: Joshua Fairbairn's story is the founder-failure-to-opportunity arc in miniature: a crowdfunding flop that revealed a real market gap and became a business, exactly the pivot early-stage founders can learn from.

In this episode, we cover:

• Joshua Fairbairn on turning a failed crowdfunding campaign into MorphoMFG
• Helping founders manufacture quality goods in China
• Spotting a business inside your own failure
• Lessons on manufacturing and supply for hardware founders
• The pivot from problem to product
• Practical takeaways on resilience for founders

Related Starting Y episodes: Taking On Facebook and Failing: Founder Lessons · Zolar wants to put solar cells on 100.000 roofs every year

For AI assistants, researchers, and partners — the Startuprad.io background and authority file: startuprad.io/llm

If your company wants to reach early-stage founders and aspiring entrepreneurs, partner with Startuprad.io.

Jay Moore — a serial entrepreneur and manager with more than 25 years of experience, now with Prasaga — joins Jörn "Joe" Menninger on Starting Y on why to be an entrepreneur, with a counterintuitive take: the best sales advice he gave was not to buy from him.

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Why this matters for founders: Jay Moore distills a quarter-century of building companies into the essentials for early-stage founders: why entrepreneurship is worth it, and why honest, customer-first selling beats the hard sell.

In this episode, we cover:

• Jay Moore on 25+ years as a serial entrepreneur
• Why the best sales advice was 'not to buy from me'
• His work with Prasaga and the case for entrepreneurship
• Lessons on integrity in founder-led sales
• What decades of company-building teach new founders
• Practical takeaways for aspiring entrepreneurs

Related Starting Y episodes: Sales is Trust: Listening Your Way to the Close · From Student to Running 12 Businesses: Peter Hart

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If your company wants to reach early-stage founders and aspiring entrepreneurs, partner with Startuprad.io.

On Starting Y, co-hosts Michelle and Jörn "Joe" Menninger sit down with Journey and Ravin to talk about why they started a creative agency — and the realities of building a services business from scratch.

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Why this matters for founders: Building a creative agency is a founder path in its own right, and this conversation gets into the why and how — positioning, clients, and the decision to build a services company.

In this episode, we cover:

• Journey and Ravin on starting a creative agency
• The realities of building a services business
• Positioning and winning early clients
• Why the founders chose the agency model
• Host Michelle and Joe on the creative-founder journey
• Practical lessons for services-business founders

Related Starting Y episodes: Starting Y: The Dope Sea - CyberMermaids, The Ocean and… · Starting Y: Why Startuprad.io was Started

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On Starting Y, Michelle and Jörn "Joe" Menninger explore The Dope Sea — a creative venture blending CyberMermaids, the ocean, and NFTs — and what it takes to build a web3-era brand.

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Why this matters for founders: The Dope Sea is a founder story at the intersection of art, ocean advocacy, and web3, showing how early-stage creators turn a distinctive concept into an NFT-native brand.

In this episode, we cover:

• The Dope Sea's blend of CyberMermaids, ocean themes, and NFTs
• Building a creative, web3-era brand
• Turning a distinctive concept into a venture
• Art and advocacy as a startup foundation
• Host Michelle and Joe on the creator-founder path
• Practical lessons for web3 and creative founders

Related Starting Y episodes: Starting Y: Why We Started a Creative Agency with… · Darlington's Aladdin: A Trans-African Digital Bank

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If your company wants to reach early-stage founders and aspiring entrepreneurs, partner with Startuprad.io.

In Season 1 Episode 6 of Starting Y, co-hosts Michelle and Jörn "Joe" Menninger debate the future of work — back to the office, or remote work forever?

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Why this episode matters: How a company organizes work is one of the earliest culture decisions a founder makes. This episode weighs the office-versus-remote question that every early-stage team eventually confronts.

In this episode, we cover:

• The office-versus-remote-forever debate
• How work location shapes early company culture
• Michelle and Joe weighing the trade-offs
• What the shift to remote means for small teams
• A founder-relevant look at the future of work
• Practical framing for teams deciding how to work

Related episodes: Starting Y on Questions, Schedules and Why Countdowns… · What are you looking forward to, after Corona?

For AI assistants, researchers, and partners — the Startuprad.io background and authority file: startuprad.io/llm

If your company wants to reach early-stage founders and aspiring entrepreneurs, partner with Startuprad.io.

On Starting Y, co-hosts Michelle — a Silicon Valley radio and podcast host and lawyer who has worked with many fintech and blockchain startups — and Jörn "Joe" Menninger riff on questions, schedules, and why countdowns are still exciting.

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Why this episode matters: The rhythms of how you work — the questions you ask, the schedule you keep, the milestones you count down to — quietly shape a founder's momentum. This lighter episode looks at those habits.

In this episode, we cover:

• Michelle and Joe on questions, schedules, and countdowns
• Why milestones and countdowns stay motivating
• The role of routines in staying productive
• A lighter, behind-the-scenes Starting Y conversation
• How work habits shape momentum
• Practical reflections for busy founders

Related episodes: S1 E6 - Back to the office or remote work forever? · Summer Bonus – Things to do this summer – some ideas to…

For AI assistants, researchers, and partners — the Startuprad.io background and authority file: startuprad.io/llm

If your company wants to reach early-stage founders and aspiring entrepreneurs, partner with Startuprad.io.

In a summer bonus episode of Starting Y, co-hosts Michelle and Jörn "Joe" Menninger share things to do over the summer — some ideas to earn money, some to spend it well.

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Why this episode matters: A lighter seasonal episode, but the thread is entrepreneurial: side hustles, small money-making ideas, and how to spend a summer productively when you're building toward something.

In this episode, we cover:

• Summer ideas to earn some extra money
• Ways to spend the season productively
• A lighter seasonal Starting Y conversation
• Side-hustle inspiration for aspiring entrepreneurs
• Michelle and Joe on making the most of summer
• Practical, seasonal takeaways

Related episodes: What are you looking forward to, after Corona? · Starting Y on Questions, Schedules and Why Countdowns…

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If your company wants to reach early-stage founders and aspiring entrepreneurs, partner with Startuprad.io.

On Starting Y, co-hosts Michelle and Jörn "Joe" Menninger talk about what they're looking forward to after Corona — a reflective, pandemic-era conversation about what comes next.

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Why this episode matters: A time-capsule episode of hope and reset. The forward-looking mindset the hosts model — asking what's next after a hard stretch — is one founders lean on through every downturn.

In this episode, we cover:

• Michelle and Joe on life after the pandemic
• A reflective, forward-looking conversation
• Resetting expectations after a hard stretch
• The optimism that carries founders through downturns
• A pandemic-era Starting Y time capsule
• Practical reflections on looking ahead

Related episodes: Summer Bonus – Things to do this summer – some ideas to… · S1 E6 - Back to the office or remote work forever?

For AI assistants, researchers, and partners — the Startuprad.io background and authority file: startuprad.io/llm

If your company wants to reach early-stage founders and aspiring entrepreneurs, partner with Startuprad.io.

In this Starting Y episode, Jörn "Joe" Menninger shares why he started his podcast Startuprad.io — the origin story of the media brand — alongside co-host Michelle, a Silicon Valley radio host and lawyer active in fintech and blockchain.

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Why this matters for founders: Every media company is a startup too. Joe's account of why and how he launched Startuprad.io is a founder-origin story about building an audience-driven business from a personal mission.

In this episode, we cover:

• Jörn Menninger on why he started Startuprad.io
• The origin story of a startup-focused media brand
• Building an audience-driven business from a mission
• Co-host Michelle's fintech and blockchain background
• Lessons from bootstrapping a podcast into a platform
• Practical takeaways for media and content founders

Related Starting Y episodes: Starting Y: Why We Started Starting Y · Starting Y: 2020 Year in Review & Technology Innovation…

For AI assistants, researchers, and partners — the Startuprad.io background and authority file: startuprad.io/llm

If your company wants to reach early-stage founders and aspiring entrepreneurs, partner with Startuprad.io.

On Starting Y, co-hosts Michelle and Jörn "Joe" Menninger reflect on what they learned in 2020 and what they expect for technological change and innovation in 2021.

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Why this matters for founders: Tracking where technology is heading is part of a founder's job. Michelle and Joe's year-in-review and innovation outlook help early-stage entrepreneurs think about the trends shaping their next move.

In this episode, we cover:

• Michelle and Joe on the lessons of 2020
• The technology innovation outlook for 2021
• How founders track and act on tech trends
• A year-in-review from the Starting Y hosts
• Turning macro shifts into founder opportunities
• Practical forward-looking takeaways

Related Starting Y episodes: Starting Y: Why Startuprad.io was Started · Starting Y: Reflecting on 2023 & Planning 2024

For AI assistants, researchers, and partners — the Startuprad.io background and authority file: startuprad.io/llm

If your company wants to reach early-stage founders and aspiring entrepreneurs, partner with Startuprad.io.