Georgie Healy 

Hey Millie, thank you for joining in the blink of AI. We’re so thrilled to have you. Can you start us off by telling us a little bit about your day job, what you’re working on?

Millie Marconi 

Thank you so much for having me. So I’m currently the founder and CEO of Yesterday. So every day looks crazily different. Um, so I’m working on, at the moment, our recently launched test feed. So this is our flagship product. Uh, we posted a demo a couple of weeks ago on LinkedIn, and so test feed allows us to analyze content before it’s been published.

So essentially preventing potential reputation damage. We use synthetic audiences to help understand content tone, unintended interpretations, and also showing how your audience will respond to the content as well. So it’s, I guess, pretty exciting technology.

Georgie Healy 

I’m so thrilled. Yeah, I’m so thrilled about this, especially because like, frankly, in the last three to six months, I have forced myself to publish more content, but I have no strategy, no idea. Um, I sometimes get myself into semi hot water even while trying my best and thinking I’m quite aware of what audiences need, and frankly, like being able to have a synthetic audience sounds genius.

So sorry, I cut you off. You were gonna say some more?

Millie Marconi 

Silly. No, so it’s exactly that. So it’s, I guess, a security layer of testing your content before you post. So I think many people feel the exact same as you do. It’s quite daunting posting content and actually being able to run it by some of the…

Being able to run it by a synthetic audience, which is made up of 10,000 users in your target demographic. So yeah, that’s what working on at the moment, 10,000 users.

Georgie Healy 

Users. That’s massive. That’s so good.

Millie Marconi 

So synthetic audiences are really exciting and it’s definitely new technology. But yeah, that’s really what is taking up a lot of my energy at the moment is everything around getting this business off the ground.

Georgie Healy 

Now we will, we will really dive in and finesse and, and ask some very specific questions around your flagship product test feed. But before I do that, what, what are you really excited to focus on in the next three to six months, would you say?

Millie Marconi 

Yeah, so for me I would say a massive unlock is synthetic audiences.

Um, so that’s really where I’m spending a lot of my energy is exploring what’s possible in this space. So essentially it’s democratizing a lot of the previous, quite difficult, um, market research or brand sentiment analysis that was really. Gate kept by a lot of capital, uh, and really only reserved for sort of very big enterprise customers.

So I think there’s a lot to be done in that space, and that’s really what I’m extending a lot of my time to, is how we can democratize, uh, market research, how we can democratize brand sentiment and, and using the application of a synthetic audience, um, in lots of different use cases.

Georgie Healy 

Wow. So it’s not just the, the big rich corporates that can, can get these insights.

Mm-hmm. That’s amazing. Absolutely. Okay, so look, I think you know, anyone that’s been on LinkedIn in the last few weeks will have not, not come past your post. You blew up the last time I looked and it was a week ago. So it’s. Probably way higher. You had 278 comments on your demo for test feed. Can you tell people that somehow were under a rock in the last week and didn’t see it?

What did that demo demonstrate for people?

Millie Marconi 

Yeah, so it honestly went crazy. We’ve had over 800 users sign up to our wait list. Um, so pretty crazy in just a couple of weeks. So essentially the demo was basically a screen chap capture of the product in action. So what it showed is three different variants of content, and then which variant was.

Performed best according to the specific audience that you entered. So the example posts that we created was startup founders, um, and then essentially attract the different metrics across the three different variations of content. And then the winning variant. It showed predicted responses. So anything from.

Positive comments, neutral comments, and then potentially, um, negative or adverse responses as well. So you could really showcase exactly what it would look like to post that content. Um, and also to, I guess, see how that content was perceived with your audience.

Georgie Healy 

I don’t know about you, but the number of times I’ve had people say to me.

I’m too scared to post. Like, oh. It’s just very, it is, it’s daunting to post things online and, and even if it’s a, an, an okay post and it only gets a lukewarm response and you thought it would get higher, um, it’s not just for, you know, not getting canceled. Right. It’s like, how can you maximize the feedback?

Yeah. Millie, how did this idea come to you? Like it, it’s genius now that you mention it, but, but I don’t think I would’ve come up with it personally until I heard about it. So, so where did, where did this idea, when was the inception of this idea?

Millie Marconi 

Yeah, so it’s actually quite a interesting story. Um, it came about from quite unfortunate circumstances.

So about probably four months ago I posted, at the time I had a product and recruitment tech. And so I was posting quite prolifically on LinkedIn around recruitment, anything to do from candidate interview, tips to salary, transparency, you name it. I was creating a lot of content in that space ‘cause I did have subject matter expertise.

Um, having worked in the recruitment sector for a number of years, and I posted something that.

Really, I didn’t intend any offense, um, but it definitely was a post that was perceived very negatively. So within a matter of a couple of hours, it had tens of thousands on its way to a hundred thousand views, uh, sorry, impressions.

It had so many comments, had to turn the comments off, and I was getting bombarded with really, really negative.

Um. Messaging, which again, I completely take responsibility. It was a post that I did not interpret it in the way in which another audience interpreted it. So that really gave me the idea of if I had have run this content by someone, there’s no way I would’ve posted that, or there’s no way I would’ve posted it with the opinion that I posted it.

Um, so it created an idea for, well, what if I could actually simulate. My target demographic and I could simulate how they would respond to the content before I posted it. So rather than running it by a friend or a family member who’s probably gonna be quite biased and understand where you are coming from when you create content, the idea was to, to try and simulate the audience.

So that was, I guess, the seed of the idea. And then from there we just ran with it.

Um, wow. And it was something that I actually did not. Know if it had any legs, but I started showing this brief little demo that we had. It’s just an internal tool.

Um, I started showing it to people and the response was insane.

And I was getting messages saying, can you please, I wanna post this today, can you please, uh, run it through test feed? So it really showed me that there was a viable product there.

Georgie Healy 

There’s a huge appetite for this. So I’m, I’m just noticing for myself, posting more regularly and just getting eyes on what I’m building and what I’m focusing on has given me credibility and it’s giving me opportunities that I never expected, and I’m not even a founder.

So I can imagine for founders, this would be huge. Is that your target audience? Is this is test feed for founders or is it for anyone? Like who, who, who, who’s your main customer going forward, do you think?

Millie Marconi 

Yeah, so I would definitely say a very strong ICP for this product is the founder community because number one, it’s a community I’ve been a part of for years.

And additionally, I do think there’s increasing importance on personal brand for the likes of founders to be able to raise capital, to grow their product, to build in public, and I guess.

Also the importance of managing your reputation as well. So that’s definitely a core ICP. But then we’re also seeing a really strong response from social media managers, content creators, community managers, so anyone sort of in the more B2B social media space.

Um, so those are sort of the two markets that we are really focusing on initially. But I would say for me.

I think it’s always important that you’re building for a community that you’re a part of. Yeah.

Um, and I definitely feel that strong go to market with the founder led community.

Georgie Healy 

I do really feel for you though that, you know, I’m, I’m so pleased that you’re building such an incredible product that people will benefit from, but I’m also kind of sad to hear the circumstances from which it came from.

Does it affect you, Millie, in the way you take risks now? Like, are you now more risk adverse or now that you’ve been canceled, are you kind of like, oh, I survived that. Maybe like, maybe I can take more risks. It didn’t kill me. It made me stronger.

Millie Marconi 

Yeah, it actually has completely transformed the way in which I take risks.

So I’m very much more aware of reputational risks. They can honestly be more devastating, their business risk. Like I truly believe that.

Um, so I wouldn’t say it made me more risk averse overall, but I would say it made me more intentional about what risks to take. So taking bigger swings where I’ve done my homework and being more careful about communication, that might be misinterpreted.

But I do think it also gave me a bizarre sort of sense of freedom. That, you know, regardless, nothing’s gonna be as bad as you think it will be. So, um, trying to be more bold, um, even knowing if something flops. It’s, it is what it is. And I think that’s a big part of the build in public rhetoric as well, is, you know, you, you need to be there to share the wins and losses.

This, this

Georgie Healy 

Really is such an interesting topic, right? Like, you wanna be a founder, you’re gonna need to take risks. I am not a big fan of Zuckerberg, but the whole, uh, build fast and break things. But can we do it in a way where it’s not like. I got canceled for something that wasn’t even worth the risk kind of thing.

Like, like you say, if I’m going to take risks, if I’m going to put myself out there, can it be more educated and worth it? You know?

Millie Marconi 

Definitely.

Georgie Healy 

Look, um, speaking of which, speaking of, you know, taking risks, uh, some people. Seem to choose. Some founders seem to choose the the stealth mode, and I won’t share anything until the products finesse and perfect and ready to launch.

And other people. We had Sam Garvan on the show from Techstars Build in Public. Share your wins, share your failures. You are in the latter camp. Tell me why. Building in public, pivoting in public, um, just putting yourself out there works for you. Millie.

Millie Marconi 

Yeah, so it was something that I wasn’t doing last year definitely, and I think I actually felt quite.

Alienated because I felt like I didn’t belong in the founder space, which I know I belong. I’ve literally been an entrepreneur in my entire career, straight from university. I’ve had one part-time job that lasted an abysmal and out of time she

Georgie Healy 

Needs, she needs to be an entrepreneur.

Millie Marconi 

Um, so I know I belong, but I felt like.

I’m only seeing the hockey stick growth on LinkedIn. I’m only seeing I made a hundred K overnight and I really strongly disagree with that rhetoric. It’s not reflective of what it is to build a business. So earlier this year I decided I really wanted to be a lot more transparent in my founder, a journey.

I was taking it, pretty significant pivot, and I decided I was gonna actually.

Uh, document that entire process. So I really do think creating content is very scary and I completely empathize with that. But I do think there is definitely a need for more transparent content. And as, um, I listened to your interview with Sam, and I think it’s really important the build in public is showing what.

The reality of a day-to-day founder looks like and, and the highs and the lows. And I think we do need a lot more of that. And that’s in this space. And, and particularly for women as well. We don’t necessarily see too many female founders and we don’t see too many female founders building in public. So it’s a really important avenue.

So we can see for younger future entrepreneurs what it looks like to actually, uh, walk the path of a founder.

Georgie Healy 

I couldn’t agree more. I was very briefly a founder, unlike you, Millie, it’s not really in my DNA, um, but you know, I, I had a go at it and I was often asked like, who do you really admire in this space?

And I felt sick because I was like, there aren’t many female entrepreneurs that at the time, and this is maybe 2019, that I could just call upon and say that person, namely because.

Probably I just wasn’t seeing many in the space and they weren’t as public and I would’ve really benefited from seeing someone like you Millie, who was not just sharing the wins and the incredible demos and success, but also like now we’re going for a pivot.

And you know, I’m a non-technical founder. Um, I dunno if you felt the same or if I just wasn’t looking in the right places.

Millie Marconi 

No, I felt the exact same and it’s been really interesting, I think. I changed my LinkedIn to say pivoting in public a few weeks ago, and the amount of messages I’ve had from founders saying, oh my gosh.

I’m having huge issues in the business. I really wanna have a chat or, you know, I feel really seen and, and I’d like to explore this more. It’s been crazy.

Um, and so many startups that look like they are absolutely kicking goals from the outside.

Um, the responses I’ve had to, that has been really interesting.

So I think, yeah, there’s definitely, I felt really like, again, I didn’t belong in a lot of these communities because I wasn’t.

Um, achieving hockey stick growth. So yeah, I think we need a lot more transparency and a lot more showing the reality of, of what it is to run a business. And pivoting is a big part of that.

Georgie Healy 

Yeah, I’m sure you’re inspirational, not just to the women, to the men as well, right? Like, there’s this funny thing where VCs are like, we love backing, you know, uh, serial entrepreneurs, AKA, you have tried businesses many times before and uh, and you know, this is maybe your third or fourth iteration. That’s probably come from failures.

But we don’t wanna see the failures. We just want you to be a serial entrepreneur. Or even, you know, we back founders that that take risk, dream big, blah blah, blah. But then there’s, you know, you see the headlines, right, Millie, where if a startup fails it’s front page news and the VCs front page news and the founders front page news and it’s like, yikes, I don’t wanna be milk.

Millie Marconi 

Yeah, absolutely. And I do also think with that as well, I.

The reason in which, like we see, okay, startups had investment and then startups failed. We don’t really see what’s going on in the middle. And I do think a lot of it is to do with, there is so much, I guess, reputational risk if you’ve raised on an idea and then you are changing the idea based on market feedback, circumstances, technical capability, whatever it is.

Um, so I did, I guess, want.

To really focus on showcasing what the pivot looks like.

Um, and so I think that’s been really eye-opening just from the conversations I’ve had with other people.

Um, because again, there’s something happening between someone raising capital and a business failing or a business succeeding and, and we need to, I guess, see more of, of that path.

Georgie Healy 

You’ve got a very technical product at test feed and you’re leveraging AI and you’re very clear and very open about being a non-technical founder and you’re not the only one. There’s a lot of non-technical founders and it’s incredible time in technology that AI means that we don’t have to be software engineers anymore.

It’s quite an exciting time, but what superpowers do non-technical founders have that maybe, you know, exit last and software engineer founders don’t have, do you think?

Millie Marconi 

Yeah, I would say this is something I’m really passionate about and I think.

Focusing on what you bring to the table is an unfair advantage.

Now we have the barriers to enter on the technology side, uh, completely diminished what they were five, 10 years ago.

Um, so now building isn’t necessarily the biggest pain point a business will have. It’s distribution, and it’s also the human side of the business. So as we.

Democratize different skill sets with ai, we’re gonna need that human-centric, uh, focus.

So what does your unique skillset look like? How are you showing empathy with dealing with your customers? How are you communicating? How are you building community? Those are all really important skill sets, and I think now more than ever, we need to focus on those.

So I think being a non-technical founder, and if that’s really within your core suite of skills.

Harness that to the best of your ability.

Um, and additionally, I also think something that’s taken me a while to learn is that the naivety of being a non-technical founder can actually be quite an advantage. So I.

I know, very controversial figure, but Elon Musk is really quite famous for basically not accepting that different challenges with SpaceX or what have you, were completely impossible.

And it was that resilience to continue, continue, continue to lead to incredible successes. And I think sometimes something that I’ve learnt over different businesses that we’ve had, where I’ve had technical co-founders is.

Sometimes understanding how difficult it is to create the product and bring the product to market can actually be a negative.

Um, I think there’s almost a level of naivety where it’s just, okay, let’s, let’s persist, let’s be resilient. Let’s overcome that hurdle.

Um, and I can see the vision and I want to create that product. So yeah, I think that’s actually an incredible, uh, win for a lot of founders.

Georgie Healy 

Great call out. Uh, it makes me think of the Steve Jobs versus Steve Wozniak of it all.

So everyone’s obsessed with Steve Jobs. He’s a non-technical founder. He would dream up these amazing products, um, and also maybe a controversial figure. The Steve Wozniak was the, the engineer behind the scenes. But, but most people don’t even know who Steve Wozniak is. Mm. And its like absolutely. Uh, yeah.

Yeah. Okay. So. I’m a non-technical founder. I have an incredible idea, but it needs to leverage AI. Millie, what do you suggest to those founders and can you maybe give us a little peek behind the curtain, how you integrated AI or technology into test feed and into Yesterday?

Millie Marconi 

So for me, AI is a huge part of my focus every single day.

I’ve been an early adopter of AI, obviously a non-technical founder, but I really do keep abreast of different AI tools, and I think that’s really important. That’s almost a non-negotiable for any founder, whether technical, non-technical, and even if the business is not predominantly in the AI space as well.

So I would really say, I guess. Focusing on the distribution piece and focusing on where you can, I guess, leverage your abilities to create a really successful product. So whether that be okay, we’re gonna do so many user research interviews that we know every single thing about this product and about.

Um, what our customer needs so that then when we do work with a technical partner, we have a very clear idea of exactly what we want. We’ve done all of the groundwork. I think a mistake that I’ve seen a lot of non-technical founders make is they don’t necessarily understand the path to actually build that product.

They don’t know their customer well enough, and then. Managing cash flow, managing the actual technical production is really quite challenging. Um, so that’s something that I’ve learned very much the hard way. Yeah. Um, in addition, I have an amazing technical team to, to support me. So I am very much focused on upskilling as much as possible and learning as much as I can about the product as much as I can about product management.

So, um, yeah, I will never. Pretend that I’m technical, but I do definitely try my best to understand the product and understand, um, what’s happening in the backend as well. It was actually a quote from Zoe Foster Blake. Yeah. When it was to do with finances in go-to, and it was like, um, if she was sitting in an interview with.

The CFO and the CTO and whoever from GoTo, which went on to be acquired for $80 million. She said it’s no longer cute to not know your financials. And I think it’s the same with technical side of things. It’s really not cute. You need to be across the business and I think any business that is, I guess, seeking investment as well, it is going to be a big part of the thesis of raising is, is understanding the backend of the product.

Georgie Healy 

I just Googled, um, Zoe Foster Blake built $177 million company, which is the Go-To that you mentioned. She’s got a net worth herself for 36 million. So, uh, yeah, it’s no longer cute to not understand your product, Millie. I love that. Um, so it sounds like you, you, you are across your product and you know how to.

Provide direction to your technical team because you’ve got that insight about your customers and your product. That’s a really great way of positioning it. But you also don’t just fully switch off when it comes to technical and go, oh, I’m not technical, or I’m not gonna listen.

Millie Marconi 

Definitely. And I think also leveraging AI tools to learn AI tools is really important.

Georgie Healy 

Oh, what are you playing with? Yeah. What do you like to use?

Millie Marconi 

I, um, so I am big on cursor, so really playing around with the product. Um, again, I’m not at all. I’m good enough to ever take a product to market my myself, but I will always be continuing to learn and I think, um, there are so many tools available to us, lovable, and there’s so many great resources.

Well, you’ve playing

Georgie Healy 

With that I was in a nail salon on recently. Um, you know, I’ve got. I’ve got many diverse skill sets. One is multitasking and I downloaded the lovable app and I was trying to get it to create a map of, um, like medieval sites across the world. Um, and that’s the task I was giving it while I was in the nail salon.

I, I love hearing what other people are using. Have you ever like used AI just for completely silly stuff like that because that’s, I think predominantly what I use AI for.

Millie Marconi 

I use it genuinely for absolutely everything. Yeah. And I, again, my partner is a CTO of a, um, a startup, and he’s a developer, so I think he also has introduced me to AI.

Early days. We use it for absolutely everything. I use it as a therapist. I use it as yes, and I actually have shown people who actually work in psychology. This is basically, again, this, it’s absolutely not recommended, but you know, it does really democratize a lot of these traditional, expensive avenues that aren’t necessarily available to someone.

The support that they need when they need them. So, um, yeah, I think it’s fantastic. Absolutely every element.

Georgie Healy 

I recorded an episode recently where I kind of put my foot in my mouth in a major way and I was just spiraling over this really. Silly comment I made to bring it back to like getting canceled. I was terrified.

Just a very silly sexist comment that I really, uh, just didn’t even expect to have said, come outta my mouth. Like, what was that? And, uh, I, I chose to release the episode because the founder handled it in such a beautiful, eloquent way and I used check GPT being like. I can’t stop stressing about this comment I made and it was so helpful. It was so helpful. It was like, first of all, we all make mistakes and it just really talked me through it. It was really helpful.

Millie Marconi 

Absolutely. Yeah. It’s honestly a game changer. I think there also the, and this is particularly big in the recruitment tech space, is the delineation between people in, say big companies that the use of AI is.

Is throttled and then say startup founders, there’s a huge divide. So I think it’s actually quite interesting seeing the adoption of AI in different communities.

Um, ‘cause I think sometimes it does feel a bit of a bubble and the use case in which I use it in. Yeah, friends in the startup space use it compared to some of my friends who work in corporates.

It’s so insane to see the difference. So I think also something I’m very passionate about is micro SaaS. So small bite-sized products that are easily usable, um, and they don’t require any technical skillset. I think that has huge, uh, advantage to mass adoption as well.

Georgie Healy 

I, I am, I’m fascinated to hear what you are noticing because listeners of this show are a real mix.

We’ve got Yes. Uh, a ton of founders that listen, and founders are often at the, the coalface of innovation and using the AI tools first, but we’ve also got a lot of professionals that listen to the show that are increasingly being told and are using AI tools, but it.

But yet, I’m curious what you are noticing with the corporates versus the, the entrepreneurs perhaps.

Millie Marconi 

Yeah, it’s really interesting. I would say a lot of companies that I have spoken to as there should be, there’s parameters around how they can use AI in their workforce.

Um, but I also think the appetite to use AI outside of work really needs to be there. ‘cause I am definitely aware of. A growing divide about how certain sectors of the market are using AI and certain sectors aren’t.

So I think that’s gonna be increasingly important. I was actually talking to a family member who’s, um, at university at the moment. He was asking me, what should I do? He wants to get into business. And I said, start playing. Literally start playing every single AI tool. Teach yourself cursor, teach yourself, um, every single tool.

Yeah. On the market. And I think it’s really important because that really opens up so much more.

Georgie Healy 

I love the wording you used too, like play. I agree. Like. If we take it as like a, um, this is e-learning, people are gonna really quickly switch off and feel not only kind of, it’s a chore, but also a little bit perhaps overwhelmed.

Like there’s so many different AI tools and I completely get it, that even for some like. An LLM, well do I do track GBT or Gemini or, um, clawed or like, there’s so many out there and, and then I’m hearing about deep seek that, that the headlines are telling me that, um, it’s dangerous to be using these products.

Mm-hmm. I get why people are overwhelmed so nearly. Oh, absolutely. What should they use? What, what, where would you start? Or even like a top three products that you can have fun and you can play and don’t upload company documents, but at the same time, like, let’s, let’s kind of have fun here and, and remember that this shouldn’t be a chore, you know?

Millie Marconi 

I. Actually, because of my previous life working in executive headhunting, I actually now have quite a few candidates that I’ve become quite friendly with, and I actually have conversations with quite a few of them who are looking to start their own businesses, and I’ve created a few. Documents that basically show them exactly how to set up the projects in Claude and how to do a deep research project in Gemini.

So I would say really what my advice to those budding founders are. So for example, I have a friend in Tokyo who is starting a travel agency, and so for her, I said, yeah. Claude and I showed her how to use it. I created a prompt that basically helps her create prompts. So then this sort of prompt engineering, um, barrier to using Claude is, is diminished.

So, um, Claude and then Gemini. Deep Research I think is fantastic. I use that multiple times a day, whether it’s researching different companies, researching random things about whether spaghetti was invented in China or.

Oh, that’s so awesome. Thank you. That’s

Georgie Healy 

So awesome. Yeah, I love that. I love it. And also it highlights, you know, it depends on the task, but at the same time, guys, you don’t have to know all of them.

You get told her, use Claude for this. I’m gonna give you this use case. I’m gonna help you with the prompting. And then use Gemini for the deeper research, the the reports, the insight that need more. Content and more unpacking and time for it to, to do the inference. But you don’t have to do all of them guys.

Like you’re gonna overwhelm yourself.

Millie Marconi 

Definitely. Definitely. Yeah. I think just start small. Start with whatever you have available to you, free plans, and just play. Like, I really do think that’s the biggest unlock.

Georgie Healy 

Uh, I keep hearing that Claude is the best LLM because it’s, uh, the tone of voice is very like human-like and conversational.

Would you agree I is that fair? Or why? Why did you suggest Claude?

Millie Marconi 

I love Claude, so I pre, they just announced and philanthropic just announced unlimited, so it’s like.

I think it’s $200 a month. We were previously paying for multiple licenses each. Mm. We’d have to, we’d hit our, um, limit and then we’d log out and then log in on a different, so this is awesome.

Georgie Healy 

You’re an AI household, so it feels like, like the old days of the dial up internet almost, you’re like, oh no, but I need to make a phone call. That’s awesome. Yeah. I need to play with Claude more.

Um, I have downloaded on my phone. I like the tone of voice a lot, but yeah, I’ve loved deep research for even silly stuff.

Like I’m going to Europe in June and it’s a very quick whirlwind trip, like two days in a row. Three days in Paris, two days in South France, and I’m like, I don’t wanna miss, like living in Australia. It’s a very short trip. I really wanna maximize my interests and not coming home and being like, oh my God, we spent so much time doing this thing that I don’t wanna do.

I’m not much of a foodie, for example. So I’m like deep research. My perfect itinerary based on my interest is like, imagine how much time that would take me normally. Right?

Millie Marconi 

Yeah. It’s honestly game changing.

Georgie Healy 

Thank you for, for nerding out on AI tools with me for a second.

Um, I can’t have you on the show and not ask you about something that I find very much black box, which is a very nomadic lifestyle. You, you, I don’t know if this is a cringe term. You’re a bit of a digital nomad. Every time I call you, your last time I spoke to you like two weeks ago, you were in Vietnam, now you’re in Tokyo. You’re gonna be in Sydney shortly like. Tell us, first of all, when this started, and second of all, why, why do you have such a nomadic lifestyle, Millie?

Millie Marconi 

Yeah, so we started traveling my partner and I, two and a half years ago. And essentially we moved out of our rental and just decided, let’s just try a month away. And we very quickly fell in love with it. And from there it’s really just spiraled. So for us it’s I guest, I. The change in environment I think is so inspiring.

We’ve met so many amazing people and we’ve met this really great community of people doing the same thing. Really? Yeah. We’ve met, like, we met this amazing man in a circle last year who’s in his sixties, who’s been traveling for six years. And he has a map of the world with every single city. It shows the precipitation overlaid with the temperature and you’ll move accordingly to the, yeah.

Amazing. So we met, oh my gosh, so many great people, um, that have really made us feel like challenged our thinking, challenged, I guess our sense of. Stability and, and what I guess success means to us. So yeah, it’s been really fantastic.

Um, we, we will definitely be traveling till the end of this year. Wow.

Um, but yeah, I think it’s, it’s really, it’s such a privilege and it definitely has trade offs, but it’s also, I think for an entrepreneur. It’s opens you to such a broader sense of, I guess, lifestyle and, um, solutions and problems and how different cultures approach businesses. So it’s, it’s been really, really fantastic.

Georgie Healy 

All right. Don’t tease me. What are some of the downsides? Any funny stories?

Millie Marconi 

Not necessarily a downside, but recently we were in Vietnam and we had a couple of work meetings and it was obviously a cultural thing. We were meeting a couple at 2:00 PM and they texted us before we arrived saying, just letting you know we have to leave by 9:00 PM.

This was meant to be a coffee catchup, and that originally freaked me out. I’m like, how can I possibly feel? Seven hours of conversation? And we quickly learned, it’s a cultural thing. It’s basically like respect for someone coming to visit your country and meeting in person. And it was just this amazing experience and we.

Had this fantastic day and it actually happened a second time as well. And it just really showed me, I guess, what we perceive to be so normal in our little, I guess, rushed, you know, one hour sit down, coffee catch up.

Um, it, it’s just really. Expanded my thinking.

Um, I think exponentially, but I would say that is

Georgie Healy 

Insane.

Yeah. But in the best possible way. Like I feel like in Sydney, if someone puts an hour block in my calendar for coffee, lunch, a meeting, I’m like, an hour, can we get this done 20 minutes? Like what, what’s the agenda items? Yeah, absolutely. And it is kind of like, absolutely. Why are we, why, why is that the only way to conduct Yeah.

Conversations definitely. Wow. And what about the upsides? Mm-hmm. Like I know the upsides in terms of travel. I love travel. I’m obsessed. I can, I can imagine. It’s great. But what, what’s something that people might not be aware of? That’s another upside

Millie Marconi 

I think the network, so I originally was thinking we would feel quite disconnected from Yeah.

Particularly the Sydney startup space. But it’s been completely the opposite. I feel like now I have this global network of like, I had a friend who’s from Atlanta who lives in Japan, connects me with an investor in the US last week. Oh my gosh. Like it’s just been this amazing.

Sort of melting pot of people who all sort of similar minded, um, that are really interested in exploring different cultures but also working.

And it’s very, I guess, friendly to startups. ‘cause obviously we don’t have the routine of a nine to five in the office.

Um, so yeah, I would definitely say the community side has been amazing.

Georgie Healy 

That is incredible. I would not have expected that. I definitely would’ve assumed I felt lonely in those circumstances, so That’s amazing.

Uh, before we get to our fun rapid fire part, um, any tips for founders that are just like, oh, but my whole life is in Sydney and, you know, I just don’t know what, how I would do it, where I would do it? What’s the Nomad Light version? What would you suggest if they wanted to just dip their toe and try it?

Millie Marconi 

Yeah, I would really say just start with four weeks while you are working, so go somewhere for four weeks and don’t change your work routine because that actually gives you a true indication of what it means to, I guess, travel and work. We really only get, I get one day where we’ll see the city on a weekend, maybe a Saturday, and we work every other day.

So it’s definitely not Wow. The same as traveling. Yeah, so I would say try that and see if you like it because.

There is a lot of instability, there’s a lot of changes, there’s a lot of disruption. So it definitely has to be something that you are interested in. I know for example, my sister, who is a biomedical engineer, she loves travel, but she loves to go on holiday.

Um, and I think for me, I don’t like a holiday. I don’t like time off. I like having this sort of structure of work.

Georgie Healy 

You love the six day work week. That is su such a great take. It reminds me of, you know, when I went to London as a holiday, very different city to living in it. Like I remember being like, why is everyone so cranky and mad here?

Anyway, I’m gonna go to the museum for free and the art galleries for free and like dah, dah, dah, dah, dah. And then when I lived there for three years and the rent is so high and the weather’s so shit, I’m like, oh, this is different. My holiday.

Millie Marconi 

Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. That’s spot on.

Georgie Healy 

Okay, we’re at my favourite part of the interview where we do a fun, spicy rapid fire.

But this is the first time I’ve ever done something a little bit different. I thought seeing we have you and your incredible Test Feed product. I’m gonna share six cringey social media posts. Mostly Twitter posts or X posts that have come from either Elon Musk or Donald Trump, and you have to guess who it was from.

Are you ready? Okay. I’m Ron. Number one. Sorry, losers or haters, but my IQ is one of the highest. Who’s that? That,

Millie Marconi 

That has to be Trump.

Georgie Healy 

It was Trump. Well done. Okay. The concept of global warming was created by the Chinese in order to make our manufacturing non-competitive. That also has to be true. That’s true.

Millie Marconi 

Well done, well done, you know your content. Tesla stock price is too high in my opinion.

Millie Marconi 

I. That was Elon and I know because it led to potential fraud. Charges was a huge story at this time. Yeah. And the

Georgie Healy 

stock market crashed fucking hard like after he did that. What an idiot. You need a Test Feed.

Millie Marconi 

I think that’s Trump.

Georgie Healy 

So that was actually Elon Musk talking about Mark Zuckerberg and having a big cage fight. And then he like backed out when he realized that, uh, Zuckerberg was actually up for it. Fun times, but now history haunts

Millie Marconi 

him because he said he was up for it. Not sure how, uh, chops jujitsu is. I wouldn’t trust that.

Georgie Healy 

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, um. This was Elon, too. Elon, so, yeah. Okay. But neither of like, hello. I would really pay money to see it though. I really would. It’s freezing and snowing in New York. We be global warming. That’s gotta be Trump. It’s. Trump. Well done.

Millie Marconi 

Well done. One done for a moment there. I forgot which crazy white dude I was thinking of in my mind. Yes, you’re right. It was Trump. He wanted global warming. That’s a good one. And the last one, masculine energy, I think is good. Corporate culture sort of swung towards being this somewhat muted thing. Who’s that?

Georgie Healy 

Okay, so the original was Zuckerberg. Okay. Yeah, you caught me. That was a trick question. Oh, there you go, Zuckerberg, you’re like, they’re all saying it now, or

Millie Marconi 

I actually made, made a LinkedIn post about that. That was, yeah, an interesting time.

Georgie Healy 

Really. We need to link that in the show notes. Okay. Producers, can you link Millie’s LinkedIn post on that on the show notes?

Thank you so much. Look, I think they all need a Test Feed. Um, thank you for playing that game with me. Millie, you’ve been such an incredible guest. Absolutely love this chat. Kind of forgot that we were recording ’cause I was having so much fun. What would you like to shout out to the listeners? What do they need to know?

Millie Marconi 

Uh, join the wait list for Test Feed. Product will be live in about one to two weeks, which I’m quite excited about. Um, and I’m doing like updates via email on the product development as we go. And additionally, I’d really like to shout out, I guess, female founder community. We know the stats about VC-backed female founders.

It’s abysmal. So I think we really need to do as much as we can to champion and support budding entrepreneurs, um, and make the space more inclusive for female founders. And I know Georgie, you’re obviously doing amazing work in that space, so thank you.

Georgie Healy 

I want more female founders on the show. Um. So reach out if you’re building with AI, I would love to have you on the show and let’s, you know, embrace the building in public, the non-technical AI founder Mil.

You are such an exceptional, you know, guiding light in this space and I really appreciate having you on the show. Thank you so much for sharing behind the scenes insights, and I’m so pumped for Test Feed. I’m on the, I’m on the list. I can’t wait. I, I produce a lot of content. I need help. I. So thank you so much.

Millie Marconi 

Thank You