Perspective X with Pauline Fetaui 
About Paul Stovell
I'm the founder and CEO of Octopus Deploy. I started Octopus in my spare time in 2011, and today it helps thousands of companies to automate their deployments, and employs 200+ wonderful people. My background is in software development, but the best part of running Octopus is all the different things I need to learn as the business grows.
Prior to Octopus Deploy, I worked for an investment bank building .NET applications, and before that I worked for Readify, an Australian .NET specialist consulting firm. I also worked on a number of open source projects and was an active user group presenter. I was a Microsoft MVP for Client Applications for about 5 years from 2006.
In conversation.
1 episode
Perspective X with Pauline Fetaui Go straight to the good bits.
Key moments from How Paul Stovell Built Octopus Deploy to $100M by Ignoring Silicon Valley’s Rules.
- 2:20Building Octopus Deploy: From Brisbane library to $100M ARR
- 5:00Bootstrapping and turning down a $400K early acquisition offer
- 8:30Co-founding with your spouse: Paul and Sonya’s partnership story
- 12:10Creating a contrarian culture: Remote-first before it was trendy
- 15:45How Australia’s startup ecosystem evolved from 2012 to today
- 20:30Becoming profitable from day one: The mindset behind sustainable growth
- 26:00Facing down Microsoft: Pivoting to survive industry giants
- 31:10Why transparency and building publicly were key growth levers
- 36:50Scaling to 100 employees without losing the original vision
- 43:00Raising $172M from Insight Partners (without needing the money)
In their own words.
“Every customer we have is our investor, because that's how we built the business. If we disappoint our customers, we should be out of business.”
The path so far.
- Now
CEO and Founder · Octopus Deploy
- Earlier
WPF Developer · Investment bank (London, unnamed)
- Earlier · Startup
Developer/Consultant · Readify
Sources: paulstovell.com
Octopus Deploy on Day One
Octopus Deploy sets the standard for Continuous Delivery (CD), empowering software teams to deliver value in an agile way.
1 person · 1 episode
Across the network.
In the room with
Spot something wrong? Suggest a correctionUpdated 25 September 2026
Be part of
the conversation.
Put your brand alongside the voices founders, investors and operators come to hear.
Explore sponsorshipProduced by W2D1 Media
Want a show of your own?
W2D1 Media — the team behind the Day One Network, which helped build Blackbird Ventures' Wild Hearts — builds and produces podcasts for funds, founders and operators. If you want a show built around your brand, let's talk.
