Stephen Neli
Founder at Zellus
Stephen Neli is founder of Zellus, a Sydney fintech startup tackling late payments for small and medium businesses through an integrated app covering onboarding, risk assessment, cash-flow tools and collections, designed to plug into existing accounting software. He brings a decade of experience in financial planning, sales and collections to the business, which he built solo while going through the Western Sydney Startup Hub's pre-accelerator run by Space Cubed. On Pick My Brain with Alan Jones, recorded six weeks after Zellus began, Neli discussed pitching investors and customers and the search for a technical co-founder.
Key moments
Jump straight to the part of Late Payments, Big Problems: Stephen Neli on Fixing Small Biz Cash Flow with Zellus you want.
- 1:27 Stephen’s startup story and the birth of Zellus
- 2:20 The pitch: how Zellus helps small businesses get paid faster
- 5:30 Alan’s feedback: strong structure, clear gestures, great storytelling
- 8:18 Who Stephen needs on the team (CTO wanted!)
- 12:13 Building in public and what Instagram has taught him
- 14:52 Partnerships, pilots, and early traction
- 17:32 Customer interviews, pivots, and prototyping with Figma
- 25:06 Imposter syndrome and learning to share the lowlights
- 27:27 Why sharing the lowlights helps others (and you)
- 29:49 Mailout mishaps and the power of founder vulnerabilit
Connections
Spot something wrong? Suggest a correction Updated 25 September 2026
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