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A Day One® show · 8 Episodes

Founders in Motion

with Thea Ngo

Honest, tactical conversations with early-stage founders — the real decisions, trade-offs and mechanics behind building a company.

APAC-leaning founder stories, hosted by Thea Ngo. A new episode ships every Thursday — on YouTube, Spotify and Apple.

What you'll hear

the real work of building — in motion.

Honest, tactical conversations with early-stage founders. Every episode goes after three things.

The real decisions

The calls founders actually agonise over — not the tidy after-the-fact version.

Honest trade-offs

What it cost, what got dropped, and why. The parts most shows skip.

The mechanics

How it was really built — the moving parts under the story.

First up Ep 08

AI Insurance Brokerage: 80 Marathons, Uninsured, Nearly Killed Him | Sean Stuart, Rosella

Every policy he read had the same clause: more than two marathons back-to-back counts as an "extreme event." He and three friends were about to run 80 in 80 days, and none of them had run one. They went anyway, with nothing covering them.

Episode details → 27 August 2026
AI Insurance Brokerage: 80 Marathons, Uninsured, Nearly Killed Him | Sean Stuart, Rosella Coming soon

every episode

View archive →
Ep 07
20 August 2026
Basketball Stats From One Phone Video: Their $3.5M AI Pivot | Cordelia King, Superstat
Cordelia King co-founded Superstat after her first company kept attracting players who lied about how good they were. One phone video now gives every basketballer full box scores — and the team is leaving Melbourne for Austin.
Soon
Ep 06
13 August 2026
Quibi: How a $1.75B Startup Died in 6 Months
Quibi raised US$1.75 billion before it had a single show and shut down six months after launch. Thea takes apart what actually killed it — the tech that forced every show to be shot twice, and why almost no one converted from free trial.
Soon
Ep 05
31 July 2026
Why AI Can't Fix Your Business and the $10M Raise He Regrets | Lee Lagdameo, Shikii Labs
Lee Lagdameo crossed from VC to founder to build Shikii Labs — and says most companies aren't AI-ready: their data is a mess, and raising less beats raising more.
Soon
Ep 04
23 July 2026
Impact Investing at $10: The Fortune He Lost, The Fund He Built | Arjun Agarwal, inaam
inaam founder Arjun Agarwal joins Thea Ngo on losing the family fortune to a business betrayal in South Africa — Patek Philippes sold to survive — and building the ASIC-regulated impact-investing app nearly every Australian VC passed on.
Soon
Ep 03
16 July 2026
AI for Lawyers: 300 Features, They Used One | Rowan McNamee, Mary Technology
Mary Technology co-founder Rowan McNamee joins Thea Ngo on why his legal AI reads thousands of case documents but never makes the final call — and the failed first prototype that offered lawyers 300 options when they only wanted one.
Soon
Ep 02
9 July 2026
Passive Investing Australia: Get Rich Slow, The Fintech That Tells You to Trade Less | Hayden Smith, Pearler
Hayden Smith started Pearler, a wealth management platform for everyday Australians, with negative money in the bank, medical bills unpaid, and surgery he couldn't afford.
Soon
Ep 01
2 July 2026
$350M Fintech Founder Steps Down as CEO to Rebuild With AI | Josh Foreman, InDebted
Josh Foreman built InDebted from $12 in first revenue to over $1M a week profitable, 200 people, $350M valuation then voluntarily stepped down as CEO to rebuild the company from scratch.
Soon
Your host

meet your host

Thea Ngo

Thea Ngo

Senior Investment Associate, Archangel Ventures

Thea Ngo is a senior investment associate at Archangel Ventures, a Sydney early-stage venture fund, where she sources and evaluates investments across the APAC startup ecosystem. She previously worked as a strategy consultant with PwC's Strategy& in New York and Southeast Asia, and has additional experience in venture building and operating roles at Do Ventures, Kidas and Phynergetix. She holds a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. Ngo also created and hosts Founders in Motion, a Day One podcast that sits down with early-stage APAC founders for the honest, tactical version of the story: the real decisions, trade-offs and mechanics of building a company.

Every Thursday

a new founder story, every week.

One episode ships every Thursday. Join the Day One community and never miss one.

A Day One® show

Founders in Motion is produced with Day One — the podcast network for founders, investors and operators, and the team that helped build Blackbird Ventures' Wild Hearts. Want a show like this for your fund or company?

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