Shows / Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
Lucas and Luna sit on a worn leather sofa in a startup loft, whiteboard sketches of growth curves behind them, and talk about the messy work of building a company from zero. Each episode picks a single founder's journey — from garage prototype to Series A, or from pivot to shutdown — and reconstructs the decisions that mattered. Lucas, with a journalist's instinct for the uncomfortable question, presses on the numbers: the seed round that closed at a 28% discount to later valuation, the burn…
Episodes
Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from ZeroHow Airtable Turned Spreadsheets Into a Platform
In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore how Airtable evolved from a simple spreadsheet tool into a platform that powers over 500,000 organizations. They break…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Buffer Built Transparency Into Its Business Model
In episode 173 of Startup Stories, Lucas and Luna dig into Buffer's radical transparency — from publishing every salary to sharing revenue numbers in real…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Notion Built a Product-Led Growth Machine
In this episode of Startup Stories with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna dive into Notion's remarkable journey from a quirky note-taking app to a collaboration…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Notion Built a Product-Led Growth Machine
In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore how Notion morphed from a niche productivity tool into a $10 billion juggernaut, without a single salesperson. They…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Brex Reinvented Business Banking for Startups
In this episode of Startup Stories with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna dive into the rise of Brex, the fintech that rebuilt corporate credit cards for startups. From…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Duolingo Gamified Language Learning
In this episode of Startup Stories, Lucas and Luna dive into the psychology and design decisions behind Duolingo's gamification engine. They unpack the…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Notion Built a Product-Led Growth Machine
In this episode of Startup Stories, Lucas and Luna dig into how Notion turned a niche productivity tool into a household name without a traditional sales team…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Rippling Built an All-in-One HR Platform Without Burning Cash
In this episode, we look at how Rippling took on the crowded HR software market by focusing on a single, elegant insight: automate the employee lifecycle, not…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How GitLab Scaled Remote First
In this episode of Startup Stories, Lucas and Luna dig into how GitLab became the world's largest all-remote company, with over 2,000 people in 65…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Figma's Free Tier Became Its Growth Engine
In episode 165 of Startup Stories, Lucas and Luna explore how Figma turned a free tier into a powerful growth engine, reshaping the design collaboration…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Duolingo Gamified Language Learning Without Burning Cash
In this episode of Startup Stories with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna dig into the specific mechanics behind Duolingo's remarkable user engagement and its path…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
Basecamp's Silent Growth Secrets
Today on Startup Stories, Lucas and Luna dig into why Basecamp — the thirty-year-old project management tool — has stayed stubbornly independent while the rest…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Ramp Rebuilt Corporate Cards for the AI Era
In this episode of Startup Stories, Lucas and Luna dig into the story of Ramp, the corporate card and spend management company that rode the AI wave to a $13…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How N26 Redefined Mobile Banking in Europe
In this episode of Startup Stories, Lucas and Luna dive into the rise of N26, the German neobank that shook up traditional banking across Europe. They explore…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Vinted Made Secondhand Fashion a Billion Dollar Business
In this episode, Lucas and Luna dig into the story of Vinted, the Lithuanian startup that turned secondhand clothes into a multi-billion-dollar marketplace…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Figma Won Design Collaboration Without a Sales Team
In this episode of Startup Stories, Lucas and Luna dig into Figma's improbable rise to a $20 billion valuation — and the counterintuitive go-to-market…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How HiBob Built HR Software Without a Traditional Sales Team
In this episode of Startup Stories, Lucas and Luna explore how HiBob, the HR platform behind the modern workforce, grew to a $4.5 billion valuation without a…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Notion Conquered the Note-Taking App Market
In Episode 157 of Startup Stories, Lucas and Luna dig into Notion's improbable rise from a tiny Y Combinator startup to a multi-billion dollar…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Notion Conquered the Note-Taking App Market
Notion went from a failed game studio to a $10 billion productivity platform by betting on flexibility and community. In this episode, Lucas and Luna unpack…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Duolingo Kept Users Hooked Without Going Broke
In this episode, Lucas and Luna dig into one of the sneakiest business decisions in consumer tech: how Duolingo, the language-learning app with a…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Plaid Built the Data Layer of Fintech
Before fintech apps could connect to your bank, there was Plaid. In this episode, Lucas and Luna trace how a small team from 2013 built the plumbing that…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Stripe Built the Financial Plumbing of the Internet
In this episode, Lucas and Luna trace Stripe's improbable rise from a two-brother startup in 2010 to the quiet backbone of online commerce. They unpack…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Canva Built a 40 Billion Design Empire Without Salespeople
In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore how Canva, the Australian design platform, achieved a $40 billion valuation without a traditional sales team. They…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Airtable Turned Spreadsheets Into a Platform
In this episode, we unpack how Airtable, founded in 2012 by Howie Liu, Andrew Ofstad, and Emmett Nicholas, took the familiar spreadsheet and transformed it…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Gumroad Built a Creator Economy Without Silicon Valley
On episode 150 of Startup Stories, Lucas and Luna explore how Gumroad became a quiet powerhouse in the creator economy—without a single round of venture…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Ramp Built a Corporate Card for the AI Era
In this episode, Lucas and Luna unpack how Ramp—the corporate card and spend management platform—used AI to rethink expense management from the ground up…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Deel Built a Billion Dollar Payroll Empire
In this episode of Startup Stories, Lucas and Luna explore how Deel turned the messy chaos of global payroll into a billion-dollar business. They unpack the…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Deel Built a Global Payroll Business for the Remote Work Era
In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore how Deel transformed the complex world of international payroll into a scalable, compliance-driven platform. Founded in…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Shopify Democratized E-Commerce
In this episode of Startup Stories, Lucas and Luna explore how Shopify grew from a snowboard shop's side project to a multi-billion dollar platform…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Oura Built a Smart Ring People Wear
In this episode, Lucas and Luna dig into the unlikely success story of Oura, the Finnish startup that turned a chunky prototype ring into a must-have wearable…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Bumble Flipped the Script on Dating Apps
In this episode, we dive into the founding story of Bumble, the dating app that flipped the power dynamic by requiring women to make the first move. We explore…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Calendly Eliminated Scheduling Back-and-Forth
In this episode of Startup Stories with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna explore how Calendly turned a universal frustration—the endless email chain to schedule a…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Duolingo Gamified Language Learning and Built a Six Billion Dollar Company
Duolingo's little green owl keeps 40 million people coming back every day to learn a language. In this episode, we unpack the gamification…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Canva Built a 40 Billion Design Empire Without Salespeople
In 2013, Melanie Perkins was a 26-year-old Australian entrepreneur pitching a drag-and-drop design tool that nearly every investor rejected. Nine years later…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Atlassian Built a Billion Dollar Company Without Salespeople
In this episode, we explore how Atlassian, founded in 2002 by Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar, grew from a Sydney garage to a $50 billion company…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Zapier Automated the Web One Integration at a Time
In 2012, a team of three launched a tool that did one thing: when you got an email in Gmail, it could automatically create a to-do in Basecamp. That was it…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Discord Built a Chat App for Gamers That Went Mainstream
In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the origin story of Discord, the chat platform that started as a side feature in a failed mobile game. They trace…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Mailchimp Built a $12 Billion Company Without VC
In this episode of Startup Stories, Lucas and Luna dive into the remarkable bootstrapped journey of Mailchimp. From founder Ben Chestnut's side project in…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Monday.com Pivoted from Consumer to Enterprise
In 2021, Monday.com went public valued at over six billion dollars. But six years earlier, it was a failing consumer app called dapulse with almost no users…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Square Revolutionized Payments with a Ten Dollar Dongle
In 2009, Square launched a tiny white card reader that plugged into the iPhone headphone jack, charging a flat 2.75% per swipe. This episode dives into the key…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Notion Built a Product Without a Category
Notion is one of the most beloved productivity tools of the last decade, but it didn't start out that way. In this episode, Lucas and Luna trace the…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Loom Built a Billion-Dollar Company from Async Video
In this episode of Startup Stories, Lucas and Luna unpack how Loom turned a simple idea — async video messages — into a billion-dollar company. They trace…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Vanta Won Compliance Automation by Making Audits Invisible
Episode 132 of Startup Stories with Fexingo. Lucas and Luna unpack the rise of Vanta, the compliance automation startup that reached a $2.45 billion valuation…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Figma Won Collaborative Design by Targeting Engineers
In this episode of Startup Stories, Lucas and Luna explore how Figma disrupted the design software market by targeting engineers instead of designers. They…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Airtable Won Spreadsheet Users by Making It Visual
Lucas and Luna explore how Airtable turned a crowded spreadsheet market into a billion-dollar business. They trace the founding story from CEO Howie Liu's…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How GitLab Built a Public Company on Remote Work Alone
Before remote work was a pandemic necessity, GitLab bet the whole company on it — no offices, no hybrid, no exceptions. In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Webflow Gave Designers Superpowers Without Engineers
In this episode, Lucas and Luna examine how Webflow built a visual web development platform that let designers build production-ready sites without a single…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Ramp Won Corporate Spend by Automating Approval Workflows
Lucas and Luna unpack how Ramp, the corporate spend management startup, reached a $8.1 billion valuation by solving a specific workflow problem: procurement…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Buffer Bootstrapped to Millions with Radical Transparency
In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore how Buffer, the social media scheduling tool, grew to millions in revenue without venture capital by making radical…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Notion Built a Product Without a Category
In this episode of Startup Stories with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna explore how Notion created a new category of productivity software by blending notes, docs…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Plaid Unlocked Fintech by Building the Banking API
In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore how Plaid became the essential plumbing behind modern fintech. They trace Plaid's origin story from Zach Perret…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Figma Won Collaborative Design by Targeting Engineers
In this episode of Startup Stories, Lucas and Luna dive into Figma's unlikely path to dominating the design tools market. They unpack the key insight that…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Anthropic Built a Safety-First AI Startup
In this episode of Startup Stories, Lucas and Luna explore how Anthropic carved a unique path in the AI race by betting on constitutional AI and safety…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Duolingo Gamified Language Learning to Build a Habit
Lucas and Luna explore how Duolingo turned language learning into a daily habit using game mechanics, streaks, and notifications. They break down the…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Brex Built a Billion-Dollar Fintech by Targeting Startups
Lucas and Luna explore how Brex carved out a massive fintech niche by focusing exclusively on startups. They break down the company's early insight: that…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Stripe Won Online Payments by Obsessing Over Developers
In this episode of Startup Stories, Lucas and Luna dive into Stripe's origin story and its developer-first strategy that disrupted the online payments…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Deel Built a Global Payroll Unicorn from Regulatory Complexity
In this episode of Startup Stories, Lucas and Luna dive into how Deel turned the unsexy problem of international payroll and compliance into a $12 billion…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Calm Built a Unicorn from Meditation
In episode 117 of Startup Stories with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna dive into how Calm turned meditation into a billion-dollar business. They unpack the key…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Toast Disrupted Restaurant Tech by Solving One Pain Point
In this episode, Lucas and Luna dive into the story of Toast, the restaurant management platform that went from near-bankruptcy in 2012 to a $5 billion IPO in…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Canva Democratised Design by Targeting Non-Designers
In Episode 115 of Startup Stories with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna explore how Canva grew from a simple online graphic design tool into a 40-billion-dollar company…