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 HubSpot Built a Sales Engine from Inbound Marketing
In this episode of Startup Stories with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna trace the early days of HubSpot and the founders' bet that inbound marketing could replace…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Impossible Foods Changed What We Eat
In this episode of Startup Stories, Lucas and Luna break down how Impossible Foods went from a Stanford biochemist's side project to a…
- 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, Lucas and Luna explore how Notion created a new software category by blending notes, wikis, and databases into a single…
- 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 examine how Figma disrupted the design software industry by building for engineers first, not designers…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Patreon Built a Creator Economy Before the Term Existed
In this episode, Lucas and Luna dive into the story of Patreon, the membership platform that let creators earn recurring revenue from their biggest fans long…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Airtable Won Spreadsheet Users Without Being a Spreadsheet
In Episode 109 of Startup Stories, Lucas and Luna unpack how Airtable built a billion-dollar business by positioning itself as a database for the rest of us —…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Loom Won Async Video by Solving One Annoying Problem
In this episode of Startup Stories, Lucas and Luna unpack how Loom went from a side project inside a failing startup to a billion-dollar async video platform…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How SpaceX Changed the Economics of Rocket Launches
In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore how SpaceX transformed the launch industry by vertically integrating manufacturing and reusing boosters. They break…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Notion Built a Product Without a Category
In this episode, we explore how Notion created a new software category by blending notes, wikis, and databases into one flexible tool. We trace the journey…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Snowflake Broke the Data Warehouse Mold
Most data companies built for storage. Snowflake built for speed—and created a $60 billion cloud business out of separating compute from storage. Lucas and…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Webflow Gave Designers Superpowers Without Code
Lucas and Luna unpack the story of Webflow, the no-code platform that lets designers build production-ready websites without touching HTML or CSS. They trace…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Figma Won Collaborative Design by Targeting Engineers
In this episode, Lucas and Luna dive into Figma's rise from a tiny startup to a $20 billion design tool powerhouse — and why its biggest strategic bet was…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Liquid Death Built a Billion-Dollar Brand Selling Canned Water
In this episode, Lucas and Luna dissect the improbable rise of Liquid Death, the canned water brand that hit a billion-dollar valuation by marketing mountain…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Plaid Built the Plumber for Financial Data
In this episode of Startup Stories, Lucas and Luna break down how Plaid became the invisible infrastructure powering fintech. They trace Plaid's origin…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Duolingo Gamified Language Learning Into a Billion-Dollar Business
On episode 100 of Startup Stories, Lucas and Luna dive deep into Duolingo's journey from a Carnegie Mellon research project to a publicly traded company…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Brex Won Startup Banking by Ignoring Consumers
In this episode of Startup Stories with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna explore how Brex built a $12 billion fintech company by doing something counterintuitive…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Superhuman Built a Premium Email Client by Charging Thirty Dollars a Month
In this episode, Lucas and Luna break down how Superhuman—the email client that costs $30/month—built a loyal user base without traditional advertising. They…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Zscaler Built a Billion Dollar Business on Zero Trust Security
In this episode, Lucas and Luna dive into the story of Zscaler, the cloud security company that pioneered the zero-trust security model before it became…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Stripe Won Online Payments by Thinking Like Developers
In this episode, Lucas and Luna unpack how Stripe transformed online payments by treating developers as its primary customers. They trace Stripe's origin…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
The Story Behind Calendly's 20 Billion Dollar Calendar
How Calendly, a simple scheduling tool, grew into a $20 billion business without a single salesperson. This episode unpacks the specific product-led growth…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Canva Democratized Design Without a Design Team
In Episode 94 of Startup Stories with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna unpack the improbable rise of Canva, the graphic design platform now valued at $40 billion. They…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Bombas Turned Socks Into a Social Enterprise Empire
In this episode of Startup Stories, Lucas and Luna explore how Bombas, the sock and apparel brand, built a billion-dollar business by embedding a one-for-one…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Mailchimp Stayed Independent for Two Decades
Mailchimp famously refused venture capital for 17 years, bootstrapping its way to $700 million in annual revenue before its $12 billion acquisition by Intuit…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How GoPro Survived Its Own Near-Death Spiral
In 2016, GoPro was on life support. The action-camera pioneer had gone from a $13 billion market cap to near bankruptcy after the Hero4 launch flopped and…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Duolingo Built a Billion Dollar Business on Gamification
In this episode of Startup Stories with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna explore how Duolingo turned language learning into an addictive habit, growing to over 500…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Patagonia Built a Business on Purpose Not Profit
Lucas and Luna explore how outdoor brand Patagonia became a billion-dollar company by putting environmental activism ahead of growth. The episode focuses on…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Heelys Rolled From Fad to Fortune to Revival
In this episode of Startup Stories with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna trace the wild ride of Heelys — the shoes with wheels that kids obsessed over in the 2000s…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Warby Parker Disrupted Eyewear and Redefined DTC
In this episode of Startup Stories, Lucas and Luna dive into the founding story of Warby Parker, the direct-to-consumer eyewear company that started with a…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Notion Built a Product Without a Category
Lucas and Luna dive into Notion's unconventional path to a $10 billion valuation. They explore how the company rejected startup orthodoxy—no growth…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Shopify Democratized E-Commerce for Independent Merchants
In this episode of Startup Stories with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna explore how Shopify transformed from a small Canadian snowboard shop's online store into a…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Atlassian Built a Billion-Dollar Company Without a Sales Team
Lucas and Luna explore the unconventional story behind Atlassian's rise to a $50 billion company without a single salesperson. They break down the…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Discord Turned Gamers Into a Billion-Dollar Community
In Episode 83 of Startup Stories, Lucas and Luna dive into Discord's origin story — how a gaming chat app founded by Jason Citron and Stan Vishnevskiy…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Nubank Disrupted Brazilian Banking from a Basement
In this episode, Lucas and Luna tell the story of Nubank, the Brazilian fintech that grew from a basement startup to a $45 billion banking giant. They explore…
- 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, Lucas and Luna dig into how Notion, the all-in-one workspace, grew from a failed pivot to a $10 billion valuation without…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Airbnb Survived the Pandemic by Cutting 1900 Jobs
When COVID-19 wiped out 80 percent of Airbnb's business in eight weeks, CEO Brian Chesky made a painful choice: lay off 1900 employees with a severance…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How GitLab Built a Remote-First Billion Dollar Company
Episode 79 of Startup Stories takes you inside GitLab's improbable rise. Lucas and Luna unpack the unique bet co-founder Sid Sijbrandij made: build a…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Spanx Built a Billion Dollar Shapewear Empire
Sara Blakely founded Spanx in 2000 with $5,000 and a pair of scissors. In this episode, Lucas and Luna unpack the specific decisions that turned a single…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Figma Won Through Developer-Led Growth
When Figma launched in 2016, design tools were desktop-only and collaboration meant emailing files. Dylan Field and Evan Wallace bet that the browser could do…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Uniqlo Built a Global Brand on HeatTech and One Fabric
Episode 76 of Startup Stories with Fexingo. Lucas and Luna unpack how Uniqlo turned a single synthetic fabric into a $20 billion global apparel empire. We…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How LendingClub Made Peer-to-Peer Lending Mainstream
In this episode of Startup Stories, Lucas and Luna dive into the story of LendingClub, the company that brought peer-to-peer lending to the masses. They…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Lululemon Built a Cult Brand Without Advertising
Lululemon grew from one Vancouver yoga studio in 1998 to a $40 billion global athleisure empire — and they did it with almost zero traditional advertising. In…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Reddit Went from Underdog to IPO Darling
In this episode of Startup Stories, Lucas and Luna trace Reddit's improbable journey from a dorm-room project to a multi-billion-dollar public company…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Canva Democratized Design Without Losing Its Edge
In this episode of Startup Stories with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna dive into Canva's journey from a college project to a $40 billion design platform. They…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Stripe Became the Operating System for Internet Commerce
In this episode of Startup Stories, Lucas and Luna dive into the story of Stripe, the payments company that grew from a seven-line integration to the backbone…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Figma Built a Collaborative Design Platform Worth Billions
In this episode of Startup Stories, Lucas and Luna explore how Figma disrupted the design software industry by betting on a browser-based, collaborative model…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Duolingo Gamified Language Learning to 500 Million Users
Lucas and Luna explore how Duolingo turned language learning into an addictive app with 500 million downloads, 40 million monthly active users, and a $4…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Liquid Death Made a Billion-Dollar Brand from Canned Water
In this episode, Lucas and Luna unpack how Liquid Death turned canned water into a $1.4 billion brand by rejecting traditional marketing. They dive into the…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Patagonia Became a Billion-Dollar Activist Brand
Lucas and Luna explore how Patagonia built a $3 billion outdoor apparel company while putting environmental activism at its core. They trace the story from…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Hims and Hers Built a Direct to Consumer Health Empire
In this episode, Lucas and Luna discuss how Hims & Hers went from a men's wellness brand to a multi-billion dollar telehealth platform. They break down…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Superhuman Made Email Feel Fast Again
In episode 65 of Startup Stories, Lucas and Luna unpack how Superhuman, the premium email client backed by $75 million in venture funding, designed its way to…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Brex Built a Credit Card for the Startup World
In this episode of Startup Stories with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna break down how Brex, the corporate credit card startup, went from a Y Combinator demo day pitch…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Shein Built Fast Fashion on Extreme Speed
In this episode, Lucas and Luna pull apart the operational engine behind Shein, the Chinese fashion giant that has overtaken Zara and H&M in speed and market…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Oura Outfitted the Sleep Tracking Revolution
Lucas and Luna explore how Oura, a small Finnish startup, grew from a Kickstarter campaign to a wearable that sold over 2.5 million rings, outpacing Apple…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Warby Parker Disrupted Eyewear With a Single Purchase
In this episode of Startup Stories with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna explore how Warby Parker upended the $150 billion eyewear industry with a simple idea: sell…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Nubank Built a 100 Million User Bank Without Branches
In episode 60 of Startup Stories with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna unpack how Nubank, founded by David Vélez in 2013, grew from a credit card startup in São Paulo…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Shopify Became the Backbone of E-Commerce
In this episode of Startup Stories, Lucas and Luna explore how Shopify grew from a small snowboard shop's online store to powering millions of businesses…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Notion Brought the Product-Led Growth Playbook to Life
In this episode, Lucas and Luna break down how Notion turned product-led growth into a cult-like adoption engine — without a massive sales team or traditional…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Glossier Built a Billion Dollar Brand on Community
In this episode of Startup Stories, Lucas and Luna explore how Glossier transformed from a beauty blog into a billion-dollar direct-to-consumer powerhouse…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How WhatsApp Won on a Zero-Dollar Revenue Model
In this episode of Startup Stories, Lucas and Luna explore how WhatsApp grew to over 2 billion users without spending a dime on marketing and without any…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Discord Built a Billion-Dollar Community Platform
In this episode of Startup Stories, Lucas and Luna dive into Discord's founding journey—how a gaming chat app evolved into a community platform worth over…