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 Leica Defied Digital Disruption
In this episode of Startup Stories with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna explore how Leica Camera AG survived the digital revolution that killed film giants like Kodak…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How A24 Built a Movie Empire on Creative Control
In this episode, Lucas and Luna look at how independent film studio A24 built a billion-dollar brand by giving directors total creative freedom — the opposite…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Airbnb Rebuilt Trust After a Crisis
In early 2020, Airbnb faced an existential moment: the pandemic wiped out 80% of its bookings in weeks. But rather than slash costs blindly, CEO Brian Chesky…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Canva Democratized Design to 200 Million Users
In this episode of Startup Stories, Lucas and Luna explore how Canva grew from a simple online design tool to a 200-million-user platform without a sales team…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Stripe Beat PayPal With Developer Obsession
Episode 50 of Startup Stories explores how Stripe transformed online payments by betting everything on developer experience. Lucas and Luna trace the…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Squarespace Democratized Website Design
In this episode of Startup Stories, Lucas and Luna explore how Squarespace transformed the web design industry by making professional websites accessible to…
- 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 dive into Duolingo's unconventional playbook: how a small startup used gamification, a relentless A/B testing culture, and a controversial…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Liquid Death Turned Water Into a Punk Rock Empire
In this episode of Startup Stories, Lucas and Luna explore the improbable rise of Liquid Death, the canned water brand that turned a commodity into a cultural…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Substack Turned Email Newsletters Into a Media Revolution
In this episode, Lucas and Luna dive into the story of Substack, the platform that turned email newsletters into a viable media business. They trace its…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How GitLab Built a Remote-First Billion Dollar Company
In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore how GitLab grew from a single open-source repository to a publicly traded company worth billions — all without a…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Figma Conquered Design Collaboration
In this episode, Lucas and Luna unpack how Figma turned browser-based design into a $20 billion acquisition by Adobe—and why the deal eventually fell apart…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Patagonia Proved Purpose-Driven Business Works
In this episode of Startup Stories, Lucas and Luna explore how Patagonia built a billion-dollar outdoor apparel company by putting environmental mission ahead…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Fender Brought Guitar Playing Back From the Dead
In the mid-2010s, Fender was in trouble. Sales of electric guitars had been declining for years, and the company that defined rock and roll was facing an…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Notion Became the Everything App Without Venture Capital
In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore how Notion transformed from a struggling startup into a 10-billion-dollar productivity platform without taking a dime…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Loom Proved Async Video Was Worth Billions
In 2016, a buggy screen-recording Chrome extension called Loom launched as a side project. Within four years, it had 14 million users, a $1.5 billion…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Deel Built a Billion Dollar Payroll Without Borders
In this episode of Startup Stories with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna explore how Deel grew from a niche contractor compliance tool into a $12 billion global payroll…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Plaid Built the Financial Data Rails of the Internet
Episode 38 of Startup Stories with Fexingo unpacks the founding journey of Plaid, the API layer connecting tens of thousands of apps to users' bank…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How MasterClass Built a Celebrity EdTech Empire
In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore how MasterClass turned celebrity expertise into a billion-dollar subscription business. They break down the key…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How WeWork Built a Global Empire on a Single Insight
This episode of Startup Stories with Fexingo dives into the founding story of WeWork—the company that disrupted commercial real estate by selling membership…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Atlas Obscura Turned Curiosity Into a Media Business
In episode 35 of Startup Stories, Lucas and Luna explore how Atlas Obscura built a media company around the world's hidden wonders. From a single email…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Basecamp Built a Billion Dollar Business on Long Term Thinking
In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore how Basecamp built a profitable, multi-million-dollar software company by deliberately refusing to follow Silicon…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Warby Parker Disrupted Eyewear With a Single Frame
In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the founding story of Warby Parker, focusing on the company's early decision to sell just 15 frames online…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Notion Became the Everything App Without Venture Capital
In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore how Notion built a versatile productivity platform that combines notes, databases, wikis, and project management into…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Zapier Automates Work Without VC Money
In this episode of Startup Stories with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna dive into how Zapier built a billion-dollar automation platform with zero venture capital for…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Airtable Turned Spreadsheets Into a Platform
In this episode, Lucas and Luna dive into the story of Airtable — how a small team in San Francisco took the humble spreadsheet and reimagined it as a…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Atlassian Grew to 200K Customers Without a Sales Team
In Episode 29 of Startup Stories, Lucas and Luna dive into the counterintuitive growth story of Atlassian — the Australian software company that built a…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Canva Democratized Design and Built a 40 Billion Dollar Company
In this episode of Startup Stories with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna explore how Canva turned graphic design from a professional skill into a self-serve utility…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Duolingo Turned Language Learning Into an Addiction
Lucas and Luna dive into the psychology behind Duolingo's 500 million users. They break down the gamification mechanics that keep learners coming back…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Notion Became the Everything App Without Venture Capital
In this episode of Startup Stories, Lucas and Luna explore how Notion turned a simple note-taking app into an 'everything app' used by millions. The…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Stripe Built a Payments Giant for the Internet Age
In this episode of Startup Stories, Lucas and Luna explore the rise of Stripe, the online payments company that started as a seven-line integration and grew…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Gumroad Built a Creator Economy Without Venture Capital
In this episode of Startup Stories, Lucas and Luna explore how Sahil Lavingia built Gumroad into a sustainable creator economy platform without following the…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Airbnb Redesigned Trust to Survive the Pandemic
Lucas and Luna dissect how Airbnb survived the COVID-19 crash by fundamentally rethinking trust. They explore the specific decisions CEO Brian Chesky made in…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Patagonia Proved Purpose Can Scale Profits
In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore how Patagonia built a billion-dollar outdoor apparel brand without compromising its environmental mission. They dive…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How GitLab Built an Open Source Unicorn Without Leaving the House
Lucas and Luna unpack the counterintuitive story of GitLab, the DevOps platform that went public in 2021 with a fully remote workforce of 1,300 people. They…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Rippling Built a Unified HR Platform by Automating the Busywork
In episode 20 of Startup Stories, Lucas and Luna dive into the founding of Rippling, the startup that unified HR, IT, and payroll by automating the…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Superhuman Built the Fastest Email Client
In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore how Superhuman carved out a niche in the crowded email market by targeting power users and obsessing over speed. They…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Chime Built a Neobank for the Fee-Fatigued Middle Class
Lucas and Luna drill into how Chime acquired 20 million users without a branch, a checkbook, or a single overdraft fee. They trace the company's origin…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Shopify Built an Ecommerce Empire Without Owning Inventory
When Shopify went public in 2015, skeptics called it a 'pick-and-shovel play' — a boring tool provider for small online stores. Ten years later, it…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Mailchimp Stayed Independent for Two Decades
Lucas and Luna explore how Mailchimp built a billion-dollar business without taking a single dollar of venture capital — and why, when Intuit acquired it for…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How MasterClass Built a Celebrity Lecture Empire
In this episode of Startup Stories with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna break down how MasterClass transformed the online education market by selling access to…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Figma Created a New Category for Collaborative Design
In Episode 14 of Startup Stories with Fexingo, hosts Lucas and Luna drill into the specific strategic choices that turned Figma from a niche design tool into a…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Calm Built a Unicorn in Meditation
In this episode of Startup Stories, Lucas and Luna dive into how Calm turned a niche wellness concept into a billion-dollar meditation app. They trace the…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Loom Changed Workplace Communication With Async Video
Episode 12 of Startup Stories explores how Loom turned the humble video message into a $1 billion communication tool. Lucas and Luna break down founder Joe…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Deel Conquered Global Payroll Without a Bank
In this episode, Lucas and Luna unpack how Deel—a company that started in 2019—grew to process over $10 billion in annual payments across 150 currencies…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Brex Built a Credit Card for Startups
In this episode of Startup Stories with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna dive into how Brex disrupted the credit card industry by targeting venture-backed startups…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Airtable Built a No-Code Business Without Being a No-Code Company
Lucas and Luna break down how Airtable grew from a spreadsheet startup to a $10 billion-plus company without calling itself a no-code platform. They look at…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Gopuff Built a Last-Mile Empire on Impulse Buying
Episode 8 of Startup Stories digs into Gopuff, the instant delivery startup that grew from a college dorm room into a multi-billion-dollar company by betting…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Figma Won Design Collaboration Without an Undo Button
In this episode of Startup Stories, Lucas and Luna unpack how Figma, a browser-first design tool launched in 2016, overtook decades-old incumbents like Sketch…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Canva Built a Billion-Dollar Design Empire Without Adobe Users
In this episode of Startup Stories, Lucas and Luna explore how Canva went from a Perth dorm room to a $40 billion valuation by targeting non-designers. They…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Duolingo Gamified Language Learning Into a Public Company
Lucas and Luna dig into Duolingo's unusual path to IPO — a company that turned language learning into a mobile game and somehow made it work as a…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Notion Won the Productivity Wars Without Fighting
In this episode of Startup Stories, Lucas and Luna unpack how Notion built a billion-dollar productivity platform by refusing to compete head-on with…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Plaid Built the API Layer for Modern Finance
In this episode of Startup Stories, Lucas and Luna unpack how Plaid, a company born out of a Y Combinator pivot in 2013, became the invisible plumbing behind…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How ZoomInfo Built a B2B Data Empire on Public Records
In this episode of Startup Stories, Lucas and Luna dive into the founding story of ZoomInfo, the B2B data intelligence company that went from a scrappy…
- Startup Stories with Fexingo: Conversations About Founders, Funding, and Building Companies from Zero
How Stripe Processed One Trillion Dollars
In this debut episode of Startup Stories, Lucas and Luna unpack the moment Stripe crossed $1 trillion in total payment volume — a milestone that reveals how…