Perspective X with Pauline Fetaui
The power of choice. The impact of action.
Join host Pauline Fetaui as she chats with entrepreneurs and leading innovators about the intersection of personal motivation and excellence.
They’ll share their stories on driving change, taking action and living intentionally.
Each episode we dive deep into the profound impact of choices and the ripple effect of decision-making in shaping life, business and society.
Day One listeners are invited to book a complimentary venture debt consultation with Mighty Partners. To schedule your call, simply go to dayone.fm/mighty and mention "Day One Free Consult"
Perspective X is a Day One® show. Day One helps founders and startup operators make better business decisions more often.
Hosted by Pauline Fetaui
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She Lost the Company She Built — Not Herself: Yas Grigaliunas (Part 2)
Part 2 of Yas Grigaliunas on Perspective X is the harder chapter: the $4 million raise, the divorce, and nine months locked out of the company she founded.
The Part No One Tells - WBGS Yas Grigaliunas (Part 1)
Yas Grigaliunas, founder of World's Biggest Garage Sale and Soconomy, joins Pauline Fetaui for Part 1 of a Perspective X conversation about building a circular-economy company in Australia before the
From Police Officer to AI Pioneer to Psychedelics: Dr. Catriona Wallace’s Unfiltered Story (Part Two)
From policing the streets of Sydney’s King’s Cross to founding one of the world's first enterprise AI companies, Dr. Catriona Wallace has navigated a career arc that defies convention. As one of the few women globally to list an AI company on the ASX, she scaled Flamingo AI to New York and back, all while raising five children and operating on a frontier that barely had a name. But behind the milestone of a $20M capital raise and the adrenaline of the public markets lay a deeper story of personal cost, identity, and the "sacred wounds" that fuel high-performance leadership. In this deep-dive episode of Perspective X, Dr. Cat shares her unfiltered story of transition: from the corruption and shadow-side of law enforcement to the high-pressure world of venture capital, and eventually, to the jungles of Peru. We explore the "hard thing about hard things," the brutal reality of having your product commoditised by tech giants, and why she chose to sit with ayahuasca the same day she exited her company. This isn't just a talk about technology; it’s a masterclass in the human operating system. We dive into why AI poses a 1-in-10 existential risk, the intersection of ancient ritual and modern innovation, and why Dr. Cat believes the next generation of leaders must undergo a "rapid transformation" of consciousness to ensure humanity isn't left behind by the machines we’ve built.
From Police Officer to AI Pioneer to Psychedelics: Dr. Catriona Wallace’s Unfiltered Story (Part One)
From policing the streets of Sydney’s King’s Cross to founding one of the world's first enterprise AI companies, Dr. Catriona Wallace has navigated a career arc that defies convention. As one of the few women globally to list an AI company on the ASX, she scaled Flamingo AI to New York and back, all while raising five children and operating on a frontier that barely had a name. But behind the milestone of a $20M capital raise and the adrenaline of the public markets lay a deeper story of personal cost, identity, and the "sacred wounds" that fuel high-performance leadership. In this deep-dive episode of Perspective X, Dr. Cat shares her unfiltered story of transition: from the corruption and shadow-side of law enforcement to the high-pressure world of venture capital, and eventually, to the jungles of Peru. We explore the "hard thing about hard things," the brutal reality of having your product commoditised by tech giants, and why she chose to sit with ayahuasca the same day she exited her company. This isn't just a talk about technology; it’s a masterclass in the human operating system. We dive into why AI poses a 1-in-10 existential risk, the intersection of ancient ritual and modern innovation, and why Dr. Cat believes the next generation of leaders must undergo a "rapid transformation" of consciousness to ensure humanity isn't left behind by the machines we’ve built.
Dr. Prash on Building a $100M+ Crypto Brokerage and Pioneering Psychedelic Therapy
From surgeon to psychiatrist, Bitcoin investor to billion-dollar crypto brokerage founder, Dr. Prash Puspanathan has lived one of the most unconventional founder journeys in tech. After co-founding and scaling Caleb & Brown into a global crypto powerhouse, later acquired by SwiftX in 2025, Dr. Prash is now pioneering the future of mental health with Enosis Therapeutics, using VR to transform psychedelic-assisted therapy integration. In this episode of Perspective X, Dr. Prash shares how a single psilocybin experience completely reshaped his worldview, steering him away from surgery and into psychiatry, entrepreneurship, and eventually, crypto. He reveals the parallels between fiscal freedom in decentralized finance and cognitive freedom in mental health, the scrappy early days of arbitrage trading, and the challenges of scaling a white-glove brokerage to serve high-net-worth clients worldwide. We also dive into the future of psychedelic medicine, why integration is the “real work,” how technology can lower costs and increase access, and why prevention, not just treatment, will define the next era of mental health. From paradigm-shifting psychedelics to building billion-dollar ventures, this is a conversation about liberation, of thought, finance, and human potential.
The Hidden Criteria Behind a YC Yes: Yotam on Founder Signals, and the Real Work Behind a Yes
Yotam Rosenbaum never planned to be a startup founder, let alone one of Australia’s most active investors in Y Combinator companies. He started out as a musician, marketing his own band in Los Angeles, until the frustration of promoting music online became the spark for building Earbits, a platform once described as “Google AdWords for music.” What began on a traffic-jammed freeway turned into a five-year journey through Y Combinator, product-market chaos, and a successful exit. Since then, Yotam has backed over 400 YC startups, built one of the only Australian-led funds inside the program, and helped founders at home think far beyond local markets. He reflects on what actually matters at the earliest stages, why founder relationships trump early traction, and how to spot the quiet signals of a breakout team. There’s also a reality check for anyone raising capital: most investors won’t give you a clear no, and that’s the real cost. From Craigslist drum lessons to portfolio unicorns, Yotam’s story is anything but typical. But it’s proof that trusting your sense of direction, without needing the whole map, can still get you somewhere remarkable.
What It Really Takes to Scale to $100M: Ricky Sevta on Burnout, Breakthroughs, and Building Again
Ricky Sevta isn’t afraid of hard truths, or hard problems. As the former Chief Revenue Officer at simPRO, Ricky helped scale the company from $10M to $100M ARR, led a $550M capital raise, and expanded the business into global markets. Now, as CEO of Deep Space and a partner at Venture On, he’s back at the beginning, building again. In this episode, Ricky shares the behind-the-scenes realities of scaling a company beyond product-market fit, why founders underestimate the cost of growth, and the personal sacrifices that come with chasing unicorn status. He also reveals how Deep Space is tackling fragmented workflows in construction with modern, AI-powered software, and why pricing, timing, and hiring are all about ruthless clarity. From celebrating too little, to learning how to protect time with family, Ricky unpacks the emotional toll of leadership, how to spot premature market entry, and why customer obsession isn’t optional, it’s survival.
How Paul Stovell Built Octopus Deploy to $100M by Ignoring Silicon Valley’s Rules
Paul Stovell, founder and CEO of Octopus Deploy, shares his journey from coding side projects in a Brisbane library to building a $100M+ ARR global business in the competitive world of DevOps. Paul reveals how a relentless focus on product excellence, profitability, and customer value enabled Octopus Deploy to scale without relying on constant investor funding, becoming one of Australia’s most successful software companies. He delves into the benefits (and pitfalls) of building with transparency, why he rejected Silicon Valley’s growth-at-all-costs mindset, and how he structured Octopus Deploy for sustainable, long-term growth. Paul also unpacks the personal challenges of balancing family, co-founding with his wife, and maintaining passion for building, plus why he’s still at the helm despite the inevitable burnout moments. If you’re a founder, operator, or investor curious about bootstrapping vs. fundraising, scaling a product-led SaaS, or maintaining healthy relationships while building an empire, this episode is packed with raw insights.
Bryony Cole on Sex Tech, Self-Discovery, and the Future of Intimacy
Bryony Cole is the founder of Future of Sex and Sex Tech School, and a global authority on the intersection of sexuality and technology. In this episode, she shares how she left a career in corporate tech to build the sex tech industry from the ground up.
Eden Shirley on Disrupting Yourself, Surviving Crisis, and Building a Culture of Warriors
Eden Shirley, founder and CEO of AutoGuru, shares how he turned a near-collapse during COVID-19 into a high-growth B2B success story with FleetGuru. Eden breaks down how AutoGuru evolved from a consumer marketplace for car servicing into a powerful SaaS platform processing over 35,000 fleet transactions a month across Australia and New Zealand. He explains how strategic product pivots, a relentless focus on financial discipline, and embracing embedded payments technology unlocked new revenue streams and transformed the business model. He reveals hard-won lessons on surviving financial crises, why raising startup capital before you need it is critical, and how founders can successfully scale by empowering their teams. This episode covers everything from navigating startup funding challenges and investor management to building a scalable B2B SaaS platform and leading through market uncertainty. If you’re exploring business model transformation, growth strategies for SaaS startups, or the leap from founder-led operations to sustainable leadership, this conversation is packed with actionable insights for long-term business resilience.
Introducing Perspective X | Hosted by Pauline Fetaui
What drives bold decisions, intentional leadership, and the courage to create something entirely new?
Turn podcasting into pipeline
We're the team behind the Day One Network and Blackbird's Wild Hearts. We help founders, funds and operators build trust, authority and deal flow with a show tailored to their market.