A new podcast where founders speak openly about what it really costs to build a business. Launching next week

The podcasts that already exist

Most follow the same arc. The idea. The grind. The raise. The exit. The number. The sunset. Roll the credits.

Then there are the leadership podcasts and the culture podcasts, telling founders how it should be done, often by people who have never had to do it.

What none of them sit with is the part founders actually live. The 2am version. The quarter that did not land. The payroll you were not able to make. The risk. The Pressure. The Cost.

What the guests have actually said

The guests have not held back.

In the first handful of episodes alone, founders have spoken about marriages that did not survive the business. Nervous breakdowns. Health scares that arrived with no warning.

One spoke about being put on suicide watch.

Others have talked about bankruptcy, debt in the millions, and the ATO garnishing their income while they kept turning up for staff who had no idea anything was wrong.

This is not shared for shock. It is shared because it is true, and because almost nobody says it out loud.

Why this one is different

The questions are asked by people who have sat in the same chair. Nobody is performing. Nobody is selling a course at the end.

The conversations go to the places other shows edit out, because the people having them have been there.

I have had my own version of the hard days. Walking away from a business I built. Some dark lonely times building, literally alone in a country where I knew no-one. Starting again with a few months of runway and no safety net. It is a particular kind of pressure, and you do not understand it properly until you are in it.

Why founders need this

Founders are very good at looking fine. We answer "how's business" with "busy, all good" and carry the rest alone.

The cost of that silence is real. It shows up in health, in relationships, and in decisions made by people running on empty who are convinced they are the only one struggling.

The Founders' Fire is built to break that. A place to hear that the thing you are carrying has been survived before. To take some guidance from people a few steps ahead. And on the hard days, to find a reason to keep going.

I will be straight about what this is. It is a passion project. It will not sell a single search, and it was never meant to. I made it because founders deserve one honest place, and there was not one.

The guests

The guests are people you will know. Founders who have built real things, and paid for them in ways they rarely talk about publicly. I am not naming them yet. That part can wait until the episodes land.

It launches next week

If you are a founder, an aspiring founder or you love one, follow The Founders' Fire so you never miss an episode: https://www.thirdwayadvisory.com.au/podcast

I have wanted to make this for a long time - I hope you enjoy it