nonlinear

Shyeon Delnawaz is the co-founder of Puralink, a startup building autonomous pipe inspection robots. Saurav and Shyeon talk about the origin story behind Puralink, what living in both the US and Australia taught him about business, the sheer volume of rejection that comes with building a hardware startup, what makes a great engineering hire, how raising a pre-seed round enabled the team to execute on their ambitions and why he believes in staying led by curiosity even when the path isn't obvious. Timestamps:00:00 - Intro01:31 - The Puralink origin story03:26 - Early family life06:12 - US vs Australia07:29 - Early Puralink days11:37 - Naming "the Ferret"14:07 - Why now16:52 - Team structure and hiring20:56 - Childhood roots of his business curiosity22:29 - Challenges of building27:12 - Fundraising31:08 - The vision for full autonomy35:12 - Global expansion37:41 - Australian robotics40:16 - Startup life and career advice44:21 - Nonlinear's 3 closing questions This episode is brought to you by Choppity, an AI tool that turns long-form videos into social media-ready clips. Try it for free at ⁠https://www.choppity.com/⁠Puralink: https://www.puralink.com.au/Sheyon's book recs: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39899253-scattered-mindshttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23692271-sapiens

Ben Lai is the founder of Home Croissanterie, a bakery and cafe in Balmain, Sydney. Home was recently selected as one of just eight stalls to represent Sydney at the Good Food and Wine Festival. Previously, Ben studied computer science and spent years in a corporate software job, but never found meaning in the work. He cut his teeth in the culinary world by interning at world-class kitchens including Quay in Sydney and Noma in Copenhagen. After learning pastry-making from scratch, he eventually left the corporate world for good to open his own shop, bringing his brother (who quit his own job) and his mum on board. Ben and Saurav talk about what actually separates a great croissant from a good one, the chaos of the Noma internship, betting on yourself without a financial plan, running a family business, and the hardest part of scaling without losing what makes something special. Timestamps: 00:00 - Intro 02:20 - Ben’s formative years 04:46 - First kitchen experiences 07:22 - Inside Noma 12:03 - The origin of Home Croissanterie 17:55 - Improving at the craft 21:16 - Deciding to scale up 28:42 - The reality of running a physical store 33:37 - How he thinks about creativity 36:38 - Community support 37:47 - Scaling without losing quality 41:15 - Work ethic and advice for chasing a passion 43:08 - nonlinear's 3 closing questions This episode is brought to you by Choppity, an AI tool that turns long-form videos into social media-ready clips. Try it for free at ⁠https://www.choppity.com/ ⁠Home Croissanterie website: https://www.homecroissanterie.com/Ben's book rec: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14896485-faviken

Georgie Healy is the host of In the Blink of AI, Australia's leading AI podcast with 350K+ listens. She also writes the weekly Substack Attention Is All I Need. Previously, she launched Google’s AI First Accelerator in Australia and worked across tech, consulting, and investing globally. Georgie and Saurav talk about the discipline required to constantly learn new tools, why putting your personality online is inherently cringe (and worth doing anyway), her aspirations to become a globally leading podcast, and where she lands on AI optimism versus doomerism. Timestamps: 00:00 - Intro 02:41 - Formative years and love of performance 05:00 - Lessons from 15 years in tech 05:53 - Leaning into her personality online 07:53 - Changing opinions on AI's biggest names 09:59 - How the podcast started 12:12 - Research process 15:00 - Hallmarks of a great interview 17:07 - How to think about podcast analytics 20:19 - Keeping pace with AI change 23:39 - Starting the Substack 28:43 - Traits of frontier AI builders 29:51 - Future of the podcast 34:12 - AI optimism vs. doomerism 38:00 - nonlinear's 3 closing questions This episode is brought to you by Choppity, an AI tool that turns long-form videos into social media-ready clips. Try it for free at ⁠https://www.choppity.com/⁠ Links: In the Blink of AI: https://open.spotify.com/show/5K4NkKXa8Cqxuoed1jBGwO Georgie's Substack: ⁠https://georgiehealy.substack.com/ Georgie's book recommendation: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4030991-shoe-dog

Kevin Lu is the founder of Atrium, an AI comms and relations team built to help founders, execs, and investors manage and nurture relationships. Before founding, Kevin spent six years on the other side of the table as a VC at Reinventure and AirTree. Kevin and Saurav talk about the pain point that sparked Atrium, the joy of building with his brother, lessons from fundraising in the US versus Australia, and the aspects of relationship-building that can't be automated. Timestamps: 00:00 - Introduction 02:11 - What Atrium does and the pain point it solves 03:25 - Childhood influences 06:21 - Getting into venture capital 08:57 - Learnings from VC that still apply 12:32 - Atrium's origin story and evolution 16:00 - Fundraising lessons in the US vs Australia 21:05 - What he wishes he'd known 12 months ago 22:46 - Differentiating vs competitors 26:09 - What can't be automated 28:12 - How Kevin unwinds 31:49 - Founder-led marketing 34:19 - AI's trajectory and what skills still matter 37:00 - nonlinear's 3 closing questions This episode is brought to you by Choppity, an AI tool that turns long-form videos into social media-ready clips. Try it for free at https://www.choppity.com - Atrium website: https://www.atrium.me/ - Kevin's book recommendation: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40180098-the-overstory

Joe Harris is the founder of Alloy, an AI-native data platform helping robotics companies manage their data and ship safer, more reliable robots. Alloy just closed an $11.5M seed round at a $115M valuation, backed by leading Australian VCs and angels from OpenAI, Tesla, Anthropic and more. Before Alloy, Joe led growth at telehealth company Eucalyptus, which recently sold to Hims for over $1 billion. Saurav and Joe talk about how robotics is still in its early innings, how he’s earned credibility without decades in the industry, what he looks for when hiring and what keeps him up at night as he tries to scale Alloy into one of the biggest companies in physical AI. Timestamps: 00:00 - Introduction 02:07 - Alloy's $11.5M seed round and what it unlocks 03:16 - The journey from Eucalyptus to robotics 07:27 - Why Joe chose to start a company 08:51 - Joe's founding insight 12:02 - What does the future of robotics look like? 18:24 - How Alloy helps customers 20:18 - Competition 23:52 - Building a team 26:06 - Earning credibility 27:30 - Timing 32:38 - Prioritization and killing bad experiments 34:01 - What success and failure look like 38:49 - Advice for early-career people amid AI disruption 42:55 - Building a founder-led brand 44:46 - nonlinear's 3 closing questions This episode is brought to you by Choppity, an AI tool that turns long-form videos into social media-ready clips. Try it for free at https://www.choppity.com/ Links: Alloy: https://www.usealloy.ai/ Joe’s book recommendation: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20518872-the-three-body-problem

Dan is the co-founder of Earlywork, Australia's first sales school helping people build 6-figure careers in sales. He's also an R&B musician, performing under the name BROCKNROLL. Saurav and Dan chat about building a business around pain instead of passion, why he and his co-founders took the decision to pivot and halve their revenue, how posting online has been a huge source of opportunity, the four pillars he uses to define a good life, and what pulled him back into making music after years away from it. Timestamps: 00:00 - Introduction 01:49 - Childhood and family influence 04:13 - Starting Earlywork and finding co-founders 09:11 - The instinct to build 12:59 - Multiple pivots 19:41 - Personal branding and posting on LinkedIn 25:29 - Career experimentation 26:44 - Chasing pain instead of passion 28:53 - Dan's relationship with work 32:29 - What other founders taught him 35:23 - The music journey 39:10 - Creative process and streaming numbers 43:21 - nonlinear's 3 closing questions This episode is brought to you by Choppity, an AI tool that turns long-form videos into social media-ready clips. Try it for free at https://www.choppity.com/ - Earlywork website: https://www.earlywork.co/ - Dan's music page: https://www.instagram.com/brocknrollmusic/ - Dan's book recommendation: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/71730.Nonviolent_Communication

Audrey runs Mapo Studio, offering product design for AI-first startups and scaleups like Heidi Health, Relevance AI, Eucalyptus and Lorikeet. She's also grown to over 100K followers across social media platforms, posting about working in tech, freelancing and running a business. In this episode, Audrey and Saurav talk about the importance of asking for what you want, what good AI product design looks like, the mindset you need to be a content creator and increasing your surface area for luck. Timestamps: 00:00 - Cold open 00:54 - Introduction 02:29 - Childhood and early lessons 05:03 - Early career experimentation 08:24 - What makes good product design 09:47 - The freelancing journey 13:38 - Working at Lorikeet 16:20 - Relaunching Mapo Studio 18:33 - Why chat is a lazy default in AI product design 21:02 - A week in Audrey's life 22:08 - Habits for successful content creation 28:49 - Retirement as freedom from money-first decisions 31:21 - The importance of luck 33:19 - Writing cold emails that work 37:00 - nonlinear's 3 closing questions

Jessy Wu spent seven years as a management consultant and VC investor before walking away to do two things: start a business and write a novel. A year and a half later, she's done both — running her comms agency, Encour, and publishing her debut novel, Good Intentions. In this episode, Jessy and Saurav talk about why she left a stable career in finance to chase writing, how she turned her real experience in VC, consulting, and journalism into fiction, why she's willing to be a "trailblazer and a firebrand" on LinkedIn even when it invites backlash and how she's trying to make a full-time career as a writer. Timestamps: 00:00 - Cold open and Intro 03:42 - Early reactions to Good Intentions 05:10 - The pivot from VC/consulting into the arts 08:24 - The intersection of art and commerce 11:39 - How Jessy's experiences shaped Good Intentions 13:00 - The purpose of good writing17:29 - The early drafts of Good Intentions 20:26 - The writing and publishing process 28:08 - Personal branding and being outspoken online 31:59 - Making a career as a writer 39:38 - What's next 40:59 - Advice for anyone with a creative itch and a corporate job 43:52 - nonlinear's 3 closing questions

Vidit Agarwal is the Founder & CEO of Curiosity Centre, an Insights, Marketing & Consulting Firm trusted across the USA, Australia, India and New Zealand. He also hosts The High Flyers podcast, releasing over 250 episodes with senior leaders in tech, government, sports and beyond. But the path here was anything but linear. A below-average ATAR, a pathway diploma at RMIT, three years at Coles, a quick jump into startup land, a stint at P&G and then a move to Sydney just weeks before COVID hit — losing two jobs in eight weeks in a city where he barely knew anyone. That was the fuel to start The High Flyers Podcast, the lockdown project that soon became a calling. Timestamps: 00:00 — Introduction 03:00 — Vidit's formative years 05:15 — Vidit's influences growing up 08:15 — A low ATAR and finding the "third door" 13:30 — The Coles internship 16:24 — What a mentor saw in Vidit in his early career20:20 — Heading to startup land 22:30 — The P&G experience at Gillette 24:30 — Moving to Sydney; COVID and two lost jobs 26:00 — Why he started the High Flyers Podcast 30:35 — The craft of interviewing: curiosity-first 37:30 — How Vidit's concept of a "high-flyer" has evolved 39:40 — Building The Curiosity Centre 49:10 — Balancing the different verticals of The Curiosity Centre 51:00 — The value of having a financial safety net 56:00 — Luck and the surface area of opportunity 57:30 — nonlinear's 3 ending questions

Franko Ali has spent over a decade in marketing and storytelling, from growing YouTube channels at Discovery Media in San Francisco to brand-building for one of Australia's leading venture capital firms. This year, he's taking a sabbatical to reset while still staying in motion. He's helping to launch Build Australia: a grassroots movement turning collective anxiety about the future into something optimistic. Timestamps: 00:00 - Opening highlight and introduction 01:39 - The link between marketing and optimism 03:50 - Growing up in California, Steiner schools and accidental stoicism 10:13 - How the early internet influenced Franko 17:30 - Going viral on Facebook while in college 19:00 - Franko's early career in media at Discovery 25:24 - The move to Australia 29:44 - Finding community as an outsider 32:15 - Working in tech and VC in Australia 45:00 - Franko's sabbatical experience 49:08 - Build Australia: turning anxiety into a national optimism movement 59:27 - AI content overload and the fear of losing our humanity 1:04:12 - nonlinear's 3 ending questions --- 🎙 ABOUT NONLINEAR nonlinear is the podcast about the messy, winding path to doing meaningful work. Each episode, host Saurav Risbud sits down with someone who took an unconventional route, whether that's starting a company, taking a sabbatical, or finding meaning beyond a job title.Subscribe and share with someone who's figuring out their next move.