Early this year Nancy and Spencer took a moment to look back on an incredible year for Founder's Voyage. In this special retrospective episode, we reflect on the podcast's growth, our most memorable conversations, and the lessons that have stayed with them.

From episode 56 to episode 153 released, 38 fascinating guests interviewed, and three live events in London, it's been a landmark year for the community. Nancy and Spencer revisit some of their standout interviews, including candid conversations about mental health, neurodivergence, entrepreneurial grit, and the ethics of AI. They also take a moment to honor the memory of a beloved community member, Elizabeth Fuller McKellar, whose entrepreneurial spirit left a lasting impression on everyone she encountered.

The hosts also share the recurring themes and words of wisdom that surfaced throughout the year, from the power of grit and persistence, to the lifelong value of self-education and learning from failure. Plus, they look ahead to what's coming in the new year, including Spencer's plans for continued live events in London and progress on his space technology prototype, and Nancy's journey into parenthood alongside the podcast.

Whether you're a longtime listener or just discovering Founder's Voyage, this episode captures the heart of what this community is all about: honest conversations, mutual learning, and the courage to keep growing.

Our own Co-Founder Spencer Walker-Fooks talks about his first business, Unseen Games, the motivations behind it, and the mistakes that eventually killed it. This episode is a little different, it comes from one of our live events in London.

Over four years, Spencer navigated the challenges of creating a social gaming console for pubs and cafes, ultimately drawing transformative lessons from both the highs and lows of startup life.

💡 What You’ll Learn from Spencer's Journey with Unseen Games:
🔸In a Double-sided Market Validate the Economic Buyer: Ensure your product or service addresses the needs of the actual decision-maker who controls the purchase, not just the end user.
🔸Build a Diverse Team: Avoid skillset redundancy; prioritize bringing in teammates whose strengths and perspectives differ from your own, especially outside of your expertise.
🔸 Pivot Fast and Reduce Dependency: Stay nimble and ready to adapt your business model when circumstances change, and avoid relying too heavily on a single industry or channel, if a black swan event hits that industry, it could kill your business.
🔸 Don’t Succumb to the Sunk Cost Fallacy: Recognize when to let go of a project, regardless of the time and energy invested, to make room for new opportunities and growth.

You can connect with Spencer on ⁠LinkedIn⁠ to follow his journey.

🎥 Big thanks to VidOps for supporting Founders Voyage. Use code voyage at ⁠vidops.io⁠ for 10% off expert audio, video, animation, and photography services.

👏 Props to the stellar crew: Nancy Nash, Daniel M. Melo, Carlos Javier Chacón Sánchez, Matthew Ray, and host Spencer Walker-Fooks. You bring this show to life.

🥂 Want to support the journey? Join us on ⁠Patreon⁠ and help amplify more voices like Spencer.

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Joanna Montgomery is a pioneering entrepreneur and the founder and CEO of Little Riot, an internationally acclaimed company best known for bringing emotion-driven connected products like Pillow Talk to life.

With over 15 years of experience, Joanna has redefined how technology can foster human connection, especially during times of distance or vulnerability. In addition to her entrepreneurial work, she is a mentor, faculty member at the One Day MBA program, and an active member of advisory circles supporting women and minority entrepreneurs. Her leadership and insights have empowered countless founders and helped shape the evolution of product design at the intersection of compassion and technology.

💡 What You’ll Learn from Joanna's Journey:

🔸 Embracing the Accidental Path: Learn how unexpected opportunities and viral ideas can spark entrepreneurial journeys, even if you never planned to run a business.

🔸 Balancing Growth and Wellbeing: Discover why sustainable success often means redefining your goals over time and finding a balance between professional ambition and personal fulfillment.

🔸 The Power of Leadership Evolution: Explore how Joanna’s approach to leadership matured with self-awareness and empathy, and how diversity and emotional intelligence strengthen teams.

🔸 Funding with Intention: Gain realistic perspectives on the pros and cons of taking investment, especially for hardware startups, and how delaying funding can add value and flexibility to your venture.

You can connect with Joanna on ⁠LinkedIn⁠ to follow her journey.

🎥 Big thanks to VidOps for supporting Founders Voyage. Use code voyage at ⁠vidops.io⁠ for 10% off expert audio, video, animation, and photography services.

👏 Props to the stellar crew: Nancy Nash, Daniel M. Melo, Carlos Javier Chacón Sánchez, Matthew Ray, and host Spencer Walker-Fooks. You bring this show to life.

🥂 Want to support the journey? Join us on ⁠Patreon⁠ and help amplify more voices like Joanna.

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Jordan is a seasoned entrepreneur, investor, and operator with an impressive track record in both founding and scaling technology businesses, as well as supporting over 1,600 early-stage investments through roles at Rainmaking and Startup Bootcamp. As the current CEO of Cowshed and a co-founder of Rainmaker, Jordan’s career spans founder exits, venture capital, and hands-on company turnarounds. His perspective is informed by both hard-earned lessons from startup failures and successful exits, as well as experience as a non-executive director and venture partner managing institutional capital. Jordan is widely recognized for his candor, strategic insight, and passion for building exceptional business “machines.”

💡 What You’ll Learn from Jordan's Journey:
🔸 Build the Business to Outlast Yourself: Your job as a founder is to develop a scalable, resilient organization (“the machine”) that continues to thrive without you, not to personally do all the work or remain the bottleneck.
🔸 Incentives Are Everything: Crafting effective incentives is crucial, top talent can underperform under weak incentive structures. Constantly revisit and tailor incentives to align with business objectives and each stage of growth.
🔸 Beware the Unicorn Myth: The venture capital game’s odds are stacked against founders, with most never seeing meaningful returns. Pursue entrepreneurship on your terms and beware of blindly drinking the VC Kool-Aid, building sustainable, profitable businesses can be equally or more rewarding.
🔸 Play the Long Game: Compounding applies far beyond capital, to skills, knowledge, networks, and reputation. Success takes patience and persistence; most meaningful results materialize for those who stick with it for the long term.

You can connect with Jordan on ⁠LinkedIn⁠ to follow his journey.

👏 Props to the stellar crew: Nancy Nash, Daniel M. Melo, Carlos Javier Chacón Sánchez, Matthew Ray, and host Spencer Walker-Fooks. You bring this show to life.

🥂 Want to support the journey? Join us on ⁠Patreon⁠ and help amplify more voices like Jordan.

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Michael is the creator of the Kuzma self-playing guitar, a groundbreaking fusion of engineering and artistry that brings a unique guitar performance to life. What began as a college dorm room project has evolved into a globally recognized innovation featured at high-profile events and delivered to clients in cities such as San Francisco, New York, and Cyprus. With eight years of relentless iteration, Michael has pursued not only technical excellence but also the elusive goal of musical soulfulness. His journey showcases the power of following your curiosity, iterative development, and leveraging community and collaboration to break new ground in both technology and art.

💡 What You’ll Learn from Michael's Journey:

🔸 The Power of Persistent Experimentation: Michael's success arose from years of iterative prototyping, learning from failures, and continually seeking small but meaningful improvements.

🔸 The Value of Asking for Help: By openly sharing struggles and ideas and tapping into the expertise of friends, mentors, and even strangers, Michael demonstrates how collaboration and humility accelerate both innovation and business growth.

🔸 Balancing Creativity and Business: Michael has grown the Kuzma self-playing guitar while maintaining a full-time job, showing that sustainable creative entrepreneurship often requires building supportive environments and flexible schedules.

🔸 Building Niche Authority Through Passion: By focusing on a niche that deeply excites him, Michael has not only become a global authority in self-playing guitars but also created opportunities that align closely with his personal and professional passions.

You can connect with Michael on ⁠LinkedIn⁠ to follow his journey.

🎥 Big thanks to VidOps for supporting Founders Voyage. Use code voyage at ⁠vidops.io⁠ for 10% off expert audio, video, animation, and photography services.

👏 Props to the stellar crew: Nancy Nash, Daniel M. Melo, Carlos Javier Chacón Sánchez, Matthew Ray, and host Spencer Walker-Fooks. You bring this show to life.

🥂 Want to support the journey? Join us on ⁠Patreon⁠ and help amplify more voices like Michael.

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Gabriel is an accomplished entrepreneur and innovator with over 16 years of experience in mission-critical operations, team building, and leading business unit development for Fortune 200 companies. He is known for co-founding Brazil’s first ultra-fast grocery delivery platform and executing large-scale data center projects across continents, including leading hyperscale cloud infrastructure builds. Currently, he leverages his expertise as Regional Commissioning Manager at Microsoft, blending his owner mindset and global perspective with hands-on startup experience. Gabriel’s career reflects a passion for technology, purposeful leadership, and building impactful solutions across diverse and challenging environments.

💡 What You’ll Learn from Gabriel's Journey:

🔸 Start with the End Goal in Mind: Gabriel emphasizes the importance of defining your long-term vision, building a plan to achieve it, and consistently executing with discipline, both in startups and within large organizations.

🔸 Navigating Major Transitions: Learn how Gabriel made pivotal decisions such as stepping away from his own company at the right moment and moving internationally, always aligning career shifts with personal values and life goals.

🔸 Building High-Trust Teams: Gabriel highlights the critical role of trust, aligned vision, and complementary skillsets within founding teams, lessons as relevant to startups as they are to global tech giants.

🔸 Evolving Leadership Styles: Discover how Gabriel shifted his leadership from visionary and transformational as a founder to authentic leadership in the corporate world, emphasizing self-awareness, transparency, and adaptability.

You can connect with Gabriel on ⁠LinkedIn⁠ to follow his journey.

👏 Props to the stellar crew: Nancy Nash, Daniel M. Melo, Carlos Javier Chacón Sánchez, Matthew Ray, and host Spencer Walker-Fooks. You bring this show to life.

🥂 Want to support the journey? Join us on ⁠Patreon⁠ and help amplify more voices like Gabriel.

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Anoop Antony is a neuroscientist, tech founder, and CEO of NeuroX, where he leads innovations in brain mapping, neurofeedback, and photobiomodulation. With academic credentials spanning psychology and cognitive neuroscience, Anoop has transformed his expertise into building cutting-edge neuro-technology and clinical services, including pioneering early detection methods for dementia and wearable EEG devices. Under his leadership, NeuroX has received government grants, published influential research, and is reshaping approaches to brain health, merging deep science with product development and public accessibility.

💡 What You’ll Learn from Anoop's Journey:

🔸 Grit Through Adversity: Anoop emphasizes the importance of perseverance, especially at moments when giving up seems easiest, encouraging founders to use setbacks as catalysts for working even harder.

🔸 Bootstrapping Lessons: By building NeuroX with minimal external funding, Anoop developed a comprehensive understanding of business operations, which has increased both investor confidence and his own resourcefulness.

🔸 User-Centered Innovation: Anoop highlights the necessity of listening to users and evolving product design for real-world adoption, pivoting from a headband to in-ear EEG devices to better integrate with user's lifestyles.

🔸 The Power of Mission-Driven Teams: He stresses recruiting for shared vision over financial motivation, fostering a culture where team members are united by purpose and incentivized through equity and ownership.

You can connect with Anoop on ⁠LinkedIn⁠ to follow his journey.

👏 Props to the stellar crew: Nancy Nash, Daniel M. Melo, Carlos Javier Chacón Sánchez, Matthew Ray, and host Spencer Walker-Fooks. You bring this show to life.

🥂 Want to support the journey? Join us on ⁠Patreon⁠ and help amplify more voices like Anoop.

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Wayne is the co-founder of 3Dceramet, a pioneering company in the field of ceramic 3D printing, dedicated to enabling high flexibility and sustainable design for industrial-grade ceramics. With a strong background in data expertise and entrepreneurial experience across multiple countries, Wayne has helped build a family-driven business that empowers designers to rapidly prototype and iterate ceramic products through innovative technology. Under his leadership, 3Dceramet has attained patents in Taiwan and China and launched the TMEI platform to support artistic and industrial designers. Wayne’s journey is shaped by a commitment to continuous learning, collaboration, and bold experimentation.

💡 What You’ll Learn from Wayne's Journey:

🔸 Move Fast and Iterate: Wayne emphasizes the importance of acting quickly and continually experimenting, rather than waiting for perfect outcomes, to stay ahead in innovation-driven fields.

🔸 Leverage Family and Complementary Skills: By building a business alongside family members with diverse expertise, Wayne demonstrates the power of complementary skills and open collaboration—even in a family startup.

🔸 Top-Down and Bottom-Up Problem Solving: Wayne’s path highlights how innovation sometimes begins with technology searching for a market, while still being informed by customer feedback and MVP-driven learning.

🔸 Turning Setbacks into Growth: From early business failures to navigating new markets, Wayne shows how to treat setbacks as learning opportunities and iterate toward eventual success.

You can connect with Wayne on ⁠LinkedIn⁠ to follow his journey.

🎥 Big thanks to VidOps for supporting Founders Voyage. Use code voyage at ⁠vidops.io⁠ for 10% off expert audio, video, animation, and photography services.

👏 Props to the stellar crew: Nancy Nash, Daniel M. Melo, Carlos Javier Chacón Sánchez, Matthew Ray, and host Spencer Walker-Fooks. You bring this show to life.

🥂 Want to support the journey? Join us on ⁠Patreon⁠ and help amplify more voices like Wayne.

#FoundersVoyage #Entrepreneurship #Podcast