Most people think private messaging is already solved. Chris Fresle is proof it isn't.

Chris Fresle is the founder of Just Us, a private messaging app built to prevent image-based abuse. He's a year nine dropout with no tech background, a patent pending across six countries, and a product that uses facial recognition and object detection to make private messages genuinely impossible to screenshot, forward, or capture on another device.

In this episode, Chris joins Alan at the Cremorne Digital Hub in Melbourne to talk through how he built something everyone said was impossible, how he found and trusted a development team in Vietnam with no technical knowledge of his own, and how he's using survivor-led influencer marketing to build trust with a Gen Z audience that WhatsApp and Signal have never been able to reach.

Stay until the end for Chris's take on why Australian investors are harder to crack than US investors, and Alan's advice on how to pitch a product that people struggle to believe actually works.

Timestamps

00:00 Intro

03:00 The Journey to Creating Just Us

06:02 Building a Trustworthy Team

08:55 Navigating Skepticism in the Startup World

12:00 Monetization and User Engagement Strategies

15:07 User Feedback and App Development

17:58 Marketing and Influencer Partnerships

20:50 Protecting Intellectual Property

23:56 The Vision for Just Us

27:14 Passion for Change and Helping Others

Deel: Founders scale faster on Deel. Set up payroll for any country in minutes, hire anyone anywhere, and get visas handled fast, so you stay focused on scaling. Deel takes care of onboarding, HR, IT, EOR, benefits, and compliance, so your team can grow without borders.

It’s why more than 40,000 fast-growing companies trust Deel to move fast.

Visit https://www.deel.com/dayone

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Galah Cyber offers Application Security Assessment Get a clear, ten-minute snapshot of your AppSec maturity across the five core principles. Fast, practical insights you can act on straight away at https://www.galahcyber.com.au/assess

To learn more, join our newsletter to be notified of new and upcoming shows. The only content we create is content that will help Australian founders.

Mentioned in this episode:

Deel x PX_Script 1

Deel x PX_Script 2

Quinnie Chen is the founder of Profit Plainly, a web app built for solo founders and freelancers who have no finance team, no CFO, and no clear picture of whether their business is actually working for them. Quinnie built it to solve her own problem, after years of running a website and software design business post Canva, she kept reaching the end of the month and realising she had underpriced her work, taken on the wrong clients, and had no way of knowing what she actually needed to earn to replace a salary.

In this episode, recorded live at the Cremorne Digital Hub in Melbourne, Quinnie joins Alan to talk through the early stages of bringing Profit Plainly to market. Alan challenges her to think more carefully about who her first customer really is, why accountants and bookkeepers might be her smartest go-to-market channel, and why per-usage pricing could unlock growth that a traditional SaaS model would block. It's a candid, practical conversation about the decisions every solo founder faces before they have any customers, any pricing, and any real clarity on where to focus.

If you're building something early and trying to figure out where to start, this episode is for you.

Time Stamps

00:00 Trailer and Intro

03:01 How Quinnie Chen Built Profit Plainly to Solve Her Own Freelancing Finance Problem

05:47 Why Emotional Labor and Opportunity Cost Are Missing From Most Business Finance Tools

08:52 How the Business Ikigai Framework Helps Solo Founders Identify Their Best Clients

12:05 Why Accountants and Bookkeepers Are the Smartest First Customer for Profit Plainly

14:54 How to Find a Go-To-Market Channel That Generates Both Revenue and Referrals

18:02 Why Traditional SaaS Pricing May Not Work for Price-Sensitive Solo Founders

21:04 How Per-Usage Pricing Could Help Profit Plainly Convert More Early Stage Users

23:46 How to Start Experimenting With Paid Marketing Before Your Product Is Ready

27:14 How to Build a Community and Reward Engaged Users on a Zero Budget

30:03 How to Join the Profit Plainly Early Access Beta and What Comes Next

Deel: Founders scale faster on Deel. Set up payroll for any country in minutes, hire anyone anywhere, and get visas handled fast, so you stay focused on scaling. Deel takes care of onboarding, HR, IT, EOR, benefits, and compliance, so your team can grow without borders.

It’s why more than 40,000 fast-growing companies trust Deel to move fast.

Visit https://www.deel.com/dayone

___

Galah Cyber offers Application Security Assessment Get a clear, ten-minute snapshot of your AppSec maturity across the five core principles. Fast, practical insights you can act on straight away at https://www.galahcyber.com.au/assess

To learn more, join our newsletter to be notified of new and upcoming shows. The only content we create is content that will help Australian founders.

Mentioned in this episode:

Deel x PX_Script 1

Deel x PX_Script 2

Tap, beep, done. Australia’s payment experience is one of the world’s most convenient, but also one of the most expensive. Small businesses lose thousands a month in card and scheme fees, while everyday Australians pay hundreds each year just to access their own money.

In this episode of Pick My Brain, Gaurav Rana, co-founder of GANI Pay, joins Alan Jones to pitch his mobile-first payment platform designed to bypass the legacy card system entirely. GANI Pay uses NPP, PayID, and PayTo to enable instant, secure QR payments, with flat monthly fees for merchants and cash-back rewards for consumers.

Alan and Gaurav dig into the economics of “tap and go,” how to convince both merchants and customers to switch, and why regulatory trust is just as important as slick tech in fintech. They also explore GANI Pay’s go-to-market focus on high-volume, low-ticket retailers, and what it takes to turn a payment product into a movement.

If you’re building in fintech, payments, or tackling an entrenched incumbent, this is a masterclass in pitching, positioning, and finding your wedge.

Time Stamp

01:40 – What is GaniPay? Mobile-first QR payments without the card fees

03:00 – Gaurav’s early ambitions: from science to entrepreneurship

04:15 – The problem: why tap payments quietly cost Australians billions

06:10 – How GaniPay works: bypassing Visa/Mastercard with NPP & PayTo

08:20 – Merchants’ biggest question: will customers adopt it?

09:50 – Building trust: compliance, security, and banking partnerships

12:15 – Go-to-market: targeting high-volume, sub-$100 transactions

14:30 – Competing with Afterpay & co: different problem, different value

15:55 – Alan on finding the most promising merchant verticals

17:40 – Fundraising plans: seeking $600k to scale tech & marketing

18:35 – How to become an “investable” fintech in 60 days

20:45 – Movement vs product: can GaniPay spark a payments revolution?

Resources

🙋🏻‍♂️ Gaurav Rana – https://www.linkedin.com/in/gauravrana841/

💰 GaniPay – https://ganipay.com.au/

Deel: Founders scale faster on Deel. Set up payroll for any country in minutes, hire anyone anywhere, and get visas handled fast, so you stay focused on scaling. Deel takes care of onboarding, HR, IT, EOR, benefits, and compliance, so your team can grow without borders.

It’s why more than 40,000 fast-growing companies trust Deel to move fast.

Visit https://www.deel.com/dayone

___

Galah Cyber offers Application Security Assessment Get a clear, ten-minute snapshot of your AppSec maturity across the five core principles. Fast, practical insights you can act on straight away at https://www.galahcyber.com.au/assess

To learn more, join our newsletter to be notified of new and upcoming shows. The only content we create is content that will help Australian founders.

Mentioned in this episode:

Deel x PX_Script 1

Deel x PX_Script 2

Win $2,000 in credits with the Day One Network — take our 2-minute audience survey before 30 June: dayone.fm/survey

Justin Wastnage is the founder and CEO of Vloggi, a platform that transforms everyday mobile phone footage into trusted, structured, legally owned video assets for businesses and enterprises. What started as a tool for tourism boards to crowdsource location content has evolved, through COVID, multiple pivots, and years of customer-funded development, into an infrastructure layer that verifies, structures and processes video for some of the world's most compliance-heavy industries.

In this episode, Justin joins Alan to talk honestly about the challenges of pitching a business that investors think they already know. Vloggi has worked with Major League Baseball, Netflix, the NSW Government, Google Ads and RFK's presidential campaign, yet raising in Australia remains stubbornly difficult. Alan digs into why that is and what Justin can do about it, from repositioning the pitch, to rebranding, to putting someone else in the room.

If you're a founder who has pivoted hard but can't shake what investors remember about your old story, this one is for you.

00:00 - Intro

02:03 – Meet Justin Wastnage and the origins of Vloggi

04:57 – What Vloggi does: video as content, data and evidence

07:11 – What changed with synthetic AI video and why it matters now

09:00 – The pivot story: from tourism boards to enterprise compliance

12:35 – Bootstrapping and the team behind Vloggi

13:03 – The current raise: $800k to bring the enterprise product to market

17:03 – How Vloggi verifies that uploaded video is authentic, not AI-generated

19:33 – Commercial model: per project vs ongoing enterprise licensing

22:31 – Why Vloggi wants to be infrastructure, not a consumer brand

24:48 – Alan's challenge: how to reposition when investors think they know your old story

29:08 – Should you rebrand? The case for and against

32:26 – Pitch deck strategy: teaser first or full deck upfront?

35:23 – Alan pitches Vloggi back to Justin the way he'd do it

38:51 – The airline use case and how to open with one vertical then go broad

Deel: Founders scale faster on Deel. Set up payroll for any country in minutes, hire anyone anywhere, and get visas handled fast, so you stay focused on scaling. Deel takes care of onboarding, HR, IT, EOR, benefits, and compliance, so your team can grow without borders.

It’s why more than 40,000 fast-growing companies trust Deel to move fast.

Visit https://www.deel.com/dayone

___

Galah Cyber offers Application Security Assessment Get a clear, ten-minute snapshot of your AppSec maturity across the five core principles. Fast, practical insights you can act on straight away at https://www.galahcyber.com.au/assess

Deel: Founders scale faster on Deel. Set up payroll for any country in minutes, hire anyone anywhere, and get visas handled fast, so you stay focused on scaling. Deel takes care of onboarding, HR, IT, EOR, benefits, and compliance, so your team can grow without borders.

It’s why more than 40,000 fast-growing companies trust Deel to move fast.

Visit https://www.deel.com/dayone

___

Galah Cyber offers Application Security Assessment Get a clear, ten-minute snapshot of your AppSec maturity across the five core principles. Fast, practical insights you can act on straight away at https://www.galahcyber.com.au/assess

Mentioned in this episode:

Deel x PX_Script 2

Deel x PX_Script 1

Win $2,000 in credits with the Day One Network — take our 2-minute audience survey before 30 June: dayone.fm/survey

In this episode, Ben joins Alan to talk about what it actually looks like to build and scale a technical consulting business in Australia, from the talent shortage that forces most serious engineering firms offshore, to the practical realities of using AI in production versus just prototyping. Ben is refreshingly direct about what works and what doesn't, including why he thinks signing a three-year deal with any AI provider right now is a mistake, why AI cold email campaigns do more damage than good, and why a physical piece of mail will outperform ten thousand automated messages every time.

Alan challenges Ben on the right tech stack for founders heading into 2026, how to get the most out of free cloud credits before you raise, and what product managers still do better than any AI tool on the market.

If you're a founder making decisions about how to build, who to hire, or which AI tools to trust with your business, this episode is worth your time.

🎙 Ask Alan a Question – https://speakpipe.com/pickmybrain

🎧 More from Alan Jones – https://www.startupfoundercoach.com

Deel: Founders scale faster on Deel. Set up payroll for any country in minutes, hire anyone anywhere, and get visas handled fast, so you stay focused on scaling. Deel takes care of onboarding, HR, IT, EOR, benefits, and compliance, so your team can grow without borders.

It’s why more than 40,000 fast-growing companies trust Deel to move fast.

Visit https://www.deel.com/dayone

___

Galah Cyber offers Application Security Assessment Get a clear, ten-minute snapshot of your AppSec maturity across the five core principles. Fast, practical insights you can act on straight away at https://www.galahcyber.com.au/assess

To learn more, join our newsletter to be notified of new and upcoming shows. The only content we create is content that will help Australian founders.

Mentioned in this episode:

Deel x PX_Script 1

Win $2,000 in credits with the Day One Network — take our 2-minute audience survey before 30 June: dayone.fm/survey

In this episode, Alan is joined by Marie Dowling, founder and CEO of Newsary, a hybrid AI and human PR platform built for startups and small businesses. Marie walks through how Newsary works, why PR is becoming the new SEO, and how she landed enterprise client Flixbus, generating over 300 pieces of Australian media coverage.

Alan challenges Marie to think beyond founder-led sales, pushing her to consider referral incentives, agency partnerships, and her LinkedIn audience as scalable distribution channels. If you're a founder who's written off PR, this episode might just change your mind.

Time Stamps

02:13 – Meet Marie Dowling and her path from PR agency to founder

04:37 – Why bigger clients mean less interesting press releases

06:09 – What Newsary does and who it's for

07:02 – The pivot: from "how to write" to "what is a good story"

08:01 – Why PR is the new SEO

09:09 – How Newsary works: interview-style, not AI-generated

11:05 – Pricing: what Newsary costs vs. a traditional agency

12:32 – How Marie finds customers (and what they all say about PR)

13:39 – The real reason most PR fails: founder involvement

15:14 – Alan's challenge: scaling beyond founder-led sales

18:03 – The Flixbus campaign: 300+ pieces of coverage

19:14 – Who's behind Newsary: the team and advisors

20:16 – Co-hosting industry events: lessons learned

23:18 – Platform rebuild and January launch plans

25:10 – Marie's one ask of listeners

Resources Mentioned

💸 Newsary: https://www.newsary.co/

🎙 Ask Alan a Question – https://speakpipe.com/pickmybrain

🎧 More from Alan Jones – https://www.startupfoundercoach.com

Deel: Founders scale faster on Deel. Set up payroll for any country in minutes, hire anyone anywhere, and get visas handled fast, so you stay focused on scaling. Deel takes care of onboarding, HR, IT, EOR, benefits, and compliance, so your team can grow without borders.

It’s why more than 40,000 fast-growing companies trust Deel to move fast.

Visit https://www.deel.com/dayone

___

Galah Cyber offers Application Security Assessment Get a clear, ten-minute snapshot of your AppSec maturity across the five core principles. Fast, practical insights you can act on straight away at https://www.galahcyber.com.au/assess

To learn more, join our newsletter to be notified of new and upcoming shows. The only content we create is content that will help Australian founders.

Mentioned in this episode:

Deel x PX_Script 1

Win $2,000 in credits with the Day One Network — take our 2-minute audience survey before 30 June: dayone.fm/survey

Episode Summary

Consumers lose billions to scams and miss out on trillions in potential savings every year. So what if everyone had their own AI-powered financial assistant working 24-7?

In this episode of Pick My Brain, Alan Jones is joined by James Horan, founder of Phinly, an AI-driven personal finance platform designed to help consumers automate savings, prevent fees, and optimise their financial lives. James walks through his live pitch for Phinly, outlining the problem with doom-scrolling money advice, the rise of AI agents in personal finance, and a bold vision for owning the AI money assistant category.

Phinly connects to over 20,000 institutions, identifies cost savings opportunities, and enables one-tap actions from cancelling subscriptions to switching providers. With early partnerships secured, backing from a global AI accelerator, and a savings-based revenue model, the startup is raising $800,000 on a pre-seed SAFE to scale toward $4.5M ARR in 18 months.

But Alan’s feedback goes deeper than traction and TAM. He challenges James to avoid blending in with every other AI fintech startup in the room. Instead of leaning purely on logic and numbers, Alan pushes for something more memorable: behavioural insights that surprise the audience about their own financial habits. The goal is simple. Make investors go home and say, “Did you know that…?” and have that sentence start with something you taught them.

If you’re building in fintech, AI, or any crowded category, this episode is a masterclass in standing out when everyone else looks the same.

Time Stamps

02:08 – Meet James Horan and his founder journey

03:14 – Lessons from a failed two-sided marketplace

04:28 – The Phinly pitch begins

05:40 – Money advice, TikTok, and the cost-of-living crisis

06:50 – How Phinly works: AI-powered money automation

07:45 – Traction: 20,000 institutions connected and major partnerships

08:30 – Revenue model: percentage of savings and future subscriptions

09:10 – Alan’s first reaction: good foundation, but blends in

11:45 – The power of surprise in a crowded fintech room

12:30 – Using behavioural economics to stand out

14:00 – Stop reading your slides

15:30 – Supporting your story instead of replacing it

17:00 – Bringing emotion into a rational fintech pitch

18:00 – How to create a pitch people repeat to others

Resources

💸 Phinly – https://phinly.com

🎙 Ask Alan a Question – https://speakpipe.com/pickmybrain

🎧 More from Alan Jones – https://www.startupfoundercoach.com

Deel: Founders scale faster on Deel. Set up payroll for any country in minutes, hire anyone anywhere, and get visas handled fast, so you stay focused on scaling. Deel takes care of onboarding, HR, IT, EOR, benefits, and compliance, so your team can grow without borders.

It’s why more than 40,000 fast-growing companies trust Deel to move fast.

Visit https://www.deel.com/dayone

___

Galah Cyber offers Application Security Assessment Get a clear, ten-minute snapshot of your AppSec maturity across the five core principles. Fast, practical insights you can act on straight away at https://www.galahcyber.com.au/assess

To learn more, join our newsletter to be notified of new and upcoming shows. The only content we create is content that will help Australian founders.

Mentioned in this episode:

Deel x PX_Script 1

Win $2,000 in credits with the Day One Network — take our 2-minute audience survey before 30 June: dayone.fm/survey

Episode Summary

If you have to pitch the same product to two totally different audiences, should you use one deck or two?

In this episode of Pick My Brain, Alan Jones is joined by Michelle Chen, founder of Mental Jam, a startup turning real lived experiences of depression and anxiety into cozy, story-driven mobile games. Michelle is preparing to pitch in two worlds at once: to investors who care about venture-scale growth, and to game publishers who care about commercial upside and licensing rights.

Alan breaks down why one pitch is rarely enough, and introduces a simple framework: three decks for each audience. A teaser deck to spark curiosity, a pitch deck to support your live story, and a leave-behind deck packed with detail for later review. They also get tactical about what makes a pitch land: fewer words on slides, stronger emotional delivery in the first 10 to 15 seconds, and building trust by keeping the audience focused on the founder, not the deck.

Michelle also shares the real nerves behind pitching, including stage anxiety and how it impacts performance. Alan offers a mindset shift that helps founders separate their personal fear from the “role” they’re playing on stage, plus practical tips for pitching on video calls. They finish with concrete improvements: shorten the character section, add a clear team slide, and capture customer reactions on video to show emotional impact, not just quotes.

If you’re pitching a product with multiple buyers, fundraising while still building, or struggling with confidence on stage, this episode is a masterclass in making your pitch clearer, shorter, and more human

Time Stamps

02:10 – Michelle’s origin story: from PhD research to startup

04:10 – Why Catalyzer mattered for a migrant founder

05:20 – Two audiences: investors vs game publishers

06:05 – Should you build two pitches? Alan’s answer: yes, tailor

08:05 – The 6 deck framework: teaser, pitch, leave-behind for each audience

13:05 – Ideal slide counts: teaser 3 to 5, pitch 10 to 15, leave-behind as needed

14:00 – Why founders accidentally read slides and lose the room

15:00 – Video call tip: pin the person, not your slides

16:15 – Michelle’s pitch: Mental Jam and Boba Rista

23:15 – Alan’s feedback: scripting, emotion, and the first 10 seconds

26:00 – Handling stage anxiety while pitching

29:20 – Cut words per slide: aim for fewer than 10 words

31:10 – Too many characters: use one or two for investors

31:40 – Add a team slide and show real customer feedback

33:00 – Use video testimonials for emotional proof

Resources Mentioned

🎮 Mental Jam – https://hellomentaljam.com

🎙 Ask Alan a Question – https://speakpipe.com/pickmybrain

🎧 More from Alan Jones – https://www.startupfoundercoach.com

Deel: Founders scale faster on Deel. Set up payroll for any country in minutes, hire anyone anywhere, and get visas handled fast, so you stay focused on scaling. Deel takes care of onboarding, HR, IT, EOR, benefits, and compliance, so your team can grow without borders.

It’s why more than 40,000 fast-growing companies trust Deel to move fast.

Visit https://www.deel.com/dayone

___

Galah Cyber offers Application Security Assessment Get a clear, ten-minute snapshot of your AppSec maturity across the five core principles. Fast, practical insights you can act on straight away at https://www.galahcyber.com.au/assess

To learn more, join our newsletter to be notified of new and upcoming shows. The only content we create is content that will help Australian founders.

Mentioned in this episode:

Deel x PX_Script 1