5 • 976 Ratings
🗓️ 14 May 2025
⏱️ 51 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
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In this episode, I sit down with David Fastuca, serial entrepreneur and co-founder of Locomote. David shares the raw, behind-the-scenes truth of building, scaling, and exiting a startup without raising external capital. We explore the emotional challenges of entrepreneurship, the toll it takes on relationships, and why success without alignment can still feel like failure.
Timestamps:
(00:00) - Introduction
(01:15) - How David started Locomote and scaled without funding
(06:32) - The personal cost of building a business
(10:55) - Dealing with burnout and founder guilt
(13:44) - Navigating identity crises post-exit
(18:20) - How his business affected his marriage
(22:11) - What true alignment in business and life looks like
(25:40) - Stepping back from ego-driven decisions
(28:55) - Why purpose matters more than success
(33:28) - What David would change if he started over
(37:10) - Mental health strategies for founders
(41:45) - Closing thoughts
Check out today's guest, David Fastuca:
Buy David's Book: https://www.growthforum.io/buybook
David's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidfastuca/
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Check out Chris Do:
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0:00.0 | You can't be half bait. You can't be half-assed in your efforts now. |
0:03.9 | I think design is essential of business today, ever more so than before history. |
0:09.0 | I mean, what we do is being commoditized, devalued, often forcing many people to undersell |
0:15.4 | their work undervalued. |
0:16.6 | I believe the riches are in the niches. |
0:19.0 | So really understanding, you know, your, your customer, |
0:23.1 | the industry that they're in and being really known for that. I'm Dave Fustuka and you're listening |
0:28.7 | to the future. I have the opportunity to talk to my next guest about why he believes design |
0:36.1 | as a differentiator. And my core identity is one of a |
0:41.8 | designer. So when somebody says that, my ears are up, you can't really see him through all the |
0:45.5 | headphones and the head gear that I'm wearing, but I'm really intrigued because I think a large |
0:49.5 | portion of our audience, dear listener, you are wondering how we compete in this world, especially in the age |
0:55.1 | of AI and all the noise that's going on. |
0:57.6 | How can design be a differentiator? |
0:59.4 | Is there a business component to it or a quotient? |
1:01.9 | How do we communicate that value to others? |
1:03.5 | And beyond just theory and abstract talk, I'm hoping that we land in a place today with my next |
1:08.9 | guest, David, he's going to share with us some examples of what he's done and what he's seen. |
1:15.4 | David, welcome to the show. |
1:17.0 | Chris, it's a pleasure and honor to be here with you, mate. |
1:19.9 | Wonderful to have you. |
1:21.2 | So let me just start off with this question. |
... |
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