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Founder Stories
Most startup podcasts are about the 1% of founders who build unicorns. This isn't that.
Founder Stories is a podcast for experienced corporate professionals who are seriously considering starting their own business — and want to hear from people who've actually done it.
Hosted by James Green, Co-Founder and General Partner of DQ Ventures, each episode digs into the parts most founders gloss over. The financial reality. The risk to your family. The moments you question the decision. The reasons you'd still do it again.
If you're thinking about whether to leave the corporate world to build your own business, listen to this before you quit.
Founder Stories
The Risk of Starting a Business vs The Risk of Never Trying
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Rob Bryson left a 20-year career to build a recruitment agency in Asia. He still earns less than he did before he made the leap, and he still wouldn't change it for a second.
If you're a senior professional toying with the idea of going out on your own, this is the conversation you don't hear on startup podcasts.
In Episode 01 of Founder Stories, James Green, co-founder and General Partner at DQventures sits down with Rob Bryson, founder of WeNetwork. WeNetwork is a recruitment business now operating across seven countries in Asia Pacific and was DQventures first portfolio company. Rob spent over two decades in senior roles at Michael Page and Robert Walters, transforming Robert Walters' Indonesia business into a 50-person, multi-million dollar operation. Then, at the peak of his corporate career, he resigned.
This episode is for experienced corporate professionals — VPs, directors, country leads — who feel the pull of entrepreneurship but are worried about the risk. Rob and James cover the stuff most entrepreneurship podcasts skip: timing (it's never right), the financial reality of leaving a high salary, the risk to your family and your relationship and why 45-year-old founders outperform 25-year-olds.
Rob is candid about the moments he questioned the decision, the bad hires, the loneliness of running a service business, and what no one tells you before you resign. He's equally candid on why he'd do the same thing all over again and what his journey has taught him about what it really takes to build a multi-million dollar business.
0:00 — "I remember shaking when I resigned"
2:30 — For experienced professionals thinking about quitting corporate
4:00 — Why timing is never right to start a business
8:00 — The real financial risk of building a startup
12:00 — Why startups won't make you rich (and what will)
16:00 — Are you actually cut out for entrepreneurship?
21:00 — The risk to your family no one talks about
24:00 — Why experienced founders outperform young ones
28:00 — An honest review of working with DQventures
Find out more about WeNetwork
Follow Rob on LinkedIn
- Watch this episode on DQventures YouTube Channel
- Thinking about leaving your corporate job to start your own business? Apply to DQventures
- Follow James Green on LinkedIn
- Follow DQventures on LinkedIn