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- 49 | Inside Multi-Million Dollar Startup – Fluency (Finnlay Morcombe and Leo Roubos)
49 | Inside Multi-Million Dollar Startup – Fluency (Finnlay Morcombe and Leo Roubos)
Hey, quick note… all my Q&As come with a podcast episode!
So yes – you can watch and listen to the guest yourself.
Want to skip straight to the podcast? Here’s the link: https://linktr.ee/ex.vicarious
Otherwise, back to the Q&A (est. 3 minute read).
What to expect:
How multi-million dollar startup “Fluency” was created by uni students
What the team is coding at 2AM in the office
Why Leo dreams to have “a Wikipedia page with no picture”
I bet you’re tired of spending 60+ hours explaining how tasks are done to new hires.
Finnlay Morcombe definitely was, back when he was in data analysis.
In a team of 15, he spent 4 hours individually with each consultant to manually document their steps in using Confluence, SharePoint, Word and other software.
“This has got to be a common problem.” he thought. “There’s got to be an easier way to solve this.”
There was – he just had to create it.
And so, the idea for Fluency was born.
Months later, Finn and Oliver Farnill won “best pitch” at the Swinburne pre-accelerator.
They made immense progress in the 3 months that followed and landed in Swinburne’s Accelerator as the youngest people there, amongst other founders already doing 7-figures in revenue.
Flash forward to today, Fluency is a multi-million dollar company amid their second raise
I sat down with Finn and Fluency’s head of growth, Leonidas Roubos to chat about
growing the startup culture in Melbourne,
consecutive 2AM nights spent coding at the office, and
how they both made unique shifts from corporate into startups.
They left me with an important message – “taste them grapes”.
Want to know what it means? Then listen from the link in comments.
Or read the quick Q&A below (est. 3 mins)
Q&A
How did Fluency come about?
Finn: “So I was working in finance before this—a stint in investment banking, and before that, in superannuation. In super, I was in a data analysis role, half software engineering, half market-facing operations. I had to move a reporting function into my team.
This report took 45 minutes, 800 steps, touched 20 Excel sheets, data warehouses, and required four levels of stakeholder approval. It showed the superannuation company’s exposure to different assets and had to be done daily. If we went over a threshold, we’d have to sell down or remove ourselves from the board.
Actually understanding how this process worked was painful. I had to sit down with five people, ask them to explain, and document it. But steps without images or context were hard to follow, and documentation was scattered across Confluence, SharePoint, Word, etc.
Eventually, consultants were brought in, costing each employee four hours daily across a team of 15-16. I thought, “This has to be a common problem; there must be an easier way to solve this.”
That’s where I got the idea for Fluency.”
What’s a dream you had as a child that has stayed with you to this day?
Finn: “I never defined what it was, but I always aimed to do something “impossible,” something great. As a kid, I wasn’t always super hard working – my vector of interest was like maximising the amount of fun per minute. But from childhood through high school and into uni, I knew I wanted to do something impossible and do something great with it”
Leo: “For me, I’ve always felt drawn to business and playing a core role in someone else’s vision rather than being in the spotlight. It’s like having a Wikipedia page with no picture—I don’t need to be famous, but I want to do something impactful. Being in the core team rather than the front-runner is exactly what I’m built for.”
Do you ever stay overnight in the office when you’re really locked in on a project?
Finn: “It depends on the team’s lifestyle. Some go home around seven, but for intense projects, like our recent product overhaul, the dev team was working until 2 a.m. daily. We don’t sleep in the office often, though I used to when I lived in Frankston, crashing here or in hostels. The office has been a cozy abode on occasion!”
Thanks for reading my Q&A with Finn and Leo.
You can connect with Finn and Leo here:
You can check out Fluency here:
But if you want to experience the full podcast with Finn and Leo, listen here:
And as always,
Keep dreamaking.