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If you've ever talked yourself out of reaching out to someone because they're "too successful to reply," this episode will change how you send your next message.

Dom Pym co-founded Up, one of Australia's fastest growing digital banks, and has personally invested $85 million into the Australian startup ecosystem. But he started with nothing. Dom tells Megan and Geo about growing up in a family that lost everything, and the "golden purse" his mum kept that somehow always had just enough in it, a lesson in abundance he's carried into every company since.

You'll hear the full story of how Dom and his co-founder walked into Bendigo Bank asking for money and walked out bidding to rebuild their entire banking system, with a team of two and zero banking experience. You'll learn why he treats confidence and honesty as two separate skills you need at the same time, the exact cold outreach tactics that have actually worked on him (including one that involves sticky-taping a $1 coin to a letter), and why he believes chasing busy, successful people a hundred times is a feature, not a flaw.

Dom also shares the two policy ideas he's pushing right now, free universal childcare and a dollar-for-dollar rebuild of the R&D tax incentive, that he reckons could make Australia a world superpower.

Stay to the end for the quickfire round, where Dom reveals the plane crash he survived in 1999 and the one interview question that lets him see straight into a founder's soul.

Time Stamps

00:00 Cold open and welcome to Life After Launch

01:17 Introducing Dom Pym

02:33 The childhood moments that shaped Dom: footy, family, and sliding doors

06:09 The golden purse: building an abundance mindset from nothing

08:20 The three people who taught Dom how money really works

11:03 Why you should chase successful people a hundred times (the Marty Howell story)

14:15 The most creative cold outreach Dom has ever received

16:07 The $1 coin letter and why positive affirmation actually works

19:19 The Bendigo Bank story: two people, supreme confidence, and a live demo that broke the rules

26:26 Confidence vs honesty: crossing ThoughtWorks off the whiteboard

29:13 Up's world firsts: Afterpay, Apple Pay instant issuance, and Google Cloud

31:05 Comparing your bank to Instagram: the activity feed that banks worldwide copied

32:48 Fixing Australia: free universal childcare and rebuilding the R&D tax incentive

37:38 1.4 million customers and the countdown to overtaking the big banks

40:30 Quickfire: the 1999 Qantas crash, the ecosystem stars you should know, and the question that reveals a founder's soul

46:56 Outro