Entrepreneurship, Failure and Building a Meaningful Business | Michael Fox
This week on the Bountifull Podcast, we’re joined by Michael Fox, entrepreneur and co-founder of Fable, a food company creating mushroom-based products designed to help people eat less meat. Before Fable, Michael built several consumer startups including Shoes of Prey, experiences that shaped how he now thinks about entrepreneurship, product-market fit, and building businesses that genuinely align with your values.
Together we explore the lessons he’s learnt across three startups — from the reality of startup failure and founder burnout to the importance of being deeply passionate about the product you’re building. We talk about changing your mind as you learn, how personal experiences reshaped his thinking about food and health, and why mushrooms became the foundation of Fable’s approach to food innovation. It’s a thoughtful conversation about entrepreneurship, resilience, and building work that feels both meaningful and aligned with the life you want to live.
What Startup Failure Can Teach You About Building a Meaningful Business
Starting a business is often framed as a story of vision and growth. But for many founders, the most important lessons come from failure. Research and experience show that entrepreneurs who reflect honestly on what went wrong, rather than moving straight to the next thing, are more likely to build businesses that align with their values, serve real customer needs, and sustain them personally.
Michael Fox learned this firsthand across three startups. The biggest lesson: if you're not genuinely passionate about the product and the customer, you'll never understand them deeply enough. He also discovered that what customers say they want and what they actually buy are often two different things, a gap that only closes with real curiosity and proximity to the problem. Now with Fable, he's building with less capital, a smaller team, and a tighter focus on product-market fit before scaling. It's a slower, more disciplined approach, and one that feels more aligned with the life he wants to live.
Questions explored in this episode
What does it feel like to shut down a business and not return investor capital?
Why is it important to be genuinely passionate about the product you're building?
What is product-market fit and how do you know when you don't have it?
How does personal loss change you?
What makes mushrooms a good meat alternative?
How do you rebuild confidence as a founder after failure?
About Michael Fox (Fable Food Co)
Michael Fox is an Australian entrepreneur and the co-founder and CEO of Fable, a food company creating minimally processed, mushroom-based meat alternatives. Fable's core product uses the stems of shiitake mushrooms, shredded to create a pulled-meat texture, and is now sold through major meal kit companies and restaurant chains across Australia, the US, the UK and Canada. Michael previously co-founded Shoes of Prey, a custom women's shoe company that raised $35 million AUD in venture capital before closing, and Sneaking Duck, an online eyewear retailer.
Michael studied at the University of Queensland and previously worked at Google Australia. He has been featured on Zac Efron's Netflix series Down to Earth and speaks regularly on entrepreneurship, sustainable food, and the lessons of startup failure. He grew up across small mining towns in Australia and now lives in Brooklyn, New York, where he moved to help grow Fable in the US market.
In This Podcast Episode, You’ll Discover
🌱 Why Passion for the Product Matters — Michael explains why not being deeply connected to the customer at Shoes of Prey was his biggest failing, and how being the customer at Fable changed everything.
📉 The Reality of Startup Failure — What it was like to lay off 200 people, not return $35 million to investors, and close down a decade-long business.
🔄 Starting Again After Failure — How Michael's earliest investors backed him again with Fable, and why integrity through failure mattered more than the outcome.
🧠 Changing Your Mind as You Learn — Why Michael believes adapting your beliefs as you discover new information is one of the healthiest things you can do.
🍄 Why Mushrooms, Not Mycelium — The evolutionary, nutritional and practical reasons Fable chose to work with the mushroom itself rather than the body of the fungi.
💪 Fibre Over Protein — Why 95% of Americans don't get enough fibre while almost everyone gets enough protein, and what that means for how we think about food.
🏡 From 41 Acres to Brooklyn — How Michael moved his family from the Sunshine Coast to Park Slope, and why disconnecting from nature didn't happen the way he expected.
🔥 Burnout, Perspective and Gratitude — How the birth of his first child during the hardest period of Shoes of Prey helped him put failure into perspective.
🌿 Building With More Discipline — Why Fable has raised less capital, kept a team of 19, and focused tightly on product-market fit rather than scaling too fast.
🎬 The Zac Efron Connection — How Fable's mushroom foraging tours led to a 15-minute segment on the Netflix show Down to Earth.
What Burnout Taught Me About What Actually Matters
Founder burnout is one of the least talked about realities of startup life. In this short clip, Michael Fox shares what happened when a decade-long business began to fail, and how becoming a father during the hardest period of his career helped him see what actually mattered.
Get the Best Ideas from the Bountifull Podcast
Short reflections, practical wisdom and new conversations exploring how to live a joyful and meaningful life.