Would You Still Build This If It Took 10 Years? | Riana Shah

Riana Shah was in second year uni with one unit of Python… and somehow ended up co-founding Dugong Technologies - an AI-powered drowning detection startup designed to flag incidents in real time.And then? When the mission started feeling heavier than the company (and the founders) could carry… she made the call most people avoid: she shut it down.In this episode we get into the messy, real stuff founders don’t post:why “don’t start building” is the most underrated advice (and why everyone ignores it)how she went from YouTube tutorials → MVP experiments → the brutal reality of data + oceanswhy AI isn’t “build once, deploy everywhere” (lake vs ocean = totally different game)the pressure of accelerators, hype, and not wanting to “let people down”tall poppy syndrome in Australia vs the no-ceiling ambition she saw in the USand how she went from feeling like “just an investor” to becoming an operator again with a bigger North Star: building healthcare impact for KenyaIf you’ve ever started something because it sounded cool… then realised you don’t want to spend 10 years of your life on it, this one will hit.🎧 Listen now and tell me: when do you push through… and when do you walk away?Follow us on all platforms!Instagram ~ @fayltalesTiktok ~ @fayltales LinkedIn ~ @fayltales