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What is your reputation actually worth?
Mike Smith built Zero Co from a kernel of an idea in his childhood bedroom into a home-cleaning brand that not only served more than 100,000 Australian households, but also sought to tackle the enormous global problem of single use plastic pollution in the process.
He became the public face of one of this country's biggest crowdfunding stories, a regular feature in mainstream and social media feeds, and rode the wave of public support on his mission to remove one billion bottles from our oceans.
Only a few years later, he also became - in his own words - one of the biggest startup failures in Australian direct-to-consumer. In 2025, Mike had to wind the company up, telling 3,500 investors their money was largely gone.
As he reflects: "We tried this really brave thing that no one in the world had ever tried to do before - and it didn't work."
In this episode of Your Digital Reputation, Mike shares something very rare with host Roger Christie: he tells the whole story. The conception, the growth, and the world-first paper-packaging bet that ultimately brought Zero Co undone. He shows enormous courage in explaining what went on behind the scenes, why he went quiet for 12 months, and what he learned about himself in the process.
He also explains the raw impact being so active and so visible online had on him as a person. And how his investors, customers, staff and supporters responded when he shared it was all coming to an end.
It's an incredibly raw, generous conversation about visibility, vulnerability, burnout and what your own reputation is really worth when everything else is stripped away. As Mike says: "I would love to share some of my journey with people so they don't make the same mistakes that I made."
This episode is for anyone who has ever put themselves on the line for something they believed in.
TIMESTAMPS:
00:02:17 - From a winemaking exit to a beach full of plastic
00:06:43 - The supermarket moment that became Zero Co
00:10:08 - Becoming the face: Kickstarter and a rocket ship
00:14:41 - Why vulnerability built belief
00:22:42 - What actually went wrong
00:30:01 - Handling it publicly, crumbling privately
00:35:27 - What came back: the response to the closing post
00:43:07 - Going quiet, and the second act
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