From High School Suspension to Startup Success
Liam Fuller’s journey to startup stardom began unconventionally. Suspended from his high school in Ireland, he eventually dropped out altogether. His turning point? A now-viral photo of the teen working on his laptop and taking a client call from inside a school toilet cubicle, an image that quickly spread on LinkedIn and set his entrepreneurial story in motion.
Building CartShare and Joining the Patch Accelerator
Before QuickFind AI, Fuller had already built CartShare, a Shopify plug-in developed during the Patch youth accelerator program, which was backed by Stripe and OpenAI. That experience helped launch his cofounder into a job at Shopify and gave Fuller a taste of the startup world at just 17.
Relocating to Australia and Cold-Pitching VCs
After relocating to Australia, his father Shane’s birthplace, Fuller set his sights on some of the country’s biggest venture capitalists. One of them was Paul Bassat, cofounder of Square Peg Capital. Fuller took a three-hour train ride to Sydney just for a 20-minute meeting.
Although his first pitch to Square Peg, for a U.S.-branded version of his product called Source, was declined, it didn’t take long before Bassat’s team changed their minds.
Securing a $2.15 Million Pre-Seed Round
Fuller had already secured around $355,000 in comDavid Singleton, ex-CEO of Stripe
Members of the Xtripe Syndicate
“Even during my short time in SF, it was a clear signal to me just how much opportunity there is at the moment with AI,” Fuller said, “and how overlooked traditional business commitments when he reached out to Startup Daily and was invited to appear on their show, Startup 360. The exposure proved to be a turning point.
“After I went on Startup 360, it was a bit of a whirlwind, to be honest,” said Fuller. “I had about 20 DMs after going on the podcast… things absolutely exploded from there.”
Just days after the podcast, he went into Square Peg’s investment committee meeting, a nerve-wracking experience that ended with a life-changing phone call: Square Peg wanted to lead the round.
Square Peg was soon joined by other investors, including:
TEN13
David Singleton, former CTO of Stripe
Charlie Gearside, co-founder of Eucalyptus
Brendan Hill, angel investor and member of 361 Angels Club
Youngest Founder Backed by Square Peg
Fuller, just 17 when the round closed, became the youngest founder Square Peg has ever backed. His success story reflects the growing appetite among VCs for ambitious young founders solving overlooked but high-value problems, such as procurement in retail.
Exploring AI Opportunities in San Francisco
With funding in hand, Fuller flew to San Francisco to meet with potential customers and investors. There, he was introduced to a network of Stripe alumni, many of whom joined his cap table. These included: David Singleton, ex-CEO of Stripe
Members of the Xtripe Syndicate
“Even during my short time in SF, it was a clear signal to me just how much opportunity there is at the moment with AI,” Fuller said, “and how overlooked traditional business problems like procurement are by the AI research labs building this new technology.”
