From Google to Global: How Tomasz Mikolajewski is Building the Future of Mobile Coding at Fishburners
From Google to Global: How Tomasz Mikolajewski is Building the Future of Mobile Coding at Fishburners
Oct 28, 2025
Founder Story
A Google Engineer Turned Sydney Founder
When Tomasz Mikolajewski walked into Fishburners Sydney in January, he had already made the boldest decision of his career. After thirteen years at Google—leading teams of engineers and shaping products used by billions—he quit on New Year’s Eve to chase a dream that terrified him: launching his own AI startup from scratch.
“I got a little bit tired working at big tech for this long,” Tomasz admits.
“The Google I joined was scrappy; we shipped in a week. What takes a week in a startup took half a year there.”
The turning point came with the AI revolution. While large companies move slowly to protect billion-user platforms, startups can experiment, iterate, and ship overnight—a freedom Tomasz craved.
From Memolemon to a True Calling
His first idea was Memolemon—an app designed to replace TikTok doom-scrolling with bite-sized, AI-generated lessons. After three months of coding, it was rejected by the App Store. But that setback gave him clarity.
“I don’t use TikTok. I’m not an educator. I had zero unfair advantage.”
He pivoted quickly, determined to build something rooted in his real strengths: software engineering and human-computer interaction. That focus became Poppable—a voice-first, mobile-first, no-code app builder that lets anyone describe an app aloud and watch it build itself.
With thirty years of coding experience (he started programming at age eight), Tomasz had finally found his true lane.
Building in Public: The Power of Transparency
Instead of going stealth, Tomasz shared a short demo video on LinkedIn announcing he was “working on native voice + AI.”
The post went viral—200,000 views and 800 signups before the product was even halfway ready.
“Building in public creates demand before there’s even a product.
For Memolemon, I had seventy signups; for Poppable, eight hundred—with zero ad spend.”
His story quickly caught attention within the Fishburners startup community, where founders are encouraged to ship fast, share openly, and grow together.
Standing Out in a Crowded No-Code Space
The no-code and AI development market is competitive—Lovable just passed $100M ARR, and platforms like Replit and Bloom are fighting for the same creators.
“Everyone can rent the same LLM. Differentiation is brand, focus, and execution speed.”
Tomasz’s focus is radical simplicity: no buttons, no deployment, no API keys—just speak, preview, and publish.
Poppable’s edge lies in its real-time voice parsing and a rendering engine tuned specifically for mobile screens under 390px wide.
Brenton from Lovable builds an app using text prompts, while Tomasz creates the same app purely by speaking into Poppable at Tech Central.
The Side Project That Solved Bedtime
While fundraising for Poppable, Tomasz faced a more personal challenge: raising his two-and-a-half-year-old son trilingually—Polish, Chinese, and English—without adding screen time.
Using Alex Revill’s Problem Kit, he found a problem that was painful, personal, frequent, and sizable. The result was Lulululu, an audio-only multilingual storytelling app that calms toddlers with voice-based bedtime stories.
He hacked a prototype in a weekend, released it on TestFlight, and within days his son was requesting “the purple dragon story” every night.
“When he had a meltdown two nights ago, I hit play—and he went quiet in thirty seconds. That’s when I knew we’d solved a real problem.”
Lulululu launched on the iOS App Store last week as a free app, while Poppable continues to be Tomasz’s main mission.
Looking Ahead: Voice-First, Screen-Second
Tomasz believes the next billion app creators won’t type—they’ll talk.
“AI can handle complexity; humans should handle creativity.”
His roadmap for Poppable includes:
One-tap publishing to the App Store
Collaborative workspaces for teams
A marketplace of voice-built app templates
His advice for aspiring Sydney founders and startup builders:
“Find a problem you personally have. If you don’t use your own product daily, how can you expect others to?”
From Google engineer to solo founder, Tomasz embodies the Fishburners philosophy—move fast, stay curious, and always stay human.
Watch this space—his mic is listening. 🎙️
Follow Tomasz’s journey:
👉 Try Poppable
👉 Connect with him on LinkedIn
📱 Try Lulululu for free on the App Store or Google Store
💡 Learn more about Fishburners’ startup community for AI founders here.
A Google Engineer Turned Sydney Founder
When Tomasz Mikolajewski walked into Fishburners Sydney in January, he had already made the boldest decision of his career. After thirteen years at Google—leading teams of engineers and shaping products used by billions—he quit on New Year’s Eve to chase a dream that terrified him: launching his own AI startup from scratch.
“I got a little bit tired working at big tech for this long,” Tomasz admits.
“The Google I joined was scrappy; we shipped in a week. What takes a week in a startup took half a year there.”
The turning point came with the AI revolution. While large companies move slowly to protect billion-user platforms, startups can experiment, iterate, and ship overnight—a freedom Tomasz craved.
From Memolemon to a True Calling
His first idea was Memolemon—an app designed to replace TikTok doom-scrolling with bite-sized, AI-generated lessons. After three months of coding, it was rejected by the App Store. But that setback gave him clarity.
“I don’t use TikTok. I’m not an educator. I had zero unfair advantage.”
He pivoted quickly, determined to build something rooted in his real strengths: software engineering and human-computer interaction. That focus became Poppable—a voice-first, mobile-first, no-code app builder that lets anyone describe an app aloud and watch it build itself.
With thirty years of coding experience (he started programming at age eight), Tomasz had finally found his true lane.
Building in Public: The Power of Transparency
Instead of going stealth, Tomasz shared a short demo video on LinkedIn announcing he was “working on native voice + AI.”
The post went viral—200,000 views and 800 signups before the product was even halfway ready.
“Building in public creates demand before there’s even a product.
For Memolemon, I had seventy signups; for Poppable, eight hundred—with zero ad spend.”
His story quickly caught attention within the Fishburners startup community, where founders are encouraged to ship fast, share openly, and grow together.
Standing Out in a Crowded No-Code Space
The no-code and AI development market is competitive—Lovable just passed $100M ARR, and platforms like Replit and Bloom are fighting for the same creators.
“Everyone can rent the same LLM. Differentiation is brand, focus, and execution speed.”
Tomasz’s focus is radical simplicity: no buttons, no deployment, no API keys—just speak, preview, and publish.
Poppable’s edge lies in its real-time voice parsing and a rendering engine tuned specifically for mobile screens under 390px wide.
Brenton from Lovable builds an app using text prompts, while Tomasz creates the same app purely by speaking into Poppable at Tech Central.
The Side Project That Solved Bedtime
While fundraising for Poppable, Tomasz faced a more personal challenge: raising his two-and-a-half-year-old son trilingually—Polish, Chinese, and English—without adding screen time.
Using Alex Revill’s Problem Kit, he found a problem that was painful, personal, frequent, and sizable. The result was Lulululu, an audio-only multilingual storytelling app that calms toddlers with voice-based bedtime stories.
He hacked a prototype in a weekend, released it on TestFlight, and within days his son was requesting “the purple dragon story” every night.
“When he had a meltdown two nights ago, I hit play—and he went quiet in thirty seconds. That’s when I knew we’d solved a real problem.”
Lulululu launched on the iOS App Store last week as a free app, while Poppable continues to be Tomasz’s main mission.
Looking Ahead: Voice-First, Screen-Second
Tomasz believes the next billion app creators won’t type—they’ll talk.
“AI can handle complexity; humans should handle creativity.”
His roadmap for Poppable includes:
One-tap publishing to the App Store
Collaborative workspaces for teams
A marketplace of voice-built app templates
His advice for aspiring Sydney founders and startup builders:
“Find a problem you personally have. If you don’t use your own product daily, how can you expect others to?”
From Google engineer to solo founder, Tomasz embodies the Fishburners philosophy—move fast, stay curious, and always stay human.
Watch this space—his mic is listening. 🎙️
Follow Tomasz’s journey:
👉 Try Poppable
👉 Connect with him on LinkedIn
📱 Try Lulululu for free on the App Store or Google Store
💡 Learn more about Fishburners’ startup community for AI founders here.
