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He’s been Murray Hewitt, Psycho Sam, Norman from Yes Man, Guy Mann, Hypno-Potamus, a stand-up comedian, a sit-down band manager, a children’s book author, a soldier… and now Binkle-bonk the Tree Goblin in upcoming “Badjelly the Witch” 🤩
In this week’s Diaspora pod, legendary Kiwi comedian Rhys Darby joins us - live from L.A - to talk through his rise from Canterbury to Edinburgh to Hollywood in a career that’s seen him star in multiple comedy specials, voice over countless animated shows and co-star with everyone from Jim Carrey to Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson.
Rhys hasn’t made the journey alone: also joining us is his incredible wife & long-time manager, Rosie Carnahan Darby, who talks about her career in entertainment management, production, writing comedy, how comedians can get ahead, how entertainers can be devastated by changes in AI and tech… and shares the creative projects of their two sons in this very funny family.
In today’s episode, we discuss
* Rosie and Rhys’s entwined journeys over 25 years in the global comedy industry, dating back to Rhys's "Dad's Army"-inspired entry into the NZ Army, and Rosie's rise as one of the most sought after comedy club managers in NZ.
* The business of comedy: how they think about new opportunities, structure and finance their ventures... and what the future holds.
* Tall poppy syndrome in NZ, and imposter syndrome in the U.S... how NZ's (over?) orientation towards equality and "fairness" actually holds back our highest achievers, and can drive them offshore.
* Raising a family in L.A. vs. NZ, finding balance and getting the best of both cultures.
* How some projects Rosie and Rhys write together don’t succeed, though the pair focus on creating future opportunities for other projects.
* How Rhys found the next phase of his career after Flight of the Conchords finished.
* Why and how Rhys is now using Substack to build a direct connection with fans
* Advice on how to break out as a comedian and what managers like Rosie are looking for — comparing finding emerging creative talent with seeing talent in startups, from the POV of a talent manager/agent vs. venture capitalist.
* Whether AI might be able to help actors and voice actors, and whether AI is taking human jobs in a future in which screen entertainment might be created by robots
Make sure you head on over to Rhys’s substack and subscribe!
—
Also - quick shout-out from me: Blackbird’s Sunrise festival is coming up soon — November 26th in Wellington, NZ.
As we like to say, this is our love letter to startups and the people building them … a one-day festival that brings together ~500 tech founders, operators, policy people and ecosystem supporters to be inspired, challenged and entertained.
Tickets are half gone and won’t be around for long… IF you’ve been looking for an excuse to get back to Wellington, this is it! Head over to thesunrise.live for more info + tickets!
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.diaspora.nz -
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Hint Health co-founder and CEO Zak Holdsworth retains a strong Kiwi accent - after all, he grew up on a farm near Gisborne. It was no ordinary farm, however, as Zak tells us.
Considering his mother was a diplomat and his father an inventor and pioneer of pultrusion, Zak developed a taste for innovation in the wider world, and eventually headed off to Stanford Graduate School of Business to achieve his MBA. Zak worked briefly as a VC prior to joining the founding team ofWellnessFX in 2011, a California company which diagnosed health conditions through blood analysis.
He then went on to co-found Hint Health in 2014 – a platform which has raised $64 in investment and today handles over a billion dollars worth of payments per year.
Based in San Francisco, Hint is a vertical SaaS platform powering Direct Primary Care practitioners allowing them to to focus on patients in an industry which has until recently been far too dependent on the insurance system to cover patient costs and which - as Zak tells us - wastes more money annually than NASA’s 60-year budget. Disrupting the $4 trillion US healthcare industry is a topic also shared by our previous guest Dr Zachary Tan.
Zak joins us to share his ideas about finding and investing in disruptive startups, the future of cryptocurrency, and how New Zealand might be a great place to run the next Xero from.
In today's episode, we discuss:
* Hint Health’s mission to step away from insurance, give everyone a transparent rate of costs and connect patients with unlimited access to primary care, telemedicine, urgent care and other services - the way Zak remembers it when he was a child in NZ
* Getting into Stanford business school, realising which paths weren’t ideal, before taking on US healthtech with Hint Health
* How Zak’s passion for startups included forays into venture capitalism as well as patenting a phone charger
* The staggering percentage of each dollar Zak feels is wasted when handled through health insurance.
* Reasons for lack of change in US healthcare
* Becoming respected in the healthtech community with the Hint Summit annual conference
* Whether the startup community's expectations of how quickly a startup should triple or 100x its revenue are fair expectations or not.
* DeFi Summer, and lessons learned while investing in crypto currency
* Faith in Bitcoin
* Zak's balance between being plugged into Silicon Valley but having peace and tranquility to focus on his family.
* …and whether New Zealand’s tech startup ecosystem is ready to host another Xero.
Referenced:
* Hint Health
https://www.hint.com/
* Stanford Graduate School of Business
https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/
* The Hint Summit
https://summit.hint.com/
Where to find Zak Holdsworth:
* LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/zakholdsworth/
X/Twitter https://x.com/zakholdsworth?lang=en
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Clint Van Marrewijk (pronounced Marra-vick) is director and co-founder of Zelandez, a leading lithium brine technology company building cutting edge sensors and production plants for lithium brine mining operations in the ‘Lithium Triangle’ of Bolivia, Chile and Argentina, as well as the USA and Canada. It’s a long way from the Waihi dairy farm on which he grew up before undertaking a mechanical engineering degree then moving to Colorado and setting up a Kiwisaver scheme.
If you don’t know why people get so excited about lithium, it’s because lithium ion rechargeable batteries are cleaner, greener, more powerful and longer-lasting than most other battery options. This is why lithium ion is the battery of choice for many of the world’s top ten biggest companies, including Apple, Google and Tesla- and why the lithium battery market it worth USD 54.4 billion.
Clint has been running Zelandez from Austin, Texas since his Kiwi-founded safety software company, SaferMe, entered the American market in 2019, having gone from strength to strength - including huge growth with its workplace sign-in and tracking tools, which were massively in demand during the recent COVID pandemic, spurring huge growth.
Today Clint talks about SaferMe’s journey, explains how the services Zelandez offers leave less of a toll on the environment and better lithium yield, and Clint gives advice for young people who want their career to take them from Christchurch to Colorado to the Lithium Triangle and beyond.
In today's episode, we discuss:
* Using oil and gas extraction techniques to get lithium brine out of the ground to help create the lithium-based batteries so many of our electric cars and digital devices rely on
* The history of lithium use in batteries - who pioneered it, who has under-valued it, and how lithium is ready to be hugely valued as a commodity.
* Advice on the right age to transition into an energy/minerals career.
* How a degree in engineering led to working in investment analysis for Kiwi Wealth before Clint moved into SaaS startups.
* How Clint’s bank managers reacted when they saw how much he was investing in lithium extraction technology.
* How SaferMe pivoted during the pandemic to sell contact tracing tools - backed by the NZ government - which could have resulted in up to 20x company growth.
* Getting a business deal with a Fortune 500 CEO through a LinkedIn “spam note”
* Fallacies in New Zealand’s thinking about the best way to provide the cleanest electricity for the national grid.
Referenced:
* Zealandez: https://www.zelandez.com/
* SaferMe: https://www.safer.me/
* The Lithium Triangle: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium_Triangle
* Best practices for reinjecting brine during lithium extraction: https://www.zelandez.com/news/the-lithium-brine-industry-must-share-reinjection-best-practices/
Where to find Clint van Marrewijk:
* LinkedIn
* Twitter
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.diaspora.nz -
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When Zachary Tan - actually, Doctor Zachary Tan - became president of Optain Health, the role combined three lifelong passions: treating patients, running future-focused tech businesses, and taking exciting risks with venture capital in one of the world’s most important areas: the health of human beings.
Zach’s career has gone from strength to strength. He was in 2022 recognized by Forbes as 30 Under 30 for Healthcare & Science, before going on to be elected as a director of The Fred Hollows Foundation in the US.
In today's episode, we chat through how one gap year away from medical school to run a future-focused healthcare business became a ‘gap decade,’ what he learned from the differences between treating one patient in Sydney and working with a healthcare provider treating millions of patients in upstate New York, and how there is potential to massively disrupt the economics around insurance costs and the cost of treatment simply by examining a patient’s retina.
Zachary also tells us about two deeply significant businesses he’s worked with on his journey: Osara Health, as well as New York’s VC studio Aegis Ventures - of which he is a partner - and how he has currently settled on Optain to apply his passion.
In today's episode, we discuss:
* Leaving Auckland at age 17 for Queensland- then hearing the call of the United States, a healthcare industry worth four trillion dollars
* Using the eye as a window to the body to detect and diagnose disease and save billions - as well as save lives
* Tech solutions for New York’ state’s biggest hospitals
* Using AI in healthcare to minimise admin for healthcare staff, speed up diagnoses, diagnose disease early and reduce costs on patients, insurers and everyone in-between
* Investing in tech to tackle disparities between healthcare access for babies, adults, ethnic groups and other patient segments
* How healthcare practitioners were forced to embrace telemedicine technology across the last five years as the Covid pandemic put pressure on staff to work remotely
* What Zachary thinks could be improved in the intersection between patients, insurance and healthcare ‘payviders’
* Steps to take when you’re looking at doing business in America’s healthcare sector and you need FDA approval.
Referenced:
* Optain Health: https://optainhealth.com/about/
* Aegis Ventures: https://aegisventures.com/
* Northwell Health: https://www.northwell.edu/
* Osara Health: https://osarahealth.com/
* The Fred Hollows Foundation: https://www.hollows.org/
Where to find Zachary Tan:
* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zacharytan/
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.diaspora.nz -
Cameron Priest is the co-founder and former CEO of TradeGecko, an inventory and order management platform for e-commerce businesses that was acquired by Intuit in 2020 for around $100M. He’s now building AMP, a company that acquires, rolls up, and scales Shopify apps - and incubating new ventures at the intersection of AI and vertical SaaS.
In today's episode, we discuss:
* Cam’s journey from an NZ kiwifruit orchard to founding Trade Gecko, how they landed in Singapore.
* Scaling a B2B product, including specific growth tools, frameworks they used along the way - so much of which is still relevant today, and eventual $80M+ acquisition by Intuit.
* Building Amp and the strategy of acquiring "landing pad" businesses in the Shopify ecosystem, how - as acquirers - they assess, value, and execute an acquisition … including the use of debt, how to think about revenue multiples, etc.
* The vision for a platform allowing businesses to build customized niche software
* Reflections on ambition, the importance of a supportive ecosystem, and the potential for fostering innovation in New Zealand
Where to find Cam online:
* https://x.com/cameronpriest
* https://www.linkedin.com/in/cameronpriest/
Listen on:
* Apple Podcasts
* Spotify
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Ryan Everton is the founder and CEO at TURN, a San Francisco headquartered company pioneering reusable cup solutions for major events and fast-food chains.
From growing up on a farm and selling meat pies at boarding school during the tuck shop prohibition — to tackling global plastic waste, building infrastructure to wash a million cups at a time (literally) … Ryan's journey embodies Kiwi ingenuity and entrepreneurial spirit.
In this episode, we explore:
* TURN's origins as “Globelet” .. and ideation journey through the Otago University “Audacious” business competition.
* The journey from landing his first festival customers, through to partnering with Live Nation and rolling out across 36 festivals on the same contract… now on to Starbucks, Chick-fil-A.
* How TURN achieves >90% cup return rates at events - building loyalty programs, rolling out powerful incentive mechanics.
* Navigating the pandemic - seeing it as an opportunity to take stock, invest in R&D and rebranding, automating washing infrastructure, come out swinging on the other side.
* Riding regulatory tailwinds — coming California restrictions on single-use plastics, and how they’re positioning themselves to ride them.
* Unlearning classic Kiwi habits to lead a global team.
* Why grit is an important founder trait, and where he thinks it comes from (hint: back on the farm).
* Philosophical reflections on purpose, success, and leaving a legacy
Where to find Ryan online:
* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryaneverton/
* Twitter/X: https://x.com/Valueroad
Make sure you subscribe for more epic expat stories every Friday!
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Min-Kyu Jung is the CEO and co-founder at Ivo, an AI contract law assistant for legal teams, which has raised $6.2 million in funding total from investors including Uncork Capital, Fika Ventures, GD1, Phase One, and Daniel Gross.
Min-Kyu got the idea for Ivo (previously Latch) while working as a corporate lawyer in New Zealand, when he saw how much time, effort and money were spent drawing up agreements. His entrepreneurial streak got the better of him — drawn to what he saw as “low-hanging fruit”, under-optimised processes around him in the legal profession, he taught himself how to code in two months and took the leap to start a startup.
Ivo works in Microsoft Word to explain legal terms, determine if clauses are market standard and instantly create a summary of an agreement to help speed up the process.
After a cold outbound DM landed him an angel investment from Daniel Gross in San Francisco, he moved his whole team over for an initial three months — and never looked back. He thinks other kiwi founders - at least those who aspire to be at the frontiers of AI - should do the same, and issues a challenge to other founders to reflect on where they need to locate to maximise their chances of success.
He’s not afraid to roll up his sleeves and do the work to sell, get connected with people... even if that means lots of cold outbound:
“Kiwis tend to be modest and avoid making impositions on others. You will need to overcome this cultural quirk and simply cold email / DM people you find interesting.”
We talk about how social capital flows in the Bay Area, and how it helped him build a local network, recruit his team, land hundreds of customer conversations, and more:
“The SF Bay Area has a strong culture of paying it forward. Successful people here are often willing to spend time and social capital helping founders with no network if they seem to be working on something interesting.”
We talk about his thesis for AI product development, how founders should think about designing user experiences, how Ivo handles issues with Large Language Model (“LLM”) reliability and hallucinations, and how he’s preparing to leverage ever more powerful AI models to his advantage in coming years.
This was a fun episode to record — we look forward to your feedback!!
Where to find Min-Kyu online:
* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/min-kyu-jung/
* Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/mkjung
Know an expat we should feature on diaspora.nz?
* reach out via [email protected]
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Rachel Carrell is the founder & CEO of KoruKids, Europe’s largest childcare platform— training, matching, and providing ongoing support to over 10,000 nannies across London.
Rachel is one of the special ones. Driven to found the company by what she describes as a righteous anger over how childcare has been disrespected as infrastructure in society… Today, Koru Kids takes care of taxes, payroll, pension, holiday, nanny communications, activity ideas and a dozen other things that can come up when you’re dealing with nannies… bringing down the cost for families, and helping kids have more engaging, enriching experiences.
Joined by co-host Phoebe Harrop, we had a lot of fun with this episode: tracing Rachel’s story from hustling chocolates and home-grown lottery schemes on the streets of Invercargill … to strategising her way into a Rhodes scholarship that helped her land a place— and finally “find her people” at the University of Oxford in the UK; and on to London, where she’s been ever since… 22 years and counting, consulting with McKinsey, raising a family, building, investing in, and advising startups
We explore how, counterintuitively, Rachel feels driven to consistently choose the path of most resistance … seeking the right kind of crazy … this shows up in stories from the founding of Koru Kids, to the time she had a baby in the middle of her Series A fundraise and was back out pitching the next day .. to how she thinks about talent development, scaling demand and supply in marketplaces, and more.
Make sure you subscribe for more stories from the diaspora every Friday! 🌎
In today's episode, we discuss:
* Rachel's journey from New Zealand to the UK, spanning exactly half her life in each country..
* The transition from consulting to entrepreneurship and the challenges of the healthcare and childcare sectors, what learnings from consulting transfer over to startups, vs. areas she had to develop/offset.
* The founding and growth of Koru Kids, addressing the critical need for quality childcare solutions - specifically how the lack of accessible and affordable childcare has profound consequences for individuals and society.
* Scaling marketplaces: solving the “cold start problem” … building the supply side of a marketplace when the service provided is unique and requires specific qualifications, how to think about (and avoid) “de-platforming” risk.
* Insights into fundraising in Europe, particularly for companies in traditionally difficult sectors. Approaching fundraising with a mindset of learning and strategy development.
* Raising venture capital while pregnant, advice for other female (and- pregnant) founders!
* Being a non-technical founder building a technical business has its challenges, but both approaches (tech-first or ops-first) can work with trade-offs.
* Rachel’s upcoming book! micro interventions with children to shape how they grow.
If there’s one thing you can do to help us — it would be send this episode to a friend .. an expat in your family, a founder or aspiring founder who could benefit from the lessons here .. appreciate your support !
Listen & Subscribe on:
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Learn more about Diaspora.nz:
* Around 20% of New Zealanders live outside of New Zealand. This is our “Diaspora” — and it’s one of the world’s largest, per capita.
* And not only is it large, it’s insanely talented: Early in their lives and careers, many of New Zealand’s most ambitious individuals realise— if they want to make a dent in the universe, they need to get out there… to study abroad, gain experience, build relationships.
* Unfortunately— as they go, many drop off the “domestic NZ” radar…
* We’re here to surface and share their stories, create opportunities to meet and support each other along the way, on and offline.
* Read the full announcement post here - and hit subscribe for more episodes every Friday!
Make sure you subscribe before you go :-)
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.diaspora.nz -
Campbell Brown is Founder & CEO at PredictHQ, based in San Francisco.
PredictHQ help customers understand the catalysts behind any form of consumer demand, with a particular emphasis on real-world events. Today, they provide this “Demand Intelligence” to a who’s who of global brands, airlines, and marketplaces like Uber and Airbnb, helping them optimise supply and pricing whether they’re facing an anomalous weather event or Taylor Swift concert.
Before founding PredictHQ, Campbell was part of the early team at GrabOne, where he saw first hand how sudden volatility in demand could affect business operations (for better or worse). He went on to join Online Republic as CMO, where he encountered the challenges of predicting traveller demand based on global events and weather conditions.
This is the first repeat guest we’ve had on the pod… having recorded an episode for the very first season of diaspora.nz back in 2017. Since then, Cam raised another $33.5M USD, has substantially grown the team and product suite — it’s been awesome to see this growth over the years.
In today's episode, we discuss:
* The journey from GrabOne to PredictHQ, and how past experiences shaped Campbell's understanding of data-driven business decisions.
* PredictHQ's evolution from focusing on the travel industry to diversifying across various sectors including parking, transportation, and accommodation.
* Building models on top of event data to provide unique intelligence and enable businesses to become context-aware.
* The importance of selling value over features, and focusing on the impact a product can bring to a customer's business.
* Exploring different pricing models, including category-based and consumption-based approaches.
* Challenges and strategies for managing a multi-location team and fostering company culture across New Zealand and the US.
* The pros and cons of having a New Zealand-based versus US-based top company, and navigating international tax implications.
* Campbell's fundraising journey and advice for approaching investors, including the importance of warm introductions and treating fundraising like a sales process.
* Balancing work and family life in the US, and tips for building community when moving abroad.
Where to find Campbell:
* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/campbellbrown/
* Twitter/X: https://x.com/campbellb
Listen & Subscribe on:
* Apple Podcasts
* Spotify
Learn more about Diaspora.nz:
* Around 20% of New Zealanders live outside of New Zealand. This is our “Diaspora” — and it’s one of the world’s largest, per capita.
* And not only is it large, it’s insanely talented: Early in their lives and careers, many of New Zealand’s most ambitious individuals realise— if they want to make a dent in the universe, they need to get out there… to study abroad, gain experience, build relationships.
* Unfortunately— as they go, many drop off the “domestic NZ” radar…
* We’re here to surface and share their stories, create opportunities to meet and support each other along the way, on and offline.
* Read the full announcement post here - and hit subscribe for more episodes every Friday!
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.diaspora.nz -
Privahini Bradoo is the co-founder and CEO at Plank — helping companies build and scale AI-enabled engineering teams + training the next generation of computer scientists.
Born in India, Privahini immigrated to NZ in her school years. Her time with us down-under was impactful… while pursuing a degree in Biomedical Science, then PhD in Neurogenetics and Drug Discovery at the University of Auckland, she also led the establishment of the Spark business competition (now Velocity); and co-founded Chiasma, an organisation dedicated to linking the biotech academic community with industry.
Drawn back off-shore in 2006, Privahini landed a Fulbright scholarship to pursue an MBA at Harvard Business School, and then settled back in the San Francisco Bay Area, joining Lanzatech as one of the first commercial hires in the U.S.
In 2011, Privahini co-founded BlueOak Resources to revolutionise how we treat and recycle end-of-life electronics - raising ~$50M from Kliener Perkins and others along the way.
In today's episode, we discuss:
* From brain science to business: Privahini's unexpected career leap.
* the early days of Auckland's startup scene and Velocity business competition.
* Lessons from LanzaTech and BlueOak… navigating the complexities of deep tech startups, systems thinking across the supply chain of inputs/outputs, recycling industrial waste.
* The future of AI - engineering, revolutionizing remote work, COVID as an accelerating force at Plank.
* Optimism in the face of global realities.
* How to foster 'force of nature' talent in NZ
Where to find Privahini Bradoo:
* LinkedIn
* Twitter/X
* University of Auckland Graduate Stories
* KEA - World Class New Zealander
Timestamps:
(00:00) Intro
(01:43) Privahini's origin story
(04:30) Inside the Velocity programme
(09:34) Journey at LanzaTech
(13:30) The birth of BlueOak
(14:51) The reality of e-waste recycling
(19:43) Lessons in deep tech
(23:11) Founding Plant to help businesses build remote e
(25:45) Plank's intelligent engineering strategy
(28:10) How to keep up with rapid changes in AI
(29:27) Nurturing NZ's entrepreneurial forces of nature
(32:07) The second-time founder mindset
(35:08) Advice for Kiwi entrepreneurs
(36:13) How to help Privahini
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.diaspora.nz -
Paul Copplestone is the co-founder and CEO at Supabase, the “open source Firebase alternative for building web and mobile apps.” If you were wondering what that means or why you should prioritise a listen— in Paul’s words: “if you’re going to build your next startup, you’d probably choose us … and we’ll provide all the tools you need to get started: a Postgres database, authentication system, file storage… the works.”
Today, Supabase is prolific. One of the most commonly called out products by makers on Product Hunt; one of the most redeemed Y Combinator “perks” with nearly a third of the most recent YC batch using it; they've secured a place as back-end infrastructure of choice for many founders setting out to build AI-centric applications.
Paul has come a long way from his family farm near Kaikoura. Before Supabase, he co-founded South East Asian-based home-services startups ServisHero and Nimbus For Work, and participated in Entrepreneur First, Singapore. Today, he & co-founder Ant have raised $116M and lead a globally distributed company with 80 employees over 30+ countries. With their ambition and vision, it’s clear they’re just getting started.
In today’s episode, we discuss:
* Paul’s journey from NZ to Malaysia and now Singapore.
* Building and scaling Supabase as a globally distributed team.
* The impact of AI on software development, and what to use if you’re getting started today.
* Underrated benefits of open source for recruiting, growth, and how to think about product development.
Links:
Supabase:
* Supabase website: https://supabase.com/
* Supabase on Twitter/X (great follow) https://x.com/supabase
* $80M Series B announcement: https://techcrunch.com/2022/05/10/supabase-raises-80m-series-b-for-its-open-source-firebase-alternative/
Paul:
* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulcopplestone/
* Twitter/X: https://x.com/kiwicopple
* Blog: https://paul.copplest.one/blog/ (so much good stuff in here)
* GitHub: https://github.com/kiwicopple
Timestamps:
(00:00) Intro
(01:18) Paul’s origin story
(04:05) Founding ServisHero in Malaysia
(06:23) Joining the Entrepreneur First program
(08:58) Why founders should think about setting up their HQ in Singapore
(09:57) Founding Supabase
(11:36) The benefits of open source
(13:43) Insight into Supabase customers and how AI is changing the game
(15:33) How open source helps with recruiting
(18:18) Taking a “product led growth” approach to enterprise customers.
(21:12) When/how Supabase will “cross the chasm” as it matures into a enterprise customer base.
(22:19) How AI is changing devtools
(24:09) Paul’s angel investing thesis
(26:33) Thinking about companies like countries
(28:59) Paul’s favourite blog posts from his personal archive
(31:06) How we can be helpful to Paul!
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Victoria Ransom is the Founder of Prisma — a cohort-based online school: “preparing 4-12th graders for a rapidly changing future, with an accredited, project-based virtual program where kids build real community.”
Raised on an asparagus farm near Bulls — Victoria’s journey over the past few decades is a truly inspiring one... she founded and led Wildfire, a social media marketing platform which rose to prominence helping brands build their presence on Facebook, before being acquired by Google for $450M in 2012; was honoured by President Obama as a “Champion of Change” for her accomplishments as an immigrant entrepreneur and innovator, picked up an MBA from Harvard; was named #19 on Fortune Magazine's 40 under 40 list, and so much more.
In today's episode, we discuss:
* The early days building Wildfire - building a culture and company that customers love as much as the product
* How the Google acquisition went down, integration and operating inside the belly of the beast afterwards
* What’s wrong with the current education system, why Victoria chose to exit the system + build a new school for her family.
* Strategies for developing resilience in children and what to expect in the future of education.
Referenced:
* Forbes 40 under 40 (2012): https://fortune.com/ranking/40-under-40/2012/victoria-ransom/
* Google's $450M acquisition of Wildfire: https://techcrunch.com/2012/07/31/google-acquires-wildfire/
* Obama White House - A Nation of Entrepreneurial Journeys: https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/blog/2013/06/04/nation-entrepreneurial-journeys
* Prisma: https://www.joinprisma.com/
* Wildfire: https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/wildfire-interactive
Where to find Victoria online:
* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/victoriaransom/
* Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/victoria_ransom
Timestamps:
[00:00] Intro
[01:37] Three traits of a great founder
[03:31] Victoria’s origin story
[05:59] Pivoting from investment banking into adventure travel
[08:37] Building and scaling Wildfire
[11:46] Bootstrapping before raising money
[12:30] Wildfire's path to acquisition
[17:16] Why life after acquisition was challenging
[19:29] Prisma’s origin story
[24:41] Inside Prisma's education model
[30:19] The challenges of teaching kids resilience
[32:28] Prisma’s potential to scale
[37:34] Will college education become obsolete?
[39:24] Victoria’s biggest role model
[40:38] What it’s like founding a company with your partner
[42:04] Advice for Kiwi entrepreneurs
[43:49] What's next for Victoria and Prisma
[44:58] How to help Victoria
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.diaspora.nz -
Hamish McKenzie is the co-founder and Chief Writing Officer at Substack.
Substack is building a “new economic engine for culture” — enabling writers, podcasters, and now video creators to publish and monetise their content directly through subscriptions. Today, newsletter creators on Substack have over 35 million active subscriptions, including 3 million+ to paid content. The Company has gone from strength to strength, reaching near “verb” status synonymous with online newsletters— and most recently raised capital at a $650M valuation.
Before Substack, Hamish was Lead Writer at Tesla — going on to author “Insane Mode: How Elon Musk's Tesla Sparked an Electric Revolution to End the Age of Oil”, and a journalist writing for publications in New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong, Canada, the UK, and the US. Hamish hails from Central Otago and attended the University of Otago.
In today’s episode, we discuss:
* Hamish’s journey from NZ to the US, key influences and inflection points
* Substack’s role in the future of media, and how they see the vision unfolding
* Building Substack, and challenges along the way including culture wars, content moderation, and echo-chambers.
* How AI is changing content creation, and how they’re gearing up to support creators in a future dominated by
* lessons, insights from his time at Tesla, working with Elon Musk, and authoring “Insane Mode”
Where to find Hamish McKenzie:
* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hamishmckenzie/
* Substack: https://substack.com/@hamish
* Website: https://hamishmckenzie.com/
Timestamps:
(00:00) Intro
(00:57) Building “a new economic engine for culture”
(02:29) Hamish’s journey from Otago to journalism
(05:57) Covering China, the Olympics, and Tencent
(06:51) The disruption of social media
(09:15) How Substack started
(12:20) Substack’s business and pricing model
(19:26) Winning culture wars
(22:50) The controversy of content moderation
(26:24) Why Elon tried to nuke Substack
(28:50) Working for Elon and Tesla
(30:00) Substack’s thesis
(32:17) Solving echo-chambers
(33:23) How Notes is taking on Twitter/X
(34:16) Why AI won’t replace content creators
(35:49) How to help Hamish
(37:06) Hamish’s recommended Substacks
(38:14) Outro
Some of Hamish’s recommended Substacks for Kiwis
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.diaspora.nz -
Today we catch up with Tom Harding, Founder and CEO of Mish Guru, the startup leading the charge in helping brands effectively develop, monitor and monetise content through Snapchat’s platform. Before empower brands to tell better stories through Snapchat, Tom was co-founder of Sitesorted and has been involved in the Lightning lab incubator back in New Zealand after a dual degree in engineering at Canterbury.
In this episode David and Tom chat about what they’re watching in growing their business, a deep dive on building successful remote teams and doing business as a Kiwi in New York.
Huge thank you to Sam Ragnarsson for the intro that made this episode possible, and we hope you get a lot out of this episode with this great Kiwi founder making waves in the US.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.diaspora.nz -
Mike Forester - on how charging customers more makes startup stronger, understanding big brand marketing, and angel investing at the bottom of the world by Diaspora.nz
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.diaspora.nz
