Startup Theatre Podcast
Exploring the wins, challenges, & lessons from startups. Honest conversations, real insights, and everything in between. Troy Hammond & Serge van Dam, with deep roots in the startup ecosystem in New Zealand and beyond, explore the world of startups, tech, markets, and media. They break down industry trends, uncover the realities of scaling companies, and share expert insights through candid conversations. Each episode features top founders, operators, investors, and innovators, offering lessons, perspectives, and stories from the frontlines of business and technology.
Episodes
Why is government so bad at adopting new technology? And what would it take for New Zealand to build an economy where tech and startups sit alongside our traditional industries?
This week, Serge Van Dam sits down with Wellington Mayor and former Cabinet Minister Andrew Little for a wide-ranging conversation about government, technology, risk and the future of New Zealand’s economy.
Andrew gives an unusually candid view from ins...
How do you build and sell an AI startup in under two years?
In this episode of Startup Theatre, Troy Hammond, Serge Van Dam and Adrian Muir sit down with Jessica Venning-Bryan, CEO and Co-founder of Factor, fresh off the company's acquisition by NZX-listed Gentrack.
Jessica shares the incredible journey from identifying a major problem in the global energy industry to building an AI-powered SaaS platform that was acquired in record t...
Sacha Judd, Co-founder and COO of Lume Music, joins Startup Theatre to discuss the future of music, creator monetisation, and building a startup in one of the world’s toughest industries.
We explore why the traditional music industry model is failing independent artists, how streaming platforms changed the economics of music, and why creator-owned communities could become the future.
Sacha shares the story behind Lume Music and...
Jamie Beaton, founder of Crimson Education, joins Startup Theatre for a wide-ranging conversation on ambition, AI, education, startups, and the future of New Zealand.
Jamie shares his journey from New Zealand student to Harvard and Yale, building Crimson Education into a global company, and why elite universities still matter in an AI-driven world.
We discuss:
- Why top universities are becoming more competitive
- AI’s impact on ...
In this episode of Startup Theatre, Troy Hammond and Serge Van Dam sit down with Simon Archer, founder of PolicyCheck, to unpack one of the biggest untapped problems in global fintech: understanding insurance.
Simon shares the story behind leaving a successful corporate career to build in the AI era, driven by a simple but powerful realisation. He had already missed one major wave and wasn’t going to miss the next.
The conversa...
Is software engineering already dead?
In this episode of Startup Theatre, Troy & Serge sit down with Nik Wakelin the co-founder of Sterling.
They unpack what AI is actually doing to engineering, startups, and how work gets done.
This isn’t the usual “AI will replace everyone” narrative.
Nik breaks down why we’re not seeing job collapse — we’re seeing something far more important: task collapse.
We...
Building a startup isn’t what most people think.
In this episode of Startup Theatre, Adrienne & Serge sit down with Martyn Bain to talk about the reality of building a global company from New Zealand — and the moments that nearly break you.
From leaving corporate after a defining moment at home, to chasing international deals, to being days away from signing something that could have changed everything… only fo...
AI is changing how startups are built.
In this episode of Startup Theatre, Troy Hammond sits down with Toby Cox, founder of Geodde and former Partner & CTO of Paloma (Dovetail), to talk about why he walked away from leading large engineering teams to build an AI startup completely solo.
After years scaling companies and managing teams of more than 100 engineers, Toby is now running an experiment: building a company with almost no...
John Mitchell didn’t start in tech. He started with a sewing machine in his parents’ basement.
In this episode of Startup Theatre, the Arlo founder shares the full journey from bootstrapped beginnings in Wellington to building a global SaaS platform operating in 70 countries and processing over half a billion dollars in training transactions each year.
John talks openly about:
• Raising his first $1M and then closing just ...
Alexander Fala is the kind of leader who has seen the best and worst of startup life up close, and learned how to keep moving anyway.
In this episode of Startup Theatre, Troy Hammond sits down with Alex, former Vend CEO, Rhodes Scholar, ex McKinsey, and a trusted coach to CEOs across Aotearoa. They unpack what happens when the stakes get real: a capital raise nearly collapsing, lawsuits landing mid deal, revenue shocks that threaten...
Before the 100th episode of Startup Theatre with Rod Drury, we brought the community together in Queenstown for a live fireside series with founders, operators, investors, and ecosystem builders from across New Zealand.
In front of a live audience, we explored what really happens behind the scenes of building companies – from validating an idea and surviving early mistakes, to scaling teams, raising capital, hiring well, and k...
A New Zealand insuretech startup thought they’d cracked the US market, until a Fortune 500 incumbent sued them “out of the blue”.
In this episode of Startup Theatre, Serge Van Damme speaks with former Montoux co-CEOs Shelley Cox and Klaas Stijnen about what it’s like to be hit with major IP allegations in the US, how quickly litigation can choke a startup’s ability to sell or raise, and why their realis...
In our 100th episode of Startup Theatre, we went live in Queenstown for a milestone fireside chat with Rod Drury, founder of Xero.
Rod unpacks the behind-the-scenes reality of building a global SaaS company from Wellington: why they IPO’d early, what raising capital actually takes, and how to build teams that can scale without losing pace.
We also get into founder PR, working on the business vs in it, what “A-players&rdq...
Goodnature CEO Dave Shoemack has had one of the more unusual startup careers you will hear about.
From big beer at Heineken HQ, to helping turn VanMoof into the “Tesla of e-bikes” in Amsterdam, to leading Wellington trap-maker Goodnature and living with a founder at home through natural perfume brand Abel.
In this episode of Startup Theatre, Troy and Serge sit down with Dave to talk about building global hardware compani...
From AngelList to OnDeck to Blackbird, David has spent a decade designing the connective tissue between people, products, and ideas.
NZ's own David Booth now joins a16z as Partner and Head of Ecosystem.
His mission: make a16z the F1 pit crew of venture, where network power compounds and every founder gets faster.
David helped build one of the world’s most impactful founder communities through On Deck, helping over 1,000 startu...
In this episode of Startup Theatre, host Troy Hammond sits down with serial founder and engineer Nimo Naamani—a man who’s lived through the chaos of founding blockchain companies, building developer tools, getting acqui-hired by Twitter, and now taking on one of the hardest industries of all: healthcare.
Nimo shares wild stories—from building Horizon State, to selling his startup to Twitter, to launching Propagator...
What happens when a broke Kiwi founder and his team fly to San Francisco with only $15,000 left, sleep in a basement, and end up playing poker with the investor who changes everything?
In this episode of Startup Theatre, Troy Hammond sits down with Alistair McLeay, co-founder and co-CEO of Grw AI, one of New Zealand’s most ambitious artificial intelligence startups.
Alistair shares how a chance poker game in San Francisco help...
In this episode of Startup Theatre, Troy Hammond sits down with Michael "Koz" Koziarski, a veteran software engineer, startup founder, and open source contributor, to talk about the messy, real, and rewarding side of building software and leading teams.
From his early work in Ruby on Rails and open source to his leadership roles at Vend and Southgate Labs, Koz shares the honest truths about engineering in high-growth environments.
Yo...
In this episode of Startup Theatre, we sit down with Sam Kidd, co-founder and CEO of Lawvu, the pioneering legal operations platform that's transforming how in-house legal teams operate around the globe. Sam shares the journey of turning a bold idea from Tauranga, New Zealand in to a global SaaS company trusted by enterprise legal departments worldwide.
We dive into:
The pain points in legal ops that inspired Lawvu
Lessons learned...
Ever wondered what your colleagues really think about you?
In this episode, we sit down with Aaron Ward, co-founder and CEO of Huckleberry, the global startup turning workplace feedback on its head.
Aaron isn’t new to shaking up the world of work.
He previously co-founded AskNicely, a customer feedback SaaS that grew to Series B and raised over USD $50m, helping companies around the world rethink how they measure and act on cu...
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