Startup Theatre Podcast

With the amazing Electrify Aotearoa conference behind us, we wanted to share some of the amazing people who presented and attended.

In this special episode of the Startup Theatre podcast, we shine a spotlight on the remarkable women who are leading the charge in entrepreneurship.

Recorded live at the Electrify Aotearoa event, this episode features insightful conversations with inspiring female founders who are breaking barriers and...

Angie Judge is a prominent figure in New Zealand’s technology industry, and she currently serves as the CEO of Dexibit, a cutting-edge analytics platform for visitor attractions. Judge’s entrepreneurial journey has been characterised by innovation, leadership, and a profound understanding of data-driven decision-making.

In 2015, Judge founded Dexibit, a company that has transformed analytics for visitor attractions, such as museums ...

Nick Lissette is the founder and CEO of Black Pearl Group, a New Zealand-born SaaS company generating over $12.5M in ARR from the US market and he’s just getting started.

With a relentless drive and a famously no-BS approach to business, Nick has been scaling startups since he was 24, when he bought his first company for $1, walked into an office with a server, a car park, and no clue what he was doing and figured it out the hard w...

Ben Gracewood is one of those rare tech leaders who’s done the whole arc—starting in low-level code, scaling product and engineering teams at Vend through to a $400 million exit, and now leading in a world where AI is rewriting the playbook.

With a deep background in software development and executive leadership, Ben has built teams, shaped product strategy, and helped grow one of New Zealand’s most successful SaaS companies. But he...

For nearly two decades, Heather has worked across strategy, operations, product marketing, revenue, and executive go-to-market roles in 𝗦𝗶𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗼𝗻 𝗩𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝘆 startups and multinational companies.

On this episode, we discuss the impact of AI on business and the importance of 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗔𝗜 𝘁𝗼𝗼𝗹𝘀 to stay competitive.

Heather shares her insights on the future of work, the necessity of adapting to ne...

​Hamish Edwards hasn't told his story in detail before. and so you get to hear it for the first time.

Renowned for co-founding Xero with Rod Drury in 2006 in his accounting companies' boardroom, before they ever moved to said apartment.

As a practicing accountant at the time and working with Rod, Hamish played a pivotal role in Xero's early growth, shaping the product and expanding its customer base across New Zealand, Australia, a...

Lowry Gladwell has been at the forefront of some of New Zealand’s most iconic companies, from law to payments, tech partnerships to sales.

Playing a key role in Vend’s journey through to their successful exit in 2021 and leading Xero’s embedded finance strategy and execution, Lowry knows his domain well.

Now, as Head of New Zealand at Airwallex—an Australian unicorn transforming banking and financial service, Lowry is focused on bu...

Rowan Simpson has been at the heart of New Zealand's most successful technology companies. As a founding team member at Trade Me and Xero, he witnessed firsthand how great companies are built through consistent execution. His subsequent investments and hands-on work with ventures like Vend and Timely have helped shape a generation of high-growth companies.If you’re the kind of person who hates being wrong (let’s be honest, that’s m...

⁠Nicole Retter⁠ is the sole Founder and CEO of ⁠PAM⁠.

🤖 ⁠PAM⁠ stands for "Personal Admin Manager" and is your Family's own Digital PA

👩🏽‍💻 Nicole has been a marketer for 20 years, working in big ad agencies, and digital agencies delivering festivals, and guiding sole traders.

🚀 Her specialty is supporting Start-ups and SME’s, and due to your limited resources, we get to be creative in our approach and make a big ...

Philip Fierlinger co-founded Xero, playing a major role as Head of Design, leading Xero to become a disruptive platform and an iconic global brand.

Now he is the co-founder of Upstock, a B2B e-commerce & logistics platform transforming the food & beverage industry.

His early career highlights include work for Beastie Boys and General Magic.

In this episode Philip goes deep on the Xero story and the lessons he has learned...

In this episode, we chat with Derek Handley Derek is an entrepreneur known for co-founding alongside Sir Richard Branson The B Team - a global collective advocating economic systems change to protect our natural environment and secure a safe, sustainable, and equitable future for all Before The B Team, Derek was one of the first young Kiwi entrepreneurs to build a global start-up, The Hyperfactory, an early pioneer driving the tr...

Will Palmer is a seasoned entrepreneur with a successful track record in tech, co-founding Movio, Cupla, and DevRamp.

As Movio's CEO, he led its growth to dual listings on the NZ and Australian stock exchanges before exiting to build two entirely different businesses.

Consumer app start up Cupla and the developer tool, DevRamp.

With the massive success of Movio, we talk with Will on his lessons and learnings. Will is not stop...

For 8 years, Oxygen Advisors has stood behind 
over 100 New Zealand startups.

Amazingly, only 3% of their startup portfolio have not survived and we wanted to know why.

In this episode we chat with Matt Dold the founder and Mike Mandis the Co-CEO.

As the founder and Director at Oxygen Advisors, Matt has been at the forefront of empowering start-ups and high-growth businesses across New Zealand for over a decade. Matt's se...

Simon Pound is Managing Partner - Ventures for Previously Unavailable. Simon leads up Venture Studio and Brand Fund activity for Previously, and is host of the entrepreneur-focussed Business is Boring podcast for The Spinoff.

Prior to PU, Simon led global brand, creative and communications for Vend, and he loves working with startups on brand and positioning strategy and execution.

He is also a director of Ingrid Starnes, the onl...

Coachmate is a purpose-led tech startup on a mission to help kids stay in sports. Research has shown that kids who remain in sports have better mental and physical outcomes throughout their lives.

Enter Michelle Walshe is no stranger to sports after directing sports legends like Venus Williams, Kevin Durant, and Richie McCaw's feature films.

Michelle is also the co-founder of the successful Augusto, a hybrid creative and prod...

Lance Wiggs has over 10 years of experience as a venture capitalist and considerable experience helping to start, grow, turn around, and exit companies as a consultant, investor, co-founder, and director.

He is a principal with Punakaiki Fund and Climate VC Fund, and has invested in well over 40 companies.

In this episode, we discuss the importance of making good decisions in business and how Lance helps CEOs and founders make be...

Janine Grainger is one of the most requested shows we’ve had to date.

Janine is a kiwi-born entrepreneur and a highly respected leader in tech. She's the co-founder and CEO of Easy Crypto, New Zealand's leading cryptocurrency trading platform. Easy Crypto was established in 2017 to offer a secure, simple and easy-to-understand way for everyone to get involved in the cryptocurrency market, and has since helped hundreds of t...

In this episode, we chat with Ralph Highnmam only days after his company Volpara was acquired for $300m by Lunit.

Ralph is no stranger to success as he founded and built a medical imaging AI company in Oxford, UK that was also acquired.

In this conversation, we go deep into how he has achieved this and why he decided to move to Wellington NZ, and help our ecosystem to grow further.

Follow Ralph - linkedin.com/in/ralph-highnam-a93...