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
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 helped him...
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 envir...
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 lea...
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 customer...
In this episode, we chat with "Global growth exec" Chris Teeling.
For two decades, he has held global leadership roles in high-growth technology companies, where he has built and led world-class teams, shaped strategy, scaled internationally, and delivered lasting results.
🚀 At Xero, he had the privilege as a member of the global ELT to help drive the company’s global expansion, scaling from 70,000 customers to over ...
In this episode of Startup Theater, host Serge Van Dam engages in a dynamic conversation with female founders Irina Miller from Daisy Lab and Mrinali Kumar from Eat Kinda.
These amazing founders are pioneering the alternative protein sector in New Zealand.
On this episode, you will hear them discuss their journeys, the challenges of scaling their startups, and the importance of innovation in the food industry.
Irina shares insights...
In this episode, host Serge van Dam engages in a deep conversation with Axton Pitt from LitMaps and David Moide from Foundry Lab.
They explore the intersection of science and entrepreneurship, discussing how science-based startups can drive innovation and have a positive impact.
Axton shares how LitMaps accelerates scientific research by helping users navigate academic papers.
David discusses Foundry Lab's mission to rebuild me...
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...
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