Startup Theatre Podcast

In this episode of the WFLS podcast, we chat with Barnaby Marshall. Barnaby is a Partner at Icehouse Ventures, a leading NZ venture capital firm. He has also been an early investor in Dawn Aerospace, First AML, Basis, Narrative, Jasper, and many more. Barnaby is an entrepreneur and investor, his previous role before Icehouse Ventures was as the managing director of I Love Ugly. He is also a co-founder of New Ground Coffee. In this conversation, Troy and Barney go deep on investing, and the mindsets needed for founders and Barney sets out to debunk the myth that: "More money means more results" At 20 mins we reference his old bFM show and you can listen to that here, and Barnaby's information share is The Star Principal book by Richard Koch. You can read Barnaby's blog on The Startup Efficiency 'Boiling Point'​ here where he goes deep on "Some are calling this new start-up funding environment a period of financial "austerity," and startups need to adjust to the "new regime." Please help us to continue producing these podcasts by subscribing. Thank you and enjoy the episode.

In this episode, we chat with Frances Valintine CNZM Frances Valintine CNZM is a passionate educator and technologist who is focused on developing education opportunities that connect professionals to the knowledge they need to be successful in today’s rapidly advancing world. For 25 years she has been dedicated to shifting education and business practice to develop the capabilities, knowledge, and mindset needed to respond to the future of work, changing societal expectations, and the protection of the planet. Frances is an education futurist from NZ. She has won numerous awards for her educational programmes and is the Founder and CEO of AcademyEX which includes: The Mind Lab, Tech Futures Lab, and Earth Futures Lab. She is known for her commitment to working to improve the outcomes for the next generation through contextualising education delivery and content in the 21st Century. Frances's information share is Hard Fork podcast. Please help us to continue producing these podcasts by subscribing. Thank you and enjoy the episode.

In this episode, we chat with David Downs. David is CEO of The New Zealand Story and a director on several boards, including as Chair of The Icehouse. David is an ex-comedian, TV, and radio actor, semi-finalist for New Zealander of the Year, cancer survivor, and a published author of books No.8 Re-wired, No.8 Recharged, A Mild Touch of the Cancer, and Silver Linings. We spoke about the relationship between board and exec, government and startups, and everything else in between. David is a lovely and amazing man and someone who has championed tech startups and New Zealand for his lifetime. Please help us to continue producing these podcasts by subscribing. Thank you.

In this episode of the WFLS podcast we chat with Simon Brown. Simon Brown is co-CEO at Banqer, the financial education platform which has been used by over 300,000 Australasian school students. His role leverages his passion for finance, technology, and education to support teachers in enhancing their students' financial literacy and overall wellbeing, making a positive impact on the world. We chat about how and why Banqer was founded to help kids become better with money. Simon is no stranger to founding startups with CrashCram being his first and Banqer his second with co-founder Kendall Flutey. Banqer is on a mission to prepare the next generation for their financial future. They believe that everyone should have access to a quality, engaging, effective financial education that sets them up for financial success - whatever that means to them.They started with a vision to teach one student about money (their co-founders' little brother), and since then they’ve helped financially educate over 300,000 students. The impact they’ve had through their innovative approach to teaching critical life skills has been celebrated externally, but most importantly it’s what motivates them each day. Please help us to continue producing these podcasts by subscribing. Thank you.

In this episode of the WFLS podcast we were lucky enough to speak with not only one crime fighting Aurors, though two in Kirsti Grant & Phil Thomson. Kirsti is the VP People Experience and all around amazing person. Phil is the CEO and Co-founder and NZ Entrepreneur of the Year 2022. We sat down with them both to learn how People Experience is helping to shape the future of Auror. In this episode, Phil and Kirsti share the story of Auror from being founded by friends realising that $100B+ was lost every year by retailers but there was no effective technology being used to report, solve, or prevent crime. Now in Australia, New Zealand, North America, and the United Kingdom, Auror needed to re-look at their company values and how to scale this rocket ship for grown. Kirsti and Phil go deep on the successes and attempts they have taken over the years and how they are now seeing magical moments across their business by letting the people in their business shape the next phase of growth at Auror. We also asked Kirsti and Phil to share some things that have moved them recently: Kirsti suggests you watch "How AI could save (not destroy) education" by Sal Khan and Phil suggests you look at two books that he learned from life and death situations. Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win by Jocko Willink (Author), Leif Babin (Author) and the second is Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World by General Stanley McChrystal  Thank you so much for watching and listening to the podcast and please subscribe wherever you are reading this.

On this episode of the WFLS podcast, we chat with Bobby Lloyd. Bobby Lloyd is the CEO and co-founder of Fussy, a new personalised catering tech that allows guests to order their own meal. He also launched NZ’s first reusable packaging system for food - Reusabowl. Bobby is a young and driven entrepreneur who is wise beyond his years and this podcast is packed with success stories, attempts and that means lessons for you. We managed to get Bobby on the pod before he moved to London and take Fussy global. When not working, Bobby is likely surfing, making jewellery, or out with friends and family. This was an amazing chat covering many topics and so we hope you enjoy it. Please subscribe to help us keep providing you with this content.

In this episode of The WFLS Podcast, we chat with Kat Lintott. Kat (Ngai Tahu) is a world builder experimenting with storytelling and interactive media. Her passion is to use new technology and creative platforms to empower people in the real world and have a positive impact on themselves and their community. She is the co-founder of Wrestler which is a creative agency. Kat's focus is VR and MR. Her goal in life is also to change the way people approach life. She says: "Our purpose should be to live, not to work. Feeling comfortable and being valued for our individual identity without it being attached to a job or career would be an amazing future to live in!" She is also the creator of Soul Æther which is a young adult sci-fantasy world exploring past lives, science, magic, and alchemy. It spans NFTs, an animated series, games, metaverse experiences, and more. We talk about all of the above, her year of transition, and how Kat reconnected with my purpose. We also talk about the famous Time Jackers video Wrestler made for Troy many years ago, and if you dare to watch it - you can find it here. This was an amazing chat covering many topics and so we hope you enjoy it. Please subscribe to help us keep providing you with this content.

In this episode of the WFLS podcast we chat with Mark Vivian. Mark is the General Partner with Movac who are New Zealand’s most experienced technology investor and is deeply integrated into the Kiwi tech sector. They've been actively investing since 1998 and are currently deploying Movac Fund 5 into Pre-A to Series C New Zealand technology companies. For the past 15 years Mark has been part of a team working to accelerate kiwi tech companies. He has helped Movac invest in more than 50 companies, and raised more than $600m for their funds. Mark a proud father of 5, and likes to escape work to go fishing, biking and skiing. We talk about how you can get investment in this market, what happens with due diligence and how you should always be thinking about raising and building your profile with VC's. This is a great podcast to listen to if you are even thinking about raising one day. Thank you for all our listeners and as we are looking to keep growing, we please ask you to follow us on your favourite podcast platform.

In this episode of WFLS we talk with Pene Barton. Pene is the CEO of Crimson Global Academy. A coach and experienced people leader, she is passionate about building high-growth, scalable, and successful organisations. Pene brings with her over ten years of experience working with some of the fastest-growing global startups in people, culture and performance roles whilst simultaneously running her own businesses. Pene helps organisations build high-performing communities and teams in distributed environments. We talk about Pene's meteoric rise to being a CEO and how she had strategically planned to get there and get there faster than most. Pene is clearly impressive and we hear her story from CPO to CEO and the work she has done building communities globally (previously remote employees and now remote students). We loved hearing her get on her soapbox about people roles being commercial and operating like a CEO and also the joys of running your own businesses as well. Pene recommends reading the book "Amp it Up" Please subscribe to the podcast to help us continue bringing these to you.

On this episode of WFLS, we talk with Charlie Meaden about AI, investing and his company's ambition is to create a futuristic Berkshire Hathaway built on Automation, AI, and optimising productivity. Charlie is a technologist and investor who runs a systematic investment strategy and founder of Gembot.ai. Gembot is 'Your AI Investing Assistant & Modern Wealth Platform.' After successfully exiting his previous startup Uproar, Charlie got really fascinated by investing and learned everything he could about it and thus Gembot was born. A Platform that enables individual investors to execute investment strategies by continually improving their financial literacy through a collaborative community and advanced trading tools. Democratising information and advanced tools for individual self-directed investors allowing them to seamlessly execute simple, intermediate, or advanced investment strategies. Our host Troy Hammond heard about what Charlie and his team were doing via a mutual American friend and after reading his ⁠Memo⁠ 'How To Fight Inflation In A Deflationary World' we knew we had to get him on the pod. It is a great read, impressively it was written in 2021 and largely spelled out what is happening now. We discuss this and many more topics around AI, ChatGPT, Investing, and lots more. If you are keen to watch Navals YouTube series “How to get rich” you can find it here 👉🏻 https://youtu.be/1-TZqOsVCNM Please subscribe to the podcast to help us continue bringing these to you.