Startup Theatre Podcast

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 new...

​ 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...

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 fina...

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 b...

⁠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 crea...

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 st...

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...

Will Palme r 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 le...

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...

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...

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 Au...

TikTok has arrived and set up an office in New Zealand and we wanted to hear about it. In this episode we chat with TikTok’s NZ country manager. Carsten Grueber is a seasoned leader in the digital marketing and advertising industry, currently serving as the Country Manager for Advertising Partnerships at TikTok in New Zealand. In this role, Carsten has been pivotal in establishing and leading TikT...

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 Lan...

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,...

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 -...

If you have not heard of a highly successful startup runn in New Zealand then you must be living under a rock. Tim Copeland was one of the founders of SilverStripe , one of New Zealand's leading digital transformation companies, equally famous for our open-source content management system used today by tens of thousands of companies. Now Tim has turned his passion to resource management softwa...

In this episode we chat with Leighton Roberts the Co-CEO & Co-Founder of Sharesies. It’s the second WFLS episode on Sharesies and we explore the growth story of how Sharesies has become the success story it is today. This podcast explores the highs and lows of the Sharesies story coming about partly from Leighton’s school friends investment club. Follow Leighton - http://linkedin.com/in/leight...

Bron Thomson founded Springload in 2002 and grew it to one of Aotearoa's most successful and longest-standing independently-owned digital agencies. Springload is a bi-cultural lead, purpose lead digital agency and Bron is one of the nicest and most admired founders in Wellington. Troy and Bron talk about the highs and lows of service businesses and teaches us how to navigate the highs and lows...

Asantha Wijeyeratne QSM provides us with our most emotional and uplifting episode to date. From founding Smart Payroll, the most successful SMB payroll company in NZ above a bakery in Lower Hutt. To then selling it to Datacom and now re-upping and founding Paysauce to now be the best in the world. In 2013 he was awarded the Queen's Service Medal for his duty to NZ business and community. We ta...

Mahesh Muralidhar has done it all. From helping to take Canva globally as employee number 25, to launching PhaseOne Ventures in New Zealand and even running for Auckland Central in politics. We talk with Mahesh to learn how he has been helping founders to take on the world from NZ and listen to his sage advice from being so early at Canva and now sharing this with his home in NZ. Follow Mahesh - l...

Creative HQ recently released their 20 years of Impact report where they provide insights on the 1029 founders they’ve worked with. We wanted to share the learnings of this highly impactful organisation who has helped create $1.3B in total valuation for the startup industry. Catherine Jones is the highly talented CEO of Creative HQ and we discuss the opportunity of wealth that the startup ecosyste...

Too many Kiwi startups spend so much time getting things right in the New Zealand market before heading overseas.  We need to go global from day one! Hear how Tim Boyle took Whip Around to the US immediately and found product market fit in the United States before they had even picked up a kit customer.  Our host Troy Hammond talks with Tim who has recently joined HealthNow as their Chief Marketin...

Healthcare is broken. We all know it, though too many were scared to take on the behemoths who have owned this space forever. Enter Vital.io the product built by kiwi Te Riu Warren as their founding CTO. Hear how Te and Founder & CEO Aaron Patzer formally of Mint.com got together and Decided to take on the United States healthcare tech industry from New Zealand. Our host Troy Hammond talks wit...

50% of marriages end in divorce and 75% of those divorces cite "quality time" as the killer. Enter Erika Palmer , a Kiwi tech founder with the app Cupla on a mission to help relationships flourish. Hear how over 70% of users say Cupla is reducing stress and friction in their relationship. Try the app here https://cupla.app/the-app/ Our host Troy Hammond talks with Erika about her journey...

How has marketing changed and why has Tracksuit just raised $22m to help customers understand their brand? In this episode, we talk with Conor Archbold who talks us through his journey and the explosion of Tracksuit . Connor Archbold is the co-CEO and Co-founder of Tracksuit, a Kiwi startup creating the world's best brand tracker. Connor founded Tracksuit in 2021 alongside his co-CEO Matt Herb...