A prayer for dead startups

Notes from the Dead Startup Society It’s a fact: a large percentage of startups die well before achieving their potential. Going through a startup failure can be very painful. A company is essentially a person in the eyes of the law, and as a founder, watching your startup die can be like watching a close…

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The New Christchurch – You Beauty!

There’s only one thing I want to say today: Christchurch, you beauty! When people ask me what I’m about, I tell them I’m building the future I want to live in. We’re all doing that today, here at Lightning Lab Christchurch Demo Day. Look around you. The New Christchurch is filled with diversity and entrepreneurial…

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My TEDx talk: The four superpowers of the Internet

I gave a talk at the first TEDxWellington this year, called “The four superpowers of the Internet”, which are being direct, open, accessible and free. These superpowers are all underpinned by the golden rule, that we should treat all others as we would wish to be treated ourselves. This modern force of good has driven the explosive growth of the Internet, and can turn all of us into leaders and heroes. It includes an homage to entrepreneurs and social entrepreneurs as the heroes of our generation leading the creative destruction that will bring about a better world, and includes a brief history of the Internet and its governance and why humming is an effective tool in bringing about consensus.

Enjoy. A transcript follows.

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Wellington, New Zealand’s Startup Capital

I was invited to Auckland last week to The Project: Digital Disruption to discuss what’s happening in the Wellington startup scene. Here are my slides: Wellington, New Zealand’s Startup Capital Key points: Wellington’s key advantage is its scale.  Everything is accessible within a 20 minute walk – but you need to plan for 30 minutes…

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Bright Ideas Need Scintillating Teams

I was invited to speak for five minutes at the Bright Ideas networking event last night. Here’s what I said: You’ve heard of them before – Orville and Wilbur Hewlett and Packard Jobs and Wozniak Page and Brin Mitchell and Youens Even Zuckerberg had a team behind him, even if he screwed most of them…

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My advice to budding entrepreneurs

A couple of months ago, the great people from MyFirstCompany.co.nz interviewed me to collect my sage advice for budding entrepreneurs. Here is what I told them: What is WebFund all about? What’s the difference between a good idea and a good business idea? What should I think about before approaching an investor? How important is…

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