Speech to Islam Awareness Week Launch, 26 August 2013 at Whare Waka, Wellington Shalom aleikhem, Salaam aleikum, Kia ora tatau. On the tenth anniversary of Islam Awareness Week, we can say that we have spent significant time together. Not only are we more aware of each other, we are friends that know, like, trust, and…
Continue reading →I recently contributed to a submission on the Telecommunications (Interception Capability and Security) Bill, a rather rushed and ill-considered piece of legislation that has massive potential for abuse by future governments, and which places unreasonable costs and procedures on people providing Internet services. The introduction reads: We explain in this Select Committee submission our opposition…
Continue reading →People regularly approach me or one of my investment entities asking for a meeting to discuss their venture and possible investment. If I know them, they’ve been referred to me by someone I trust, or they have an amazing LinkedIn profile I usually take the meeting. If they’ve crafted a great short pitch or include…
Continue reading →Publons is a Wellington-based startup that provides academic peer review as a service, with the ultimate goal of speeding up science. They graduated from the Lightning Lab accelerator programme [see my post on why Lightning Lab is so cool], and I recently took up position as lead investor in their angel round. Here’s their pitch…
Continue reading →Dame Susan Devoy was recently appointed Race Relations Commissioner, amidst some controversy. Like many, I was surprised by the appointment – I’d expected someone to be appointed to the position had some experience in the field, and was known to practitioners. It’s a done deal now – the appointment has been made, and I think…
Continue reading →In case you missed it, fellow Klezmer Reb David Weinstein and I were on National Radio on 12 July talking about Klezmer music, and why it’s popular in New Zealand. You can listen to the programme in its full glory, thanks to Radio New Zealand.
Continue reading →I was recently interviewed about why we invested in Lightning Lab, New Zealand’s first digital accelerator. Here’s the YouTube clip: We’d been wanting to start an accelerator for the last few years in Wellington, and when CreativeHQ pulled together the key players, we quickly jumped on board. So why did we invest in the accelerator…
Continue reading →Today is Commonwealth Day, which celebrates the establishment of the Commonwealth of Nations whose values as expressed by the Commonwealth Charter include the promotion of democracy, human rights, international peace and security, tolerance respect and understanding, freedom of expression, the rule of law, good governance, sustainable development, protecting the environment, access to health eduction food…
Continue reading →A decade is a very long time in the startup universe. For New Zealand, the real opportunity and challenge is going to be to capitalise on the weightless economy, moving from more traditional physical commodities to producing valuable software, content, games, and other digital products. That involves getting more closely connected on a person-to-person and…
Continue reading →Last night, the Klezmer Rebs performed for the Hanukah party in Wellington’s Civic Square. I felt particularly elated to be playing Klezmer music in the main square of my home town, a thriving multicultural city that has gone from strength to strength in the thirty years that I’ve called it home. Props to our Mayor…
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