Kōrerorero – interview with NZGCP

New Zealand Growth Capital Partners (NZGCP), the NZ Government-backed early stage investment fund, ran an interview with me today on their Kōrerorero blog, discussing general approaches to angel investment. I answer questions like: As an Angel investor, what do you look for before investing? What are your top tips for Kiwi companies with high-growth potential?…

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Problem solving – a crash course for startups

Problem solving is a key skill for entrepreneurs – startups face problems every day. What techniques can you use? Watch this video for a crash course that will give you useful techniques to apply straight away. Specifics: What is the purpose of your venture? This is really important context. Is the “problem” really a problem?…

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A list of New Zealand startups

The good people at Callaghan Innovation have compiled a little list of New Zealand startups from various sources as part of the Scale Up NZ project. The list is rough, but it’s ready, and as they say, perfect is the enemy of good. I’m told it’s a temporary fixture, and can be distributed freely. If…

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Founder mental health and wellbeing hacks

Starting up a business is hard. Being a founder can seem like a pan-galactic ultra marathon. Here is a list of things you can do to attain and maintain good mental health, including achieving a good overall attitude, maintaining focus, looking after yourself, making space for regeneration, dealing with uncertainty, getting help, and dealing with failure.

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EdTech startups, and the key to startup success

Last week was Techweek2020, and I ran a series of EdTech showcases, interviewing NZ Education Technology companies. The highlight of the week for me was Tim Vaughan, the Chief Revenue Officer at Education Perfect talking about what’s made them so successful: There’s no secret, it boils down to: A pathological obession with customer experience, which…

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Addressing unconscious bias and racism

How do we address unconscious bias and racism? Anjum Rahman from the Inclusive Aotearoa Collective Tāhono nails it: “Put yourself in spaces where people are different to yourself … and just listen.” This segment was part of a longer session on Religious Attitudes to Racism, run by the Wellington Abrahamic Council of Jews, Christians and…

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The Social Lean Canvas

Way back in 2013, Rowan Yeoman and I designed the Social Lean Canvas, which is based on Ash Maurya‘s Lean Canvas, which is in turn based on Alex Osterwalder‘s Business Model Canvas. The Social Lean Canvas is a tool to help social entrepreneurs work out the key attributes of their very early stage ventures, and…

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