Creativity is the spark that occurs when you combine seemingly unrelated things, shove an uncooperative idea into an unexpected context, or look at something familiar in a radically unfamiliar light. That spark of creativity is fun and essential, but much more difficult and rewarding is turning that spark into a steady flame or bushfire of…
Continue reading →What do angel investors like me look for in investable early-stage companies? It’s all about: You and your team Your market Your startup Your progress Your financial plan Your investment terms Your other investors (and a few other things too). Watch the video of a talk I gave on the subject at CreativeHQ‘s Startup Garage…
Continue reading →I recently arrived back in Wellington from the Startup Nations Summit in Mexico. On my flight from Auckland to Wellington on 29 November 2015, I passed over the Karori Rip just south of Mana Island. The Karori Rip is an interesting phenomenon, basically a standing wave formed in specific tidal conditions in Cook Strait. In…
Continue reading →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…
Continue reading →One of my “day jobs” is providing lexicographical software development for a number of dictionaries around the place. One project using my Freelex software that’s recently been launched is the Legal Māori Resource Hub, by Māmari Stephens at the Victoria University Law department. Māmari recently gave a talk about the lexicon, corpus, and resource hub…
Continue reading →So they asked me what TEDx talk I’d like to give in ten years time. My answer was: The End of Money
Continue reading →I’ve just launched a new blog, NZ Startup of the Week. Every week, I’ll be featuring a Kiwi startup going global. Be sure to have a look.
Continue reading →Last week, I was invited to be part of a panel discussion hosted by the Victoria University Religious Studies Department on the topic of whether there should be limits to absolute media freedom of expression. Prof Paul Morris provided an opening statement. Joining me on the panel were Tayyaba Khan, Jenny Chalmers, Tom Scott, Selva…
Continue reading →I’m planning on being very involved in the Lightning Lab Christchurch accelerator programme that starts next week, mainly as a mentor. As I look back on both Lightning Lab Wellington accelerators where I mentored in 2013 and 2014, I felt that most of the teams could have used their mentors more effectively. With that in…
Continue reading →I’ve just returned from a 3-1/2 month trip, mostly holiday with my wife Kate and 11 year old son Dan, in which we visited Hong Kong, Vietnam, Italy, Switzerland, France, Spain, and the USA, generally avoiding big cities. Naturally, it was important to stay well-connected every place we went, so we employed a combination of…
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