TechMates

Three founders building robots for homes, timber houses and sewers explain why the future of robotics is won on exceptions, trust and supply chains, not hype.Recorded live on stage at the NZVC Portfolio Day as part of Auckland Startup Week, this robotics panel brings together three founders building in the physical world, hosted by TechMates’ Mark Pavlyukovskyy and Hendrik Remigereau. David Inggs is the co-founder of Rocos, a robotics software company that became part of DroneDeploy, which later exited to Procore. Hamish Maxwell is the Christchurch-based mechanical design engineer behind Stansted, which uses robotics to build timber frames and trusses for rapid assembly on site. Shyeon Delnawaz is co-founder of Puralink, which builds autonomous robots that inspect pipes.The conversation starts with 2036 predictions and goes straight to the hard questions. Will humanoids take over, or will purpose-built machines keep their place? David argues that the biggest problem in robotics is exception handling. Software lets you force users down a “happy path”, but the physical world doesn’t. That is why robots thrive in factories and farms, where the environment can be rebuilt around the machine, and struggle in homes and on roads. The panel also covers how to earn trust from customers whose jobs you may eventually automate, and why Shyeon says the best pitch is the opposite of what you’d tell investors.Along the way come a few surprises. One panelist predicts AI will bring back arranged marriages. Hamish reveals that around 95% of the parts in his prototype came from China, and that sourcing servos elsewhere could have made the machine roughly 30 times more expensive. New Zealand sends logs to China and buys them back as engineered timber. The panel closes on what it would take to bring more manufacturing back to Australia and New Zealand.🤖 Humanoids vs. Specialists: Will general-purpose humanoids take over, or will purpose-built robots win? Why the answer may differ between the home, the factory and the pipe.🤝 Earning Customer Trust: Stay close to the customer’s existing workflow, speak their language, and avoid AI buzzwords. Some customers even insisted on taking the founders on site before a robot was deployed.👷 Jobs, Labor and the Housing Crisis: Will robotics replace workers or move them somewhere more valuable? Why construction’s labor shortage changes the conversation.🏗️ Why 3D-Printed Houses Aren’t the Answer: Hamish explains why a new building material means retraining the whole construction chain, from architects to sparkies.Links to NZVC & Hosts:🔗 Learn more about NZVC: https://www.nzvc.co.nzMark Pavlyukovskyy — https://www.linkedin.com/in/pavlyukovskyy/Hendrik Remigereau — https://www.linkedin.com/in/hendrik-remigereau-09a03067/Timestamps:00:00 — Intro01:20 — Panel Intro & 2036 Predictions03:23 — Stansted & AI Arranged Marriages04:23 — Puralink: Robots Inside Pipes05:20 — How to Pitch Robotics Without the Hype06:34 — Stay Close to the Customer’s Workflow07:36 — Humanoids vs. Specialist Robots10:32 — The “Happy Path” & the Exception Problem12:58 — Robots as a Service & the Sock Test14:45 — Will Robots Take Our Jobs?17:54 — Audience Q&A: 3D Printing19:54 — Finding the Right Entry Point in the Value Chain20:45 — Robots for the World or a World for Robots?22:55 — Why Procore Bought a Robotics Company27:20 — Robotics Is in Its Teenage Phase28:04 — Audience Q&A: China & Supply Chains30:21 — 95% of Stansted’s Parts Come From China31:40 — Bringing Manufacturing Back to ANZ#TechMates, #DavidInggs, #HamishMaxwell, #ShyeonDelnawaz, #NZVC, #AucklandStartupWeek, #Robotics, #Humanoids, #Stansted, #Puralink, #DroneDeploy, #Procore, #Rocos, #NewZealand, #NZTech, #NZStartups, #DeepTech, #Automation, #Construction, #ConstructionTech, #Manufacturing, #SupplyChain, #VentureCapital, #Founders, #Innovation

Brad Feld co-founded Techstars, backed Fitbit, Sphero and MakerBot, wrote the book on startup communities — and just got New Zealand residency because he fell in love with Wanaka and thinks NZ might be the next Boulder, per capita.In this episode of TechMates, Hendrik Remigereau and Mark Pavlyukovskyy sits down with Brad Feld — co-founder of Techstars, partner at Foundry Group, and one of the most influential voices in startup communities over the past three decades — recorded in person at Brad’s home in Wanaka, New Zealand. It’s TechMates’ first-ever in-person recording, and the setting says a lot: Brad and his wife Amy recently got New Zealand residency through the Active Investor Plus visa, and after six weeks exploring the country, chose Wanaka as their base in the southern hemisphere.The conversation covers a lot of ground. Brad reflects on his hardware investing journey — from backing Sphero when it was just a technically impossible robotic ball, to watching Fitbit go from 10 steps-per-day tracking to 80 million active users, to funding companies like NEMA and Little Bits that had great products but couldn’t crack the economics. His honest diagnosis of why hardware startups fail is one of the sharpest things said on this podcast: once gross margin drops below 40%, you’re done — and the best founders are the ones obsessed with user value, not product launches.But the conversation really opens up when Brad talks about startup communities, Boulder, and what he sees in New Zealand. He spent 30 years helping turn a 100,000-person college town into the highest per-capita startup density in the world. Now he’s watching something similar start to happen in New Zealand — and he thinks the non-zero-sum culture, the natural constraints that drive real innovation, and the growing number of VC funds are exactly the right ingredients. What’s missing? Just time.🔧 The Hardware Trap: Why gross margin below 40% is a death sentence, why software investors kept getting hardware wrong, and what Physical AI is repeating today.📱 Fitbit’s Missed Opportunity: How 80 million users and a clear subscription model never came together — and what Apple Watch did differently.🌱 Boulder vs. New Zealand: How Brad helped turn a 100K-person hippie ski town into the world’s highest per-capita startup hub — and why NZ has the same ingredients.💰 Three Things Brad Looks for in a Founder: Are they put on Earth to work on this problem? Do they want Brad as an investor? Does Brad care about the product?🎧 Listen On:YouTube: https://lnkd.in/gQnb_WbBSpotify: https://spoti.fi/4is21QIApple Podcasts: https://apple.co/42KZ2x1🔗 Learn more about NZVC: https://www.nzvc.co.nzMark Pavlyukovskyy — https://www.linkedin.com/in/pavlyukovskyy/Hendrik Remigereau — https://www.linkedin.com/in/hendrik-remigereau-09a03067/Timestamps:00:00 — Intro01:20 — First in-person TechMates recording in Wanaka01:41 — Why Brad invested in Sphero and Little Bits07:22 — Why hardware investing went wrong09:22 — The gross margin rule: below 40%, you’re done10:12 — What Fitbit got wrong about subscriptions16:24 — NEMA: great product, broken economics22:06 — Three things Brad looks for in a founder26:03 — “I’ll be there as long as you don’t lie to me”32:36 — How Boulder became a startup community38:24 — Why Brad and Amy came to New Zealand46:16 — Residency visa and the Active Investor Plus route51:13 — Can NZ build a Boulder-style ecosystem?54:07 — Boulder: the highest startup density per capita58:49 — What NZ is still missing: time1:06:59 — Halter, Bovonic and NZ innovation1:15:46 — Why one dominant VC fund hurts an ecosystem#TechMates, #BradFeld, #Techstars, #Foundry, #NewZealand, #Wanaka, #StartupEcosystem, #VentureCapital, #HardwareStartups, #Fitbit, #Sphero, #MakerBot, #Boulder, #NZTech, #NZVC, #StartupCommunity, #Entrepreneurship, #DeepTech, #Halter, #RocketLab, #StartupHub, #Founders, #AIPlusVisa, #NZStartups, #Innovation

Two investors — one government-backed, one fresh off a flight from San Francisco — make the case that New Zealand is post-product-market-fit as a startup ecosystem, and now just needs the capital, culture, and ambition to go 10X.Recorded live at the NZVC Portfolio Day as part of Auckland Startup Week, this panel brings together James Pinner, CEO of NZGCP, and Warren Scheffler, a partner from San Francisco-based Pair VC, who recently relocated to Auckland — alongside TechMates hosts Mark Pavlyukovskyy and Hendrik Remigereau. The conversation covers the state of New Zealand’s startup ecosystem, what it would take to get from $1B to $10B in annual venture investment, and why the country already has better fundamentals than most people realise.James walks through NZGCP’s “Five Fives” ambition — 5,000 startups, $5B in capital, 50,000 jobs, $50B in economic value — and makes the case for why government still needs to be the biggest risk-taker at the earliest stages. Warren brings a fresh outsider’s perspective: New Zealand’s enterprise value per VC dollar is 11X, Kiwi founders consistently undersell themselves to US investors, and the ecosystem’s biggest bottleneck isn’t talent — it’s ambition and connectivity.🚀 The Five Fives: NZGCP’s plan for 5,000 startups, $5B in capital and $50B in economic value for New Zealand over the next five years.🌍 NZ vs. Israel: Why Israel is the most relevant comparison — and the one key difference that still separates the two ecosystems.🌱 The Tall Poppy Problem: Why New Zealand’s cultural fear of failure is one of the biggest real barriers to startup growth — and how to change it.💰 KiwiSaver & Institutional Capital: Why the money is sitting there, why it’s not flowing into VC yet, and what it will take to unlock it.🔗 The Four C’s: Capital, Capability, Culture and Connectivity — how New Zealand scores on each, and where the biggest gaps are.🏭 Deep Tech as NZ’s Edge: Why the physical world — atoms, not just bits — is New Zealand’s natural advantage, and how to lean into it.🎧 Listen On:YouTube: https://lnkd.in/gQnb_WbBSpotify: https://spoti.fi/4is21QIApple Podcasts: https://apple.co/42KZ2x1🔗 Learn more about NZVC: https://www.nzvc.co.nzMark Pavlyukovskyy — https://www.linkedin.com/in/pavlyukovskyy/Hendrik Remigereau — https://www.linkedin.com/in/hendrik-remigereau-09a03067/Timestamps:00:39 — Introductions: James Pinner & Warren Scheffler01:00 — The Five Fives: NZGCP’s bold plan for NZ startups02:58 — Warren’s story: why he moved from San Francisco to Auckland04:00 — NZ vs. Israel: the comparison that matters most05:50 — Kiwis undersell themselves to US investors07:17 — Is NZ growing fast enough? A contrarian take09:30 — The Four C’s: Capital, Capability, Culture, Connectivity10:21 — Rocket Lab’s halo effect and the startup flywheel12:18 — “We’re post-product-market-fit as an ecosystem”14:33 — The tall poppy syndrome: audience poll15:30 — “Failure is the fertilizer of success”17:00 — Great at introductions, bad at asking for help19:48 — Rocket Lab: $70B market cap, born in NZ20:30 — What sectors should NZ focus on?22:40 — What happens when NZ startups need to scale offshore?25:36 — Power by Proxy: Apple’s R&D base in Auckland26:44 — Should government fund growth capital or just seed?29:30 — The Active Investor Plus visa: where is the money going?31:00 — Political risk: the K-shaped economy and startup narrative33:00 — Can NZ handle inequality differently if the ecosystem succeeds?35:15 — One wish for the incoming government#TechMates, #NZVC, #AucklandStartupWeek, #NewZealand, #NZTech, #StartupEcosystem, #VentureCapital, #NZGCP, #JamesPinner, #WarrenScheffler, #RocketLab, #Halter, #Partly, #NZStartups, #DeepTech, #KiwiSaver, #Entrepreneurship, #TallPoppySyndrome, #StartupHub, #Innovation, #GrowthCapital, #NZVenture, #Founders, #TechInvestment, #StartupCulture

He built a viral game at 14. Now he’s creating rental millionaires and taking on U-Haul with Lockii.In this episode of TechMates, Hendrik and Mark sit down with Bodhi Hawken, founder and CEO of Lockii — and the conversation starts exactly where you'd expect: a banned school game, two terabytes of copies, and a school IT guy hitting delete while Bodhi watched. From there, Bodhi traces the path from teaching himself Unity at 14, to building a paddleboard vending machine for his uncle at 17, to coding nightclub bottle service software from the back of LA clubs at 19, to founding Lockii — a fully automated rental platform already turning side hustles into million-dollar businesses.The core thesis is simple but big: rentals are the next generation of e-commerce, and there's still no Shopify for them. Lockii is building exactly that. Whether it's mechanics garages in California scaling to 50 locations, trailer operators going from $0 to $10K revenue in two months, or floating saunas in Europe — Lockii automates the entire process so operators never touch a booking manually. One customer put it best: switching back to legacy software would save $800/month on software — and cost $30,000/month in staff.But what makes this conversation stand out is Bodhi's obsession with quality over speed. In a world where anyone can vibe-code a feature overnight, Bodhi runs 10,000 test bookings before releasing anything, tracks a "bad day" metric for every operator and every customer, and rebuilds features from scratch until they actually work. His take: taste and quality are the last real moat — and they're exactly what AI can't replicate yet.🏄 The Paddleboard Vending Machine: The accidental origin story of Lockii — and why his uncle's request to automate paddleboard rentals became the seed of something much bigger.🔑 How Lockii Actually Works: Booking, verification, IoT locks, pin codes, e-bike power cutoffs — handing a physical item to a stranger without being there.📈 The Shopify for Rentals: Why rentals are the next generation of e-commerce and how Lockii is turning one-trailer operators into million-dollar businesses.🎯 Quality as the Last Moat: Why Bodhi tests 10,000 bookings before releasing a feature — and why taste is the one thing AI still can't replace.🎧 Listen On:YouTube: https://youtu.be/Ghhpj9fekuISpotify: https://bit.ly/3TttiM7Apple Podcasts: https://bit.ly/4xTmPZgConnect with the Guest:Bodhi LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bodhi-hawken/Lockii Website: https://lockii.app🔗 Learn more about NZVC: https://www.nzvc.co.nzMark Pavlyukovskyy — https://www.linkedin.com/in/pavlyukovskyy/Hendrik Remigereau — https://www.linkedin.com/in/hendrik-remigereau-09a03067/00:00 — Intro 01:09 — The Game That Got Banned 03:19 — Learning to Code at 14 07:17 — How Lockii Started 11:51 — The Shopify for Rentals 14:15 — The Future of Rental Businesses 19:50 — Building Software for Nightclubs 24:10 — Lessons from Nightclubs 33:11 — How Bodhi Got His First Startup Job 34:54 — How Lockii Became a Business38:28 — Building a Reliable Rental Platform 42:09 — How Lockii Works 45:05 — The Hardest Things to Rent 47:50 — Why Lockii Isn't a Marketplace 49:38 — Creating Rental Millionaires 55:56 — Competing with U-Haul 1:04:18 — Why Rentals Are the Future 1:05:40 — AI, Product Quality & Founder AdviceIf this episode made you rethink what the next generation of e-commerce looks like, hit Like and Subscribe. Drop a comment — do you think rentals will replace dropshipping as the go-to side hustle?#TechMates, #Lockii, #RentalEconomy, #Shopify, #StartupFounder, #SideHustle, #Entrepreneurship, #ECommerce, #NZVC, #NZTech, #AutomatedRentals, #SharingEconomy, #Airbnb, #StartupGrowth, #PhysicalWorld, #AIInBusiness, #ProductQuality, #Founders, #NewZealand, #SoftwareStartup, #RentalBusiness, #TechPodcast, #BuildInPublic, #FutureOfWork, #UHaul

Jamie Beaton couldn't legally sit on his own board at 17, but built Crimson into a global education empire — and is now taking on Big Law with an AI visa startup, teaching a unicorn-building course at Auckland University, and quietly betting on the next generation of founders.In this episode of TechMates, Hendrik and Mark sit down with Jamie Beaton, founder and CEO of Crimson Education, for a second time — and this time the conversation goes deeper. Since they last spoke, Jamie launched an AI-native immigration law startup called Concord Visa, opened New Zealand's largest charter school, and is now teaching a unicorn-building course at the University of Auckland with Peter Beck as a guest lecturer.🎓 The West Is Losing the Education War: Why India and China's obsession with academic intensity is quietly winning the global talent race — and what New Zealand should do about it.⚖️ Concord Visa: How Jamie built an AI-native immigration law platform that's already serving Halter, Partly, A16Z and Blackbird — and why Trump accidentally made it take off.🏫 Fixing NZ Education: Jamie's three-step policy blueprint — replace the national curriculum with A levels, get University of Auckland into the top 25, and give students loans to study abroad if they come back.💼 The Founder Skill Set: Why a generalist founder mentality beats a single degree — and what the top 20 people on Meta's AI team have in common.🗳️ 2028 Hot Take: Why Jamie thinks AOC might be the next Democratic presidential candidate — and what AI angst has to do with it.YouTube: https://lnkd.in/gQnb_WbBSpotify: https://spoti.fi/4is21QIApple Podcasts: https://apple.co/42KZ2x1Jamie Beaton LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamie-beaton/🔗 Learn more about NZVC: https://www.nzvc.co.nzMark Pavlyukovskyy — https://www.linkedin.com/in/pavlyukovskyy/Hendrik Remigereau — https://www.linkedin.com/in/hendrik-remigereau-09a03067/00:01 — Welcome back: married life, India tour & what's changed since last time01:16 — Julian Robertson, Tiger Management & the mentor who shaped Crimson's ambition04:14 — Why Jamie's mum had to sit on his board at 1704:44 — The first board meeting and the moment he knew the race had started06:27 — Investor relations: why long-term capital is Crimson's secret weapon08:09 — The India tour: 5 cities, 3 days, 4 Subways and hundreds of families10:44 — Is the West losing the global education war to China and India?14:57 — "For every weed-smoking Steve Jobs, there's a million Call of Duty players"15:29 — The founder skill set: why generalists beat specialists in the AI era17:20 — Why Jamie seriously considered running for National — and what stopped him19:21 — Policy blueprint: A levels, University of Auckland top 25, and student loans abroad23:54 — Concord Visa: building an AI-native immigration law platform26:57 — Did Trump make Concord Visa's business explode?28:25 — Where else AI will demolish traditional law firms30:29 — The bigger Crimson vision: from age 5 to first startup investment33:57 — How Crimson is different from Andela — and why education is still the core35:01 — The Forbes column on AI and intersectional thinking vs. deep expertise38:21 — What should parents actually teach their kids in the age of AI?41:51 — Why human tutors still beat AI for young learners47:46 — Why writing still matters — and what we lose if kids stop doing it49:00 — Are we heading toward an AI-controlled dystopia?51:20 — AOC vs. JD Vance 2028: Jamie's hot political take53:20 — How to restore faith in technology and entrepreneurship54:45 — Will anti-AI politics kill New Zealand's startup ecosystem?#TechMates, #JamieBeaton, #CrimsonEducation, #ConcordVisa, #NewZealand, #EdTech, #AIEducation, #Startups, #NZTech, #NZVC, #Entrepreneurship, #FutureOfEducation, #AITutor, #ImmigrationLaw, #FounderMindset, #Stanford, #HarvardAdmissions, #NZStartups, #AILaw, #GlobalTalent, #Education

How the right brand decision can double your revenue overnight, and how skipping it can quietly kill a good product.In this special compilation episode of TechMates, Hendrik and Mark bring together three conversations with one common thread: brand as a real growth lever, not a nice-to-have. No fluffy logo talk — just the mechanics of how brand decisions drive revenue, unlock new markets, and build the kind of cult following that clears shelves overnight.First up is Simon Pound, one of New Zealand's most respected brand strategists, who walks through the Appetize rebrand in detail — how a $4/week menu app called Menu Aid transformed into a B2B food data platform, and why a single strategic name change led to a 20% overnight user bump and quadrupled revenue over the following years. Then Toby, co-founder of Appetize, shares what that rebrand actually did for the business from the inside — and makes the case for why the food brands winning right now aren't the ones with 400 SKUs, but the ones building deeply loyal, hyper-targeted communities like Moody and Poppy.Finally, Anna Henwood, co-founder of StickyBeak, closes it out with the practical counterpart to all of it: how do you actually know if your brand decisions will land before you spend the budget? From testing brand names to logos to ad creative with real audiences in 48 hours, Anna's framework — test the ingredients, not the cake — is the clearest branding advice in the episode.🎨 Brand as a Growth Platform: How the Appetize rebrand unlocked a new business model, a 20% overnight user uplift, and 4x revenue growth — all from one strategic name change.🍔 The Food Brand of the Future: Why cult-following brands like Moody and Poppy are beating legacy players with 400 products — and what founders can learn from their playbook.📊 Test Before You Commit: Anna Henwood's "test the ingredients, not the cake" framework for de-risking every brand decision before you spend the media budget.🧪 How StickyBeak Works: From brand name testing to ad creative to product formats — get real customer feedback from any market in the world within 48 hours.💡 Why Most Startups Skip Branding Too Long: Simon Pound on the hidden cost of founders who build great products but leave their brand untouched for years.🔗 Learn more about NZVC: https://www.nzvc.co.nzMark Pavlyukovskyy — https://www.linkedin.com/in/pavlyukovskyy/Hendrik Remigereau — https://www.linkedin.com/in/hendrik-remigereau-09a03067/Timestamps:00:37 — Intro: brand as a growth lever, not a logo exercise01:02 — Simon Pound: how the Appetize rebrand actually happened01:16 — Menu Aid to Appetize: the strategy behind the name change04:24 — 20% overnight user bump and 4x revenue — the results05:14 — Why being an investor made Simon's advice land differently05:58 — Intro to Toby: the rebrand from the inside06:21 — How smart brand positioning doubled sales in a month08:15 — The food brand of the future: cult following over product range09:19 — Moody & Poppy: the brands everyone is watching right now11:19 — Intro to Anna Henwood: test before you commit11:42 — "Test the ingredients, not the cake" — Anna's core framework13:00 — How bad creative quietly kills your ad account algorithm14:00 — Testing brand names, logos, and messaging before launch15:30 — How StickyBeak works: results from any market in 48 hoursIf this episode changed how you think about brand decisions, hit Like and Subscribe for more founder-focused conversations. Drop a comment — has a rebrand ever changed the trajectory of a business you've been part of?#TechMates, #Branding, #StartupGrowth, #Appetize, #StickyBeak, #SimonPound, #AnnaHenwood, #NZTech, #NZVC, #BrandStrategy, #StartupMarketing, #FoodBrands, #CultBrand, #Rebranding, #GrowthMarketing, #NewZealand, #Entrepreneurship, #MarketResearch, #ProductMarketFit, #NZStartups, #ConsumerBrands, #Founders, #MarketingStrategy, #Moody, #Poppy

Wayne Brown: blunt engineer, Auckland mayor, and the man on a mission to make NZ the South Pacific's startup capital.In this episode of TechMates, Hendrik and Mark sit down with Wayne Brown, Mayor of Auckland — and he's not your typical politician. A trained engineer who put half a million of his own money into a mayoral campaign, won by a landslide, and then won again even bigger, Brown has spent four years doing something almost unheard of in politics: actually fixing things. From stepping in to restore Auckland's power after a catastrophic grid failure in 1998, to overhauling the city's flood preparedness after a storm that caught everyone off guard, his approach is the same every time — go back to first principles, find the engineers, ignore the lawyers.But this conversation is really about what's coming next. Brown is halfway through an audacious campaign — 100 days, 100 startup T-shirts, 100 short videos — designed to put Auckland's startup ecosystem on the global map ahead of Auckland Startup Week. He's seen the full bell curve up close: the dogs, the future billionaires, and everything in between. His view is simple: Auckland already has the next 25 Halters and Rocket Labs hiding in plain sight. The world just hasn't noticed yet — mostly because New Zealand keeps ending up cut off the bottom of flat world maps.His pitch to founders is as unfiltered as everything else he says: Auckland is safe, cheap, well-connected to Asia, and rich enough to enjoy once you've made it. Silicon Valley is a shithole. Wellington is the worst thing about Auckland. And plastic in the ocean is a bigger threat to humanity than climate change. Whether you agree with him or not, you won't forget what he said.🏙️ Auckland as a Startup Hub: Why Brown believes Auckland is quietly home to the next generation of global breakout companies — and what it's missing to make that undeniable.👕 100 Days of Startups: The story behind the T-shirt campaign — what he's seen, what surprised him, and which ones he'd actually put his own money into.🌏 Auckland's Geographic Edge: Why the shortest route between Asia and South America runs through Auckland — and why the world is only just waking up to it.🔗 Learn more about NZVC: https://www.nzvc.co.nzMark Pavlyukovskyy — https://www.linkedin.com/in/pavlyukovskyy/Hendrik Remigereau — https://www.linkedin.com/in/hendrik-remigereau-09a03067/Timestamps:00:00 — The 100 T-Shirt Startup Campaign02:18 — Fixing Auckland's Power Grid in 14 Days03:20 — Why Lawyers on Boards Kill Cities06:25 — The Night of the Flood07:57 — Media Attacks & Taking the Long View11:00 — Engineers vs. Politicians11:17 — Why Brown Ran for Mayor13:18 — The 100 Days of Startups Explained14:12 — Auckland's Innovation Gap17:12 — Who Picks the T-Shirt Each Morning?19:37 — Plastic Is More Dangerous Than Climate Change22:27 — The China Trade Mission23:50 — Auckland as the South Pacific Startup Capital25:26 — The Value Prop for Early-Stage Founders26:52 — Wellington Is Auckland's Biggest Problem29:32 — Auckland's Hidden Geographic Superpower30:11 — What Auckland Can Be World-Class At32:02 — China, America & NZ's Foreign Policy34:43 — The Bell Curve of 100 Startups36:47 — AI: China Builds Things, America Makes Trivia38:43 — Advice for a 24-Year-Old Founder40:39 — The Pitch for Auckland Startup Week#TechMates, #WayneBrown, #Auckland, #AucklandStartupWeek, #NewZealand, #StartupHub, #NZTech, #Entrepreneurship, #NZVC, #Founders, #StartupEcosystem, #DeepTech, #RocketLab, #Halter, #NZStartups, #Innovation, #Mayor, #SiliconValley, #AsiaPacific, #SeaCleaners, #NZBusiness, #TechWeek, #StartupAdvice, #CityOfSails, #GlobalStartups

Four founders, one uncomfortable question: what happens to learning — in school, university, and work — once AI can teach better than most humans?This episode of TechMates brings together four conversations around a single theme: technology is quietly rewriting what it means to learn, at every stage of life. It opens with Arash Tayebi of Kara Technologies, whose personal hearing loss led him to build AI avatars that translate content into sign language in real time — closing an accessibility gap that's existed for decades.From there, the episode widens out. Penelope Barton of Crimson Global Academy has already built her own son a personalized AI tutor at home, and predicts AI-driven teachers are only three to five years from the mainstream classroom. Jamie Beaton of Crimson Education takes the idea further up the ladder, imagining AI avatars standing in for Ivy League professors — and shares what OpenAI's chief economist told him personally about AI and the future of jobs. Finn Puklowski of Fluency Academy closes the loop by bringing it into the workplace: he built an internal AI curriculum for his entire company, warning that whole industries risk their own "rust belt moment" if they don't adapt.Together, these conversations sketch a picture of education not as a single institution, but as something that now follows you from childhood through your career — reshaped, at every step, by AI.🧏 How AI avatars are giving deaf communities real-time access to education and content🤖 Why one founder believes AI-driven teachers are only 3–5 years away🎓 What it would mean for AI avatars to replace elite university professors💼 Inside one company's internal AI curriculum — 165 projects, 40 shipped to production📉 The "rust belt" warning for entire industries that ignore AI in the workplace🔮 What OpenAI's chief economist said about AI and the future of jobs👨‍👩‍👦 Building a personalized AI tutor for your own child — today, not someday🎧 Listen On:YouTube: https://lnkd.in/gQnb_WbBSpotify: https://bit.ly/4earYWcApple Podcasts: https://apple.co/42KZ2x1Connect with the Guests:Arash Tayebi (Kara Technologies) — Kara Technologies: https://www.linkedin.com/company/kara-technologies-ltd | Website: https://kara.techPene Barton (Crimson Global Academy) — LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/penelopebarton/ | Website: https://www.crimsonglobalacademy.schoolJamie Beaton (Crimson Education) — LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamiebeaton/ | Website: https://www.crimsoneducation.orgFinn Puklowski (Fluency Academy) — LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finn-puklowski/ | Website: https://www.fluencyacademy.io🔗 Learn more about NZVC: https://www.nzvc.co.nzMark Pavlyukovskyy — https://www.linkedin.com/in/pavlyukovskyy/Hendrik Remigereau — https://www.linkedin.com/in/hendrik-remigereau-09a03067/Timestamps:00:00 — Introduction0:58 — Arash Tayebi (Kara Technologies): AI avatars for sign language accessibility2:36 — Why this problem is invisible to most people4:21 — Demo: narrating a children's book in sign language6:05 — Pene Barton (Crimson Global Academy): the case for a personal AI tutor7:25 — Does AI remove the need for school?8:19 — Why AI-driven teachers are 3–5 years away10:14 — Jamie Beaton (Crimson Education): could AI replace elite professors?12:03 — Will AI wipe out white collar jobs?13:24 — Finn Puklowski (Fluency Academy): building an AI curriculum at work14:57 — 165 projects, 40 shipped to production15:42 — The "Rust Belt" warning for companies ignoring AI#TechMates, #ArashTayebi, #PeneBarton, #JamieBeaton, #FinnPuklowski, #KaraTechnologies, #CrimsonEducation, #CrimsonGlobalAcademy, #FluencyAcademy, #EdTech, #FutureOfLearning, #AIinEducation, #AITeachers, #Accessibility, #SignLanguage, #NZVC, #KiwiFounders, #StartupPodcast, #AIandJobs, #FutureOfWork, #OnlineSchool, #Entrepreneurship, #DeepTech, #Innovation

Zenno's CEO just made history — first superconductor ever run in space. And he thinks a war in orbit is now "highly likely." 🧲🚀Max Arshavsky is the Co-Founder and CEO of Zenno Astronautics, the company building the world's first superconducting technology platform for space. Since launching from New Zealand in 2018, Zenno has gone from a $100K university challenge win to landing government contracts with Germany's SPRINT program and Japan's Mitsubishi Electric, and just this year became the first company in history to successfully operate a superconducting product in orbit. Max joins Hendrik and Mark to catch up a year after their first conversation — and a lot has changed.This episode dives deep into the physics and geopolitics of the new space race: why energy is the resource that will define who dominates space, why Max believes a war in space is now "highly likely," and why rocketry — once the hardest problem in the industry — is now the easy part. Max breaks down the economics of intercepting missiles from orbit, why data centers might really be headed to space within years, and how his own company's magnets could one day replace rockets entirely with mass drivers on the Moon.Along the way, Max explains why he relocated Zenno's US presence to Los Angeles's "entrepreneur paradise" near SpaceX and Impulse Space, why he thinks self-replicating robots — not humans — will colonize Mars, and why he's convinced the Moon will belong to somebody sooner than most people think. It's a conversation about magnets, geopolitics, and what it actually takes to build hardware for a place with no room for failure.🧲 The world's first superconductor in space — how Zenno's Z01 SuperTorquer works and why it could end satellites' dependence on fuel🚀 Why Max believes rocketry is a solved problem and the real challenge now is what happens once you're in orbit⚔️ The blunt economics of space warfare — why cheap, high-volume interceptors beat expensive one-shot systems🌍 Why Max moved Zenno's US operations to Los Angeles, and what makes it the "epicenter" of the new space economy🔋 The case for data centers and energy infrastructure in space — and how close we really are🌕 Mass drivers, magnetic launch systems, and a future where the Moon replaces rockets for shipping cargo to Earth🤖 Why Max thinks self-replicating machines, not humans, will be the ones to colonize Mars🎧 Listen On:YouTube: https://lnkd.in/gQnb_WbBSpotify: https://bit.ly/4earYWcApple Podcasts: https://apple.co/42KZ2x1Connect with the Guest:Max Arshavsky LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/max-arshavsky/Zenno Astronautics Website: https://www.zenno.space🔗 Learn more about NZVC: https://www.nzvc.co.nzMark Pavlyukovskyy — https://www.linkedin.com/in/pavlyukovskyy/Hendrik Remigereau — https://www.linkedin.com/in/hendrik-remigereau-09a03067/Timestamps:00:00 — Calling from LA01:09 — Why LA is deep tech's epicenter02:05 — SpaceX's IPO03:33 — Space is only going up04:41 — Data centers in space07:13 — Zenno: space superconductors08:35 — German & Japan contracts10:56 — America's 10x orbit push12:13 — Is Rocket Lab overvalued?15:14 — Star Wars and lasers17:44 — What starts a space war20:21 — Cheap interceptors win26:27 — Mass drivers explained30:17 — How Zenno builds products33:33 — AI speeds up the algorithms36:08 — Self-replicating machines38:57 — Why Max moved to LA41:20 — National security drives space race44:00 — Who owns the Moon?48:13 — Books that inspired Max49:44 — Rapid fire round#TechMates, #MaxArshavsky, #ZennoAstronautics, #SpaceTech, #Superconductors, #SpaceRace, #DeepTech, #Aerospace, #SatelliteTechnology, #SpaceX, #RocketLab, #NewZealandTech, #StartupFounder, #SpaceEconomy, #DefenseTech, #SpaceInnovation, #FutureOfSpace, #TechFounders, #VentureCapital, #NZVC, #SpaceIndustry, #Engineering, #Podcast, #TechPodcast, #SpaceExploration, #Innovation

Stefan Powell scaled a New Zealand space company to eight-figure revenue — quietly dominating 82% of a satellite propulsion market, flying a space plane 64 times, and closing a $25M Series B — all before most of the world even knew Dawn Aerospace existed.In this episode of TechMates, Hendrik and Mark sit back down with Stefan Powell, CEO and co-founder of Dawn Aerospace — and this time, the conversation hits different. NZVC has officially joined Dawn's $25M Series B as investors, making this more than just a podcast catch-up: it's a front-row seat into a company they now have skin in the game on. Dawn builds both the propulsion systems powering hundreds of satellites in orbit and Aurora, a space plane already breaking aircraft performance records — and after a year of massive momentum, there's a lot to unpack.Dawn has grown to over 200 propulsion systems on 50 satellites, with 52 of 63 nitrous bipropellant systems in orbit belonging to Dawn. The next unlock: in-space refueling by 2028, with defense customers already lined up. Stefan explains why refuelable satellites are becoming a non-negotiable strategic capability — and how Dawn's bottom-up approach was the only credible path to getting there.Most striking is the business underneath the rockets. Dawn hit cash flow positive before its Series B — generating more real revenue than VC funding across its entire life. Too much capital keeps companies on bad ideas for too long, Stefan argues, pointing to Relativity Space as a cautionary tale.🛰️ In-Space Refueling by 2028: How Dawn solved the chicken-and-egg problem every other refueling startup got wrong.✈️ Aurora Space Plane: 64 flights in, already the highest-flying and fastest aircraft ever built off a runway — at $50K per flight.💰 More Revenue Than VC Ever Raised: How Dawn reached cash flow positive before its Series B and why Stefan wants to keep it that way.🌍 Europe's $35B Space Awakening: Why NATO allies are urgently building sovereign space capabilities — and Dawn is already supplying them.🚀 SpaceX IPO: What the largest IPO in history means for the rest of the space industry and how it affects Dawn's trajectory.Stefan Powell LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/spowell111/Dawn Aerospace Website: https://www.dawn.aero https://www.nzvc.co.nzMark Pavlyukovskyy — https://www.linkedin.com/in/pavlyukovskyy/Hendrik Remigereau — https://www.linkedin.com/in/hendrik-remigereau-09a03067/Timestamps:00:00 — Building Dawn while the world wasn't watching: the update from a year later04:11 — Aurora finds product-market fit it never set out to find04:46 — The $25M Series B: what it unlocks and why now05:11 — 52 of 63 nitrous systems in orbit are Dawn's — market domination explained08:11 — In-space refueling: targeting 2028 and why defense is the first customer10:19 — The satellite arms race: bodyguard satellites, adversary maneuvers & deterrence11:04 — Solving the chicken-and-egg problem of refueling infrastructure14:56 — Why other thruster companies never made it to propulsion systems17:49 — Aurora's 64 flights and the upgrade to 100km altitude21:45 — "Rocket performance, fleet economics" — why that changes everything22:26 — How Aurora replaces a $10M missile test with a $50K flight25:45 — DARTY mission: helping the New Zealand Navy train for missile warfare28:45 — Aurora vs. hypersonic threats and the limits of missile defense30:05 — The Oklahoma Spaceport deal and 100 flights a year from Infinity One32:09 — SpaceX IPO: what the largest IPO in history means for the space industry33:34 — What SpaceX gets wrong (and the XAI merger debate)36:56 — Why Europe is spending $35B on space — and why Starlink dependency is a risk40:18 — Will Dawn ever be bigger than SpaceX? Stefan's honest answer41:30 — Elon, Peter Beck, and what great space CEOs have in common42:45 — More customer revenue than VC raised: why Stefan wants to keep it that way