Diaspora.nz
Around 20% of New Zealanders live outside of New Zealand. This is our “Diaspora” — and it’s one of the world’s largest, per capita. Not only is it large, it's insanely talented… early in their lives and careers, many of New Zealand’s most ambitious individuals realise— if they want to make a dent in the universe, they need to get out there… to study abroad, get the experience, build relationships to help them win on a global stage. Today, those estimated ~1M expats include some of our finest talent. They are founders, top operators/execs at industry leading companies. They are scientist...
S3 | E8 – Adrian Macneil (Co-Founder & CEO at Foxglove) on Developer Tools for Robotics, and Why Ambitious Kiwis Need to Go — and Come Back Smarter
Episode Summary
Adrian Macneil grew up packing kiwifruit in rural New Zealand, now he’s building the core infrastructure powering the future of robotics. After leading engineering teams at Cruise and Coinbase, Adrian co-founded Foxglove, a developer platform used by robotics companies worldwide, from autonomous tractors to warehouse bots.
In this episode, Adrian shares how Foxglove emerged from an internal Cruise demo, why robotics is finally having its “PC moment,” and what it really takes to build a startup that lasts. We cover:
• How Cruise helped pioneer self-driving cars (and what went wrong post-acq...
S3 | E7 - Xavier Collins (CEO at Wonder) on AI’s creative revolution, building thriving marketplaces, and reshaping the film industry
Episode Summary
Xavier Collins, London-born and New Zealand-raised, is no stranger to building marketplaces that scale. After early days at Uber, Xavier joined Nexus Notes before launching Deliveroo into dozens of UK cities and spearheading Turo’s growth across Europe. Now he’s applying his marketplace magic to the film industry with Wonder, an AI-native creative studio backed by Blackbird, LocalGlobe, and a host of world-class angels.
In today’s episode, Xavier takes us deep into the creative frontier of AI and storytelling, exploring how technology can unlock new levels of creativity, reshape entertainment financing, and gi...
S3 | E6 - Anton Jackson Smith (b.next) on building synthetic cells, programmable biology, and the future of biotech
Episode Summary
Anton Jackson Smith is a synthetic biologist, Stanford PhD, and founder of b.next—a startup building synthetic cells from scratch to make biology truly programmable. Think of it as rewriting life’s codebase, with applications ranging from cancer treatments and diagnostics to lab-grown foods and smart crops.
In today’s episode, Anton breaks down what synthetic cells actually are (and why they matter), how his open-source platform Nucleus is changing the way biology is engineered, and why the future of medicine, agriculture, and climate tech might be written in DNA.
We als...
S3 | E5 - From Law School to Leading the Future of Creator Platforms: How Georgia Rippin (Kold Open) Is Building the Next Wave of Mid-Form Video, and Sneaking Into Hollywood
Episode Summary
Growing up in Wellington, New Zealand, with parents in the police force and government, a career in film and TV wasn’t exactly on the radar for Georgia Rippin. But after studying law and Māori at Vic, she made a bold leap to New York, armed with only a suitcase, a dream, and a few blocks of Whittaker’s chocolate that she used to slip into mailrooms of the biggest studios on the planet. That scrappiness paid off: Georgia wound up producing mid-form shows (those 10- to 20-minute episodic pieces that can eventually scale into...
S3 | E4 - Bowen Pan (Common Room) on launching Facebook Marketplace, spotting hidden opportunities, and mastering the art of product
Episode Summary
Bowen Pan’s career is a playbook on turning hidden opportunities into global products. Currently the VP of Product at Common Room (a $52M Series B startup backed by Greylock and Index Ventures), Bowen previously shaped major products at Facebook and Stripe. At Facebook, he discovered latent buying and selling behaviour buried in groups, leading to the creation of Facebook Marketplace, now serving over 500 million people worldwide. Later, at Stripe, Bowen built their apps platform, creating an ecosystem empowering small businesses around the globe.
Bowen’s product philosophy hinges on ruthless curiosity, finding unde...
S3 | E3 - Joel Little (Grammy-winning producer) on making Royals with Lorde, creative collaboration, and why startups are like hit songs
Episode Summary
Joel Little is one of the world's top music producers, quietly shaping global hits behind the scenes - from co-writing Lorde’s breakthrough "Royals" to producing massive tracks for artists like Taylor Swift, Imagine Dragons, and Khalid. Despite Grammys, multi-platinum records, and billions of streams, Joel remains remarkably down-to-earth, bringing a uniquely Kiwi sensibility to Hollywood and beyond.
In this special live episode, Joel flips roles with early Trade Me engineer and investor Rowan Simpson, uncovering the striking similarities between creating hit songs and building startups. They dive into the art of discovering an...
S3 | E2 - Kathryn Zealand (Skip) on robotic exoskeletons, mobility for life, and spinning out of Google X
Episode Summary
Kathryn Zealand founded Skip to help people stay active and independent through aging and injury, inspired by her grandmother’s painful fall and the inadequate technology available at the time. Skip's flagship product, the MoGo, is an innovative, lightweight robotic exoskeleton that acts like an e-bike for walking, offering just the right amount of assistance, whether hiking up mountains or standing from a chair.
Kathryn brings her unique perspective as a physicist-turned-founder and former project lead at Google X, Alphabet’s moonshot factory, where she learned the art of rapid prototyping and building brea...
S3 | E1 - Jamie Beaton (Crimson Education) on scaling a global education empire, the future of universities, and AI’s role in learning
Episode Summary
When Jamie Beaton co-founded Crimson Education, his goal was simple: help ambitious students get into the world’s best universities. Fast forward ten years, Crimson has 800+ staff, global offices, and a suite of education platforms spanning admissions coaching, an international online high school, and AI-powered study tools.
Jamie’s personal journey is just as remarkable—Harvard undergrad, four master's degrees, a JD from Yale, a PhD from Oxford, a Rhodes Scholar. His expertise? Elite admissions, scaling global businesses, and the changing economics of education.
In today’s episode, we cover:
• Why...
S2 | E13 — Rhys Darby and Rosie Carnahan-Darby on championing Kiwi humour around the world, Tall Poppy syndrome, losing creative jobs to AI, and "going direct" with your fans to survive social media.
Listen/subscribe on
* Apple podcasts
* Spotify
He’s been Murray Hewitt, Psycho Sam, Norman from Yes Man, Guy Mann, Hypno-Potamus, a stand-up comedian, a sit-down band manager, a children’s book author, a soldier… and now Binkle-bonk the Tree Goblin in upcoming “Badjelly the Witch” 🤩
In this week’s Diaspora pod, legendary Kiwi comedian Rhys Darby joins us - live from L.A - to talk through his rise from Canterbury to Edinburgh to Hollywood in a career that’s seen him star in multiple comedy specials, voice over countless animated shows and co-star w...
S2 | E12 — Zak Holdsworth (Founder & CEO at Hint Health) on minimising waste in US healthcare payments, considering private equity vs. VC as a founder, Stanford GSB as a gateway to Silicon
Listen/Subscribe on:
* Apple Podcasts
* Spotify
Hint Health co-founder and CEO Zak Holdsworth retains a strong Kiwi accent - after all, he grew up on a farm near Gisborne. It was no ordinary farm, however, as Zak tells us.
Considering his mother was a diplomat and his father an inventor and pioneer of pultrusion, Zak developed a taste for innovation in the wider world, and eventually headed off to Stanford Graduate School of Business to achieve his MBA. Zak worked briefly as a VC prior to joining the founding team ofWellnessFX...
S2 | E11 — Clint Van Marrewijk (Zelandez, SaferMe) ‘drills down’ on mining South American lithium to drive us into the future and how his safety software company pivoted to enjoy massive growth.
Listen/subscribe on:
* Apple Podcasts
* Spotify
Clint Van Marrewijk (pronounced Marra-vick) is director and co-founder of Zelandez, a leading lithium brine technology company building cutting edge sensors and production plants for lithium brine mining operations in the ‘Lithium Triangle’ of Bolivia, Chile and Argentina, as well as the USA and Canada. It’s a long way from the Waihi dairy farm on which he grew up before undertaking a mechanical engineering degree then moving to Colorado and setting up a Kiwisaver scheme.
If you don’t know why people get so e...
S2 | E10 - Dr. Zachary Tan (Optain Health, Aegis Ventures) on navigating the U.S. healthcare system as a founder investor, venture studios, and why the eye is the key to preventative medicine.
Listen/subscribe on:
* Apple Podcasts
* Spotify
When Zachary Tan - actually, Doctor Zachary Tan - became president of Optain Health, the role combined three lifelong passions: treating patients, running future-focused tech businesses, and taking exciting risks with venture capital in one of the world’s most important areas: the health of human beings.
Zach’s career has gone from strength to strength. He was in 2022 recognized by Forbes as 30 Under 30 for Healthcare & Science, before going on to be elected as a director of The Fred Hollows Foundation in the US.
In...
S2 | E9 — Cameron Priest (Tradegecko, AMP, Neu Ventures) on scaling global SaaS businesses, the journey to a $100M acquisition by Intuit, what's next for AI + vertical SaaS
Cameron Priest is the co-founder and former CEO of TradeGecko, an inventory and order management platform for e-commerce businesses that was acquired by Intuit in 2020 for around $100M. He’s now building AMP, a company that acquires, rolls up, and scales Shopify apps - and incubating new ventures at the intersection of AI and vertical SaaS.
In today's episode, we discuss:
* Cam’s journey from an NZ kiwifruit orchard to founding Trade Gecko, how they landed in Singapore.
* Scaling a B2B product, including specific growth tools, frameworks they used along the way - so...
S2 | E8 — Ryan Everton (Founder and CEO at TURN) on solving single use plastics at the world's largest events + fast food chains; raising from Ashton Kutcher & Live Nation; building with purpose.
Ryan Everton is the founder and CEO at TURN, a San Francisco headquartered company pioneering reusable cup solutions for major events and fast-food chains.
From growing up on a farm and selling meat pies at boarding school during the tuck shop prohibition — to tackling global plastic waste, building infrastructure to wash a million cups at a time (literally) … Ryan's journey embodies Kiwi ingenuity and entrepreneurial spirit.
In this episode, we explore:
* TURN's origins as “Globelet” .. and ideation journey through the Otago University “Audacious” business competition.
* The journey from landing his first festival cust...
S2 | E7 — Min-Kyu Jung (Co-founder & CEO at Ivo) on creating AI-powered legal assistants; the journey from NZ corporate law to leading a hot Silicon Valley startup & why others should move there too.
Min-Kyu Jung is the CEO and co-founder at Ivo, an AI contract law assistant for legal teams, which has raised $6.2 million in funding total from investors including Uncork Capital, Fika Ventures, GD1, Phase One, and Daniel Gross.
Min-Kyu got the idea for Ivo (previously Latch) while working as a corporate lawyer in New Zealand, when he saw how much time, effort and money were spent drawing up agreements. His entrepreneurial streak got the better of him — drawn to what he saw as “low-hanging fruit”, under-optimised processes around him in the legal profession, he taught himself how to code in...
S2 | E6 — Rachel Carrell (Co-founder & CEO at Koru Kids) on building Europe's largest childcare platform, the joy of working on hard problems, having a baby during her Series A fundraise!
Rachel Carrell is the founder & CEO of KoruKids, Europe’s largest childcare platform— training, matching, and providing ongoing support to over 10,000 nannies across London.
Rachel is one of the special ones. Driven to found the company by what she describes as a righteous anger over how childcare has been disrespected as infrastructure in society… Today, Koru Kids takes care of taxes, payroll, pension, holiday, nanny communications, activity ideas and a dozen other things that can come up when you’re dealing with nannies… bringing down the cost for families, and helping kids have more engaging, enriching experiences.
Joine...
S2 | E5 — Campbell Brown (Co-founder & CEO at PredictHQ) on helping the world's biggest brands predict demand; launching, scaling, and raising in the U.S.
Campbell Brown is Founder & CEO at PredictHQ, based in San Francisco.
PredictHQ help customers understand the catalysts behind any form of consumer demand, with a particular emphasis on real-world events. Today, they provide this “Demand Intelligence” to a who’s who of global brands, airlines, and marketplaces like Uber and Airbnb, helping them optimise supply and pricing whether they’re facing an anomalous weather event or Taylor Swift concert.
Before founding PredictHQ, Campbell was part of the early team at GrabOne, where he saw first hand how sudden volatility in demand could affect business operations (for bett...
S2 | E4 — Privahini Bradoo (Co-founder of Plank, BlueOak) on turning Kiwi ingenuity into deep tech success, engineering with AI, and identifying “force of nature” talent in NZ.
Privahini Bradoo is the co-founder and CEO at Plank — helping companies build and scale AI-enabled engineering teams + training the next generation of computer scientists.
Born in India, Privahini immigrated to NZ in her school years. Her time with us down-under was impactful… while pursuing a degree in Biomedical Science, then PhD in Neurogenetics and Drug Discovery at the University of Auckland, she also led the establishment of the Spark business competition (now Velocity); and co-founded Chiasma, an organisation dedicated to linking the biotech academic community with industry.
Drawn back off-shore in 2006, Privahini landed a Fulbright schol...
S2 | E3 — Paul Copplestone (Co-founder & CEO at Supabase) on why open source is an unfair advantage; raising $116M to build the tech stack for AI startups/indie developers; living in Southeast Asia.
Paul Copplestone is the co-founder and CEO at Supabase, the “open source Firebase alternative for building web and mobile apps.” If you were wondering what that means or why you should prioritise a listen— in Paul’s words: “if you’re going to build your next startup, you’d probably choose us … and we’ll provide all the tools you need to get started: a Postgres database, authentication system, file storage… the works.”
Today, Supabase is prolific. One of the most commonly called out products by makers on Product Hunt; one of the most redeemed Y Combinator “perks” with nearly a thi...
S2 | E2 — Victoria Ransom (Co-founder of Prisma, Wildfire) on her journey to a $450M acquisition by Google, reinventing school at Prisma & what's next for education.
Victoria Ransom is the Founder of Prisma — a cohort-based online school: “preparing 4-12th graders for a rapidly changing future, with an accredited, project-based virtual program where kids build real community.”
Raised on an asparagus farm near Bulls — Victoria’s journey over the past few decades is a truly inspiring one... she founded and led Wildfire, a social media marketing platform which rose to prominence helping brands build their presence on Facebook, before being acquired by Google for $450M in 2012; was honoured by President Obama as a “Champion of Change” for her accomplishments as an immigrant entrepreneur and innovator, pi...
S2 | E1 — Hamish McKenzie (Co-founder and Chief Writing Officer at Substack), on the Future of Media, Navigating the Culture Wars, and Empowering Creators.
Hamish McKenzie is the co-founder and Chief Writing Officer at Substack.
Substack is building a “new economic engine for culture” — enabling writers, podcasters, and now video creators to publish and monetise their content directly through subscriptions. Today, newsletter creators on Substack have over 35 million active subscriptions, including 3 million+ to paid content. The Company has gone from strength to strength, reaching near “verb” status synonymous with online newsletters— and most recently raised capital at a $650M valuation.
Before Substack, Hamish was Lead Writer at Tesla — going on to author “Insane Mode: How Elon Musk's Tesla Sparked an Electric Revolu...
S1 | E5 — Thomas Harding — Co-founder & CEO of Mish Guru on the future of Snapchat and Building a Remote Team
Today we catch up with Tom Harding, Founder and CEO of Mish Guru, the startup leading the charge in helping brands effectively develop, monitor and monetise content through Snapchat’s platform. Before empower brands to tell better stories through Snapchat, Tom was co-founder of Sitesorted and has been involved in the Lightning lab incubator back in New Zealand after a dual degree in engineering at Canterbury.
In this episode David and Tom chat about what they’re watching in growing their business, a deep dive on building successful remote teams and doing business as a Kiwi in New...
