WFLS Podcast

WFLS Podcast A podcast about the heroes of the NZ tech Startup community. We F* Love Startups

Why is back and wants more leaders who are in the tech. Ben Gracewood is one of those rare tech leaders who’s done the ...
20/05/2025

Why is back and wants more leaders who are in the tech.

Ben Gracewood is one of those rare tech leaders who’s done the whole arc, starting in low-level code, scaling product and engineering teams at Vend through to a $450 million exit, and now leading in a world where AI is rewriting the playbook.

With a deep background in software development and executive leadership, Ben has built teams, shaped product strategy, and helped grow one of New Zealand’s most successful SaaS companies.

But he’s not stuck in nostalgia.

Today, he’s laser-focused on what comes next and he’s convinced that we can now do more with fewer people.

This podcast was brought to you by our amazing sponsor in ⁠Vanta⁠ 🙌🏻

Get USD $1000 off Vanta using the link in our bio

Understanding AI GTM strategy with 🚀For nearly two decades, Heather has worked across strategy, operations, product mar...
19/05/2025

Understanding AI GTM strategy with 🚀

For nearly two decades, Heather has worked across strategy, operations, product marketing, sales, and executive go-to-market roles in 𝗦𝗶𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗼𝗻 𝗩𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝘆 startups and multinational companies.

We discuss the impact of AI on business and the importance of 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗔𝗜 𝘁𝗼𝗼𝗹𝘀 to stay competitive.

Heather shares her insights on the future of work, the necessity of adapting to new technologies, and the 𝗱𝗲𝗺𝗼𝗰𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘀𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗲𝗰𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝗔𝗜.

Watch the full episode with links in our bio

Hamish Edwards hasn’t told his story in detail before. and so you get to hear it for the first time. Renowned for co-fou...
02/04/2025

Hamish Edwards hasn’t told his story in detail before. and so you get to hear it for the first time.

Renowned for co-founding with Rod Drury in 2006 in his accounting companies’ boardroom, before they ever moved to said apartment.

As a practicing accountant at the time and working with Rod, Hamish played a pivotal role in Xero’s early growth, shaping the product and expanding its customer base across New Zealand, Australia, and the United Kingdom by closely collaborating with accounting firms.

In this episode, Hamish tells us how and why Xero was founded and what he is doing now with Firmcheck.

We discuss the importance of obsession in achieving success and whether all founders have to be obsessed or not.

Now worth in the vicinity of $300 million, we ask Hamish:
Has success changed you?

If you are a founder looking to go global, this one is not to be missed.

This podcast is brought to you by our amazing sponsor in and could not be done without them.

“The financial landscape is evolving, we’re making it easier for startups to operate globally.” Lowry Gladwell has been...
24/03/2025

“The financial landscape is evolving, we’re making it easier for startups to operate globally.”

Lowry Gladwell has been at the forefront of some of New Zealand’s most iconic companies, from law to payments, tech partnerships to sales.

Playing a key role in Vend’s journey through to their successful exit in 2021 and leading Xero’s embedded finance strategy and ex*****on, Lowry knows his domain well.

Now, as Head of New Zealand at Airwallex—an Australian unicorn transforming banking and financial service, Lowry is focused on building the local team and introducing Airwallex’s game-changing product to the New Zealand market.

In this episode, we discuss all things revenue and channel partner growth, and how you should build a function and hire a team.
If you are a product company looking to go global, this one is not to be missed.

Thanks to our sponsor in for making the episode happen. Get $1000 USD off www.vanta.com/startuptheatre

Full episode linked in bio 🔗

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“The most successful people are the ones who fail the most, because they are the ones who try the most.” Rowan Simpson ...
09/03/2025

“The most successful people are the ones who fail the most, because they are the ones who try the most.”

Rowan Simpson has been at the heart of New Zealand’s most successful technology companies.

As a founding team member at Trade Me and Xero , he witnessed firsthand how great companies are built through consistent ex*****on.

His subsequent investments and hands-on work with ventures like Vend and Timely have helped shape a generation of high-growth companies.

We sat down with Rowan to go deeper on some of these lessons.

Thanks to our sponsor in for making the episode happen. Get $1000 USD off www.vanta.com/startuptheatre

Full episode linked in bio 🔗

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23/05/2024

WFLS is BACK with Mahesh Muralidhar 💥
New Zealand. You too can change the WORLD! 🌏

Mahesh Muralidhar has done it all.

From helping to take ⁠Canva⁠ globally as employee number 25, launching ⁠Phase One Ventures⁠ in New Zealand and even running for Auckland Central in politics.

We talk with Mahesh to learn how he has been helping founders to take on the world from NZ and listen to his sage advice from being so early at Canva and now sharing this with his home in NZ.

Watch the full episode on YouTube or listen on Spotify with 🔗 in the comments below👇🏻

Brought to you by:
🎙: Troy Hammond
🎥: Jono Tucker
💰: Talent Army

17/04/2024

𝐀𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐯𝐞 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐡𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐞: 𝐈𝐭’𝐬 𝐕𝐈𝐓𝐀𝐋 🚑

Healthcare is broken. We all know it….

Though too many were scared to take on the behemoths who have owned this space forever.

Enter ⁠Vital.io the product built by kiwi ⁠Te Riu Warren as their founding CTO.

Hear how Te and Founder & CEO ⁠Aaron Patzer⁠ formally of Mint.com got together and Decided to take on the United States healthcare tech industry from New Zealand 🇳🇿

Our new merch is launching soon 👀
Tag a friend below to go into the draw to win our first full set of merch 🚀

Watch the full episode on YouTube or listen on Spotify with 🔗 in the comments below👇🏻

Brought to you by:
🎙: Troy Hammond
🎥: Empire Films
💰: Oxygen Advisors

15/04/2024

"𝐅𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐢𝐧 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐦, 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧"

This was the sage advice Erika Palmer gave when we asked her:

"𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘨𝘰𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘪𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘱𝘢𝘪𝘳 𝘥𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘴 𝘨𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 Cupla 𝘰𝘧𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥?"

What advice would you give people in the pit of despair right now?
Comment below 👇🏻

Watch the full episode 👉🏻 https://lnkd.in/g6DU6buT

𝐒𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧 4 guests are booked for the first four episodes. 🎉1. : Founder & CO-CEO, 2. .amoore: Founder of .app 3. Tim Boyl...
28/02/2024

𝐒𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧 4 guests are booked for the first four episodes. 🎉

1. : Founder & CO-CEO,
2. .amoore: Founder of .app
3. Tim Boyle: Co-Founder of
4. : Founding CTO, Vital.io

Hosted by
Produced by
Sponsored by

Go subscribe to our YouTube channel to watch these new episodes 👇🏻
https://lnkd.in/gx3KFqEx

22/11/2023

Episode #60, Samantha Wong, "The compounding snowball of the NZ tech ecosystem!"

🔔 𝐀𝐫𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐬𝐮𝐛𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐮𝐬? 𝐎𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐟 𝐨𝐟 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐠𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐫 𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐬𝐮𝐛𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐰𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐡𝐨𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐨𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐬𝐮𝐛𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐞.

Sam is a Partner at ⁠Blackbird⁠.
Originally from Australia, she now heads up the office in Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland), where she raised its inaugural $60M New Zealand fund in 2020 and is continuing Blackbird’s Kiwi adventure!

Sam has broad investment interests,z including digital healthcare, robotics, IoT, and B2B software. Sam sits on the boards of Halter, First AML, Foundry Lab, Partly, Harrison.ai, and Workyard.

Sam is passionate about diversity in technology and venture capital and spear-headed the release of the Model Code of Conduct for the Startup Community as well as a venture capital internship program for women.

Prior to joining Blackbird she was a legaltech startup founder, an e-commerce product and strategy manager, and practiced in corporate and litigation teams at Minter Ellison before career-pivoting into startups in 2010.

𝐒𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐮𝐬 𝐛𝐲 𝐬𝐮𝐛𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐰:

WFLS Podcast 🎙️👉🏻 https://lnkd.in/g_EsCY2J
Spotify 👉🏻 https://lnkd.in/ghz6V7cp
YouTube 👉🏻 https://lnkd.in/dq6ZsuZD
Apple 👉🏻 https://lnkd.in/g8Ae8czg
Google 👉🏻 https://lnkd.in/gSjwA-J8

Brought to you by:
🎙: Troy Hammond
🎥: Jono Tucker
💰: Talent Army

25/10/2023

Episode #56, Cameron Adams, "We built a $39B company in Canva, but we are only 1% of the way there!"

In this episode of the WFLS podcast, we chat with ⁠⁠Cameron Adams

🔔 Are you subscribed to us? Only half of our regular listeners are subscribing and we are hoping all of you will subscribe.

Cameron Adams is co-founder and Chief Product Officer of Canva, the only all-in-one visual communication and collaboration platform with a mission to empower the world to design.
Since launching in 2013, Canva’s global community has grown to over 135 million monthly users in over 190 countries who have collectively created more than 15 billion designs.

Cameron is responsible for heading up the design and product teams, playing a key role in future product directions and innovations.

Prior to Canva, he ran his own design consultancy before joining Google, where he worked closely with Lars and Jens Rasmussen (co-founders of Google Maps) to develop Google Wave.
He then moved on to build email startup Fluent, before meeting Melanie Perkins and Cliff Obrecht and deciding to bring Canva to the world.

Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:
Blackbird VC: www.blackbird.vc
Talent Army: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.talent.army⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

EPISODE LINKS:
Cameron's LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/themaninblue
Cameron's Instagram: ⁠www.instagram.com/themaninblue2
Cameron's X: www.twitter.com/themaninblue

PODCAST INFO:
Podcast website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/wef**kinlovestartups⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
Apple Podcasts: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://lnkd.in/g8Ae8czg⁠⁠
Spotify: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://spoti.fi/2nEwCF8⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠
RSS: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://tr.ee/E4yOBnw-OW⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠
YouTube Full Episodes: ⁠⁠⁠https://lnkd.in/dq6ZsuZD⁠⁠
YouTube Clips: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://tinyurl.com/4tnxp2ze⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

SUPPORT & CONNECT:
Check out the sponsor above, it's the best way to support this podcast

Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/WFLSPodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠
Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.instagram.com/wef**kinlovestartups⁠⁠
⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.linkedin.com/company/wflspodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠
Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.facebook.com/WeFKINLoveStartups⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.tiktok.com/

15/08/2023

Episode #51, Constant Meiring, “We exist within the world you’ve created”

In this episode of the WFLS podcast, we chat with ⁠Constant Meiring⁠.

🔔 Are you subscribed to us? Only half of our regular listeners are subscribing and we are hoping all of you will subscribe.

Constant is the Co-founder and Chief AI Wrangler at In Game Collectables⁠.

Having been introduced to computers at age four, he was hooked and has been geeking out on technology ever since.
He's spent the past 15 years shipping successful technology products as a software engineer and product manager in startups as well as public companies.

IGC’s generative AI brings your game characters to life with the wave of your wand- or rather, a click of a button.

No leaving the game, no third parties, no mounds of unpurchased, premade collectables sitting in a warehouse or landfill.

𝐒𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐮𝐬 𝐛𝐲 𝐬𝐮𝐛𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐰:

Full episode:

WFLS Podcast 🎙️ 👉🏻 https://lnkd.in/g_EsCY2J
Spotify 👉🏻 https://lnkd.in/ghz6V7cp
YouTube 👉🏻 https://lnkd.in/dq6ZsuZD
Apple 👉🏻 https://lnkd.in/g8Ae8czg
Google 👉🏻 https://lnkd.in/gSjwA-J8

Brought to you by:
🎙: Troy Hammond
🎥: Jono Tucker
💰: Talent Army

Address

Wellington

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm

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+64275128642

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