The Raise

Highlights from our guests

Watch the quick-takes from some of NZ & Australia's best in tech

#005 JD Trask: Unpacking the AI Hype Cycle

We started this issue of The Raise by asking ourselves, ‘what can we add to the conversation around artificial intelligence?’ There are well-founded debates on issues with bias, privacy, security, transparency and job losses. We’ve taken the optimistic ‘founders view’ in this week’s interview with JD Trask, CEO & Founder of B2B SaaS company, Raygun.

#004 Sonya Williams: Startup Mythbusting

This week we caught up with Sonya Williams, one of the bright minds behind fintech app Sharesies. Along with five co-founders, she began Sharesies with a bold mission of creating financial empowerment for everyone. She’s now co-CEO and a Director, and has led the company through some incredible growth, including their Australian expansion.

#003 Seb Cox: the Lowdown on Venture Studios

This week we caught up with Sebastian Cox, VP of Ventures at Paloma. Seb launched his career in the United Kingdom, holding various growth marketing and product roles in the venture studio scene. Seb went on to work as an advisor to some pre-launch & seed startups, plus enterprise scale digital transformation projects. At Paloma, Seb nurtures some of the most exciting startups in New Zealand and Australia, so he’s well attuned to turning the raw ingredients for a successful venture into an entity fit for growth.

#002 Jo Blundell: Building Brand Loyalty

One of the first product marketers at Xero during its hyper growth phase in 2015, Jo Blundell then became the Head of Product and Marketing at Timely off the back of its $7m capital raise from Movac in 2017. Under her leadership, Timely eventually exited at $100m+. Jo is a director of climate-tech venture CarbonCrop. She recently launched ArcStudio, an agency developing brand and go-to-market strategies for scale-up-stage companies.

#001 Chris Heaslip: Global from Day One

We’re joined by ‘Billion dollar exit’ Chris Heaslip, who founded Pushpay, and more recently Leadr. Based out of Dallas, TX, Chris hails from New Zealand and we explore his ‘global from day one’ mentality while he also offers other nuggets of advice on sales, growth and planning for success.

Time poor? Watch the shorts

Highlights from our guests

Full interviews

#005 JD Trask: Unpacking the AI Hype Cycle

#004 Sonya Williams: Startup Mythbusting

#003 Seb Cox: the Lowdown on Venture Studios

#002 Jo Blundell: Building Brand Loyalty

#001 Chris Heaslip: Global from Day One

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