This week we speak to Max Ferguson who started Lumin in 2010 to address a growing need for a robust, cloud-based way to edit and share portable document format files, better known as PDFs.

15 years on and Lumin has over 100 million users worldwide and is successfully rolling out more document collaboration products and features, managing to find success with the often-tricky freemium model.

Plus, what's the latest on Deepseek, and the unpacking the NZ government's plans for using generative AI.

Reading list

This week we speak to Max Ferguson who started Lumin in 2010 to address a growing need for a robust, cloud-based way to edit and share portable document format files, better known as PDFs.
15 years on and Lumin has over 100 million users worldwide and is successfully rolling out more document collaboration products and features, managing to find success with the often-tricky freemium model.
Plus, what's the latest on Deepseek, and the unpacking the NZ government's plans for using&nbsp;generative AI.
Reading list

The Business of Tech, hosted by leading tech journalist Peter Griffin. Every week they take a deep dive into emerging technology and news from the sector to help guide the important decisions all Business leaders make.

Issues such as cybersecurity, retaining trust after a cyberattack, business IT needs, purchasing SaaS tools and more.

New Episodes out every Thursday. Follow or subscribe to get it delivered straight to your favourite podcatcher.

@petergnz

@businessdesk_nz

Proudly sponsored by 2degrees Business!

 

The Business of Tech, hosted by leading tech journalist Peter Griffin. Every week they take a deep dive into emerging technology and news from the sector to help guide the important decisions all Business leaders make.
Issues such as cybersecurity, retaining trust after a cyberattack, business IT needs, purchasing SaaS tools and more.
New Episodes out every Thursday. Follow or subscribe to get it delivered straight to your favourite podcatcher.
@petergnz
@businessdesk_nz
Proudly sponsored by 2degrees Business!
&nbsp;

The Business of Tech

From Christchurch to 100 million global users

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/7784f840-c291-422a-924b-ad9000bbad71/clips/0dc051ab-7905-4910-8fab-b27a015b7a22/transcript

Blackbird Ventures' $1.25 Billion Fundraise

A New Era for New Zealand Startups

Blackbird's Unique Investment Approach

Phoebe Harrop-Meadows: From Law to Venture

The Power of Early Stage Investing

The Flywheel Effect in New Zealand's Tech

Kiwi Founders' Edge in Startup Success

The Changing Landscape of AI in New Zealand

Education and Research: Building the Future

Educational Pathways for Tech Careers

Academic Researchers as Founders

The Kiwi Farm Boy Phenomenon

Global Ambitions from New Zealand

Policy and Prosperity in New Zealand

Closing Remarks and Next Episode Preview

Podcast Promotion

Australasian venture-capital heavyweight Blackbird has closed a record $1.25 billion sixth fund – and its New Zealand general partner Phoebe Harrop Meadows says Kiwi companies are central to its investment strategy.

The fund, described by Blackbird as the largest venture-capital raise in ANZ history, underscores the firm’s rise from a small Australian startup investor into one of the region’s most consequential backers of technology companies.

Having backed the likes of Canva, Halter, Marloo, and Partly, Blackbird has structured the new fund into two roughly equal pools: about $600 million for investments from pre-seed to Series A, and a similar amount to support companies later in their growth. 

That allows it to write the first cheque when a company is little more than a proposition, then retain firepower to keep investing as the business scales.

The Goldilocks fund

In the latest episode of The Business of Tech, Harrop Meadows explains why the unusually large fund is not simply a bigger pile of money chasing startups.

“It’s a sort of Goldilocks size,” she says, large enough to invest across a company’s life, but still built around identifying exceptional founders at the very beginning.

That is a marked contrast with the conventional division between early-stage venture funds and later-stage growth investors. The model is finding fertile ground in New Zealand. More than half of Blackbird’s new early-stage investments over the past year have been in Kiwi-founded companies, although Harrop Meadows stresses that measure is by number of companies rather than dollars invested. 

Harrop Meadows, who grew up in New Plymouth, studied law at the University of Otago, before heading to London to work at Bain & Company, then in growth-equity investing ahead of joining Blackbird in 2021, says New Zealand is like a “Galápagos island of ideas”, where founders often start companies not because startup status is fashionable, but because they have encountered a problem they feel compelled to solve. 

Listen to the full conversation with Phoebe Harrop Meadows on The Business of Tech, available on iHeartRadio, Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Australasian venture-capital heavyweight Blackbird has closed a record $1.25 billion sixth fund &ndash; and its New Zealand general partner Phoebe Harrop Meadows says Kiwi companies are central to its investment strategy.
The fund, described by Blackbird as the largest venture-capital raise in ANZ history, underscores the firm&rsquo;s rise from a small Australian startup investor into one of the region&rsquo;s most consequential backers of technology companies.
Having backed the likes of Canva, Halter, Marloo, and Partly, Blackbird has structured the new fund into two roughly equal pools: about $600 million for investments from pre-seed to Series A, and a similar amount to support companies later in their growth.&nbsp;
That allows it to write the first cheque when a company is little more than a proposition, then retain firepower to keep investing as the business scales.
The Goldilocks fund
In the latest episode of The Business of Tech, Harrop Meadows explains why the unusually large fund is not simply a bigger pile of money chasing startups.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a sort of Goldilocks size,&rdquo; she says, large enough to invest across a company&rsquo;s life, but still built around identifying exceptional founders at the very beginning.
That is a marked contrast with the conventional division between early-stage venture funds and later-stage growth investors. The model is finding fertile ground in New Zealand. More than half of Blackbird&rsquo;s new early-stage investments over the past year have been in Kiwi-founded companies, although Harrop Meadows stresses that measure is by number of companies rather than dollars invested.&nbsp;
Harrop Meadows, who grew up in New Plymouth, studied law at the University of Otago, before heading to London to work at Bain &amp; Company, then in growth-equity investing ahead of joining Blackbird in 2021, says New Zealand is like a &ldquo;Gal&aacute;pagos island of ideas&rdquo;, where founders often start companies not because startup status is fashionable, but because they have encountered a problem they feel compelled to solve.&nbsp;
Listen to the full conversation with Phoebe Harrop Meadows on The Business of Tech, available on iHeartRadio, Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Blackbird’s billion-dollar bet on founders

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/7784f840-c291-422a-924b-ad9000bbad71/clips/475e9441-a023-4ec6-ba5b-b4b900078cf3/transcript

Welcome to the Business of Tech

New Zealand's Space Manufacturing Venture

Jamie France's Engineering Background

The Promise of Space Manufacturing

Outlier Space's Mission

From Team New Zealand to Rocket Lab

The Innovation Mindset in New Zealand

Rocket Lab's Electron Launch

The Birth of Outlier Space

SkyCouch: Innovation in Aviation

The Power of Microgravity

Keytruda and the Future of Pharmaceuticals

The Outlier Space Capsule

Team Building and Market Potential

Democratizing Space Manufacturing

The Future of Space Exploration

Reaching for the Stars: Funding and Growth

Revolutionizing Research with Space

Wrapping Up and Call to Action

Subscribe and Share

What if space was not simply a place to launch satellites – but a factory floor for making things that cannot be produced on Earth?

That is the bet being made by Auckland startup Outlier Space, which has raised around US$7.35 million (NZ$12.3 million) in pre-seed funding to build reusable spacecraft that carry customer payloads into microgravity, operate them in orbit, then return them safely to Earth. Its first mission is booked for 2028.

The premise is straightforward, if technically formidable. In orbit, a spacecraft is in continuous freefall, creating a microgravity environment in which the familiar force of gravity no longer dominates. Molecules, crystals, cells and materials can therefore behave in ways that are not possible in an Earth-bound laboratory.

That holds incredible appeal to pharmaceutical companies, biotech firms and advanced-materials manufacturers. Microgravity can allow purer crystals to form, produce novel structures and open paths to materials and medicines that simply cannot be created – or cannot be created as effectively – on the ground.

Bringing the results home

In the latest episode of The Business of Tech, Outlier founder and chief executive Jamie France describes the company as an “anti-gravity chamber” for customers. They provide the proprietary manufacturing equipment and process. Outlier supplies the capsule-cum-satellite that allows access to the extraordinary environment of orbit, then brings the results home.

The opportunity is becoming more urgent as the International Space Station – the world’s most important microgravity research laboratory – approaches retirement. Commercial replacements are on the way, but France believes there is a major role for autonomous, uncrewed spacecraft designed for manufacturing and research missions where astronauts are not required.

France has the background to take on that challenge. He spent 15 years working with Emirates Team New Zealand, helped create Air New Zealand’s Skycouch, and spent almost a decade at Rocket Lab – from senior vehicle engineer on Electron to global director of the launch vehicle programme. Most recently, he sat on the board of FTN Motion, advising the founders as they scaled up production of their electric motorbikes (see episode 160 of The Business of Tech).

France’s career has been defined by teams willing to tackle difficult problems from first principles. At Rocket Lab, he says, the high-stakes peak-performance mindset of an America’s Cup campaign was not an occasional event. It was simply “a Tuesday”.

Outlier is now assembling its own team in Auckland, already numbering more than 20, to build a spacecraft capable not only of operating in orbit but also surviving re-entry and getting valuable payloads back into customers’ hands.

In this episode, France explains why space manufacturing is really about gravity, how a new form of a cancer drug could change treatment delivery, and why New Zealand’s deep-tech future may depend as much on audacity as engineering skill.

Listen to The Business of Tech for the full conversation with Jamie France, available wherever you get your podcasts.

What if space was not simply a place to launch satellites &ndash; but a factory floor for making things that cannot be produced on Earth?
That is the bet being made by Auckland startup Outlier Space, which has raised around US$7.35 million (NZ$12.3 million) in pre-seed funding to build reusable spacecraft that carry customer payloads into microgravity, operate them in orbit, then return them safely to Earth. Its first mission is booked for 2028.
The premise is straightforward, if technically formidable. In orbit, a spacecraft is in continuous freefall, creating a microgravity environment in which the familiar force of gravity no longer dominates. Molecules, crystals, cells and materials can therefore behave in ways that are not possible in an Earth-bound laboratory.
That holds incredible appeal to pharmaceutical companies, biotech firms and advanced-materials manufacturers. Microgravity can allow purer crystals to form, produce novel structures and open paths to materials and medicines that simply cannot be created &ndash; or cannot be created as effectively &ndash; on the ground.
Bringing the results home
In the latest episode of The Business of Tech, Outlier founder and chief executive Jamie France describes the company as an &ldquo;anti-gravity chamber&rdquo; for customers. They provide the proprietary manufacturing equipment and process. Outlier supplies the capsule-cum-satellite that allows access to the extraordinary environment of orbit, then brings the results home.
The opportunity is becoming more urgent as the International Space Station &ndash; the world&rsquo;s most important microgravity research laboratory &ndash; approaches retirement. Commercial replacements are on the way, but France believes there is a major role for autonomous, uncrewed spacecraft designed for manufacturing and research missions where astronauts are not required.
France has the background to take on that challenge. He spent 15 years working with Emirates Team New Zealand, helped create Air New Zealand&rsquo;s Skycouch, and spent almost a decade at Rocket Lab &ndash; from senior vehicle engineer on Electron to global director of the launch vehicle programme. Most recently, he sat on the board of FTN Motion, advising the founders as they scaled up production of their electric motorbikes (see episode 160 of The Business of Tech).
France&rsquo;s career has been defined by teams willing to tackle difficult problems from first principles. At Rocket Lab, he says, the high-stakes peak-performance mindset of an America&rsquo;s Cup campaign was not an occasional event. It was simply &ldquo;a Tuesday&rdquo;.
Outlier is now assembling its own team in Auckland, already numbering more than 20, to build a spacecraft capable not only of operating in orbit but also surviving re-entry and getting valuable payloads back into customers&rsquo; hands.
In this episode, France explains why space manufacturing is really about gravity, how a new form of a cancer drug could change treatment delivery, and why New Zealand&rsquo;s deep-tech future may depend as much on audacity as engineering skill.
Listen to The Business of Tech for the full conversation with Jamie France, available wherever you get your podcasts.

The anti-gravity business

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/7784f840-c291-422a-924b-ad9000bbad71/clips/8646133c-300d-455a-8817-b4b101506c99/transcript

Auckland Mayor's Tech Vision

A Candid Conversation with Mayor Brown

The Importance of Tech in Auckland's Future

Biotech Reforms and Political Challenges

Auckland's Advantages and Investment

Data Centers and Foreign Relations

The Mayor's Vision for Auckland's Tech Sector

Key Takeaways and Closing Thoughts

Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown is about to turn 80 – and is still plainly more interested in the next deal, the next big export market and the next practical problem to fix than in winding down.

In this week’s episode of The Business of Tech, Brown delivers a typically uncensored account of how he thinks Auckland should use technology to drive economic growth. He has little patience for glossy AI rhetoric, power-hungry data centres, or Wellington bureaucrats telling him what to do. 

“The government doesn’t know how to grow the economy, so I might as well do it,” Brown told me fresh from a morning visiting startups as part of the Council’s 100 Days of Startups programme, which sees him shine a light on one of the city’s startups each day in the run-up to Startup Week in October.

Brown says the city’s business people told him Auckland was lacking leadership on tech, despite it being home to around 60% of the country’s startups. He established the Auckland Innovation and Technology Alliance a year ago as a public-private partnership to foster collaboration across Auckland’s tech ecosystem.

Better, cheaper, faster

Brown draws on his engineering background and the lessons he collated in his 2007 book The Five Minute MBA to set a simple test for government, council and entrepreneurs alike. What is the problem you are fixing – and can it be solved better, cheaper and faster?

Auckland, he says, needs more firms able to turn local capability into global businesses, particularly in areas that play to New Zealand’s strengths: medtech, agri-tech, and biotech.

And he wants them to look beyond familiar markets in the US, UK and Australia. Brown argues the bigger opportunities lie in India, China, Indonesia, Brazil and Latin America – markets where Auckland’s diaspora communities, city-to-city relationships and sector expertise could give companies an edge.

His assessment of the political scene as the general election approaches is brutal. Brown describes the party-political offering as an “unappetising smorgasbord”, rails against bureaucracy and corporate welfare, and questions New Zealand’s reflexive alignment with America on trade and technology.

He’s particularly sceptical of the current data centre boom that Auckland is playing host to.

“If they want to come here, what will you do for us to have your f**king boxes here? It’s not the other way around.”

He has even less time for artificial intelligence.

Expect strong language, challenging claims and plenty of eyebrow-raising takes. This is no polished mayoral interview. It is Wayne Brown, in full: opinionated, impatient and with his own firm ideas on how to make Auckland the tech centre of the South Pacific.

Listen to the full episode streaming on iHeartRadio, Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown is about to turn 80 &ndash; and is still plainly more interested in the next deal, the next big export market and the next practical problem to fix than in winding down.
In this week&rsquo;s episode of The Business of Tech, Brown delivers a typically uncensored account of how he thinks Auckland should use technology to drive economic growth. He has little patience for glossy AI rhetoric, power-hungry data centres, or Wellington bureaucrats telling him what to do.&nbsp;
&ldquo;The government doesn&rsquo;t know how to grow the economy, so I might as well do it,&rdquo; Brown told me fresh from a morning visiting startups as part of the Council&rsquo;s 100 Days of Startups programme, which sees him shine a light on one of the city&rsquo;s startups each day in the run-up to <a href="https://www.aucklandstartupweek.com/">Startup Week</a> in October.
Brown says the city&rsquo;s business people told him Auckland was lacking leadership on tech, despite it being home to around 60% of the country&rsquo;s startups. He established the Auckland Innovation and Technology Alliance a year ago as a public-private partnership to foster collaboration across Auckland&rsquo;s tech ecosystem.
Better, cheaper, faster
Brown draws on his engineering background and the lessons he collated in his 2007 book The Five Minute MBA to set a simple test for government, council and entrepreneurs alike. What is the problem you are fixing &ndash; and can it be solved better, cheaper and faster?
Auckland, he says, needs more firms able to turn local capability into global businesses, particularly in areas that play to New Zealand&rsquo;s strengths: medtech, agri-tech, and biotech.
And he wants them to look beyond familiar markets in the US, UK and Australia. Brown argues the bigger opportunities lie in India, China, Indonesia, Brazil and Latin America &ndash; markets where Auckland&rsquo;s diaspora communities, city-to-city relationships and sector expertise could give companies an edge.
His assessment of the political scene as the general election approaches is brutal. Brown describes the party-political offering as an &ldquo;unappetising smorgasbord&rdquo;, rails against bureaucracy and corporate welfare, and questions New Zealand&rsquo;s reflexive alignment with America on trade and technology.
He&rsquo;s particularly sceptical of the current data centre boom that Auckland is playing host to.
&ldquo;If they want to come here, what will you do for us to have your f**king boxes here? It&rsquo;s not the other way around.&rdquo;
He has even less time for artificial intelligence.
Expect strong language, challenging claims and plenty of eyebrow-raising takes. This is no polished mayoral interview. It is Wayne Brown, in full: opinionated, impatient and with his own firm ideas on how to make Auckland the tech centre of the South Pacific.
Listen to the full episode streaming on iHeartRadio, Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Wayne Brown’s tech plan: look to Asia and ditch the AI fluff

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/7784f840-c291-422a-924b-ad9000bbad71/clips/6615793d-cc3f-4106-bbbe-b4aa01694797/transcript

From Christchurch to 100 million global users

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