News

Newsletter ➢ ᴀFKAғ•2020#33

25/9/2020


	25 September 2020 #33

Chnnl is #19 in the FKA stable of great startups. Funded under COVID conditions and off the great start with an Aussie contract for 20,000 users. Cornelius is our first aider on the Board working with Liz.

Angels at FKA are not Angels all the time. When not battling with thorny issues at Cactuslab, Karl in slowly but steadily growing Letterboxd.

In advance of the AANZ Summit in early November, Suse from AANZ is looking for nominations for the various angelic award categories. If you (founder, angel or co-investor) wish to nominate somebody, please, let Maheen know. He will consolidate the names and pass them to Suse.

Jordan Green is the President, pompous word for Chief Cat Herder, of Melbourne Angels. Yet, he is anything but pompous. We recommend that some FKAs join his session to learn how Aussies do it. More here!

Great reactions to this little plug for awesome Ruth @ NZGCP. Not all seems rosy behind the scenes at NZGCP though. Some strongly condemning voices in the industry too.

Two interesting articles on lies, founders lying and sociopathic liers.

"If you are only allowed to tell the literal, complete truth, and you’re compelled to tell that truth at all times, □□ □□ □□□□ □□□□□□□□□ □□ □□□□□□ □□□□□□□□□ □□□ □□ □□□□□□□."

Rob Vickery is putting on Wayfinder Whakaterenga, a series of guest speakers that looks very interesting. But will he find the way back to NZ?

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Rubik’s cube, one of the world’s most popular puzzles and the best-selling toy in history. There are calls for a simplified version for millennials. The Economist Espresso.

Hooray! Back to normal face2face ADI.Clinic in Auckland - no more video calls. Andy, Glen, Hattaf, Jonathan and Rudi talked to 4 startups yesterday. At the same time, the team in Queenstown, Charlie & Wayne also had 4 startups. Better than "Seven at One Blow".

Michael Reddell writes a sharp blog that is well regarded in financial circles. Casandra debunks the $8billion technology exports of the □□□ □□□□□□□ that form the basis of much of the current political propaganda.

High Technology Manufacturing Report August 2013, TIN predecessor.

In 2014 Rudi invested $5,000 in Kami's $80k round, and some more since. Last week the 25 investors via FKA Nominees got a black t-shirt to celebrate the 15,000,000 user mark. In the meantime, Kami has already gone past 16,000,000. So cool!

In addition to the garment, all investors have received a small share in a company that is on an exciting growth trajectory. Hengji, Alliv, Jordan, and Bob, such growth brings new pains but if anyone can, YOU CAN!

Newsletter ➢ ᴀFKAғ•2020#32

18/9/2020


	18 September 2020 #32

15 - a number that tells it all. When the t-shirts to celebrate 15,000,000 users were ready midweek the number had already nudged up to 15.8m. Growth that is hard to keep up with but the team is up for it! Kami

And as of yesterday...

Moxion has cleaned up at the "Oscars for Tech Geeks", the 15th Annual Awards of the prestigious Hollywood Professional Association. All about the people and the tech behind the camera that make great films.

Our investor rep may not have the looks to go to Hollywood but he is proud to help a super team to take their great tech there. With US$80m Frame has out-funded Moxion by 20x still, Moxion outperformed Frame.

Business is definitely not boring when it's about our ageing joints. FKA portfolio company FormusLabs CEO, Ju, had a chat with Simon Pound about how lockdowns have accelerated his surgery tech. One lucky Angel has already guineapigged for FormusLabs. C'mon, tell the tale!

Any Angels out there with Directorial ambitions? Somebody has to keep an eye on Debra who chairs the KiwiNet IC - haha! Apply here.

FKA not only world-famous in New Zealand now also in Bangladesh! Nirjhor has joined our ADI clinics a few times and wants to adopt our model in Dhaka. Go Nirjhor!

He gives a shoutout to FKA at about 14:40 into this podcast.

The finance minister, Grant Robertson, expects the “worst quarter New Zealand has seen”. Data released today will show that GDP shrank by about 16.3% between March and June—or 3.1% year-on-year—proving, to no one’s surprise, that the economy is in a recession. Read on.

Anybody ever wondered why Genevieve doesn't answer her phone these days. Her post tells it all, she is extremely busy at EROAD as the company is preparing to raise $50m. Whoever said marketing is easy?

Andy takes responsibility to be the central point of contact for all deal flow. Campbell is teaming up with Imche Fourie from Level Two to coordinate FKA's capability building efforts with events such as Startup Weekend.

So, the next Startup Weekend in Auckland is already 2-4 October. Great learning for founders! Erick and Glen have already signed on as mentors.

Pauli the organiser is still looking for more female mentors. Our Chief Member Maker Maheen has already linked two women with Pauli from his member pipeline. Campbell and Imche ask, how about our local Angels? Averill, Debra, Genevieve, Jackie, Katheren or Marisa?

Martin was appointed the new chair of the Aotearoa Wave & Tidal Energy Association (AWATEA) to drive river, micro-hydro and marine energy in NZ. He is therefore calling for Kiwi founders to outsmart Aussie founders in the Ocean Impact - Pitch Fest 2020.

Wondering... How many chairs in FKA? Tell Rudi and/or send your guess!

Katheren says, sorry folks due to COVID level 2.5 the 4x4 event scheduled for this coming Sunday had to be cancelled. Trust me, as your CEO, I will bring you other events!

Funny thing. So, Max has been a few times. Loves the hard questions to shape his thinking! He booked but his email bounced.

He explained, your booking system has a longer memory for emails than the average lifespan of my startups □

In case you've missed it on Netflix, very insightful docu that makes you think about some of the stuff Angels get excited about... TRAILER

An interesting critique of the docu by Casey Newton in The Interface.

In a recent Google image search, our Chief GIF Maker stumbled across this humorous triptych. 1x Kami Dancer Team, 2x Kami 16M.

Bob's reaction, "Will do anything for ARR growth", Hengji "We always gonna need an SEO hacker/spammer eventually, are you trying to put your hand up [Rudi]?"

Another NBR article. You don't have your glasses? Try this.

Newsletter ➢ ᴀFKAғ•2020#31

11/9/2020


	11 September 2020 #31

This week 15 FKA Angels caught up with the team from Kwotimation for a Zoom pitch plus Q&A. They are at pre-seed level and want to take the confusion out of tradie quoting, kicking off with tilers. Little left in this round but we'll cycle round the group. See this brief intro.

CEO Josh has been committed to DJ FKA's next party

Garth our proud investor rep for FileInvite, "We made the cut. Got announced as Westpac finalists under excellence in international trade alongside some great SaaS companies including EzyVet and Pushpay."

Bridge and Suse are calling for the 2020 NZ Angel Summit in November. There will be free drinks for commission-free Angels. Snag though, you have to register first. Check it out and book here!

Germans don't miss Freibier - Rudi is going. So come along

Katheren has accepted the challenge to be FKA's new Chief Event Officer and kicks off with a 4x4 day driving via private land onto Bethals beach. Sunday, 20 September, $100 per vehicle, more from Katheren.

Here a taster video - the last 4x4 day was awesome!

Angelic Debra is the Chair of the Kiwinet IC and invites everyone to join her for the Awards ceremony. Some awesome tech founders, Vlatko from Hot Lime Labs was a 2018 finalist. Grab your ticket here!

The detailed day sessions are free, $50 for the nighttime celebrations.

Maheen joined FKA only in May of this year. It makes him an expert in the FKA joining process and he is keen to help others who want to grow angel wings. Maheen will welcome everyone with angelic ambitions and help them understand what's involved. Maheen.Mudannayake@fka.nz

Dylan from NZTE is injecting some wisdom into the Kiwi Startup and Innovation Ecosystem with this new podcast series INVESTMENT FIX.

An open letter, a press article, comments in wide agreement.

Newsletter ➢ ᴀFKAғ•2020#30

4/9/2020


	4 September 2020 #30

Bridge and Suse are calling for the 2020 NZ Angel Summit in November. It will be in Auckland and Angels are flocking to it from far afield only the Jaffas are the slackers. Check it out and book here!

Rumour has it that Angels from none commission charging groups will enjoy one free drink Tui?

Bob Drummond is a chief heckler with a white beard. When we advised Kami's 12 million user milestone last week we got this smerking retort. "Haha, you’re out of date! Only having 12 million is soooo last week."

He went on to schoolmaster. "Kami users annotated 150M documents. Printed that would give a paper stack over 500km high. Higher than: a) 1,500 Sky Towers (328m) b) 60 Mt Everests (8,748m) c) the altitude of the International Space Station (408km)."

But the real star is Jordan Thoms. He is the technical architect that made it possible for Kami to scale so rapidly and take on 1,000,000 new users in just 1 week. Well done, Jordan!

Also, Kami on Techcrunch yesterday

Okay, that webinar in the middle of the night would have been tough. So we have obtained the recording "Pricing in SaaS Business" for you here. Watch out for further related videos in the Vimeo stream.

BuddleFindlay on "Phantom Equity - better than the real thing?". The benefits seem marginal. But boy would it put a stop to all those tedious preemptive share offers when staff smash their option piggy bank. OINK!

Rudi likes to think of himself as a cat herder, Garth, on the other hand, is into camel husbandry. As evidenced by this article that he recommended to his group of Investor Reps.

White Star Capital is Mapping The Gaming and Esports VC Landscape with this interesting analysis of this segment that is growing in numbers and significance.

Chris and Jonny started Equitise in Auckland and survived ADI. Jonny shared this Pitchbook report that emphasises the importance of Angels in what could be interpreted as a gesture of Ozzie reverence.

Roughly 74% of companies that raised their first investment through angel financings between 2006 and 2014 were able to raise follow-on funding. By contrast, companies that did not raise angel capital received further funding at a rate of just 59%.

AANZ numbers for January to June have just come out in the Evangelist and support previous contention that Angels are still investing despite contrary NZGCP advice to the minister. As the Pitchbook report above shows, companies that have Angel backing do better. We just get on with helping the New Zealand startup and tech sector rather than peddle doom and gloom.

We may never know the reasons for the difference in numbers. Investment News reports "However, the government briefing was prepared before the surprise departure of NZGCP chief, Richard Dellabarca, in August."

We had a sterling list of founders this week. More validation and traction needed for most of them but none of them required bitter medicine.

See our LinkedIn post.

Newsletter ➢ ᴀFKAғ•2020#29

28/8/2020


	28 August 2020 #29

On LinkedIn, Rudi toasted the team with a glass of milk as is appropriate for their target demographic but in this publication let's do it with champagne. Awesome team! 12 million users, students and teachers around the globe are now using Kami, FKA's #02 portfolio company.

It was only in May that Kami reached 10 million users! Read more!

Inc. magazine lists the 5,000 Fastest-Growing Private Companies in America and puts Fuel50, FKA's #04 portfolio company in 558th place with an impressive growth rate of 840% over the past three years.

Anne and Jo have really fueled this business

FileInvite, FKA's #14 portfolio company. What are they celebrating? Making NZ HI-Tech Finalist? Dominating the Australian mortgage application market? Or getting near $2.5m commitments to oversubscribe their current round? All this under pandemic conditions!

Investor Rep Garth and the Board will have to think what to do with the final oversubscription. Much better than being short changed though!

Suse and Bridge organising, Nicole facilitating, Caroline, Gabrielle speaking as well as Karl and Mark. If you want to know more than first names... ☛ Suse.Reynolds@AngelAssociation.co.nz

Glenn is not a cowboy, he is a Wellington-based angel with Angel HQ and his day job is with Tourwriter. Passionate about tourism he has teamed up with Lightning Lab for another accelerator kicking off in early 2021.

More here!

Josh is the Flying Kiwi Angel who gets more press and pods than most. His good looks, sophisticated choice in glassware, authoritative voice and humble intelligence may all play a role. Hear him on A Kiwi Original!

So many reasons why DD is important...

A real kiwi has done the running around for us this week, even coming out of the darkness to promote our ADI sessions. See the LinkedIn post.

Oh, we had Nirjhor Rahman, leader of the Bangladesh Angels joining our ADI session yesterday. Always happy to franchise the good stuff!

Newsletter ➢ ᴀFKAғ•2020#28

21/8/2020


	21 August 2020 #28

Kami, FKA's #02 portfolio company is currently the #1 press darling. Getting some well deserved positive press for giving back to NZ schools. If you didn't spot it in the news read it here!

Nasim Pedrad demonstrates the ideal recovery profile after a hip transplant. FormulsLabs, FKA's #17 portfolio company is aiming high like that. Ju, the CEO has circulated the Quarterly Shareholder Update this week and in this little video, he tells you what it's all about.

If you are an investor and didn't get the positive update then talk to the Investor Rep Debra.Hall@fka.nz.

The team at The Finish Line has an obsession for post production and is equally obsessed with Moxion, singing the praises of FKA's #10 portfolio company in this LinkedIn post. "Great to see Moxion getting recognised more and more!" says Chair and Investor Rep Rudi.

Last year's 50 Angels Flying on Lime Scooters would have been way too tactile this year. Techweek 2020 has been somewhat handicapped by the pandemic. So we get Kiwi Techweek TV instead. Check it out!

"When Entry Multiples Don’t Matter" is a really eye-opening piece from Andreessen Horowitz. COMPULSORY READING!

Not just for those Angels keen to go earlier

Larry Keeley has a different innovation philosophy to Eric Ries. Ahead of his Zoom talk next Thursday which is hosted by Callaghan Innovation, he was interviewed by the NBR this Thursday on what’s wrong with 'minimum viable product' (hint: everything). He gave this talk in 2018 at the Singularity University in Mexico.

This week's LinkedIn post about alternative snow angels.

The Hi-Tech Awards Gala Dinner was planned for May and bumped by Covid19. It was pushed out to 21 August, only to be jinxed by the second lockdown. Now it's a live event without the price tag of a gala night and no need to dress up. Streaming tonight from 19:00!

Top job at NZGCP up for grabs. The mug will likely be a little smaller though. Plenty of talent within FKA but our CCH may lack the diplomacy.

The emailed TINᴡɪʀᴇ referenced the same Kami article and put them on the NZX. Rudi checked with Hengji and Bob, both missed the listing.

<<Previous

Newsletter ➢ ᴀFKAғ•2020#33

25 September 2020 #33

Newsletter ➢ ᴀFKAғ•2020#32

18 September 2020 #32

And as of yesterday...

Newsletter ➢ ᴀFKAғ•2020#31

11 September 2020 #31

Newsletter ➢ ᴀFKAғ•2020#30

4 September 2020 #30

Newsletter ➢ ᴀFKAғ•2020#29

28 August 2020 #29

More here!

Newsletter ➢ ᴀFKAғ•2020#28

21 August 2020 #28

Categories

Archives