FKA 😇 Advice, Connections and Funding for NZ Startups

Newsletter ➢ ᴀFKAғ•2019#42

15/11/2019


	15 November 2019 #42

Finally, here comes the video after 50 Angels Sailing. May it fuel massive FOMO for those who didn't attend. For those who did attend it will be a great reminder of how much fun we had.

Now, don't miss out on 50 Angels Racing Jaguars! Another match race in December, the last in the 50 Angels series for 2019.

Tuesday 19 November, 18:00 is our last Pitch Night in 2019. Hosted generously by KPMG, 18 Viaduct Harbour Ave, Wynyard Quarter, AKL.

Guests by invitation from our Angels or sponsors KPMG, LoJo and Potentia are always very welcome.

Terry is one of the founders who are pitching next Tuesday. He first came to ADI Wellington with Eight360 in April 2018. David Akers from Angel HQ, Ian and Phil have been working with him ever since.

Great to see Terry win the engineering award and progress to pitch.

Rhys is another founder who will pitch next Tuesday. Koru is already pre-loved by our friends at MIG Angels from an earlier round. Joe Harper the champion for Koru.

James at KPMG is working through the red tape so they can bring a real cow for a practical demo to the townie Angels in Auckland.

Brothers Berwyn and Bryan are passionate about bees and will present Hivemind. Garth is their champion.

Welby Ings is disobedient, a prof at AUT and has made films such as Boy, Munted and Sparrow. Now, Arron, also a disobedient thinker, wants to help him fund the next film project Punch. This will be a more unusual presentation next Tuesday.

FKA dig films and are fervent supporters of Moxion. CEO Hugh is in Hollywood and a big studio deal means they are looking for money to ready themselves for a significant uptick in business. COO Nigel will pitch. Rudi is the Investor Rep.

Just like every 007 mission is secret until it's done, so is this one. However, trust that Rudi and Hattaf will report back in December, in good time to help tame the jaguars.

Two of our Angels Tim and Josh have gone off to build Ambit, all about chatbots. They have a great office in the Auckland CBD and want to share some of it. ☞ more here.

Fun fact: This weekend one of our Angels will be participating in the Round North Head Classic swim, in the 'freedom class'. A Naked Angel!

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Newsletter ➢ ᴀFKAғ•2019#41

8/11/2019


	8 November 2019 #41

We'll have to start half an hour earlier at 18:00 for our November pitch night because it looks like we'll have 6 pitches. Tim Warren will be the MC to make sure we stay on time. Thank you, Andy Harwood, Arron Patterson, Joe Harper, Ralf Wittgen, Rudi Bublitz and Phil Southward!

✐ Please pencil Tuesday 19 November, 18:00 for the last pitches in 2019.

NZ Entrepreneur Magazine reported already in July that Blackbird Ventures was sending two of their very best to NZ. Sam and Tip have since run their great Sunrise event that was well received by founders, investors and other ecosystem stakeholders.

The new Blackbird offices in New Zealand send a strong message to bootstrapping startup founders and Angels across the country. Needless to say that Blackbird will not be charging founders any fees. They will, of course, like any other VC charge investors.

Welcome, Sam and Tip! One diurnal bird, one nocturnal bird. Perfect!

Rob Vickery has virtually parachuted into NZ with Hillferance Ventures, aptly named after the parish in the Wellington district of the UK and a secret Harry Potter place - Vulture Claws or VC for short. Jai and Rudi attended the launch event on Guy Fawkes night.

Rudi says humorously "Rob preys with great success on minorities that most others ignore. His US portfolio is 50% coloured i.e. from migrants and has 30% female founders. But hear it from the horse's mouth."

Unwrapping the party favour late at night Rudi wondered if it was a beggar's cup to help with fundraising or simply a teacup.

Welcome, Rob & Co in Aotearoa, let's do some great stuff!

Simmonds Stewart has been sharing legal templates since forever. Now they are offering fixed fees for common startup services.

See for yourself here

See the highlights reel from the 2019 Angel Showcase, the biggest spectacle in the Angel calendar for kotahi mano tangata.

Support our Angel Jackie in her role as CEO of the ecentre and come along for drinks on Wednesday, 27 November, from 5:00pm at Freeman & Grey in Ponsonby. She is celebrating the end of the year and the wrap up of the 2019 Sprint Global founders' programme. RSVP

That was the Propaganda Jacket at the NZ Hi-Tech Awards Gala night 2019. Get in the spirit for 2020 and grab one of the last places for the launch events in Auckland and Wellington, 27 November and 3 December respectively. Register for AKL or WLG!

SOSV ranks among the top four global accelerators and VC funds by a number of metrics. Isabel, our Angel in Munich, has attended their Deep Tech Trends 2019 and is shareing this report.

PDF VIDEO

Newsletter ➢ ᴀFKAғ•2019#40

1/11/2019


	1 November 2019 #40

Our last pitch night in 2019 will be 19 November. It will be a busy night!

We're grateful to our sponsors KPMG for hosting all of the FKA Pitch Nights in 2019, except for two that were hosted by LoJo, and Potentia with NZTE. However, Halloween calls for a special thank-you to James McGeorge of KPMG who saves us every time the lights go off at 20:11.

18 YES-votes from 23 votes cast or 78% gives the green light for FreightHub to proceed to DD with Phil.Southward@fka.nz as the lead.

Here is the pitch video from Freighthub again. Ping Phil if you can help with DD! You can learn lots from him. He is a member of more Angel groups and has done more DD than most.

Let's welcome new Angel Glen.Harris@fka.nz to the FKA family. He sailed through the Veto Gate without hiccups. That makes at least two 'harmonious' Angels, David Flack is Chair of Harmoney and Glen made the Harmony Remote.

You know you've arrived in Hollywood when you make it into The Hollywood Reporter.

See this piece on Moxion - FKA's portfolio company №10.

You know FileInvite №14 has arrived for talks with Google Ventures when you receive this mugshot of IR Garth and CEO James from their recent MBIE/AANZ trip to Silicon Valley.

AirTree has just raised $275m for its 3rd Fund to continue backing game-changing Aussie and Kiwi founders for first rounds, multiple rounds! Follow this link for the full newsletter.

Note how they also back Canva whose CEO, Mel Perkins was a keynote speaker at BlackBird's Sunrise event last Friday. BlackBird led the $15M Series B round in 2016. Mel shares the embarrassing first pitch deck here.

Aussie funds syndicate, something some Kiwi funds have yet to learn.

Come along on Wednesday, 27 November, from 5:00pm at Freeman & Grey in Ponsonby, to celebrate the end of the year and wrap up the 2019 Sprint Global founders' programme.

RSVP to have a drink with Jackie & Co

Last Friday Blackbird Ventures called for their launch event Sunrise. It was an awesome and inspiring day for founders and investors alike. Anybody who attended would agree that Blackbird has arrived in the NZ VC market with a strong commitment to the local ecosystem.

WELCOME!

This month In Hamilton Soda Inc had its CO.STARTERS celebration night, see their newsletter. Julian is our Angel with two wings and he is also a member of two groups, EA and FKA. Until now Josh held the title of Chief Photobomber at FKA, however, he may have to concede this title to Julian.

Seriously though, Julian is a busy and much-appreciated mentor and also responsible for ADI Hamilton.

Sharon from Love My New Zealand has brought us 50 Angels Sailing - an awesome day on the water. Little surprise that she has now picked up a coveted award from LUXlife, the bimonthly luxury lifestyle magazine that offers a glimpse into the world of the glamorous.

Complacency is threatened by disruption - everywhere!
New Zealand is a nation of migrants and so is FKA a group made up of Angels that have flown in from around the globe. No surprise that not all of them comprehend rugby. The apt mock explanation from earlier this month is no longer entirely apt. As with startups, a fail provides great learning for the next win!

When the Chief Cat Herder advised FreightHub and Phil last night that they had reached enough support to go to DD he did so via the "YES - Borat" image and added, "Ever wondered what Phil could look like with curly hair, a moustache and sunnies?".

The prompt pictorial proof from Phil made it in good time for the copy deadline of today's issue. Of course, hairpieces will not be compulsory for anyone joining the FreighHub DD. Phil is way more professional than his hair colour of yesteryear might suggest.

Newsletter ➢ ᴀFKAғ•2019#39

25/10/2019


	25 October 2019 #39

AmCham brings you a networking breakfast with NASA astronaut Anna Fisher. 7:15ᴀᴍ, 1st November, AUT, 55 Wellesley Street East, Auckland 1010 ◇ Conference Centre, Room WA224. BIO ◇ VIDEO ◇ REGISTER

Here now, as promised, is the pitch video from Freighthub coming at a lean 6:56 minutes. Voting to decide if FKA will proceed to DD is underway. Not enough votes have come in yet but there is strong support so far and Phil, who is the champion, will most likely have to spend well more than 6.56 minutes to lead DD.

Glen has talked with David F, Paul and Rudi. Everyone feels that he would fit in well and bring a lot of relevant experience. Despite the talks and having clocked up a few ADI.Clinics, Glen is still keen to get more involved.

So far so good, but as know, if you know of any skeletons in Glen's closet that might speak against his joining, then you should tell the FKA Board in confidence. ☞ REPORT A SKELETON HERE

BTW, he is a harmonious techie and would love to meet all FKA techies.

Fresh from the Red Skull Awards, the GM of LevelTwo and U35 founding member, Imche Fourie, is joining the FKA Board as a regular observer. This is one of the ways in which we're making sure that there is a healthy two-way flow of ideas, opinions and knowledge between FKA.nz and U35.nz!

She would also be a better spokesperson by far. TED Talk ◇ CI Talk

Will McKay and Brad Skelton with their Green Mussel Tech took first prize at the Velocity $100k Awards this week. Many other great finalists!

Among the judges and mentors Imche, Debra and Hengjie from Kami.

A 54h marathon for aspiring founders! It used to be 54h of gruelling yet rewarding mentoring. However, Pauli and the organisers for this event have come with a more mentor friendly model. Give only 4h and be in to support a great event that will build grass-root capacity over the 4th weekend in November. ☞ HELP HERE

Glen from KiwiNet will from time to time flick us his Pipeline Post which is full of interesting IP projects that could lead to the next StretchSense №01, Hot Lime Labs №13 or FormusLabs №15.

Wanna find out more? Glen@KiwiNet.org.nz is happy to connect you

Did you know that FKA's one and only Debra is now the Chair of the KiwiNet investment committee? Of course, she is also our investor rep and the Chair of FormusLabs. Her Twitter handle is @RugbyMother for more reasons than one!

If you're not going to the Angel Summit in ChCh, you can catch some of the visiting international Angels and pick their brains in Auckland. ☞ MORE

A number of FKA portfolio companies are currently raising a follow-on round to further drive growth. Here are some things to think about.

Newsletter ➢ ᴀFKAғ•2019#38

18/10/2019


	18 October 2019 #38

We had no casualties and lots of fun on Thursday and Sharon Stewart is now satisfied that FKAngels and friends can sail. A full video will follow and surely stoke up the FOMO in all who didn't come out to play.

To be fair, you're also seeing James Pinner from NZVIF grinding hard. Co-investors play together and invest together!

Two days earlier, on Tuesday we had a very interesting pitch night. The full video from Freighthub will follow next week. Existing portfolio company Spoke gave an update for a follow-on round, co-investment call to follow, and expiring portfolio company StretchSense gave an update on what happened over recent months and a brief outlook for the future.

Kelly Tarltons was designed at a kitchen table more than 30 years ago. It was the beginnings of Marinescape that went on to design and build over 30 aquariums around the world. Marinescape has invented technology that is being used all over the world and there is no shortage of construction and engineering challenges in this industry. CEO Ian Mellsop will, for the FIRST TIME, give a talk about this successful business that has essentially been flying under the radar.

GridAKL Lysaght Building aka FKA HQ, Mon 21 Oct, 14:30-1600.

Velocity Wendy brought good speed to the sailing and she is bringing the Finals of the Velocity $100k Challenge on Wednesday, October 23, 18:15-20:30 at The University of Auckland, OGGB4, Level 0, OGGB, 12 Grafton Road.

Please rsvp to admin@velocity.auckland.ac.nz to reserve your seat.

Remember, Velocity has produced portfolio companies like StretchSense and Kami for FKA. It is a great programme that deserves great mentors and judges. Support it next year!

Pauli Sosa is the awesome community manager at GridAKL Lysaght Building. She is also resuscitating Startup Weekend with a strong team of organisers. This 54-hour entrepreneurial marathon is a great learning experience for aspiring founders and mentors with staying power.

Great to see GridAKL, ATEED, Startup Weekend junkies LoJo, AWS and ecentre among the sponsors. A great place to find co-founders!

☞ Get your founder ticket

Interested mentors get in touch with Pauli.Sosa@GridAKL.com

«Europe’s top tech startups to know» makes for an interesting list. Note, our Sydney based Angel Will is working for Revolut which is in the top 10.

Last but not least, let's acknowledge the angelic mentors that stayed shoreside to keep a full ADI schedule running in Auckland and Queenstown.

Andy, Ralf, Debra, Nicola, Julian, Charlie, Wayne - to name just a few.

Newsletter ➢ ᴀFKAғ•2019#37

11/10/2019


	11 October 2019 #37

FKA's Pitch Night #56. Tue, 15 October, 18:30 at KPMG
18 Viaduct Harbour Ave, Auckland CBD, Auckland 1010

① New - Freighthub (CEO Alan Walpole, champion Phil)
② Update - Spoke Phone (CEO Jason, IR Phil)
③ Update - StretchSense (CEO Ben, IR Chris)

Come sailing with Angels! 17 October, AKL.
Investees, Sponsors and Other Partners
☞ Full Details and Registration

For some of our Angels mentoring has literally become an addiction. But that's good news for startup founders when they get advice and connections from multiple mentors in the room. www.ADI.Clinic/BOOK your FREE advice session in Auckland, Blenheim, Hamilton, Queenstown, Tauranga, Wanaka, Wellington and Whangarei ?

Andrew Harwood + Brian Dawson + Charlie James + Daniel Purcell + Erickson Yap + Hattaf Ansari + Ian Clarke + Julian So + Martin Knoche + Ralf Wittgen + Rudi Bublitz + Tim Pointer + Todd Brackley + Ulrich Wiehle + Wayne Hudson ? thank you all for holding the fort at the various locations around NZ - you're awesome!!!

????????? ????????? is not so anonymous

There are many more who shall remain nameless here. They join as ad hoc mentors time permitting and make for an environment that is stimulating for founders and mentors alike. We started in 2013 and it keeps getting better! ☞ Original LinkedIn Post

AB testing the effectiveness of an email campaign is nothing new. However, what about testing if readers actually read your emails?

Jordan Orth did exactly that with interesting results. ☞ A brief read

Newsletter ➢ ᴀFKAғ•2019#36

4/10/2019


	4 October 2019 #36

FKA's first portfolio company StretchSense has produced a 3x return and has now been acquired by new owners following voluntary administration. We wish CEO Ben O'Brien and the team at StretchSense all the best for the new way ahead.

Techion №08 rights issue closes today and Datagate №05 rights issue closing soon. Interested? Get in touch with Ian.Clarke@fka.nz or Steve.Copely@fka.nz for more info.

Ken Erskine is delivering his trademark Angel 101 course at the end of this month in Tauranga. RSVP

The Fee Freedom Fighter in conversation with Marvin Liao. Here is a brief extract as they touch on Angel investing and fees.

NZTE - Te Taurapa Tūhono in partnership with Poutama Trust is excited to present 'Te Kōmaru' - our first-ever showcase of Māori companies seeking investment for their next stage of growth.

Six pitches from pakihi Māori companies.
Three pitches from larger Greenfield propositions.
Opportunity to network with key stakeholders.
An introduction to some innovative 'up and coming' Māori start-ups.

Te Kōmaru is an invitation-only event. Interested Flying Kiwis and other investors, please email NZTE for your invitation.

Paul is giving a talk next Tuesday evening in Auckland at the New Zealand Software Association. Apparently he was only sweet 19 when he came up with the idea for Author-it.

To join him register here!

Come sailing with Angels! 17 October, AKL.
An alternative Xmas do. Want in?

Get in touch with Hattaf.Ansari@fka.nz !!!

Demo Day in Wellington! Mon 7 October, 17:30. RSVP

These are our two poster boys leading the ADI charge in the Queenstown Lakes District.

Rudi "Guy Fawkes Night would be calling for fireworks!" Rob Vickery "We will be burning an effigy of POTUS."

Rob is a GP of LA VC fund Stage Venture Partners. He is moving to NZ to launch the Hillfarrance VC fund and comes with a healthy measure of English humour.

Modern days startups with olden days protection concepts. New York venture investor Jerry Neumann provides an interesting insight with "A Taxonomy of Moats".

"Startups that aim to create value can’t have a moat when they begin, uncertainty is what protects them from competition until a proper moat can be built. Uncertainty becomes their moat.”

There are three special launch events to mark the opening of entries to the 2020 Hi-Tech Awards. Just by attending you will go in the draw to win two FREE tickets to the 2020 Hi-Tech Awards Gala Dinner in May.

There will be special "fireside" chat with two of our esteemed Flying Kiwis¹⁾ and one Young Achiever. Learning is always best from those that have personally been there, done it.

More details and RSVP

¹⁾ The Hi-Tech Awards honour a "Flying Kiwi" every year. This title should not be confused with the "Flying Kiwi Angels".

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Newsletter ➢ ᴀFKAғ•2019#42

15 November 2019 #42

Newsletter ➢ ᴀFKAғ•2019#41

8 November 2019 #41

PDF VIDEO

Newsletter ➢ ᴀFKAғ•2019#40

1 November 2019 #40

RSVP to have a drink with Jackie & Co

WELCOME!

Newsletter ➢ ᴀFKAғ•2019#39

25 October 2019 #39

Newsletter ➢ ᴀFKAғ•2019#38

18 October 2019 #38

☞ Get your founder ticket

Newsletter ➢ ᴀFKAғ•2019#37

11 October 2019 #37

Come sailing with Angels! 17 October, AKL.
Investees, Sponsors and Other Partners
☞ Full Details and Registration

Newsletter ➢ ᴀFKAғ•2019#36

4 October 2019 #36

To join him register here!

Come sailing with Angels! 17 October, AKL.
An alternative Xmas do. Want in?

Get in touch with Hattaf.Ansari@fka.nz !!!

More details and RSVP

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15 November 2019 #42

8 November 2019 #41

1 November 2019 #40

RSVP to have a drink with Jackie & Co

WELCOME!

25 October 2019 #39

18 October 2019 #38

11 October 2019 #37

Come sailing with Angels! 17 October, AKL. Investees, Sponsors and Other Partners ☞ Full Details and Registration

4 October 2019 #36

Come sailing with Angels! 17 October, AKL. An alternative Xmas do. Want in?

Get in touch with Hattaf.Ansari@fka.nz !!!

Categories

Archives

Come sailing with Angels! 17 October, AKL.
Investees, Sponsors and Other Partners
☞ Full Details and Registration

Come sailing with Angels! 17 October, AKL.
An alternative Xmas do. Want in?