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Another FKA Friday ● 26 April 2024#14

26/4/2024


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Jason from Spoke #15 has been thrown a life ring. Seeking $1m, he is past $1.5m to close at $2m or over. Phil is the investor rep.

The Kara #33 team has 'quietly' worked away at this round. And boom they're only $120k away from $3m! Ashley is the investor rep.

There is a final rush of commitments for the Mindhive #41 round. We can take funds in a rolling close until the end of April. David is the investor rep.

Blue Mirror #42 is going into oversubscription and will pitch to our fellow angels in Blenheim and Wellington. Brian and Dave! Rudi is the investor rep.

10 years on and a little bit wiser. We're taking our May pitch night to new levels, at the 10th-floor Sunset Bar of the Sudima Hotel. Tickets are $100 for meal and 1st drink. Secure your spot! Angels, founders, partners, next-gen angels.

We have made GridAKL our FKA HQ for good reason. There is lots going on!

Migrants in Tech AKL, Weds 1 May | 6 pm RSVP
Ecosystem Drinks & Networking / Startup Aotearoa Thurs 9 May | 6pm RSVP
Startup Weekend Tāmaki Makaurau 7 - 9 June 2024 Founders+ Mentors

Entries close on 30th April. So check it out!

"As the dust settles on one of New Zealand’s biggest exits, the $2.2 billion deal for Wētā Digital is now described by stock analysts as “bananas” and “terrible” for purchaser Unity Technologies." READ MORE...

We are looking for mentors to support the people and startups in our programmes. Very happy to talk with anyone who would like to learn more. Come join us!

Sunny called into ADI.Clinic in August 2023 with SPARK, a dating app concept. He is a real hustler and has managed to get press ahead of finishing the app. Respect!

Callaghan's product finder may have some nuggets for founders. Check it out!

The CI newsletter gives regular plugs to CreativeHQ but then the CI CEO used to be the CreativeHQ CEO Evidence of the celebrated 2 Degrees of Separation in NZ or nepotism?

Also, on LinkedIn and over 2,000 FKA GIFs on GIPHY.

Another FKA Friday ● 19 April 2024#13

19/4/2024


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$21.3m invested and $15.5 returned over the last 10 years.

Kami #02 has just signed a deal for all schools in Louisiana. BoomRead ON!

We are looking for mentors to support the people and startups in our programmes. Very happy to talk with anyone who would like to learn more. Come join us!

Many of our portfolio companies have come out of Velocity! Such as StretchSense, Kami and Kara. This is where Bob met the Kami team as a mentor in 2012 to go full-time in 2017.

Phil is the investor rep for Spoke Phone #15. Raising $1m. Contact Phil if you want to join the Q&A session on Tuesday night.

Getting early VC support has benefited many startups such as Canva. But it can be a kiss of death when the VC doesn't follow on. READ ON!

Don't be fooled by initial sales velocity! PRIME has gone subprime

Read 1 + Read 2 □

He Turned 55. Then He Started the World’s Most Important Company: Morris Chang had decades of experience before he founded a business that’s indispensable to the global economy. What can other middle-aged entrepreneurs learn from him? Source!

1. HiPPO – Highest Paid Person’s Opinion
2. ZEBRA – Zero Evidence But Really Arrogant
3. WOLF – Working On the Latest Fire
4. RHINO – Really Here In Name Only
5. SEAGULL – Senior Executive that Always Glides in, Unloads and Leaves Loudly
6. DODO – Dangerously OutDated Opinions
7. ViPER – Vindictive Person Endangering Results
8. MOUSE – Muddled Opinions, Usually Swayed Easily
9. PARROT – Pretty Annoying and Ridiculously Repeating Others
10. DONKEY – Data Only, No Knowledge, Expertise or Why READ

Also, on LinkedIn and over 2,000 FKA GIFs on GIPHY.

Another FKA Friday ● 12 April 2024#12

12/4/2024


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Our April Pitch Night will be next Tuesday, as usual on the 3rd Tuesday of the month. It will be VIRTUAL ONLY, kicking off at 19:00. Clinton from OneReg #25

Justin Flitter runs regular NewZealand.ai/events that are informative and helpful in this rapidly changing space. Check it out for yourself!

Ben Reid is a futurist from Christchurch. He has his 10 digits on the pulse of AI and tech trends like few others and he examines in his 600-page book how these can be leveraged for Aotearoa.

Grab a $10 digital copy before you put $10k into your next AI startup!

Generative AI darling Stability AI had to pay $99M on compute to generate just $11M in revenues. Not sustainable! MORE-1. MORE-2.

Blended across all the Blackbird funds that participated in the sale, Canva made it a 31x return on the cost base of these investments. For Blackbird’s 2012 fund, which participated in Canva’s earliest funding round, the sale represented a return of just more than 2,600 times the cost base of its original investment. MORE!

Investors in an early post-money AUD$1.5m round would see that kind of return when selling at an enterprise value of USD$2.6B. Such returns are outliers, with a lot of luck in the equation, notwithstanding that it requires a stellar team which Canva definitely has. Let's not forget that many unicorns expire before returning anything to investors. AUD$1.5m pre/post rounds, you ask. Yep, in 2012 those were the levels!

The flip side. Sunfed’s chief executive and founder Sukul Lee says the business had not been able to move to a position where it had a positive cashflow. Venture capital investors who had backed the business through its growth and development had started to pull back. MORE!

A big shout-out to our sponsors! Potentia is a finalist in 3 award categories of the Recruitment, Consulting & Staffing Association (RCSA). That is a good reason for Julian to be starry-eyed. As in sales, now it is all about conversion!

Also, on LinkedIn and over 2,000 FKA GIFs on GIPHY.

Another FKA Friday ● 5 April 2024#11

5/4/2024


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This issue hits you from Sydney, not Auckland as usual. Greetings to our fellow angels in Melbourne and Brisbane!

Suse has been a relentless advocate of startups and angel investing. She brought her sparkling enthusiasm and her unique fairy-dusted language to the industry. Best hear it from the fairy's mouth, though. Listen here. Thank you, Suse!

OMG, David! That will be an act to follow! But we know you'll bring your own style and language, neither wax lyrical, nor legalese. Your fellow angels at FKA wish you all the best for this high-flying role!

Good on you, Kim, for firing yourself! At the beginning, founders do every job, but with growth comes focus. Sadly, far too many founders hold on to every job. Not Kim! She has fired herself from all other jobs to focus on her happy place and drive product. See more! BTW, FKA and many of our portfolio companies use BoardPro.

If you think a perfect pitch deck secures funding, think again! Many accelerators in NZ still think so and spend a disproportionate amount of time on the pitch!

Dig into this discussion! Started by Phil Sweeney with "Could we just stop with all this dumbed-down numbbrain treating-founders-like-idiots nonsense, please?"

What happens at ADI? The 17:40 session yesterday started like this: "I have an idea for a product, need to know if it's good and from there what on earth to actually do."

Debra is the 2017 NZ Arch Angel and Rudi followed in her slipstream in 2021. Both of them have recently advocated two niche players with Mindhive and Blue Mirror. Read on for Debra's holy-moley-moment!

Also, on LinkedIn and over 2,000 FKA GIFs on GIPHY.

Another FKA Friday ● 26 April 2024#14

Another FKA Friday ● 19 April 2024#13

Read 1 + Read 2 □

Another FKA Friday ● 12 April 2024#12

Another FKA Friday ● 5 April 2024#11

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