August 2026
Tags
Industry Agnostic
Deep Tech
Ag Tech
Blue Tech
International Opportunity
B2B SaaS
EdTech
Artificial Intelligence
Women
Māori / Pasifika
If You Only Do Two Things This Month
WFW’s Ecosystem Experts highlight two opportunities they’d prioritise from this month’s list.
Save Money
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The DIY RDTI: Claim New Zealand's R&D Tax Credits Yourself - What Founders Want
Industry Agnostic · Deep Tech
https://whatfounderswant.com/expert-editions/the-diy-rdti
Cormac Denton, founder and fractional CFO at Playdough and the person a founder would normally hire to run an R&D claim, writes the self-led guide to claiming both of New Zealand's R&D tax credits yourself. Covers the 15% R&D Tax Incentive and the 28% R&D Loss Tax Credit as one journey: which pot of money is yours, whether your work is genuinely novel, how to write a General Approval that survives IRD scrutiny, and the exit clawback that catches loss-makers who cash out before a sale.
Success-fee firms charge up to 20% of the credit. For a single-project claim with clean records, this edition plus the free MBIE draft review replaces most of what that fee buys.
R&D Experience Grant
Industry Agnostic · Deep Tech
https://www.business.govt.nz/tax-and-money/innovation-funding/r-and-d-experience-grant
A non-dilutive Innovation Services (MBIE) grant that reimburses up to $11,960 plus GST toward a student intern's wages for a 10-week, full-time R&D placement, usually over summer. You get extra hands and a fresh set of eyes on a live R&D project from a science, technology, engineering, design, or business student, and you can apply before you've even found the student. To qualify, your business needs an active R&D programme with at least one R&D staffer.
New to government funding? Start with the NZ Government Support Execution Guide to sequence your grants, and the NZ Government Support Directory (2026) to see what's live right now.
🚨 Applications close 24 August 2026
NZ Startup Ecosystem Directory - What Founders Want
Industry Agnostic
https://whatfounderswant.com/nz-startup-ecosystem-directory
Every founder support organisation in New Zealand in one place: regional hubs, Māori and Pasifika networks, support for women founders, deep tech facilities, university commercialisation offices, and student programmes. Most of it is free. The page sorts every organisation by region, stage, and type of founder, so you match your situation to the right door on the first try instead of after three referrals.
Excludes what lives in the other WFW directories: accelerators, co-working space, government grants, and paid service providers each have their own page.
Bluestart Foundations - Ocean Impact
Deep Tech · Blue Tech
https://www.ocean-impact.org/bluestart-foundations
A six-month incubator for pre-formation and early-stage blue economy ventures, built for founders proving there's a business before they scale one. It's for pre-revenue, often pre-product teams at TRL 1 to 4, whether that's a university spinout, unlicensed IP, or a kaupapa grown from community need, working across circular economy and ocean plastics, aquaculture and blue foods, marine biotech, maritime and vessel tech, ocean data, or coastal restoration.
This is a validation incubator, not a funder, it connects you to capital but doesn't provide it. Best fit if you're still proving the problem is real and worth solving, not if you already have product-market fit.
🚨 Applications close 11 September 2026
Opportunities to save money from last month that are still active and worth acting on.
Still Open (from July)
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Where's Serge?
https://whatfounderswant.com/wheres-serge
Serge van Dam is one of New Zealand's most active angel investors, a director across half a dozen NZ tech companies, and Operating Partner at Movac. He also hosts more startup events than almost anyone else in the country.
Most of those events are free or low-cost. WFW now tracks his full events calendar in one place, updated on the first of every month.
Raise Money
Toi Māui Innovation Grant - Te Taumata Hauora o Te Kahu o Taonui
Māori / Pasifika
https://www.tetaumatahauora.nz/toi-maui-2026-innovationgrant
Grant from Te Taumata Hauora o Te Kahu o Taonui, the Te Tai Tokerau Iwi Māori Partnership Board, for new whānau-centred ideas that improve hauora and wellbeing across its rohe, from Ōtāhuhu in South Auckland to Te Rerenga Wairua. A $200,000 pool is split across multiple initiatives in two bands: $10,000 to seed and develop an idea, or $50,000 for startup innovation, funding around six months of delivery. Open to whānau collectives, kaupapa Māori organisations, NGOs, community groups, and social enterprises working on maternal and early-life care, housing, mental health, or access to care.
This funds new or adapted ideas only, not existing kaupapa or previously funded services. The first step is a Registration of Interest that wants written answers and a short pitch video, so leave time for it.
🚨 ROI closes 3 August 2026 · Shortlisting and pitch 10-14 August · Summit 4 September · Te Tai Tokerau
Nōku te Ao Social Action Grants - Mental Health Foundation
Māori / Pasifika
Grants from the Mental Health Foundation's Nōku te Ao programme for community-led projects that challenge the stigma and discrimination faced by people living with mental distress. A $160,000 pool across two bands: up to $40,000 (with a preference for community, lived-experience, and iwi or hapū groups, co-designed with the Foundation), and $10,000 to $20,000 for individuals and organisations. Projects must shift attitudes, behaviours, or structures rather than just raise awareness, speak to the programme's kaupapa Māori principles, and be delivered in Aotearoa.
For-profit entities can't apply. This is for charities, community and lived-experience groups, not-for-profits, and individuals, so it fits the charity side of your audience, not for-profit startups or social enterprises. Also excludes clinical or treatment work, suicide-focused projects, and last year's grantees.
🚨 Applications close 6 September 2026 (open now)
Spectrum Foundation Grants - Spectrum Foundation
Industry Agnostic
https://www.spectrumfoundation.co.nz/
https://spectrumfoundation.grantplatform.com/
Grants from Spectrum Foundation, Aotearoa's philanthropic funder led by and for disabled people and part of the 30-year Spectrum Group, for projects that help disabled people and their whānau thrive across four areas: education, health and wellbeing, employment, and housing. Funding ranges from small, local community grants to larger grants for wider-impact work, for initiatives that aren't already government-funded and reflect Enabling Good Lives principles of choice, control, and self-determination. Preference for North Island initiatives with local or national reach, and an equity focus on rural, Māori, and Pasifika communities.
Spectrum prefers to fund registered charities and won't fund entities that exist only to create profit, though non-charities can contact the team to ask. So it fits the charity side of your audience; a for-profit social enterprise would need to enquire first.
🚨 Rolling applications
Christchurch Youth Climate Action Fund - Christchurch City Council
Industry Agnostic
https://ccc.govt.nz/culture-and-community/community-funding/youth-climate-action-fund
Grants of $1,600 to $8,500 for youth-led climate projects in Ōtautahi Christchurch, the local arm of the global Bloomberg Philanthropies Youth Climate Action Fund. Open to people aged 15 to 24, with each project led by at least two, covering anything from tree planting and repair workshops to hackathons and innovation challenges, and Council youth navigators give free help to shape the application.
This is community grant funding, not startup capital. Best fit for a young person running a community climate initiative through a host org, not for funding a company.
🚨 EOIs close 31 August 2026 · Applications 14 August to 28 September 2026 · Christchurch District only
AWS AI Accelerator Grant - Inside Startups
Artificial Intelligence
https://www.inside-startups.com/grants/aws-ai-accelerator
Access, arranged by consultancy Inside Startups, to AWS's co-funded proof-of-concept programme: an approved AWS development partner builds you a working AI prototype over six weeks, from a defined use case to a deployed proof of concept with a production roadmap. Averages around $25,000 of build value, with no cash contribution and no equity. Suited to founders with a clear AI use case, early traction, and a technical stakeholder who can join the scoping workshops, the page names FinTech, Healthcare, and Energy as strong fits.
This is funded development, not cash to you. AWS pays an external partner to build the prototype, on the condition it runs on AWS, and Inside Startups sits in the middle. You can also approach AWS Activate or an AWS partner directly. Check who owns and can maintain the code, and weigh the AWS commitment, before you start.
🚨 Rolling · Three-minute eligibility form, reply within two working days
AWS Build Grant - Inside Startups
Industry Agnostic
https://www.inside-startups.com/grants/aws-build-grant
The larger version of the same pathway: up to $100,000 of product development funded by AWS and delivered by an approved development partner, arranged by Inside Startups. Aimed at startups already earning between $12,000 and $500,000 a year that are building something new on AWS. No cash contribution and no equity, and you end with a documented product, architecture overview, and production roadmap after a six-week build and handover.
Same structure as the AI Accelerator: AWS funds an external partner to build on AWS, with Inside Startups as intermediary. "Up to $100,000" is a ceiling, not a set amount. Going direct to an AWS partner or AWS Activate is an option too.
🚨 Rolling · Three-minute eligibility form, reply within two working days
Opportunities to raise money from last month that are still active and worth acting on.
Still Open (from July)
Make Money
DisruptHR 8.0 Wellington
Industry Agnostic
https://www.eventbrite.co.nz/e/disrupthr-wellington-tickets-1992535099119
Sharp, unfiltered ideas about work, leadership, culture, and HR from people with something disruptive to say. 10 speakers, 5 minutes each, slides auto-advancing every 15 seconds. This edition adds a twist: each speaker poses a question to the room afterward, and the audience works through it together. Returns to Rutherford House after several sold-out editions.
🚨 13 August 2026 · Wellington
Bluestart Velocity - Ocean Impact
Deep Tech · Blue Tech
https://www.ocean-impact.org/bluestart-velocity
A twelve-week cohort accelerator for traction-stage blue economy ventures, built to compress a year of growth into three months and get you investor-ready. It's for TRL 5 to 7 teams with a registered company, a team in place, and real evidence: a working product, pilot customers, early revenue, or a validated MVP. The sprint runs in three phases, Sharpen, Connect, Raise, ending in an in-person and virtual Demo Day, with investor-readiness coaching, warm customer and partner intros into the BlueStart Aotearoa network, and an Investor Connect Day of one-on-ones with investors active in your space. Covers aquaculture and blue foods, coastal restoration, subsea tech, ports and maritime infrastructure, autonomous systems, and marine logistics.
The traction-stage sibling to Bluestart Foundations, apply here only if you already have a product and early evidence, not if you're still validating the idea.
🚨 Applications close 8 August 2026
Founder Institute - Australia & New Zealand Cohort
Industry Agnostic
https://fi.co/insight/founder-institute-australia-opens-spring-2026-applications
A part-time, pre-seed programme for idea to early-revenue founders, run by the US-based Founder Institute through its Australia-NZ cohort, with an Auckland chapter, weekly online sessions, and optional in-person meetups in larger cities. Works best for first-time founders who want structure, accountability, and a network they don't yet have. It does not invest in you: any funding comes later, through the FI Venture Network and alumni introductions.
This is the one entry that charges you and takes equity while putting no money in. You pay an entrance fee, commonly around US$500 to US$1,000 depending on the cohort and how early you apply, refundable if you leave before the third session. About two-thirds of the way through you're asked to sign a warrant for 2.5% of your company's future equity into a shared pool, triggered only if you later raise capital, so you can complete the early weeks and leave before that point without giving up equity.
🚨 Applications close 10 August 2026
PLD Facilitators for Wāhanga Ako 26-29 - Ministry of Education
EdTech
https://www.gets.govt.nz/MEDU/ExternalTenderDetails.htm?id=34522731
A Ministry of Education Request for Proposals to build a National PLD Facilitator Network across the nine Wāhanga Ako, plus leadership and dual-medium settings. The Ministry wants a pool of general facilitators for Years 0 to 8 and Years 9 to 10 to deliver professional development directly to kura and kaiako, with training and ongoing support from mātanga. Responses go through GETS, split into price and non-price components.
This is a government services contract for PLD facilitators, not a product-sale opportunity or startup funding. Relevant only if your business delivers professional learning to schools and teachers.
🚨 Closes 19 August 2026, 2:00pm · Responses via GETS
Agritech Unleashed - Tauranga
Ag Tech
https://agritechnz.org.nz/events/
A free full-day AgriTechNZ event bringing founders, growers, investors, and sector leaders together for candid conversations about what it takes to build, fund, and scale agritech companies from New Zealand. Regional insight and real-world agritech in action, part of AgriTechNZ's regionally distributed Unleashed series.
🚨 25 August 2026 · Tauranga · Free, register via AgriTechNZ
Entrepreneurs First
Industry Agnostic · International Opportunity
A talent investor that backs individuals before they have a company, or even a co-founder. You apply solo, relocate full-time to a hub city, and spend around six months finding a co-founder inside the cohort and building a startup from scratch, with support from experienced founders and investors and a bridge into the Silicon Valley network. On its US path, EF invests up to US$250,000 (US$125,000 for about 8% via a post-money SAFE, plus US$125,000 via an uncapped MFN SAFE), and there's an equity-free US$10,000 fellowship for those not yet ready for the SAFE.
This is a quit-your-job, relocate-and-commit programme, not a part-time one. Its only APAC hub is now Bangalore, the others are London, Paris, and San Francisco, and the Singapore hub has closed; the US path forms a Delaware C-Corp. Best fit for early or pre-idea technical founders with no co-founder who can move and go full-time. Terms vary by hub.
🚨 Rolling applications · In-person at a hub city (Bangalore, London, Paris, or San Francisco)
EdTech Jobs NZ - Dean Watson & Adam Walmsley
EdTech
https://www.facebook.com/groups/edtechjobsnz/
A free Facebook group for finding and posting EdTech jobs in New Zealand, run by Dean Watson and Adam Walmsley, who have 20 years in NZ EdTech between them. It exists because EdTech roles are hard to surface, most job boards won't let you filter by the industry, so the group pulls listings into one place and connects people who are hiring in EdTech, already work in it, or want to move into it.
NZ Tech Expo 2026
Industry Agnostic
Annual tech expo bringing together 3,000+ attendees and 80+ exhibitors across the NZ tech sector. Includes lightning talks, live product demos, and sector-specific activations. Most useful for founders who need high-volume networking, want to demo a product, or are actively looking for enterprise customers and distribution partners.
🚨 18 September 2026 · Auckland
Franchise & Small Business Expo 2026 - NZSME
Industry Agnostic
A new two-day national expo for anyone starting, buying, or growing a business, presented by NZSME and supported by the Franchise Association of New Zealand. Meet exhibitors offering products, services, and advice, and sit in on sessions across growth, cashflow, marketing, hiring, AI, systems, leadership, and franchising, alongside workshops, round tables, and live demonstrations over the two days.
Leans small business and franchising rather than tech startups.
🚨 18-19 September 2026 · Auckland
Opportunities to make money from last month that are still active and worth acting on.
Still Open (from July)
Standout Regional Opportunities & Events
Revved 2026
Industry Agnostic
A one-day summit at the Viaduct Events Centre bringing together 800-plus of New Zealand's business minds, from founders and CEOs to industry leaders and rising talent, for a day of perspective-shifting content and honest dialogue.
🚨 6 August 2026 · Auckland
MORGO 2026 - Queenstown
Industry Agnostic
https://www.morgo.co/morgo-events/morgo-queenstown-2026
Two-day retreat for CEOs of high-growth companies going global from New Zealand, running for over 20 years. Starts with dinner on 5 August, then two full days of workshops, networking, and unfiltered founder stories at the Rendezvous Heritage Hotel. Supported by NZTE.
🚨 6-7 August 2026 · Queenstown
AI for Good Hackathon Festival - Seen Ventures
Industry Agnostic · Artificial Intelligence
https://www.seen-ventures.com/hack
A 54-hour hackathon building AI-powered solutions to environmental challenges, run by Seen Ventures in partnership with AI Forum NZ and Unitec. Open to anyone — students, developers, designers, and domain experts — with team formation happening on the day. Seen Ventures will work with the strongest teams after the event to develop ideas into ventures.
Most useful for early-stage founders or pre-founders with an AI or sustainability angle who want a structured build environment and direct access to Seen Ventures.
🚨 6–8 August 2026 · Auckland
Fuckup Nights Auckland // Vol. 01
Industry Agnostic
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/fuckup-nights-auckland-vol-01-tickets-1991814246028
The global Fuckup Nights series returns to New Zealand, launching in Auckland at GridAKL. Founders, entrepreneurs, and creatives share brutally honest stories about the times they got it wrong, the idea that flopped, the launch that tanked, the decision that backfired, and what happened next. It's built to break the taboo around failure and treat it as a normal part of building, with drinks and plenty of laughs rather than polished networking.
🚨 13 August 2026 · Auckland
Westpac Smarts: Beyond the AI Hype
Artificial Intelligence
https://www.eventbrite.co.nz/e/westpac-smarts-beyond-the-ai-hype-tickets-1993364028469
A practical lunchtime session on adopting AI in a mid-market, family, or non-technical business, without a corporate budget or an in-house CTO. Asa Cox, CEO and founder of Arcanum AI, walks through a 90-day framework for putting AI onto the drudge work (research, admin, workflows) while keeping client-facing work with your team, and how to pick use cases big enough to show ROI but small enough not to disrupt the core business. Hosted by Business Central and the Wellington Chamber of Commerce.
Pitched at non-technical SMB and family-business owners rather than tech startups.
🚨 13 August 2026 · Wellington
SCNZ Summit 2026 - Startup Club NZ
Industry Agnostic
https://startupclubnz.com/summit.html
Three-day student-led entrepreneurship summit bringing together 300 student founders, operators, investors, and partners across Auckland. Run by Startup Club NZ, which connects students with the startup ecosystem nationally. Confirmed speakers include Sam Stubbs (Simplicity), with more to be announced.
Primarily aimed at students, but relevant for founders who want early access to the next generation of talent, future hires, and student-run startups worth watching.
🚨 14–16 August 2026 · Auckland
Tech Summit '26 - Canterbury Tech
Industry Agnostic
A full-day Canterbury Tech conference at Te Pae for founders, executives, and tech leaders, running three streams across AI, revenue growth, and customer experience. Alongside the keynotes, this year including Sakana AI's Stefania Druga, there's a 25-plus exhibitor hall, a Ministry of Awesome Startup Zone, and a "Show us your Tech" zone, with networking through the day and drinks to close.
The member price is roughly half the non-member price, so it's worth checking Canterbury Tech membership if you're going.
🚨 16 September 2026 · All day · Te Pae Convention Centre, Christchurch
💸 $269 member / $529 non-member / $169 student (plus GST and fees)
The Jam | Growth Edition - Movac
Industry Agnostic
Movac's growth afternoon returns to Ōtautahi Christchurch for a second year. Six founders and operators from across the NZ tech scene each take ten minutes to tell a candid, specific story about scaling, what worked, what didn't, and what they'd do differently, followed by ten minutes of live Q&A.
Free but approval-only, and open only to founders and employees of New Zealand-founded tech companies.
🚨 20 August 2026 · Christchurch
GEN NZ Unconference & Workshops 2026
Industry Agnostic
https://events.humanitix.com/gen-nz-unconference-and-workshops
Two days at Victoria University of Wellington run by Global Entrepreneurship Network NZ, the national affiliate of the worldwide GEN. Monday 24 August is a day of led workshops with set learning outcomes. Tuesday 25 August is the unconference itself: no fixed agenda, attendees propose and run the sessions on the day, and the room is entrepreneurs, ecosystem builders, investors, and policymakers from across the country. GEN NZ has run these around New Zealand since 2020.
🚨 24-25 August 2026 · Wellington
Conversations Over Kai - Do AI x Everybody Eats
Industry Agnostic · Artificial Intelligence
A one-night curated dinner from Do AI and Everybody Eats that puts a deliberately mixed, cross-industry room together to swap real stories about how people are actually using AI, no jargon, all levels welcome. Tables are mixed and you move to a new one each course, each with a conversation starter, so you've shared the meal with most of the room by the end. $47 gets you a three-course dinner and a drink on arrival, and every dollar goes to Everybody Eats, the pay-what-you-can charitable restaurant.
🚨 Wellington 3 Sep · Auckland 11 Sep
Girls in Business 2026 Conference & Awards
Women
https://www.girlsinbusiness.org.nz/
NZ's largest women's business conference and awards, in its 13th year, at the New Zealand International Convention Centre. A full day of keynotes, panels, and networking with 800-plus delegates, alongside the Girls in Business Awards ceremony. The line-up leans consumer and creator brands: speakers include founders like Kristy Campbell (Pink Pony Creative), Erin Carroll (The Social Lab), and Lisa Perese-Cullen (Harper James), plus broadcasters Toni Street and Dame Valerie Adams.
A general women-in-business day, weighted toward consumer brands, personal brand, and marketing rather than tech startups or fundraising. Inspiration and networking, not capital.
🚨 5 September 2026 · Auckland
SaaSpocalypse Now 2026 - KiwiSaaS
B2B SaaS
https://www.kiwisaas.com/saaspocalypse-now-wellington
A one-day KiwiSaaS conference for 300 NZ SaaS leaders at Hnry Stadium, built around how AI is reshaping SaaS and what still holds. You spend most of the day in one of three functional streams, Sales/Marketing/GTM, Product/Engineering, or People/Ops/Leadership, learning alongside peers at your stage, with benchmarking on where your company leads or lags and concrete next moves to take back to your team.
🚨 24 September 2026 · Wellington
💸 $350 + GST earlybird
Auckland Startup Week 2026
Industry Agnostic
https://www.aucklandstartupweek.com/
A week-long festival of events bringing founders, innovators, investors, and corporate partners together across Tāmaki Makaurau. Designed to inspire, challenge, and connect the ecosystem, with a full programme of sessions across the week.
🚨 12–16 October 2026 · Auckland
Stelar Business Event 2026
Women
https://stelarbusinessevent.com/
A values-led one-day event for established women in business, co-founded by leadership facilitator Kate Ruby Bradshaw. Built around leadership, integrity, and intelligent conversation, it comes with a private community, pre-event audio sessions, and a 21-day post-event "Momentum Builder" of group calls and facilitated networking. A national Business Roadshow series runs into it through the year.
Aimed at established women business owners and leaders, and leadership-development focused, rather than early-stage founders or capital. Ticketed.
🚨 17 October 2026 · Auckland
Sunrise Aotearoa 2026 - Blackbird
Industry Agnostic
https://events.humanitix.com/sunrise-aotearoa-2026
Blackbird's festival for founders, a day of creativity, technology, and ambition where Kiwi and Australian founders come together to meet people, get inspired, and learn. Blackbird's flagship celebration of the people building new things across Australia and New Zealand.
🚨 29 October 2026 · Auckland
Community Spotlights
EdTechNZ
EdTech
EdTechNZ is the peak body and voice for education technology in Aotearoa, a member-funded not-for-profit and part of the wider NZTech alliance. For an EdTech founder it's the sector's front door: regular EdTechNZ Connect events around the country, export market deep-dives into Australia, the US, and international schools, member spotlights, an annual EdTech survey, and advocacy with government on regulation and talent. Its stated focus is helping EdTech companies at every stage, from early-stage startups to established innovators scaling offshore.
Member-funded, so the deepest access (insights, export pathways, member spotlights) comes with joining, though the Connect events and much of the public content are open to the wider community. EdTech-specific.
EdTech Events Calendar: NZ & Australia - Dean Watson & Adam Walmsley
EdTech · International Opportunity
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1tT_OxMOTAI-4AzN-lQqCv6PbkG4F0tSpk_nll6Zx5U0/edit
A free, curated calendar of EdTech events across New Zealand and Australia in one spreadsheet, maintained by Dean Watson and Adam Walmsley. It lists around 60 events for 2026, ordered by date, with an Audience column so you can filter to the ones aimed at EdTech founders, operators, and investors rather than the teacher and principal conferences. Covers everything from EdTechNZ Community Connect events and Founders Day to EDUtech Australia and Techweek.
It's a view-only Google Sheet, so credit the curators if you share it, and check the Tickets column for current details since dates shift. EdTech-specific, and about half the listings are Australian.
Support Superstar Spotlight: Adam Walmsley & Dean Watson
Adam and Dean are on a shared mission: to enable the relationships that solve the education industry’s biggest problems.
Adam Walmsley is based in Hamilton and sits on the board of EdTechNZ, the peak body for education technology in New Zealand. He co-founded and exited Code Avengers, which teaches coding to kids around the world, was an early member of the LearnCoach team, and co-wrote The Kiwi Startup Employee Survival Guide with Dean (below). He now advises many NZ EdTech companies including Thinkladder, Spellcaster, BuzzTales and ManaToa Maths.
Dean Watson is based in Auckland and is the Executive Director of EdTechNZ, where he's led the doubling of memberships to 120 organisations. He is also a founding board member of the Global EdTech Alliance of Alliances, representing the Asia-Pacific region on a UNESCO-incubated platform built to give EdTech a unified global voice. He was the founding employee at LearnCoach and the first sales hire at Thinkladder, along with a bunch of other EdTechs.
Adam and Dean welcome new contacts and are open to cold intros across the ecosystem. Anyone working in or interested in EdTech can reach them both through Dean at dean.watson@edtechnz.org.nz
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Just Shipped on WFW
A quick roundup of what we shipped this month, so you don't have to keep checking the site.
NZ Startup Ecosystem Directory - Updated for 2026
Industry Agnostic
https://whatfounderswant.com/nz-startup-ecosystem-directory
Every founder support organisation in New Zealand in one place: regional hubs, Māori and Pasifika networks, support for women founders, deep tech facilities, university commercialisation offices, and student programmes. Sorted so you can match your situation to the right organisation on the first try, instead of finding the right door three referrals later.
The DIY RDTI: Claim New Zealand's R&D Tax Credits Yourself - What Founders Want
Industry Agnostic · Deep Tech
https://whatfounderswant.com/expert-editions/the-diy-rdti
Cormac Denton, founder and fractional CFO at Playdough and the person a founder would normally hire to run an R&D claim, writes the self-led guide to claiming both of New Zealand's R&D tax credits yourself. Covers the 15% R&D Tax Incentive and the 28% R&D Loss Tax Credit as one journey: which pot of money is yours, whether your work is genuinely novel, how to write a General Approval that survives IRD scrutiny, and the exit clawback that catches loss-makers who cash out before a sale.
Success-fee firms charge up to 20% of the credit. For a single-project claim with clean records, this edition plus the free MBIE draft review replaces most of what that fee buys. Start with the free MBIE review before paying anyone.
Get Help, Anytime
Foundational support every NZ founder should know about. Always available, high-leverage, and often free.
Talk to a Human
Get Investor-Ready
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The Ecosystem Experts Behind WFW Monthly
WFW Monthly only works if the people scanning the ecosystem have actually built inside it.
This is not a content role. It is judgement.
Our Ecosystem Experts are founders, directors, accelerator leads, investors, and operators who have carried real commercial accountability - and understand the difference between activity and traction.
Joe Slater
Joe Slater is a founder, director, and startup operator who has built and exited multiple New Zealand consumer brands, including Six Barrel Soda. He has led accelerator infrastructure at Creative HQ, delivered national coaching through Startup Aotearoa, and now holds executive responsibility for Product at Consumer NZ and coaches startups at Cascade Coaching.
He brings cross-sector, revenue-first judgement to WFW Monthly - shaped by operating, governing, and scaling companies inside the realities of the NZ market.
Lane Litz
Lane Litz is the founder of What Founders Want and a former founder, operator, and VC. She was employee #6 and Head of Education & Teacher Services at VIPKID, helping scale the company to 700,000+ students at a $1.5B valuation. She later founded and exited Speakia, and served as Venture Partner at Icehouse Ventures, vetting startups across climate, deep tech, medtech, edtech, and SaaS.
Lane brings operator-to-investor perspective to WFW Monthly - focused on decision speed, capital pathways, and building companies for both success and scale.
Tamara Buckland
Tamara Buckland is the founder of BloomHQ, a fractional people and culture consultancy supporting startups and high-growth businesses. They also run Leadership Treehouse, designing and facilitating immersive, story-based experiences that help teams practise hard conversations before they hit them in real life. Their background includes scaling People Experience at Sharesies from around 26 to 140 people, and a fractional CPO role at CoGo. They are currently fractional CPO at The Attention Seeker.
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