New NZ Ecosystem Expert: Tamara Buckland
WFW Monthly only works if the people scanning the ecosystem have actually built inside it. So we've brought on another.
Tamara Buckland joins Lane and Joe as WFW Monthly's newest Ecosystem Expert, bringing their experience scaling Sharesies from 25 to 140 people, alongside founding BloomHQ.
Full bio in the Ecosystem Experts section, below.
Tags
Industry Agnostic
Deep Tech
Health Tech
Ag Tech
International Opportunity
B2B SaaS
Creative Tech & Retail
FinTech
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.
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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.
Subscribe to get WFW Monthly - and everything else WFW ships - in your inbox once a month.
Join hundreds of NZ founders already on the list.
Save Money
NZ Government Support: A Step-by-Step Execution Guide - What Founders Want
Industry Agnostic
Mark Robinson of VentureNest, formerly a Business Innovation Advisor at Callaghan Innovation, builds a five-part roadmap for mapping, sequencing, and winning non-dilutive government funding in New Zealand. Covers how to determine if your work qualifies as R&D, how to stack grants without burning eligibility, and grant-by-grant execution tips for MSD Startup Support, Capability Vouchers, Innovation Services, NZ Export Credit, and Aspire/Elevate.
Pairs directly with the /w=1920,quality=90,fit=scale-down){kind=logo}
Research to Innovation Hatchery - University of Auckland CIE
Deep Tech
https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/cie/programmes-workshops-events/all/research-innovation-hatchery.html
Free twelve-week part-time programme helping University of Auckland researchers turn academic work into commercialisation or social entrepreneurship pathways. Around eight hours per week, with in-person workshops and one-on-one mentoring throughout. Open to academic staff, research master's students, and doctoral candidates from all faculties.
Restricted to University of Auckland researchers and staff, not open founders. Past participants have gone on to raise funding and build industry relationships off the back of the programme.
🚨 Applications close 10 July 2026 · Programme runs August - November 2026
Talent Engineer Fellowship - a16z Build
Industry Agnostic · Artificial Intelligence · International Opportunity
https://build.a16z.com/fellowships/talent-engineer
Eight-week cohort for people building AI-native recruiting infrastructure - talent leaders, recruiting systems builders, and founders working on talent technology. Run by a16z, the fellowship brings together around 40 people for an in-person dinner series in San Francisco, live working sessions, demos, and direct access to the a16z founder network. No funding attached - the value is the network and the peer group.
Best suited to founders building in the talent/HR tech space, or operators inside fast-growing startups who are building their own hiring infrastructure. In-person sessions are in San Francisco.
🚨 Applications close 17 July 2026 · Fellowship begins late August 2026 · San Francisco (in-person)
Creative Destruction Lab - Monash Business School
Deep Tech · Artificial Intelligence · International Opportunity
https://www.monash.edu/business/cdl-melbourne
Nine-month objectives-based programme for seed-stage science and technology ventures. Three full-day in-person sessions in Melbourne every eight weeks, where founders work with a panel of experienced entrepreneurs, investors, and scientists to set and review short-term objectives. Graduating ventures are invited to attend the optional Super Session in Toronto, bringing together all 17 global CDL sites. No fees, no equity taken.
NZ founders are eligible. The sessions are in-person in Melbourne, so factor in travel. Best fit for deep tech or science-based founders who have a strong technical foundation and are ready to work intensively toward measurable milestones.
🚨 Applications close 24 July 2026
First Cut x Notion Virtual Series - Icehouse Ventures
Industry Agnostic
https://www.icehouseventures.co.nz/landing-pages/first-cut-x-notion
Three-part virtual series for early-stage founders and operators. Each session pairs a founder conversation with a live Notion demo and practical templates. Two sessions remaining: 22 July on turning customer feedback into product decisions, and 19 August on building communities that drive retention.
🚨 22 July · 19 August · 9am-10am · Zoom · Free
Startup Perks for New Zealand Founders - What Founders Want
Industry Agnostic
https://whatfounderswant.com/startup-perks
Over $1 million NZD in open-access credits, tools, and services for NZ founders - no accelerator or private group required. Covers cloud infrastructure (AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure), developer tools, productivity software, analytics platforms, CRM and support tools, and financial/fundraising tools, plus a separate list of gated perk platforms like Secret, F6S, and Y Combinator's Startup School for founders willing to apply through a partner network.
All listed perks are open-access. Gated platforms requiring membership or accelerator participation are flagged separately so you know exactly what you're trading for access.
Opportunities to save money from last month that are still active and worth acting on.
Still Open (from June)
Raise Money
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PitchMaster - Batko.ai
Industry Agnostic · Artificial Intelligence
Upload your pitch deck as a PDF and get slide-by-slide AI feedback in under two minutes, built on 300+ startup reviews and sourced from Blackbird, YC, Sequoia, a16z, and more.
Scores across four categories: essentials check, style review, tactical analysis, and narrative flow. Top 10% scorers get a personal VC intro from Michael Batko (ex-CEO 8 years, Startmate).
Startup World Cup - Creative HQ
Industry Agnostic
https://creativehq.co.nz/build-for-founders/startup-world-cup-new-zealand/
Startup World Cup is a global pitch competition powered by Pegasus Tech Ventures, connecting top startups to investors and the chance to pitch in Silicon Valley for a USD $1 million investment prize.
Each year, Creative HQ hosts the New Zealand Final in Wellington, bringing together startups from across the motu to pitch live in front of an expert judging panel, investors and the wider innovation community.
🚨 Applications close July 09
Frontier - Airtree Ventures
Industry Agnostic · International Opportunity
https://www.airtree.vc/frontier
A rolling residency for pre-idea or early-stage founders figuring out what to build next. Airtree invests $250K via an uncapped, no-discount MFN SAFE, plus credits from major AI and cloud providers. The anchor is a small Friday cohort at Airtree's Sydney office — deliberately kept tight so the group composition matters. No mandatory programming beyond that.
Open to founders with ties to Australia or New Zealand, including those born, raised, or educated here. Pre-idea is fine. The $250K is equity investment via SAFE, not a grant - Airtree becomes a shareholder at your next priced round. Best fit for technical founders or deep domain specialists who have a thesis but haven't yet landed on the exact thing to build.
🚨 Rolling applications · Sydney (in-person Fridays encouraged, not required)
NZ Startup Accelerators - Updated for 2026 - What Founders Want
Industry Agnostic
https://whatfounderswant.com/accelerators
Every NZ and Australian accelerator realistically open to Kiwi founders, rebuilt and verified for June 2026. Covers 17 programmes, from Startmate's AUD $120,000 cash injection to free, equity-free options like Tupu and Founder Catalyst. Each entry states clearly whether the accelerator puts cash into your company before any other investor, and what equity it takes for it.
Excludes incubators, pre-accelerators, and self-paced learning programmes - only includes accelerators with a structured cohort and a funding or non-funding model disclosed upfront.
Startup Governance in New Zealand (Phase 2: Shared Governance) - What Founders Want
Industry Agnostic
https://whatfounderswant.com/expert-editions/startup-governance/shared-governance
Debra Hall, a startup director with 20+ years across NZ's innovation sector, breaks down what actually changes when a founder appoints their first external director and moves from sole authority to a formal board. Covers the external director value exchange, delegated financial authority, reserved matters, board relationships under financial stress, and what happens when the founder is no longer CEO.
Builds on Phase 1: Founder-Led Governance. Debra also runs Governance for Growth workshops with the Angel Association NZ, priced at $50 per founder.
ANZ Startup Spotlight: The Funding Gap
The Gender Investment Gap NZ
Industry Agnostic · Women
https://www.thegenderinvestmentgap.co.nz/
Annual research tracking how venture capital is distributed across gender in New Zealand. The 2024 data shows female-only founded startups received 2.9% of total capital invested - $4.59M from a pool of $159.95M. Founded by Jenny Rudd and Theresa Gattung, the project publishes reports, tracks deal counts alongside dollar figures, and benchmarks NZ against Australia, the US, and Europe. The 2023 and 2024 reports are free to download.
Equity Clear - Show Us the Data
Industry Agnostic · Women · International Opportunity
https://www.equityclear.com.au/
In 2024, all-women founding teams received 2% of Australia's $5.4B in venture capital, while all-male teams captured 76%
Equity Clear is an Australian initiative building a common data standard for investor diversity reporting across the startup funding pipeline. The Show Us the Data report - developed with 160+ organisations over six months - outlines why tracking who enters, progresses through, and falls away from the investment pipeline matters more than end-state funding data alone. Free to download.
Opportunities to raise money from last month that are still active and worth acting on.
Still Open (from June)
Make Money
L'Oréal Big Bang Beauty Tech Innovation Program 2026 - L'Oréal SAPMENA
Creative Tech & Retail · Artificial Intelligence · International Opportunity
https://bigbang.lorealsapmena.com
L'Oréal's open-innovation competition for ANZ startups across five tracks: Connected Brand Experience, Creators & Affiliates, AI-Powered Commerce, Science for Beauty, Innovation for Good.
Top three SAPMENA Grand Finale winners receive a fully funded commercial pilot with one of L'Oréal's 40 global brands (L'Oréal Paris, Maybelline, Lancôme, Kiehl's, Garnier, others), plus a year of executive mentorship.
🚨 Applications close 3 July 2026
BLOCK71 Singapore Tracks - NUS Enterprise
Industry Agnostic · Artificial Intelligence · International Opportunity
Singapore's most established startup hub (1,600+ ventures since 2011).
General Track: For startups across all industries up to Series A. Up to 3 years of hands-on guidance and mentorship, global networking opportunities, up to 3 years of co-working space at BLOCK71 Singapore.
AI Accelerate 2026 (in partnership with Microsoft): For AI startups looking to build traction and commercial pilots. Up to S$1.2M in Startup SG POC/POV grants and pilot opportunities for selected startups, 10-week AI sprint programme with mentorship from Microsoft and BLOCK71, full incubation support and workspace access.
Foreign founders eligible: BLOCK71 requires startups to "incorporate in Singapore within six months of the programme's start." Soft-landing path into the Singapore market.
🚨 Applications for the Fall Cohort 2026 close 31 July
NZ Small Business Awards 2026 - EmpowerHer Community & She Owns It
Industry Agnostic · Women
https://forms.gle/d2uJcfRErWQexX4k6
https://events.humanitix.com/nz-small-business-awards
Annual awards evening celebrating women in business across New Zealand. Open to any NZ small business with at least one woman in a leadership role - you can apply for yourself or nominate someone else. All finalists across every category are automatically considered for the supreme award, NZ Small Business of the Year 2026. Shortlisted businesses are notified 17 August and invited to submit a more detailed application ahead of judging.
🚨 Applications close 31 July 2026 · Awards evening 15 October 2026 · Auckland
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
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
Opportunities to make money from last month that are still active and worth acting on.
Still Open (from June)
Standout Regional Opportunities & Events
NZ Tech Events
Industry Agnostic
Built by Rowan Savage out of frustration after one too many overlapping Queenstown events, then merged with Pauli Sosa's events spreadsheet to become as close to a single source of truth as NZ has. Hunting down events is currently a full-time job: regional, national, recurring, one-off, scattered across LinkedIn, Slack channels, newsletters, and Eventbrite pages. Attendees miss events they would have gone to. Organisers clash with events they would have actively avoided. NZ Tech Events fixes this with one filterable calendar by region, city, type, or month.
Free to use, free to list. The more organisers who add their events, the more useful it becomes for everyone.
Careers of the Future: Halter Edition - Icehouse Ventures
Industry Agnostic · Ag Tech
https://www.icehouseventures.co.nz/landing-pages/careers-of-the-future-halter-edition
An evening with the Halter team for anyone exploring roles inside a high-growth NZ startup. Panel conversation with Halter's VP of Product & Engineering, Regional Sales Manager, and Global Head of People Programmes on what it takes to build a career at a company scaling fast. Halter currently has 100+ open roles across technical and commercial functions.
For people exploring startup careers, not a founder programme.
🚨 7 July 2026 · Auckland · Free
Mistakes Were Made - Startup Dunedin
Industry Agnostic
https://www.startupdunedin.nz/events
Three founders share unpolished stories about what went wrong and what it actually taught them. No highlight reels. Part of Nano Week 2026 during the New Zealand International Science Festival. Sold out last year.
🚨 15 July 2026 · 6:00pm - 7:30pm · Dunedin · Free
The Jam | Early-stage Capital Edition - Movac
Industry Agnostic
Founders who've been through pre-seed share what actually made the difference, what patterns investors responded to, what traction really means at seed stage, and what Movac looks for through the Emerge fund lens (deep tech and enterprise). Drinks from 5pm to meet the Movac team. For founders and operators only, applications reviewed.
🚨 22 July 2026 · Auckland 💸 (Free for early-birds)
Women in Business Expo 2026 - Soda Inc.
Industry Agnostic · Women
https://events.humanitix.com/women-in-business-expo-2026
Free half-day expo run by Soda Inc. in Hamilton, showcasing business support options available to women in Aotearoa. Lunch and networking from 11am, followed by a guest speaker and Q&A, then an expo floor where support agencies including MBIE are available to talk through what they offer. Open to aspiring entrepreneurs, startup founders, and business owners.
🚨 23 July 2026 · 11am - 2pm · The Atrium, Wintec House, Hamilton · Free
Aurora Climate Tech Summit - Creative HQ
Deep Tech
https://events.creativehq.co.nz/AuroraClimateTechSummit
NZ's largest annual climate-tech forum and the showcase of the Aurora Climate Lab founding teams. Brings together founders, investors, industry buyers and policymakers. Strong for climate and deep-tech founders looking for buyers and capital.
🚨 30 July 2026 · Wellington
Startup Weekend Taranaki 2026
Industry Agnostic
https://events.humanitix.com/startup-weekend-taranaki-2026
The 11th Startup Weekend Taranaki, returning to Hāwera where EatKinda was born. A 54-hour build-a-startup experience with mentoring, team formation and pitching.
Meals included, student discount available (SWSTUDENT for 50% off). No tech background needed.
🚨 31 July 2026 · Hāwera, Taranaki
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.
Open to Morgo Community members. If you're not already a member, join at morgo.co/join before registering. A limited number of sponsored places are also available for founders who qualify.
🚨 6-7 August 2026 · Queenstown · Early bird ends 10 July
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
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
2degrees Auckland Business Awards 2026
Industry Agnostic
https://www.aucklandbusinessawards.co.nz/
Annual awards programme open to all Auckland businesses across nine categories, including Best Emerging Business, Excellence in Innovation, and Excellence in Strategy.
Most useful for founders who can convert a win or finalist placement into customer credibility, recruitment leverage, or press coverage.
🚨 Entries open now · Auckland
Community Spotlights
Hackaotearoa NZ
Industry Agnostic
Fortnightly co-working day for Auckland's startup builders at GridAKL, Wynyard Quarter.
Most solo founders default to working from the kitchen table, not because it's the best option but because it's free, and that isolation has a real cost in time: bad assumptions sit unchallenged for weeks without someone in the room to say "have you tried..." or "that won't work, here's why."
Built for indie hackers, technical and non-technical builders, and anyone tired of grinding in isolation. Bring whatever you're building and use the day to focus, build, test, ship.
🚨 Every two weeks · Auckland
⚡️ Just Shipped on WFW
A quick roundup of what we shipped this month, so you don't have to keep checking the site.
Where's Serge?
https://whatfounderswant.com/wheres-serge
A 2026 calendar of Serge van Dam's events, the busiest in NZ startups, curated by the Movac Operating Partner and active angel investor.
NZ Startup Accelerators - Updated for 2026
https://whatfounderswant.com/accelerators
17 NZ and Australian accelerators and counting. Verified for June 2026, with exactly what cash they put in and what equity they take.
NZ Government Support Execution Guide
A five-part roadmap for mapping, sequencing, and winning non-dilutive government funding without burning eligibility.
Startup Perks for New Zealand Founders
https://whatfounderswant.com/startup-perks
Over $1 million NZD in open-access credits and tools for NZ founders. No accelerator or private group required.
Startup Governance in New Zealand - Phase 2: Shared Governance
https://whatfounderswant.com/expert-editions/startup-governance/shared-governance
What changes when you appoint your first external director and move from sole authority to a formal board.
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
Expand Overseas
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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