Five questions with Tax Traders Co-Founder Nicola Taylor
News from the NZ startup ecosystem, straight to your inbox.
Good morning Caffeinators!
Happy hump day. Welcome to day two of our new Substack newsletter and a massive thank you to everyone who has already made a donation or become a paid supporter. Every contribution is deeply appreciated.
In today’s edition we’re preparing for blast-off at Innovate Ōtautahi, debuting a new Founders feature, and shouting out one of those rarest stories: a reason to be hopeful about Climate Change.
So grab your coffee, soak up some Caffeine and start this Wednesday right.
Finn & the Caffeine team
Introducing Founders in 5—five questions with New Zealand's startup leaders. We uncover their key lessons, the best and worst advice they've received, and their thoughts on taking the NZ startup scene to the next level. Nicola Taylor is up this week. Nicola is the co-founder (together with Josh Taylor) of successful fintech company Tax Traders and new venture Taxi. Nicola is passionate about equity in the tax system and business as a force for good! Her go-to coffee order is a flat white.
What do you wish you had known before becoming a founder?
I wish I'd known that things often take longer than you think they might and that every startup founder, at some point, considers that they have made a terrible mistake and should never have done this! But this is OK, and you should (most of the time) keep going!
What's the most useful advice you've ever received [and followed]?
On my 21st birthday my Dad wrote me a letter, including this advice,"Neither be flattered by the world's praise, nor flattened by it's criticism" with the sense that knowing who you are is a great gift and I have carried this with me. The other piece of useful advice (also gifted to me) that has shaped me is "Mā te ngākau aroha koe e ārahi" - let your decisions be guided by love.
And the worst? [Followed or not]
Some of the worst advice I have received is "Keep your emotions out of your decision-making," "Maybe don't be too "female" in your leadership approach," and "Maybe don't care so much." Bad advice. Do not follow it!
What do we need to do to take the NZ startup ecosystem to the next level?
We need to think bigger, think broader, and think better! The way that we conceptualise start-ups in NZ is still much narrower than it could be and we see this show up in our ecosystem in a few ways such as; (1) our overwhelming preference for tech, (2) a relative lack of diversity in the funding pathways (including the criteria we use!), and (3) an overly formulaic approach to growth and investment timelines. I believe that despite the best of intentions, this narrowness places real limits on our start-ups. It constrains their ability to pursue real purpose, to solve meaningful problems, and to carry the grander ambitions that we need if we want to break through to the next level.
What's the hardest thing about being a founder?
I love being a co-founder and consider it a daily privilege to create the culture, imagine the products, and care for the people in a way that reflects who I am. If pushed on a hard thing, I would say it's hard knowing that my very human mistakes can negatively impact the lives of those around me. Also, there's a fair share of sacrifice and heartbreak that goes on that is mostly unseen and it's hard for anyone to truly understand this or what those early days are like.
Backing Opo Bio: Leading the Charge in Sustainable Food Innovation. WNT Ventures has invested in Opo Bio, a synthetic biology company focused on cultivated meat. With strategic partnerships and a commitment to sustainability, Opo Bio is set to lead in ethical and sustainable food systems. Read more.
How hard is it to launch a new bank in New Zealand? Kiwi start-ups Dosh, Emerge, and Debut are entering the financial scene with innovative digital banking solutions. While they face competition from well-established banks, these start-ups are bringing fresh ideas to a sector where digital banks are still emerging. Lloyd Burr for Stuff explains how these companies are navigating their journey in a market dominated by traditional players. Read more.
The University of Auckland's Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) recently launched Kurutao, its first Māori entrepreneurial leaders' tour. Kurutao was designed to inspire Ngāi Māori students by immersing them in NZ’s innovation ecosystem. Initiated by student Hiraia Haami-Wells, the programme connected participants with Māori start-ups and industry experts, aiming to ignite their entrepreneurial potential and foster leadership within the Māori community. Its success sets the stage for similar initiatives in the future. Read more.
The latest Diaspora podcast features Cameron Priest, co-founder of TradeGecko, as he shares his inspiring journey from growing up on a New Zealand kiwifruit orchard to building TradeGecko into a global SaaS leader, eventually acquired by Intuit. He’s now building AMP, a company that acquires, rolls up, and scales Shopify apps - and incubating new ventures at the intersection of AI and vertical SaaS. Listen here.
Innovate Ōtautahi blasts off on September 23 with the third annual Aerospace Summit
A new space race is on, and New Zealand is ready to shoot for the stars.
The most exciting week on the 2024 calendar for New Zealand’s future-focused startups and investors is just around the corner as Innovate Ōtautahi blasts off on September 23.
The week combines three separate events from September 23 - 28, starting with an Aerospace Summit, followed by the Canterbury Tech Summit, and finally, the Smart Christchurch Innovation Expo.
While successes across New Zealand’s thriving tech sectors are celebrated throughout Innovate Ōtautahi, the opening Aerospace Summit showcases one of the most exciting and fast-growing.
Despite our size, New Zealand is in the top four space-faring nations globally, launching the fourth most rockets worldwide in 2022.
With the $350 billion global space industry tipped to reach over $1 trillion by 2040, there’s obvious potential for Aotearoa’s aerospace industry to shoot for the stars in more ways than one.
Caffeine caught up with Aerospace NZ Operations Manager Vickie Harman to hear about this year’s theme, the biggest draw cards and why you should get in quickly if you want to attend. Spoiler alert: there’s $100 off tickets for Caffeine readers. Read more.
Something to get you through the week:
While positive news on climate change can be hard to find, let this podcast from the Economist inject some optimism.
It highlights the extraordinary growth of solar power in the past decade, pointing out by the 2030’s solar power will probably be the largest and cheapest source of electricity on the planet.
Cheap, clean solar power has the potential to completely transform our world and construction has just begun on New Zealand’s largest solar farm.
As the price of new solar plummets and makes dirty energy obsolete, we’re approaching a new tipping point in our climate story.
But for once, it’s a good thing.
