Founders in Five: Michelle Walshe, Co-Founder Coach Mate and Augusto Group

Time for round #3 of our new Founders in 5 series — five questions with NZ’s startup leaders. Michelle Walshe is up this week. As a content specialist and film director, she focused on telling the stories of remarkable individuals, from directing ‘Chasing Great’ to working on projects with global sports icons like Lydia Ko, Venus Williams and Kevin Durant. In 2018, she co-founded tech startup CoachMate, with a mission to empower grassroots coaches and parents to enrich kids' sports experiences, ensuring they stay in the game and reap the lifelong benefits. Her coffee is black with sugar and her cocktail of choice is a whiskey sour, or just neat.

What do you wish you had known before becoming a founder?

I wish someone had told me just how much time I’d end up spending on the investment hunt, it feels 50% of the job at times. The process is undeniably valuable. Pitching to different audiences, facing hard questions, refining your messaging, and navigating due diligence really forces you to get crystal clear on your vision. But it’s also frustrating at times because that time and energy could be channeled into customer research, sales and marketing or refining product-market fit which are just as crucial for driving the business forward. It’s a delicate balancing act, securing the funds you need to grow without letting the pursuit of investment overshadow actually running the company and building value. I haven't nailed the balance yet!

What's the most useful advice you've ever received [and followed]?

Tech startups are a unique beast. There’s a well-worn path with tons of great resources and collective wisdom that applies across industries, and a real sense of community where everyone is eager to share and support each other. It’s refreshing how people band together and genuinely want to help out. Before this, I ran a service business (Augusto) for 12 years, which felt much more isolated - peers were far less inclined to share their learnings. The best advice I got when transitioning into the startup world was to dive headfirst into the resources, meetups, and events, ask questions, embrace the community and you'll have dozens of people you can reach out to as you get to each new challenge or opportunity. Not only do you save time, but the journey is also much more rewarding, especially with a crowd of cheerleaders on the sidelines.

And the worst? [Followed or not]

A piece of advice I regret not following early on was that we should bring dev talent in-house for our MVP. Instead, we outsourced the work to a third party. At the time, it seemed like the easier and safer route -neither Leigh Kenyon nor I, as the first two founders, had a tech background, so we thought it made sense to rely on external expertise. But it turned out to be a hefty mistake. The third-party team wasn’t invested in the problem, the development process dragged on much longer than it should have, and we ended up scrapping the whole lot. It wasn’t until our third co-founder, Mikey Ramirez, came on board that the product made leaps and bounds. Mikey comes from a product design background, and his tech experience and insights were game-changers. We were able to bring development in-house, and the app became everything we’d hoped for and more. It taught me that having the right expertise internally is crucial - you need people who are as deeply invested in the problem as you are and who understand the vision from the inside out.

What do we need to do to take the NZ startup ecosystem to the next level?

I see a gap in the NZ startup ecosystem for investors who are willing to back sustainable growth rather than just chasing the next unicorn. The focus often falls on high-risk, high-reward bets - backing numerous companies and hoping one or two hit $100 million ARR. But if a startup doesn’t meet those aggressive growth metrics, it’s often dropped, potentially losing valuable businesses that could thrive with more time. We’ve been fortunate to find investors who are aligned with our mission and understand that building an enterprise business like ours, takes time. What we need is more patient capital - investors who are committed to the long view and support companies with realistic, sustainable growth targets. Instead of just chasing unicorns, imagine nurturing a diverse range of resilient businesses that stand the test of time and go on to achieve great things. This approach could build a stronger, more diverse ecosystem, less obsessed with mythical creatures. And let’s not overlook the potential of investing in women - fresh female perspectives will unlock the next big thing, many times over.

What's the hardest thing about being a founder?

The challenge of constantly juggling priorities! Balancing today’s fires with tomorrow’s vision, deciding when to push for sales or investment (cue V50 of the deck), and figuring out whether that shiny new partnership is worth the effort - all while taking care of current customers and new staff. It often feels like spinning a dozen plates while blindfolded, and you're usually doing it all with limited resources. What helps keeps me and the team motivated and excited is having a clear mission to create impact in the community. We’re fortunate to have a business that is highly purpose-driven, which helps cut through the noise, reduce distractions, and provides a north star when everything else feels chaotic!