Hey everybody,
We are very proud of our Ecosystem map, and it’s great to get lots of good feedback from the community about it. It’s an effort to put Wellington on the map, as it were, but it’s not the only one: Ruth McDavitt is leading a Creative HQ effort to put some numbers to our local tech sector. The Wellington Tech Sector Survey takes five mins to fill, and it will quantify the presence and impact of Tech in Welly and our role in NZ more broadly. Take the five mins, it’ll be worth it for all of us: Imagine the Ecosystem map but with data 🤔
And welcome to the Ecosystem map, Gestalt!
Oh, also, hey: save the date for WellyForge #9! Evening of Tuesday, 14 July, hosted by one Wellington’s most exciting tech companies ✨
Rule #1 - Celebrate the Wins
Advemto has their awesome tech recognised at the Cyto 2026 Technology Showcase 💥
Nicely done Gestalt for launching their product that trains med students!
This year’s Exporter of the Year is PikPok, plus a new game 🎮
Not enough fun and Wildboy Studios announces its 3rd title 💥
Rule #2 - Understand Your Environment
More science coverage with this delightful juxtaposition: PM science adviser says new science priorities will give more bang for buck while Newsroom bids adieu to the Marsden Fund and its outstanding highlight reel. Also Annabel McAleer points out that we don’t currently measure impact 🙃
A big part of our environment in Welly is the craft beer scene. Breweries have faced a lot of turmoil with COVID, the (other) CO2 crisis, and the hospitality slowdown, the issues facing [the sector] now are terrifying. If you drink beer, go to your local brewery. Or go there and have some juice! And if you’re more the investing type, here’s Three Sisters Brewery on PledgeMe, over halfway to their quarter-mil goal.
“A developer on Fiverr could have built something similar for 1/40th of the cost. I know this from first-hand experience having built and managed both websites and content management systems prior to joining council” — deputy mayor on the $600k library website bill. You could be that developer!! Let’s remind our Council that we have all the people we need here to make a competitive bid for any tech service we need, right here in our region. Hint: that $600k went to an Auckland agency 😂
I think readers will agree that local startups outgrowing Aotearoa is not a damnable system failure. Phil Thomson reminds us that it’s the same for your star employees leaving your awesome startup.
Skip to the next section if you’re tired of reading about AI 🫠 The messaging on AI from leaders has shifted appreciably since the first appearance of the tech, from job replacement to human enhancement. It’s not clear to me whether this is a reckoning of fundamental limitations in the current stack or a shrewd response to declining employee trust amidst workslop and boos at commencement ceremonies. The topic is drawing heaps of attention this week, so here are a few links (no editorial):
The much-discussed recursive self-improvement paper by Anthropic.
When the first reader is a machine, about scientific publication.
AI still needs us: Pacific tech leader pushes urgent digital skills for the youth.
Agentic AI, robotics and real-world deployment from a recent trip to China.
Rule #3 - Nothing Falls Thru The Gaps
Big glow-up planned to put life back into tired Wellington entertainment and retail hub on Newsroom, all about the rejuvenation of Courtenay Place.
Sharesies opens SpaceX IPO to wholesale investors locally 💸
NZ researchers will continue to get access to the Australian Synchrotron. The agreement hints at more research infra integration, with Pawsey on the cards. The Aus link could be a way for NZ to get access to some qubits.
Michael Liebreich was in town! That means a lot to renewable energy nerds, and nothing to anyone else. His message on how to stabilise our energy market was “electrification is everything”.
One example of further electrification is the hydro storage that Meridian is pursuing.
Momentum is building for digital assets with BlockchainNZ wrapping up a massive week of policy meetings across Wellington, including a Beehive event.
If you are studying at Vic, the International Experience Grant is open. Go learn cool stuff, come back 🙂
Not local but the Fieldays exhibitor space is sold out for the first time in a while.
Defence Tech is one of those areas that doesn’t have to cost a lot to get off the ground. Being called freeloaders is no fun, but it may lead to investment in the area. If you like playing with drones and satellite imagery, give it a think and look at Delian for an example from another small country.
And while we’re looking at the opportunities that crooked geopolitics present, why not look into formulating and producing medicine? Or diagnostics? Let’s do it, Welly! Let’s get Gracefield back to capacity with cool labs 🧑🔬🧪🫧
Reminders:
Hey, psst, you wanna be a BioTech NZ ambassador?
Register your interest for the Aotearoa Al Hackathon Festival—Welly edition at AWS.
Plenty of office, lab, workshop and technical spaces available for lease at Gracefield. Get in touch with Jo McFarlane to get your science/startup sorted.
Rule #4 - Get Inspired, Meet the Locals
Highlighted entries are new from last week.
Coming week:
Thu, Jun 11th, 11:30am–2pm, Post-Budget Lunch with the Finance Minister at Parliament.
Thu, Jun 11th, 5–8pm, The Unseen Hand: A Cybersecurity Adventure for Founders at Creative HQ.
Thu, Jun 11th, 5.30pm, Welly Fintech: The Trade-offs at Hnry
Wed, Jun 17th, 12:30–1:30pm, Clinical change makers: disrupting in digital health is about nurses and midwives driving digital transformation in the health domain.
Wed, Jun 17th, 5.45–7pm, Café Scientifique: How nature inspires modern medicine at Southern Cross 🍻
Coming eight weeks:
Thu, Jun 18th, 9am–2pm, Future Talent Summit at the National Library will be Connecting people to build Wellington's future.
Thu, Jun 18th, 2–4pm, Let’s Talk SaaSpocalypse at Taiawa.
Thu, Jun 18th, The Great NZ AI Roadshow at Tākina is a “masterclass for Kiwi leaders who want to use AI”. Be that leader 🦸
Thu, Jun 18th, 5pm–late, International SaaS Day party 2026, a “mid-winter celebration of the fastest-growing sector in the New Zealand economy” 🥳
Jun 18–20, New Zealand Skin Cancer Summit.
Mon, Jun 22nd, 4:30–6:30pm, Scamming for Dummies, two-hour interactive session.
Jun 22–23, Certificate in Facilitation at Creative HQ.
Tue, Jun 23rd, 5pm - 9pm, Teulo Talks Live: Wellington for architects who wanna build good and do other things good, too. WellyForge people get a 10% discount with code: TALKER.
Tue, Jun 30th, 12pm, Modelling Rainfall-Induced Landslide Susceptibility and the Impact of Climate Change.
Jun 29th to Jul 3rd, Research Bazaar Aotearoa, free and online.
Thu, Jul 2nd, 6–6:30pm, Generative AI, contaminated information and rhubarb, part of This Thinking Life at Massey.
Thu, Jul 2nd, 6–8:30pm, Start with the People, a Do AI × Everybody Eats fundraiser dinner.
Thu, Jul 7th, 5:30–6:30pm, Targeting diseases the organic way, inaugural lecture by Prof Bridget Stocker
Thu, Jul 30th, Aurora Climate Tech Summit.
Recurring events:
The Atom at Victoria is open for any unfunded Founders (Students, Early Stage, Idea Stage) and is run by Entrepreneur in Residence, Parisa Shademan - Email [email protected], or join the Facebook community.
Mondays 8–9am, Atom - Founder Mentoring ON-LINE
Weds 12–1pm, Atom - Founder Support Drop-In Hour
Thursdays (every other) at 8am, Kapiti Start-Up Network Meet-Ups
Fridays (every other) at 5pm, Founders Meet Up at Southern Cross hosted by Jack Shennan, Alistair St Pierre and Adiraj Gupta.