Hey everybody,

💯 seems to be the magic number. 100 Days of Startups was a comms triumph by Aucks Mayor Brown, and now Mayor Little is setting a goal for Welly to create 100 startups per year. I love the ambition. Let’s use the channels they have created at Town Hall to tell them what we need to make this happen.

Also, it’s an election year with more kingmaker tactics seemingly announced than policies! I’ve been getting in touch with my local candidates to ask how they’ll help us get to 💯. If you can’t be asked to email your local candidates, just reply to this newsletter. I’ll gladly collate and pass along 🪲

🗓 Book your spot for WellyForge #10, Sep 23rd! Access code: WFN20260923. There are plenty of seats left, this is going to be a bigger show than usual. And half the fun happens on the bus, so tag along 🚌

At GEN NZ, Mayor Andrew Little laid out a target of generating 100 new startups per year for Wellington. It’s a big win to have our community’s ambition recognised and boosted by Town Hall 🛠

While this town gets that people of all ages start new businesses, a city has to make sure to create the easiest and friendliest environment for young people to take a shot. Two-thirds of our Uni students are working on average 12 hours a week to stay afloat. We need to work on that if we want a talent pipeline. There is an election coming soon, ask some questions of your local candidates!

Along with other domains, that pipeline feeds a tech industry worth NZ$133 billion (according to Dealroom and NZGCP). Rod McNaughton wonder how much of the benefit can we keep in NZ? Engineering Biology people have told me for a while that scale is hard to attain here, so they move overseas. But that still creates great returns for early investors, and we do have very invested Angels here. It’s always seemed quite a charged topic, so I’m curious to hear from anyone who feels strongly about this!

With all kinds of AI facilities announced for these isles, where does the economic and skills dividend go? In the cherry on top of New Zealand’s data centre story, William Mace of NBR argues that operators should share the upside with the public. It’s super competitive out there, can we be choosers in this race?

As the hype on embodies or physical AI ramps up, Anthropic launches a preview of its Model Hardware Standard (MHS), an interface for AI agents to interact with physical lab and manufacturing equipment. I’ve not had a go yet, but it promises to massively simplify accelerate experimentation in biotech in particular.

Feijoa co-founder Mark White-Robinson breaks down how they built the spend-to-save app that turns spare change into KiwiSaver gains, tackling behavioural saving hurdles through cunning product design.

For those tracking the ongoing national science system restructuring, The Treasury has released the recording of its guest lecture with Sir Peter Gluckman, which touched on driving higher R&D investment across Aotearoa. And speaking of 💯 and science, have a look at 100 Years of Science Impact if you haven’t already.

257 people packed the latest AI Engineering meetup. Welly gets AI just fine.

Opportunities and deadlines:

Highlighted entries are new from last week.

Wed, Sep 2nd, 7–8:30am, Welly Chamber hosts An hour with the Prime Minister

Wed, Sep 2nd, 5:15–7:30pm, Own your AI: Make AI-powered products built on custom and small LLMs by Wellington AI at Creative HQ.

Thu, Sep 3rd, 5:30–6:30pm, Building from scratch: How materials science is decarbonising the world is the inaugural lecture of incoming VUW Prof Franck Natali.

Thu, Sep 3rd, 6–9pm, Conversations over kai — Do AI × Everybody Eats Fundraiser.

3–4 Sep, Association for Women in the Sciences triennial conference at VUW (Hunter Council Chambers, that’s the very fancy room!)

Fri, Sep 4th, 9am–12pm, Supercharge your Business Productivity with AI.

Fri, Sep 4th, 4–5:30pm, The AI-driven future of biotechnology in New Zealand at AI and Society.

Sat, Sep 5th, 2–3:30pm, Where are we at on AI?

8–9 Sep, Aotearoa AI Summit at Tākina.

Wed, Sep 9th, 10am, Founders Fireside: Sportstech lessons from Texas

Wed, Sep 9th, 12:30–1:30pm, AI risks & speculative fiction at Unity Books.

Thu, Sep 10th, 6pm, book launch by Dame Juliet Gerrard at Unity Books.

Fri, Sep 11th, 4–5:30pm, All the time in the world: AI-driven computation hones lab work and frees human hands and brains for creative work at AI and Society. By yours truly.

Mon, Sep 14th, 5–7pm, Summer of Tech Intern Job Fair at Hnry Stadium ✨

Wed, Sep 16th, 6–7pm, Critical Minerals, Material Solutions, at Rutherford House. 🪨

Fri, Sep 18th, HackAotearoa [WLG]: Co-working for startup builders has a venue booked and is already at half capacity 😎 🛠

Sat, Sep 19th, 10am–4pm, Software Freedom Day Wellington 2026.

Wed, Sep 23rd, 5–7:30pm, The 2026 Innovation Election Debate, hosted by Creative HQ at the Beehive.

Wed, Sep 23rd, 6–8pm, WellyForge #10 at Gracefield.

Thu, Sep 24th, SaaSpocalypse Now at Hnry Stadium, Aotearoa’s premier SaaS gathering, hosted by KiwiSaaS.

Fri, Oct 9th, Small nation, big opportunity: NZ's path into global fusion ⚛

30–31 Oct, Kawaiicon 4 at the Michael Fowler Centre no less.

Fri, May 7th 2027, NZ Tech Rally on a Super Early Bird launch.

The Atom at Victoria is open for any unfunded Founders (Students, Early Stage, Idea Stage) and is run by Tania Jones, with entrepreneurs in Residence, Parisa Shademan, Jack Shennan, and Alistair St Pierre and investors in residence Dave Moskovitz, Aaron Scott + Ralph Highnam. Email or join the Facebook community.