Around 20% of New Zealanders live outside of New Zealand. This is our “Diaspora” — and it’s one of the world’s largest, per capita.
Around 20% of New Zealanders live outside of New Zealand. This is our “Diaspora” — and it’s one of the world’s largest, per capita.
And not only is it large, it’s insanely talented.
Early in their lives and careers, many of New Zealand’s most ambitious individuals realise— if they want to make a dent in the universe, they need to get out there… to study abroad, gain experience, build relationships.
Today, those estimated ~1M expats include some of our finest talent. They are the founders, top operators & execs at industry-defining companies. They are scientists and researchers working at the frontiers of science: artificial intelligence, synthetic biology. Global leaders in business, culture, and society… spread across all corners of the world.
Unfortunately— as they go, many drop off the “domestic NZ” radar…
Some of the things I love most about the Kiwi persona .. resourcefulness, humble, hard-working, DIY attitude .. also causes many to keep a low profile, particularly early in their careers.
Lamented as the “great brain drain”, most armchair critics bemoan the loss as one to our national tax base/economy. But the actual cost is worse… it shows up in each new generation of aspiring talent looking for role models, in every cohort of local founders missing the opportunity to connect with and be inspired by a vast network of role models. The scarce resource holding many founders back down-under is exactly that: access to off-shore networks of talent, angel investors, mentors with Actually Useful Experience, at critical moments in time.
As a country already isolated at the bottom of the world, we risk becoming even more so.
But here’s the kicker: actually, more ambitious kiwis should head offshore…
You can build generational, global companies from anywhere, including NZ. This is true now, more than ever.
BUT for many — there’s no substitute for seeing it done first hand… be it apprenticing under, working alongside or having access to hire experienced operators, living in-market where you can be closer to customers. Ideally, you’ll come home again one day (as I did)... but the fact that some may not is a price worth paying.
We believe “New Zealand” is much more than its geographic borders. It’s an identity… a set of values, network of supporters in all corners of the world.
Rather than complain and forget about departing expats — the onus is on the rest of us, at home and abroad, to meet them where they are: to build communities, networks they want to engage with. To surface and share their stories, create opportunities to meet and support each other along the way, on and offline.
And that’s what this is!
Diaspora.nz — the journey so far:
David here 👋
I was an expat for most of a decade: left NZ in 2014 for San Francisco, moved on to London in 2015/16, back to SF in 2019/20… finally making it back home to NZ late last year.
This idea first surfaced in 2017… I kept on bumping into crazy talented expats, had the privilege of sitting them down for a coffee or beer, doing my best to help — while remarking how under the radar they were back home.
We recorded an initial batch of episodes — still live today on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. This mini-”season one” walks it’s own talk. We interviewed and profiled five founders:
Alex Kendall — at the time finishing off a PhD in computer vision and robotics in Cambridge, UK. Today his company Wayve.ai has raised $1.46bn (with a $B 👀) and is a global leader in providing “Embodied AI” systems for autonomous driving.
Michael Forster — part of the founding team at Onfido, which raised over $100M before being acquired for $400M+ in early 2024. Mike has since hopped across the table into VC — Co-founding AfterWork Ventures.
Campbell Brown — Founder and CEO of PredictHQ, based in San Francisco, Cam since raised $33.5M USD to continue scaling/providing events-based data to the largest companies and AI models in the world.
Tom Harding — at the time Founder & CEO of Mish Guru, based in NYC. Mish was acquired in late 2023, can’t wait to see what Tom does next.
Steven Bannerjee — at the time a visiting Scholar at Stanford School of Medicine in California… his startup Mekonos went on to raise $25M+ to overcome pharma industry's cell & gene therapy delivery hurdles, Steven’s on to his next company NextNet.
I met many, many more phenomenal Kiwis along the way — but got busy (founding/building On Deck + becoming a dad) and the podcast wound up back on the back-burner…
Now— back home, new gig at Blackbird, new chapter + new energy… it’s time to kick this in the guts once more 🏃♂️📈
So, Season #2 … how does it work?
Episodes will be 40-50 minutes long, casual yet intimate... Goal is to scale the “coffee chat” to a network, but remain compact as to cut to the real talk.
Rough breakdown:
First 10-15 mins .. how did you get to where you are today? What made you, you?
Second 10-15 mins .. what are you focused on today? teach us something about what inspires you.
Final 5-10 mins .. how can we help you? any asks, upcoming challenges, requests of the Diaspora network?
I’m excited to tap in guest hosts, co-hosts, and am down to experiment with a variety of formats (IRL / virtual, group conversations).
Would love any feedback .. honestly, still a bit of a noob at this stuff.
Who is involved?
We’ve recorded or have planned/scheduled upcoming recordings with a host of phenomenal expats... as a quick preview:
Hamish McKenzie - Live today! Listen here - Co-founder and Chief Writing Officer at Substack, tracing his journey from editor of the “Critic” magazine at Otago University, to noted journalist, to Lead Writer at Tesla, to co-founding Substack in 2017.
Paul Copplestone at Supabase - on raising $116M to date for their rapidly growing open-source Firebase alternative, building a globally distributed team from Singapore.
Victoria Ransom, formerly Co-Founder and CEO of Wildfire (acquired by Google for ~$450M), now reinventing the primary school experience at Prisma, living between the SF Bay Area, Switzerland, and NZ.
Cameron and Bradley Priest at Neu Ventures, formerly founded TradeGecko (acq. by Intuit for $100M+), living in San Francisco and Sydney.
Elizabeth Irons and Dan Knox at Science Exchange, the world’s leading marketplace for outsourced research and development. Elizabeth was YC’s first biotech partner, and has since raised ~$100M from Union Square Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners, Collaborative Fund, and more.
Min-Kyu Jung at Ivo (fmr. Latch). Now living in San Francisco, having raised $6M from Uncork Capital and Fika Ventures.
Sean Gourley - Founder & CEO at Primer, formerly Founder & CTO at Quid, Research Scientist at NASA.
Privahini Bradoo at Plank, formerly raised $50M+ for BlueOak, early exec at LanzaTech.
Zachary Tan - President at Optain, General Partner at Aegis Ventures, a healthcare-focused venture fund & studio in NYC.
Ryan Everton at Turn (formerly Globelet) - Founder & CEO at TURN, a climate tech company solving the massive problem of single-use plastic; raised $22M from Live Nation, Sound Ventures (Ashton Kutcher and Guy Oseary).
Rachel Carrell at Koru Kids, raising ~$20M to supporting families with reliable and flexible childcare solutions; fmr. CEO of DrThom, a healthcare company which grew to 1.3 million+ users.
Ben Reynolds at Spalk, whose “Virtual Sportscasting Studios” power commentary for the world’s leading broadcasters and sports leagues for millions of sports fans around the world each month.
… and so, so many more.
Do you know someone we should chat with? Drop me a DM or email david@diaspora.nz.
What’s next?
We plan to record/publish 24 episodes for “season two” … first episode today + every Friday through to end of the year (subscribe = in your pod queue for the weekend).
I may keep it rolling into 2025, we’ll have to see … if guests are getting value from it, if people are generally vibing on the content + connections. I’ll look forward to your feedback… watch this space! 👀
Hit Subscribe, and come along for the journey 👋
