Live Sessions

Past Sessions

/ Learning Out Loud /

Marketing Series with experienced CMO and entrepreneur Scott Kabat

EHF Fellow Scott Kabat is an experienced operating executive and entrepreneur, with a track record of building customer-friendly mainstream brands to compete in historically unfriendly categories. His experience includes subscription businesses, marketplaces, health care, Internet of Things, and consumer packaged goods.

As the founder of 621 Consulting, Scott leads a team of fractional CMOs and independent marketers who help companies through key inflection points in their growth, with a focus on building the go-to-market engine, brand story, and organizational capacity to scale. Before starting 621, Scott was the Chief Marketing Officer at One Medical, the venture-backed startup that’s rethinking primary care through its membership-based practices and virtual care solutions. Previously, Scott was CMO of Prezi, the cloud-based presentation software company and co-founder of the Y Combinator backed-education startup Knowmia, (acquired by Techsmith). He also led the brand marketing team that launched and grew the market-leading Flip Video brand of pocket camcorders (acquired by Cisco), and then became Worldwide Head of Marketing for Cisco’s consumer networking business. Prior to that stint, Scott worked in various brand marketing, sales and business development roles at The Clorox Company and was a management consultant at A.T. Kearney.

/ Learning Out Loud /

Freight Collaboration in the Future

Hear from EHF Fellow Ryan Petersen, Founder of Flexport, as he is interviewed by Professor Tava Olsen of the University of Auckland.

Hear about global trends in supply chain management and what this means for NZ. What is just a COVID blip versus a global change? Will NZ freight be a spoke out of Australia? How can we get better collaboration across freight within Aotearoa and stop empty freight trucks? 

Flexport is a freight forwarding company, which delivers deep visibility and control, low and predictable supply chain costs, with faster and more reliable transit times, employs 2,000 people in 25 locations. Ryan also founded a social enterprise Flexport.org which has provided international logistics services for millions of people affected by natural disasters and humanitarian relief work, including 62 million pieces of PPE during the COVID outbreak. He is also the Founder of Room.com, ImportGenius, BuildZoom and is raising significant values of VC funds.

Tava is the Director of the Centre for Supply Chain Management here at the University of Auckland Business School and is also Head of Department for both the Information Systems and Operations Management Department and the Accounting and Finance Department. She serves as Programme Director for the Strategic Supply Chain Management Programme and is widely involved in supply chain research. 

/ Learning Out Loud /

Innovation today for a better tomorrow: how improved environmental accounting and  intelligent systems could future-proof agriculture. 

Hear from EHF Fellows Harmaan Madon and Matthew Jackson of Alimentary Systems and Dr Kate Meyer of the Planetary Accounting Network to discuss practical industry solutions for tackling the climate crisis. 

 The effects of climate change are already being felt globally; extreme weather events and changing atmospheric conditions are creating massive human costs, such as the creation of climate refugees and new challenges in agriculture. Water and food security are increasingly threatened by pollution, unstable supply chains and unfavourable growing conditions. But although the situation is urgent, reducing emissions is a goal that is often discussed in the abstract. How do we meet the goals of emissions reductions and other sustainability targets while maintaining viable business models? 

Alimentary demonstrates a practical model for regenerative, sustainable and local agricultural systems; the model will address emissions reductions, and key environmental factors identified by PAN such as sustainable land-use. 

/ Learning Out Loud /

Mental Health and Breakthrough Therapeutics

Watch EHF Fellow Tim Ferriss as he interviews scientist Dr Suresh Muthukumaraswamy, Associate Professor, School of Pharmacy, University of Auckland about their project on mental health.

Suresh’s main research interests are in understanding how therapies alter brain activity and in developing methodologies to measure these changes in both healthy individuals and patient groups. His previous studies have involved a range of compounds including hallucinogens (ketamine, LSD, psilocybin), anaesthetics (propofol, dexmedetomidine), anti-epileptics (vigabatrin, perampanel, tiagabine) and GABA-enhancers (zolpidem, gaboxadol). Suresh’s research has used a wide-range of neuroimaging techniques including magnetoencephalography, electroencephalography, functional magnetic resonance imaging and magnetic resonance spectroscopy.

/ Learning Out Loud /

How to introduce, start & produce an innovation framework with partners inside the government

Watch EHF Fellow Doug Steiner when he shares his work on how to introduce, start and produce an innovation framework with partners inside government.

If you are in government and looking for how to introduce innovation into the ecosystem, or a company that wants to work within existing or new government mandates this is a must-watch.

Doug is an entrepreneur currently based in Toronto. He has started, run, and sold a number of businesses in pricing and trading of financial information and products, and consulted in the use of behavioural economics to change consumer and business stakeholder behaviour. Since 2009, he has also advised firms in finance, government, media and technology in optimisation of business models using technology and researched methods that enhance decision methodologies.

/ Regen and Stewardship /

Investing in Regeneration: Stories of Stewardship

Watch the recording to get an overview of entrepreneurship in ecotech and agtech from Grant's eyes.

This session showcases stories of entrepreneurial action in ecology and food production from around the world - both inside and outside of the EHF community.

Fellow Grant Schultz offers examples of real-world enterprises that improve Quality of Life via focused leverage - and how we can scale similar ecological entrepreneurship in New Zealand and abroad.

Case studies range from coastal aquaculture to open-source plastics recycling to Schultz’s own work creating biodiversity in orchards using GPS technology and autonomous management.

/ EHF Springboard /

NZ's priorities and opportunities in the decade of Climate action.

Watch this session with acclaimed international climate scientist and Hillary Laureate Johan Rockström, and Fellow Vicky Robertson CE and Secretary for Ministry for the Environment facilitated by Cohort 1 Fellow Rod Oram after his trip to COP26 in Glasgow. Hear world-class reflections on the climate summit and distillation of key priority and opportunity areas for New Zealand, and how this can be translated into specific, tactical action.

/ EHF Springboard /

Maturing NZ's Innovation Ecosystem into an economic driver.

This session brought together experts for a systems view on how we can accelerate the growth of NZ's emerging startup and innovation sector. In the next 10 years our innovation system could transform the NZ economy to be a world-leader in sustainable value creation and innovation, grounded in empathy for people and the planet. Rosalie & Michelle led a session aiming to identify priority ‘mission challenges' that can be supported or developed into pilots and projects with ecosystem partners. Speakers include Anna Kominik, Frances Valintine, Suse Reynolds & Aubrey Te Kanawa.

/ EHF Springboard /

NZ's intergenerational transformation opportunity for Rangatahi.

Watch the recording of this session, led by Fellow Shay Wright, developed in partnership with several key organisations in Aotearoa working on transformational economic opportunities for young Māori and Pacific peoples. You will hear from different expert voices and learn about the Collective Impact Framework within the context of indigenous empowerment, sector development and meaningful collaboration.

Some of the speakers include: Eruera Tarena & Hinepounamu Apanui-Barr from Māori Futures Collective; Naomi Manu from Puhoro STEMM; Fellow Nikora Ngaropo from Young Animators; Potaua Biasiny-Tule from Digital Natives Academy; Ian Musson from Young Enterprise Trust.

/ Investor interview /

Helping startups that are positively impacting the world grow and succeed.

Listen to Mark Pavlyukovskyy Founder of NZVC fund as he interviews EHF investor Fellow Ed Baker who is an investor and advisor to various startups including Whoop, Zwift, and Lime. Ed was the VP of Product and Growth at Uber from 2013-2017. Prior to that, he was the Head of International Growth at Facebook, a company he joined after they acquired a startup he co-founded called Friend.ly, which had grown to over 25 million users. Ed has an MBA from Stanford, and at Harvard, he concentrated in Chemistry & Physics.

/ Investor interview /

“How to create a startup ecosystem?”

From SaaS to Crypto.

Listen to EHF investor Fellow Aaron Bird Founding Partner of Pienza as he interviews Fellow Andy Sack previously a mentor and Managing Partner at Techstars, currently at Founders Co-op and digging into his latest venture KeenCrypto. Andy was one of the most influential people in helping create the startup ecosystem in Seattle over the past 15 years. He was also the person to lead arguably the most successful accelerator class of all time (in Seattle), so far 30% of the cohort are unicorns!

/ Learning Out Loud /

Creating value from waste: Bioenergy in Aotearoa New Zealand

Bioenergy will play a key role in reducing the world's reliance on extracted fuel sources in the race to emissions neutrality. Still, the biofuels mandate in New Zealand is only recent.

Hear the recording of Matthew Jackson, Dr Paul Bennett and Harmaan Madon where they discuss the implications of the policy changes, their impact on New Zealand's emissions liability, and the roadmap for the successful commercial adoption of biofuels.

/ Philanthropy Session /

Using Gift Trust and Gift Collective for Philanthropy in NZ and worldwide

Watch this video if you are interested in supporting charitable initiatives in New Zealand -or/and- if you need a platform to get your charitable initiative going quickly while you sort out the paperwork to get registered. Listen to Cheryl Spain and Fellow Tessa Vincent to learn about The Gift Trust (which connects donors to charitable organisations) and The Gift Collective (which allows charitable initiatives to get up and running quickly without the hassle).

/ Investor Session /

NFT’s, the latest crypto craze, right here in Aotearoa

/ Investor Sessions /

Scaling women-led ventures from New Zealand

Hear EHF Investor Fellow Sean McGrail’s interview, a "recovering" entrepreneur who turned a silly idea - drinking and painting at bars - into one of the fastest-growing companies in the US (Paint Nite). Sean is now an Angel Investor with a focus on advising, mentoring and funding early-stage women-led ventures in NZ that can scale globally.

/ Investor Sessions /

Starting, funding and building category-defining SaaS companies

Hear the interview of EHF Investor Fellow Aaron Bird Founding Partner of Pienza an organisation that starts, funds, and builds category-defining SaaS companies. A SaaS guru looking for the next unicorn.

/ Investor Sessions /

Silicon Valley operator run fund in Aotearoa NZ

Hear from EHF Fellow Mark Pavlyukovskyy, an ex Silicon valley operator on why he and investors decided to start the first operator run fund in Aotearoa New Zealand (nzvc.co.nz) to help founders navigate the challenges of starting and growing world-class companies. After investing in their first few companies they reflect on the NZ ecosystem, the opportunities and challenges they see for New Zealand becoming a global innovation hub and what the future holds for building the next set of iconic companies from Aotearoa.

/ Our Regenerative Future - Season 2 /

Envisioning the Future: the place of New Zealand’s native forests in 2050 and 2500

What is the vision of the people driving this initiative, and others working in long-term or infinite-term conservation/land-use in New Zealand? How much native forestry is enough? Where should the forests be?

Is it important to quantify these things and set targets?

Hosted by: Vincent Heeringa
Guest Speakers: Nathalie Whitaker

Live Stream Ended
In collaboration with Pure Advantage and Tāne’s Tree Trust

/ Investor Sessions /

Investors Going Primitive

Join EHF Fellow & TCV General Partner David Yuan as he interviews Fellow Chris Wake Founder Atypical Ventures. Investing in primitives (aka building blocks upon which other things are built) and plausible science fiction given many of Chris' investments involve scientific discovery as a basis for their being.

Hosted by David Yuan, Chris Wake, Michelle Cole

Live Stream Ended