Kia ora Caffeinators,
Happy Wednesday arvo. Very happy to announce the latest in our ‘I Wish I Knew’ Series today because we absolutely love seeing your faces in person. We’ve also got a great deal from our mates over at Lumin to shout out and a lovely update on an earlier story. Something for everyone in this newsey.
Here’s what’s brewing in your Daily Shot:
Event: Caffeine presents ‘I Wish I Knew’- with James Sampson
PAM makes first close after topping app store
Event: Waipa Tech Meetup: Avenues to government funding
Sponsored: Lumin offers Business Bundle for Free
As always, thank you to everyone who has upgraded to a paid subscription or simply recommended Caffeine to friends and whānau. We couldn’t do any of this without you.
Finn and the CAFFEINE team
Lumin offers Business Bundle for Free: Lumin has partnered with Caffeine Daily to give readers exclusive access to the Lumin Business Bundle – completely free for six months, with all the tools included.
Time is precious for entrepreneurs, start-ups and small businesses. Every hour spent on document admin is an hour stolen from strategy, customers, and growth.
Lumin changes that equation.Create AI-generated contracts, collaborate, edit and send for signing. What used to eat up your entire week now happens in minutes.
Over 100 million users already trust Lumin to handle their document chaos. This six-month offer puts enterprise-level tools within reach of growing businesses that need them most.
What’s in your free bundle:
Lumin PDF – Document editing and team collaboration tools that actually work together
Lumin Sign – Get contracts signed in seconds, track every deal, receive automatic updates
AgreementGen – Use AI to turn simple prompts into professional agreements instantly
Ready to reclaim your time? Get Started Free
Event: Caffeine presents ‘I Wish I Knew’ with James Sampson - Join us for a night with James Sampson, Founder & CEO of FileInvite — one of NZ’s great SaaS success stories. Remember to use promo code CAFFIENEFRIENDS when checking out!
About the event
Building a company isn’t one big “ta-da” moment.. it’s a long game. Messy middles, surprise pivots and those classic 2am “what now?” thoughts all come with the territory.
That’s what our I Wish I Knew series is about. Real talk with founders who’ve been in the trenches. They’ve taken hits, made tough calls, and still turned up the next day. Expect the kind of lessons you only learn by doing (and sometimes by getting wrong first).
If you’re a founder, part of an early-stage team, or a leader who’s serious about growth, this is for you. We do screen registrations to make sure the room’s filled with people who’ll get and give value.
About James
James Sampson has lived the startup rollercoaster. He cut his teeth co-founding Zyber, a Deloitte Fast 50 web agency, before diving headfirst into SaaS. Out of sheer frustration with chasing documents came FileInvite, a simple idea that’s grown into a global platform making secure document collection easy for businesses everywhere. Along the way he’s won awards, raised capital, exited companies and weathered the kind of “will this even work?” moments every founder knows too well. James brings an honest and insightful perspective on building, scaling, and proving that global SaaS companies can be built right here in New Zealand.
About Proxi
Proxi helps Kiwi SaaS and tech companies grow faster and smarter. Their fractional go-to-market leadership spans marketing, sales and customer success, with flexible programs designed to slot in where you need them most.
From strategy through to execution, Proxi’s focus is on unlocking growth and leaving behind lasting capability inside your team.
PAM hits first close in seed round after topping app store: Lovely to be able to offer a positive update on this story after we discussed it a few weeks ago. The AI-powered family assistant app PAM has now reached 16,000 users and reached first close of $500k in a seed round seeking $800k. The round also bring in some noteable board additions, including Easy Crypto co-founder and friend of Caffeine Janine Grainger.
Soft launched in February, PAM uses AI to read the household comms (this could be an email, a screenshot or even a crumpled birthday invite) which then becomes an event, a reminder to RSVP, a nudge to buy a gift or a note to pack a costume - all handled automatically and assigned to the appropriate family member.
It’s mothers who carry the lion’s share of household logsitics: 90% are the primary coordinators of family admin and 66% report being very or extremely stressed by it.
With this new momentum, PAM is preparing to take its solution worldwide. Congrats to founder Nicole Retter for absolutely killing it with a product that’s solving for a too often overlooked problem.
Event: Waipa Tech Meetup: Avenues to government funding - Not only do I love Cambridge ( I am there regularly to see a particularly excellent tattooist and get progressively more nerdy ink) I also love educational startup events which drill down on one of the most potentially complex but potentially abundant form of funding - Government money. We all know state level support for tech ventures is out there, but are you making the most of it? Join the team from Waipa tech meetup for a fast-paced, practical session that explores the real opportunities available to tech founders through government-backed funding and support. From R&D tax incentives to capability building and accelerator programmes, this event will help you understand what’s on offer and how to engage.
Hear directly from representatives of key support organisations, including:
Callaghan Innovation
NZTE
Soda Inc.
Regional Business Partner Network.
Speakers:
Anna Devcich, GM, Soda Inc.
Fern Kelly-Zander, Innovation Specialist
Maria Vosper-Rink, Regional Manager, NZTE
Renee Polaczuk, NZ Export Credit Office
Ross Jensen, Oxygen Advisors
Tue, 7 Oct, 5pm - 6:30pm NZDT
BNZ Cambridge Partners Centre Cambridge
That’s it for today, thanks for reading. Want to get in touch with a news tip, bit of feedback or just to chat? Email hello@caffeinedaily.co