How do we unlock Aotearoa's A.I advantages?
PLUS: New details on new hardware from OpenAI and learning the lessons from how Pals became Pals.
Welcome to mid week!
Morena Caffeine fam, wishing you a productive Wednesday and for those in Welly for Electrify Aotearoa, wishing you a particularly excellent day. Slightly shorter newsletter today following yesterday’s mammoth headline but still some good stuff to parse.
Here’s what’s in your Daily Shot of news you don’t want to miss:
New report on how we unlocking New Zealand’s AI advantage
Pod pick: Business is Boring - How Pals became Pals
Event: Powerup Accelerator Showcase
Court filings give first details of what OpenAI and Jony Ive are cooking up
Got a tip, press release or just a comment? Drop us a note: hello@caffeinedaily.co - we love to hear from you.
Finn & the Caffeine team
Your checklist for turning security into a competitive advantage
Trust is a critical part of any deal. Customers, big and small, need to know how you’ll protect their data before they can do business with you. If you’re not prepared, this can lead to lengthy questionnaires, long security reviews, and awkward sales conversations.
Read our checklist to get started:
Using security to build trust and close more deals, faster.
Streamlining all your security requests and automating your manual security processes.
Extending trust beyond the four walls of your business with vendor risk management.
Unlocking New Zealand’s AI advantage: We’ve all heard how much A.I can add to the economy and I think over the last few months even sceptics have started to believe it. Last year, research from Accenture and Microsoft found that generative AI could contribute between $76 and $108 billion to our economy each year by 2038. Now some new research has more clearly spelled out what actually needs to happen to unlock some of that growth.
Key takeaways:
By 2035, the new AI economy will generate $3.4 billion in revenue in New Zealand. – This includes New Zealand headquartered businesses and global companies with operations in New Zealand. Achieving this growth will require New Zealand companies to export and grow revenue globally.
Applications are the largest and fastest-growing component of the AI tech stack for New Zealand. Local start-ups can leverage existing foundation models to build industry-specific applications, utilising expertise in sectors where the country is already strong, such as agriculture, health, and public services.
AI datacentres will likely be another major revenue source. The country’s favourable operating environment will attract multinationals who will invest and bring technology to the country.
New Zealand is unlikely to focus on capital-intensive sectors like chip manufacturing or R&D-intensive foundation model development. While the country’s chips component will grow strongly, it is starting from a very low base in 2025.
Nerds can read the full report here.
Business is Boring: How Pals became Pals: I know we often focus on the techier end of startups here but I think it’s important to pay close attention to those founders doing incredible work with more traditional products too. Simon Pound is joined by Nick Marshall and Mat Croad, two of the co-founders of Pals, to unpack how they turned an overlooked, over-sugared category into a cultural icon. Listen to the full pod here.
Event: Powerup Accelerator Showcase: We loveeee a showcase and for Caffeinators in Taranaki tomorrow you should absolutely be heading along to this and for the rest of you across the motu, tune in online. Be part of the audience, live or online, as our six PowerUp Accelerator programme participants pitch their enterprise idea to you.
Over the past ten weeks, these six high-potential startups have received tailored mentoring and support from experts to refine their pitch, power up their idea, and take their business to the next level.
Join us to hear pitches from:
BOTALLOW: New Zealand’s first supplier of premium, cosmetic-grade tallow at scale.
Elshaw: A natural solution for managing healthcare dressings and patches.
ExplainIT: Transformational education tools for those who struggle with numbers.
Her Strength: A science-based learning platform designed to help young female athletes thrive in sport.
Rockpool Collective: Reimagining the future of aged care by building intergenerational communities.
Zoa: International award-winning premium Vodka produced exclusively in Taranaki.
When: Thursday, June 26: 6 - 8:30pm NZST
Where: The Devon Hotel - New Plymouth
Reserve a spot here.
Court filings give first details of what OpenAI and Jony Ive are cooking up: Okay, okay I know I literally just gave you guys an update on this story yesterday but this is much juicier so stick with me a second. As part of the same court proceeding which led OpenAI to take down the promotional material celebrating the deal, we are also discovering some of the early details about what this mythical new product they’re cooking up could actually be. Interestingly, it’s not (at least at this stage) an in ear device ala the movie ‘Her’ as so many assumed or a wearable in general. Apparently the goal is not so much to supplant your phone and comoputer and supplement them. So….an Alexa/Google home that actually works? More detail from the Verge here.
We’re excited to partner with BNZ. As New Zealand's largest business bank, BNZ shares our mission to support the next wave of founders and operators. Over the coming months, we’ll be working together to share insights, tools, and stories that help you grow smarter and faster. Keep an eye out every Thursday for content powered by BNZ.
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
