Driving the Next Wave of Kiwi Business Innovation and Investment

It's entrepreneurs and investors taking the stage! Yoav Lurie and Jeremy Ginsberg are transplanted Americans in NZ (both Edmund Hilary Fellows) and Guy Horrocks is a successful Kiwi who has moved back from NYC. Taking the chair with a wealth of knowledge, experience, and passion for the way venture investment + entrepreneurs + founders can change the world is NZ's very own top angel 😇 Suse Reynolds .Honestly? We can't wait. It'll be inspiring and challenging. And so much networking! Did we mention it's our first in-person event since March last year?

The events of early 2020 — pandemic, lockdowns and worldwide uncertainty 
— prompted expat kiwis and enterprising others to head for Aotearoa, and kickstarted a ‘brain gain’ for NZ.

 In an interactive moderated discussion and audience Q&A, we’ll be exploring international perspectives on entrepreneurship, business, and investment in New Zealand and the global potential for NZ entrepreneurs and companies during the coming decade.

Our Three Panellists

Yoav Lurie - Building sustainable, mission-driven business

ANGEL INVESTOR AND ADVISOR, EHF FELLOW

Jeremy Ginsberg - Developing people capabilities to build businesses that can scale

CTO-IN-RESIDENCE, MOVAC

Guy Horrocks - Successfully growing digital businesses with a focused entrepreneurial mindset

CO-FOUNDER, SOLVE.IO

MODERATED BY

Suse Reynolds

EXECUTIVE CHAIR, ANGEL ASSOCIATION NEW ZEALAND

ABOUT OUR PANELLISTS

Yoav Lurie

Yoav started what was supposed to be a years’ travel round the world in 2020 reconnecting with his family, landed in NZ in March, and decided it might be a good spot to stay. Yoav was awarded an Edmund Hillary Fellowship (EHF) for impact entrepreneurs and investors which comes with a NZ live/work visa.

A lifelong entrepreneur (he started his first company with his brother when he was 7), Yoav was the Founder and CEO of Simple Energy, where he drove the company to become the leading provider of marketplaces, instant rebates, and customer engagement software for electric and gas utilities.

Simple Energy merged with Tendril in July 2019 to form Uplight, the leader in delivering a modern customer energy experience, in order to accelerate the clean energy ecosystem. Following the merger, Yoav was President and COO of Uplight. Exited to Schneider Electric, AES, and financial investors for $1.5 billion. 

Before founding Simple Energy, Yoav helped build a Washington, DC-based technology services firm, served as a managing director for Teach For America, and acted as national president for a network of free residential summer camps for the children of cancer patients. Yoav has been named one of Inc. Magazine’s top “30 Under 30” entrepreneurs and is an active angel investor and advisor, with a particular focus on B2B SaaS and positive social impact companies. 

Jeremy Ginsberg

Jeremy is a hands-on, technical engineering leader, experienced with scaling organizations and teams. Having spent 17 years in Silicon Valley, Jeremy is now based in Auckland, New Zealand, working as CTO-in-Residence with Movac, a NZ venture capital firm. He is enjoying spending time with Kiwi founders and CTO's. “It's early days, but I'm confident that the next decade will see New Zealand become a global centre for tech companies. Any way you slice it, New Zealand punches above its weight.”

Prior to Movac, Jeremy’s last position was Head of Engineering & Data Science at Color, a fast-rising health technology start-up. Before that he was VP of Engineering at Twitter, and Founder/Tech Lead of Google Flu Trends. At Twitter Jeremy was responsible for the engineering and software systems which generate all of the company's global revenue (approximately $2.5B USD/year) and managed 200+ employees across 4 locations. Jeremy led teams at Google focused on machine learning, search quality, analytics, and was the Founder/Tech Lead of Google Flu Trends, a pioneering use of "big data" and search trend analysis.

Guy Horrocks

Guy is an entrepreneur and co-founder at Solve.io helping companies upgrade and operationalise their internal data. Host of the Flat White Entrepreneur Meetup in New York and New Zealand, Guy is also an advisor to the Student Volunteer Army and an investor in Maude, Otherland, Dropel Fabrics, Raaka Chocolate and Butler Bakeshops. 

Guy established himself as an early pioneer of the mobile app industry, co-founding the world’s first commercial iPhone app company in 2007, Polar Bear Farm.

With clients including Expedia, DreamWorks, HBO, OREO, CNN, Time Magazine as well as The New Zealand Herald, Guy – with his award-winning mobile agency Carnival Labs – helped launch more than 100 mobile apps, many of which were featured by Apple.

Guy originally set up Carnival Labs to target casual gaming, entertainment and advertising apps but swiftly broadened Carnival Labs’ scope to include high-profile work for global brands such as Nestlé, Pepsi, DreamWorks, Kraft Foods and Taco Bell.  

Carnival subsequently launched a mobile marketing automation platform that was acquired by Sailthru in 2016.