Dragon’s Den in the sky puts Kiwi startups on board with global investors
Sunday, 1 February 2026
It was a Dragon’s Den in the sky: 45 minutes to pitch, mingle or make a new friend which a dozen Kiwi entrepreneurs did this week, cruising at 30,000 feet in a cabin full of global investors on a chartered Air New Zealand flight.
The New Zealand flight kicked off the first leg of a tour for investor group Far Out, an initiative started three years ago by Silicon Valley venture capitalist Rob Coneybeer.
More than 60 investors - most based or with roots to America - including high profile individuals Randy Reddig, founder of payment platform Square; Marc Mitchell, the owner of the New Zealand Breakers; and iPod creator Tony Fadell have been travelling around New Zealand this week.
They initially flew from Auckland to Wellington, and then Wellington to Blenheim, before starting a week-long 4x4 road trip across the South Island to network and meet some of New Zealand’s most promising startups.
Founders of early startups, Sam Broadhead of Sence; Nicole Retter of personal admin app PAM; Ben Taylor of Frond Space Systems and Nick Hutchins of FlowDeck joined the flight as winners of Air New Zealand’s “Dream Seats”, mingling also amongst experienced enterpreneuers, such as Stefan Powell of Dawn Aerospace.
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Chatter reached fever pitch through the cabin as investors and founders mingled on the one-hour flight to Wellington, fuelled by caramel slice and Finn’s Russian fudge.
The enthusiasm from the US investors about New Zealand business and the calibre of companies across the country’s technology industry was contagious.
“This flight marks the start of the convoy that we are excited to be part of” Air New Zealand general manager of analytics and AI Mike Parsons said as he took to the intercom to address the convoy to cut through the chatter.
“We encourage you to build connections, talk to your neighbours, get to know them, it’s kind of like a Dragon’s Den in the sky; you’ve got 45 minutes to pitch something or get to know someone, or make a new friend.”
He said connecting Kiwi businesses to the world was “a big part” of the mission of the airline, which partnered with Far Out this year.
“New Zealand has always punched above its weight when it comes to innovation, a lot of problem solvers, risk takers, people who say ‘I can think of a better way to do that’ and that’s exactly the kind of businesses you are looking to back and have backed in the past.”
Entrepreneur Nicole Retter, founder of personal admin app PAM, said the opportunity to pitch her business idea and network with global investors, many of whom had their own successful businesses, had been priceless.
“I was going to go to the US in April to start relationships with investors, and to meet some local mums, and this potentially means that a lot of those conversations that would be hard to book in to have, I'm having naturally with people sitting next to me in a four wheel drive,” Retter told the Sunday Star-Times.
Retter started working on PAM, which she describes as a personal assistant for families, just over two years ago, launching on the App Store with 100 users. It now has 20,000 users and last year had its first capital raise, securing $900,000, to enable it to expand into the US.
She said she wasn’t using the trip with Far Out to secure investment, but rather meet people that could help the business later on.
“I was talking to someone on the plane today about a recurring problem that me and my board haven't been able to solve. He'd been through something similar, and it was like this incredible ‘aha’ moment. I was like ‘Oh my god, David, you just solved this problem I've been wrangling with for so long’, and it just came to him so naturally.”
On Wednesday, The Post joined the first leg of the tour, where the investors and enterpreneurs visited fusion reactor firm Open Star Technologies in Wellington and had the opportunity to brush shoulders with and chat to political elite, including Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Education Minister Erica Stanford at Huxley’s, an eatery next door to the Beehive.
Later that day, they attended a swanky dinner in wine country at Wither Hills in Blenheim with Air New Zealand chief executive Nikhil Ravishankar and the company’s executive team, New Zealand Trade and Enterprise chief executive Pete Chrisp, and outgoing Defence and Space Minister Judith Collins. The event felt informal with a tongue-in-cheek undertone, with executives happily letting their hair down following an offsite day of work in Blenheim.
Far Out founder and Shasta Ventures co-founder Rob Coneybeer said the convoy and partnership with Air New Zealand aimed to connect investors from outside of New Zealand with the best of New Zealand in tech to help accelerate growth for the country.
He received much praise from Ravishankar and Collins for his efforts to promote the country and its business interests.
“Our belief is that high growth companies in New Zealand are the future of New Zealand, because it's something that can really influence the GDP per capita without having the deleterious effects of maybe mass immigration,” said Coneybeer, a recent New Zealand citizen.
Many American investors on the trip were New Zealand citizens, through investment in this country to gain residency. Some had done this through the Edmund Hillary Fellowship Global Impact Visa, or the Active Investor Plus Visa, requiring a minimum investment of $5 million for high-growth investments or $10m of mixed or lower risk investments, across three to five years.
“If you take a look at Rocket Lab, and some of the most successful New Zealand start up companies that have grown into large organisations, you’ll find two thirds of those companies in the early days had people that came in from outside New Zealand, working side by side with talented Kiwis and spreading that knowledge,” said Coneybeer.
Air New Zealand chief executive Nikhil Ravishankar said the initiative with Far Out was to back business through connecting New Zealanders to each other and New Zealand to the world.
“We do it literally by being an airline, but we also use our brand and positioning in the aviation industry globally, to do events like this because it's important for New Zealand to have these types of events, to bring people together who can bring capital into the country.”
Aimee Shaw travelled to Wellington and Blenheim courtesy of Air New Zealand.