Scaling from the Edge: NZ’s Global Champions | NZVC Portfolio Day
Mark Pavlyukovskyy and Hendrik Remigereau host TechMates, the NZVC podcast. The guest on this episode is Leighton Roberts, Co-founder of Sharesies, David Yu, Co-founder of VeVe & Penelope Barton, CEO of Crimson Global Academy, and it went out on 5 February 2026. It covers the NZVC portfolio company Sharesies.
- Guest
- Leighton Roberts, Co-founder of Sharesies, David Yu, Co-founder of VeVe & Penelope Barton, CEO of Crimson Global Academy
- Date
- 5 February 2026
- Companies
- Sharesies
- Watch
- YouTube
- Listen
- Spotify
In this panel from NZVC Portfolio Day, Leighton Roberts of Sharesies, David Yu of VeVe and Penelope Barton of Crimson Global Academy discuss what it takes to scale from the edge of the world. David Yu explains how VeVe secured partnerships with Disney and Marvel without a physical headquarters, Leighton Roberts describes the branding strategy of wearing pink and giving the middle finger to the big blue banks, and Penelope Barton covers how Crimson turned the COVID-19 crisis into a tailwind for online education. The panel also covers fundraising realities, including getting sued by your only investor, and the advantage of Kiwi generalist talent.
“wearing pink and giving the middle finger”Leighton Roberts
- Hyper-growth: scaling to 900k users and $2.2B in sales.
- Fintech disruption: how Sharesies democratized investing.
- Fundraising realities: the difference between NZ, US and Asian capital.
- Remote culture: building billion-dollar companies with decentralized teams.
Companies in this episode
Fintech, EdTech, NFTs, Scaling, Fundraising, NZVC Portfolio Day