The Agentic AI Future | NZVC Portfolio Day
Mark Pavlyukovskyy and Hendrik Remigereau host TechMates, the NZVC podcast. The guest on this episode is Bradley So, Principal at QCL, Philip Fierlinger, Co-founder of Xero and Upstock & Lane Rettig, Core Dev at NEAR Foundation, and it went out on 15 January 2026. It covers the NZVC portfolio company Upstock.
- Guest
- Bradley So, Principal at QCL, Philip Fierlinger, Co-founder of Xero and Upstock & Lane Rettig, Core Dev at NEAR Foundation
- Date
- 15 January 2026
- Companies
- Upstock
- Watch
- YouTube
- Listen
- Spotify
This panel from NZVC Portfolio Day takes on the agentic future with three guests working at different layers of the AI stack: Bradley So, Principal at QCL, who is disrupting the legal billable hour; Philip Fierlinger, co-founder of Xero and Upstock, who is automating supply chains; and Lane Rettig, core developer at NEAR Foundation, who is building decentralized infrastructure. From the Minder, Finder, Grinder theory of legal work to the 30-year history of AI agents starting at General Magic in 1992, the panel debates whether AI is a job killer or a productivity multiplier, the need for community-governed data sovereignty, and why New Zealand's generalist mindset may be its edge in the AI era.
- Legal disruption: moving from time billing to value billing with AI.
- Supply chain agents: turning messy emails into structured orders in one click.
- Crypto x AI: why we need community-governed AI infrastructure.
- Job market myths: why radiologists and lawyers are earning more with AI.
Companies in this episode
AI, Legal Tech, Crypto, NEAR Protocol, Upstock, Future of Work, NZVC Portfolio Day