What It Takes to Build a Tech Unicorn from New Zealand
Mark Pavlyukovskyy and Hendrik Remigereau host TechMates, the NZVC podcast. The guest on this episode is Philip Fierlinger, Co-Founder of Xero and Upstock, and it went out on 18 March 2025. It covers the NZVC portfolio company Upstock.
- Guest
- Philip Fierlinger, Co-Founder of Xero and Upstock
- Date
- 18 March 2025
- Companies
- Upstock
- Watch
- YouTube
- Listen
- Spotify
Philip Fierlinger co-founded Xero and is now building Upstock, a platform changing how businesses order wholesale supplies. He explains how Xero went public with almost no revenue, the strategy that made it the darling of accountants and the enemy of MYOB, and why Peter Thiel's go-big approach clashed with Xero's guerrilla growth. The conversation then turns to how Upstock is building a Shopify-like marketplace for wholesale and why the best AI products will not announce that they use AI.
- How Xero disrupted an industry and went public with almost no revenue.
- The strategy that made Xero the darling of accountants and the enemy of MYOB.
- Why Peter Thiel's go-big-or-go-home approach clashed with Xero's guerrilla growth strategy.
- How Upstock is quietly building a Shopify-like marketplace for wholesale.
Companies in this episode
Xero, Upstock, B2B SaaS, wholesale tech, AI in product design, founder story