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In this episode of Stirring the Pot, we’re having a kōrero with Matt Rowe, the engineer turned investor backing New Zealand’s next generation of industrial startups.
In this episode of Stirring the Pot, we’re having a kōrero (conversation) with Matt Rowe, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Outset Ventures, about what it actually takes to build a hard science or engineering company in New Zealand, from the lab bench to industrial scale.
In this episode of Stirring the Pot, we’re having a kōrero (conversation) with Matt Rowe, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Outset Ventures, about what it actually takes to build a hard science or engineering company in New Zealand, from the lab bench to industrial scale.
Matt cut his teeth over a decade as an early employee at a New Zealand founded biotech that grew from an idea into giant-scale industrial facilities around the world. Out of that experience, he went on to co-found several deep tech ventures of his own, and now backs New Zealand’s next generation of industrialists as an investor.
In this conversation, Matt walks through why property and infrastructure matter so much for hard science founders in the early days, and how that shaped the creation of shared lab and workshop space for startups still working at the bench. How venture funding works differently for industrialists than it does for software founders, and why the people around a fund matter as much as the capital. The journey from test tube to tank to tanker, and what changes as a company moves from proof of concept to demonstration to industrial scale. And what he tells engineers and scientists who believe they’ve found a breakthrough but haven’t yet talked to a customer.
Backing the right technology takes more than a good idea. It takes capital, infrastructure, and people who know how to build.
Interview conducted by HERA
Interview conducted by HERA
Resources and links
- Find Mat Rowe – https://outset.ventures/mat-rowe
- Learn more about HERA’s Industry 4.0 rangahau: https://hera.org.nz/research/industry-x-0/
- Subscribe to our podcast: https://www.hera.org.nz/podcasts/
📬 Got questions or feedback? Reach us at info@hera.org.nz
