How to Hit #1 on the App Store with a $0 Marketing Budget

He built a viral game at 14. Now he’s creating rental millionaires and taking on U-Haul with Lockii. In this episode of TechMates, Hendrik and Mark sit down with Bodhi Hawken, founder and CEO of Lockii — and the conversation starts exactly where you'd expect: a banned school game, two terabytes of copies, and a school IT guy hitting delete while Bodhi watched. From there, Bodhi traces the path from teaching himself Unity at 14, to building a paddleboard vending machine for his uncle at 17, to coding nightclub bottle service software from the back of LA clubs at 19, to founding Lockii — a fully automated rental platform already turning side hustles into million-dollar businesses. The core thesis is simple but big: rentals are the next generation of e-commerce, and there's still no Shopify for them. Lockii is building exactly that. Whether it's mechanics garages in California scaling to 50 locations, trailer operators going from $0 to $10K revenue in two months, or floating saunas in Europe — Lockii automates the entire process so operators never touch a booking manually. One customer put it best: switching back to legacy software would save $800/month on software — and cost $30,000/month in staff.But what makes this conversation stand out is Bodhi's obsession with quality over speed. In a world where anyone can vibe-code a feature overnight, Bodhi runs 10,000 test bookings before releasing anything, tracks a "bad day" metric for every operator and every customer, and rebuilds features from scratch until they actually work. His take: taste and quality are the last real moat — and they're exactly what AI can't replicate yet. 🏄 The Paddleboard Vending Machine: The accidental origin story of Lockii — and why his uncle's request to automate paddleboard rentals became the seed of something much bigger. 🔑 How Lockii Actually Works: Booking, verification, IoT locks, pin codes, e-bike power cutoffs — handing a physical item to a stranger without being there. 📈 The Shopify for Rentals: Why rentals are the next generation of e-commerce and how Lockii is turning one-trailer operators into million-dollar businesses. 🎯 Quality as the Last Moat: Why Bodhi tests 10,000 bookings before releasing a feature — and why taste is the one thing AI still can't replace. 🎧 Listen On: YouTube: https://youtu.be/Ghhpj9fekuI Spotify: https://bit.ly/3TttiM7 Apple Podcasts: https://bit.ly/4xTmPZg Connect with the Guest: Bodhi LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bodhi-hawken/ Lockii Website: https://lockii.app 🔗 Learn more about NZVC: https://www.nzvc.co.nz Mark Pavlyukovskyy — https://www.linkedin.com/in/pavlyukovskyy/ Hendrik Remigereau — https://www.linkedin.com/in/hendrik-remigereau-09a03067/ 00:00 — Intro 01:09 — The Game That Got Banned 03:19 — Learning to Code at 14 07:17 — How Lockii Started 11:51 — The Shopify for Rentals 14:15 — The Future of Rental Businesses 19:50 — Building Software for Nightclubs 24:10 — Lessons from Nightclubs 33:11 — How Bodhi Got His First Startup Job 34:54 — How Lockii Became a Business 38:28 — Building a Reliable Rental Platform 42:09 — How Lockii Works 45:05 — The Hardest Things to Rent 47:50 — Why Lockii Isn't a Marketplace 49:38 — Creating Rental Millionaires 55:56 — Competing with U-Haul 1:04:18 — Why Rentals Are the Future 1:05:40 — AI, Product Quality & Founder Advice If this episode made you rethink what the next generation of e-commerce looks like, hit Like and Subscribe. Drop a comment — do you think rentals will replace dropshipping as the go-to side hustle? #TechMates, #Lockii, #RentalEconomy, #Shopify, #StartupFounder, #SideHustle, #Entrepreneurship, #ECommerce, #NZVC, #NZTech, #AutomatedRentals, #SharingEconomy, #Airbnb, #StartupGrowth, #PhysicalWorld, #AIInBusiness, #ProductQuality, #Founders, #NewZealand, #SoftwareStartup, #RentalBusiness, #TechPodcast, #BuildInPublic, #FutureOfWork, #UHaul

Jamie Beaton couldn't legally sit on his own board at 17, but built Crimson into a global education empire — and is now taking on Big Law with an AI visa startup, teaching a unicorn-building course at Auckland University, and quietly betting on the next generation of founders. In this episode of TechMates, Hendrik and Mark sit down with Jamie Beaton, founder and CEO of Crimson Education, for a second time — and this time the conversation goes deeper. Since they last spoke, Jamie launched an AI-native immigration law startup called Concord Visa, opened New Zealand's largest charter school, and is now teaching a unicorn-building course at the University of Auckland with Peter Beck as a guest lecturer. 🎓 The West Is Losing the Education War: Why India and China's obsession with academic intensity is quietly winning the global talent race — and what New Zealand should do about it. ⚖️ Concord Visa: How Jamie built an AI-native immigration law platform that's already serving Halter, Partly, A16Z and Blackbird — and why Trump accidentally made it take off. 🏫 Fixing NZ Education: Jamie's three-step policy blueprint — replace the national curriculum with A levels, get University of Auckland into the top 25, and give students loans to study abroad if they come back. 💼 The Founder Skill Set: Why a generalist founder mentality beats a single degree — and what the top 20 people on Meta's AI team have in common. 🗳️ 2028 Hot Take: Why Jamie thinks AOC might be the next Democratic presidential candidate — and what AI angst has to do with it. YouTube: https://lnkd.in/gQnb_WbB Spotify: https://spoti.fi/4is21QI Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/42KZ2x1 Jamie Beaton LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamie-beaton/ 🔗 Learn more about NZVC: https://www.nzvc.co.nz Mark Pavlyukovskyy — https://www.linkedin.com/in/pavlyukovskyy/ Hendrik Remigereau — https://www.linkedin.com/in/hendrik-remigereau-09a03067/ 00:01 — Welcome back: married life, India tour & what's changed since last time 01:16 — Julian Robertson, Tiger Management & the mentor who shaped Crimson's ambition 04:14 — Why Jamie's mum had to sit on his board at 17 04:44 — The first board meeting and the moment he knew the race had started 06:27 — Investor relations: why long-term capital is Crimson's secret weapon 08:09 — The India tour: 5 cities, 3 days, 4 Subways and hundreds of families 10:44 — Is the West losing the global education war to China and India? 14:57 — "For every weed-smoking Steve Jobs, there's a million Call of Duty players" 15:29 — The founder skill set: why generalists beat specialists in the AI era 17:20 — Why Jamie seriously considered running for National — and what stopped him 19:21 — Policy blueprint: A levels, University of Auckland top 25, and student loans abroad 23:54 — Concord Visa: building an AI-native immigration law platform 26:57 — Did Trump make Concord Visa's business explode? 28:25 — Where else AI will demolish traditional law firms 30:29 — The bigger Crimson vision: from age 5 to first startup investment 33:57 — How Crimson is different from Andela — and why education is still the core 35:01 — The Forbes column on AI and intersectional thinking vs. deep expertise 38:21 — What should parents actually teach their kids in the age of AI? 41:51 — Why human tutors still beat AI for young learners 47:46 — Why writing still matters — and what we lose if kids stop doing it 49:00 — Are we heading toward an AI-controlled dystopia? 51:20 — AOC vs. JD Vance 2028: Jamie's hot political take 53:20 — How to restore faith in technology and entrepreneurship 54:45 — Will anti-AI politics kill New Zealand's startup ecosystem? #TechMates, #JamieBeaton, #CrimsonEducation, #ConcordVisa, #NewZealand, #EdTech, #AIEducation, #Startups, #NZTech, #NZVC, #Entrepreneurship, #FutureOfEducation, #AITutor, #ImmigrationLaw, #FounderMindset, #Stanford, #HarvardAdmissions, #NZStartups, #AILaw, #GlobalTalent, #Education

How the right brand decision can double your revenue overnight, and how skipping it can quietly kill a good product.In this special compilation episode of TechMates, Hendrik and Mark bring together three conversations with one common thread: brand as a real growth lever, not a nice-to-have. No fluffy logo talk — just the mechanics of how brand decisions drive revenue, unlock new markets, and build the kind of cult following that clears shelves overnight. First up is Simon Pound, one of New Zealand's most respected brand strategists, who walks through the Appetize rebrand in detail — how a $4/week menu app called Menu Aid transformed into a B2B food data platform, and why a single strategic name change led to a 20% overnight user bump and quadrupled revenue over the following years. Then Toby, co-founder of Appetize, shares what that rebrand actually did for the business from the inside — and makes the case for why the food brands winning right now aren't the ones with 400 SKUs, but the ones building deeply loyal, hyper-targeted communities like Moody and Poppy. Finally, Anna Henwood, co-founder of StickyBeak, closes it out with the practical counterpart to all of it: how do you actually know if your brand decisions will land before you spend the budget? From testing brand names to logos to ad creative with real audiences in 48 hours, Anna's framework — test the ingredients, not the cake — is the clearest branding advice in the episode. 🎨 Brand as a Growth Platform: How the Appetize rebrand unlocked a new business model, a 20% overnight user uplift, and 4x revenue growth — all from one strategic name change. 🍔 The Food Brand of the Future: Why cult-following brands like Moody and Poppy are beating legacy players with 400 products — and what founders can learn from their playbook. 📊 Test Before You Commit: Anna Henwood's "test the ingredients, not the cake" framework for de-risking every brand decision before you spend the media budget. 🧪 How StickyBeak Works: From brand name testing to ad creative to product formats — get real customer feedback from any market in the world within 48 hours. 💡 Why Most Startups Skip Branding Too Long: Simon Pound on the hidden cost of founders who build great products but leave their brand untouched for years. 🔗 Learn more about NZVC: https://www.nzvc.co.nz Mark Pavlyukovskyy — https://www.linkedin.com/in/pavlyukovskyy/ Hendrik Remigereau — https://www.linkedin.com/in/hendrik-remigereau-09a03067/ Timestamps: 00:37 — Intro: brand as a growth lever, not a logo exercise 01:02 — Simon Pound: how the Appetize rebrand actually happened 01:16 — Menu Aid to Appetize: the strategy behind the name change 04:24 — 20% overnight user bump and 4x revenue — the results 05:14 — Why being an investor made Simon's advice land differently 05:58 — Intro to Toby: the rebrand from the inside 06:21 — How smart brand positioning doubled sales in a month 08:15 — The food brand of the future: cult following over product range 09:19 — Moody & Poppy: the brands everyone is watching right now 11:19 — Intro to Anna Henwood: test before you commit 11:42 — "Test the ingredients, not the cake" — Anna's core framework 13:00 — How bad creative quietly kills your ad account algorithm 14:00 — Testing brand names, logos, and messaging before launch 15:30 — How StickyBeak works: results from any market in 48 hours If this episode changed how you think about brand decisions, hit Like and Subscribe for more founder-focused conversations. Drop a comment — has a rebrand ever changed the trajectory of a business you've been part of? #TechMates, #Branding, #StartupGrowth, #Appetize, #StickyBeak, #SimonPound, #AnnaHenwood, #NZTech, #NZVC, #BrandStrategy, #StartupMarketing, #FoodBrands, #CultBrand, #Rebranding, #GrowthMarketing, #NewZealand, #Entrepreneurship, #MarketResearch, #ProductMarketFit, #NZStartups, #ConsumerBrands, #Founders, #MarketingStrategy, #Moody, #Poppy

Wayne Brown: blunt engineer, Auckland mayor, and the man on a mission to make NZ the South Pacific's startup capital. In this episode of TechMates, Hendrik and Mark sit down with Wayne Brown, Mayor of Auckland — and he's not your typical politician. A trained engineer who put half a million of his own money into a mayoral campaign, won by a landslide, and then won again even bigger, Brown has spent four years doing something almost unheard of in politics: actually fixing things. From stepping in to restore Auckland's power after a catastrophic grid failure in 1998, to overhauling the city's flood preparedness after a storm that caught everyone off guard, his approach is the same every time — go back to first principles, find the engineers, ignore the lawyers. But this conversation is really about what's coming next. Brown is halfway through an audacious campaign — 100 days, 100 startup T-shirts, 100 short videos — designed to put Auckland's startup ecosystem on the global map ahead of Auckland Startup Week. He's seen the full bell curve up close: the dogs, the future billionaires, and everything in between. His view is simple: Auckland already has the next 25 Halters and Rocket Labs hiding in plain sight. The world just hasn't noticed yet — mostly because New Zealand keeps ending up cut off the bottom of flat world maps.His pitch to founders is as unfiltered as everything else he says: Auckland is safe, cheap, well-connected to Asia, and rich enough to enjoy once you've made it. Silicon Valley is a shithole. Wellington is the worst thing about Auckland. And plastic in the ocean is a bigger threat to humanity than climate change. Whether you agree with him or not, you won't forget what he said. 🏙️ Auckland as a Startup Hub: Why Brown believes Auckland is quietly home to the next generation of global breakout companies — and what it's missing to make that undeniable. 👕 100 Days of Startups: The story behind the T-shirt campaign — what he's seen, what surprised him, and which ones he'd actually put his own money into. 🌏 Auckland's Geographic Edge: Why the shortest route between Asia and South America runs through Auckland — and why the world is only just waking up to it. 🔗 Learn more about NZVC: https://www.nzvc.co.nz Mark Pavlyukovskyy — https://www.linkedin.com/in/pavlyukovskyy/ Hendrik Remigereau — https://www.linkedin.com/in/hendrik-remigereau-09a03067/ Timestamps: 00:00 — The 100 T-Shirt Startup Campaign 02:18 — Fixing Auckland's Power Grid in 14 Days 03:20 — Why Lawyers on Boards Kill Cities 06:25 — The Night of the Flood 07:57 — Media Attacks & Taking the Long View 11:00 — Engineers vs. Politicians 11:17 — Why Brown Ran for Mayor 13:18 — The 100 Days of Startups Explained 14:12 — Auckland's Innovation Gap 17:12 — Who Picks the T-Shirt Each Morning? 19:37 — Plastic Is More Dangerous Than Climate Change 22:27 — The China Trade Mission 23:50 — Auckland as the South Pacific Startup Capital 25:26 — The Value Prop for Early-Stage Founders 26:52 — Wellington Is Auckland's Biggest Problem 29:32 — Auckland's Hidden Geographic Superpower 30:11 — What Auckland Can Be World-Class At 32:02 — China, America & NZ's Foreign Policy 34:43 — The Bell Curve of 100 Startups 36:47 — AI: China Builds Things, America Makes Trivia 38:43 — Advice for a 24-Year-Old Founder 40:39 — The Pitch for Auckland Startup Week #TechMates, #WayneBrown, #Auckland, #AucklandStartupWeek, #NewZealand, #StartupHub, #NZTech, #Entrepreneurship, #NZVC, #Founders, #StartupEcosystem, #DeepTech, #RocketLab, #Halter, #NZStartups, #Innovation, #Mayor, #SiliconValley, #AsiaPacific, #SeaCleaners, #NZBusiness, #TechWeek, #StartupAdvice, #CityOfSails, #GlobalStartups

Four founders, one uncomfortable question: what happens to learning — in school, university, and work — once AI can teach better than most humans? This episode of TechMates brings together four conversations around a single theme: technology is quietly rewriting what it means to learn, at every stage of life. It opens with Arash Tayebi of Kara Technologies, whose personal hearing loss led him to build AI avatars that translate content into sign language in real time — closing an accessibility gap that's existed for decades. From there, the episode widens out. Penelope Barton of Crimson Global Academy has already built her own son a personalized AI tutor at home, and predicts AI-driven teachers are only three to five years from the mainstream classroom. Jamie Beaton of Crimson Education takes the idea further up the ladder, imagining AI avatars standing in for Ivy League professors — and shares what OpenAI's chief economist told him personally about AI and the future of jobs. Finn Puklowski of Fluency Academy closes the loop by bringing it into the workplace: he built an internal AI curriculum for his entire company, warning that whole industries risk their own "rust belt moment" if they don't adapt. Together, these conversations sketch a picture of education not as a single institution, but as something that now follows you from childhood through your career — reshaped, at every step, by AI. 🧏 How AI avatars are giving deaf communities real-time access to education and content 🤖 Why one founder believes AI-driven teachers are only 3–5 years away 🎓 What it would mean for AI avatars to replace elite university professors 💼 Inside one company's internal AI curriculum — 165 projects, 40 shipped to production 📉 The "rust belt" warning for entire industries that ignore AI in the workplace 🔮 What OpenAI's chief economist said about AI and the future of jobs 👨‍👩‍👦 Building a personalized AI tutor for your own child — today, not someday 🎧 Listen On: YouTube: https://lnkd.in/gQnb_WbB Spotify: https://bit.ly/4earYWc Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/42KZ2x1 Connect with the Guests: Arash Tayebi (Kara Technologies) — Kara Technologies: https://www.linkedin.com/company/kara-technologies-ltd | Website: https://kara.tech Pene Barton (Crimson Global Academy) — LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/penelopebarton/ | Website: https://www.crimsonglobalacademy.school Jamie Beaton (Crimson Education) — LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamiebeaton/ | Website: https://www.crimsoneducation.org Finn Puklowski (Fluency Academy) — LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finn-puklowski/ | Website: https://www.fluencyacademy.io 🔗 Learn more about NZVC: https://www.nzvc.co.nz Mark Pavlyukovskyy — https://www.linkedin.com/in/pavlyukovskyy/ Hendrik Remigereau — https://www.linkedin.com/in/hendrik-remigereau-09a03067/ Timestamps: 00:00 — Introduction 0:58 — Arash Tayebi (Kara Technologies): AI avatars for sign language accessibility 2:36 — Why this problem is invisible to most people 4:21 — Demo: narrating a children's book in sign language 6:05 — Pene Barton (Crimson Global Academy): the case for a personal AI tutor 7:25 — Does AI remove the need for school? 8:19 — Why AI-driven teachers are 3–5 years away 10:14 — Jamie Beaton (Crimson Education): could AI replace elite professors? 12:03 — Will AI wipe out white collar jobs? 13:24 — Finn Puklowski (Fluency Academy): building an AI curriculum at work 14:57 — 165 projects, 40 shipped to production 15:42 — The "Rust Belt" warning for companies ignoring AI #TechMates, #ArashTayebi, #PeneBarton, #JamieBeaton, #FinnPuklowski, #KaraTechnologies, #CrimsonEducation, #CrimsonGlobalAcademy, #FluencyAcademy, #EdTech, #FutureOfLearning, #AIinEducation, #AITeachers, #Accessibility, #SignLanguage, #NZVC, #KiwiFounders, #StartupPodcast, #AIandJobs, #FutureOfWork, #OnlineSchool, #Entrepreneurship, #DeepTech, #Innovation