Phase One Ventures

Phase One is an early-stage founder community, a product and growth incubator program, and a venture capital fund.

Our vision is an even happier New Zealand, with a thriving & vibrant startup ecosystem.

We commit to founders by helping them lay the foundations for truly high growth companies. We do this by helping them to...

Crystallise a vision

Identify growth engines

Achieve product market fit

Build valuable connections

Connecting "been there, done that" operators with the next generation of founders.

Our program will pair startups with a product and growth mentor. We also nurture an environment in which our founders feel comfortable to share, connect and support each other. At Phase One, you'll have access to:

Fortnightly expert sessions

Social catchups

Bi-weekly office hours

Supporting founders throughout their journey, and investing in their future.

We provide our support pro bono, and will invest capital in companies that show great signals of progress. With the right capital and investment, they will be game-changers on their journey to take on the world.

Our fund

We're growing a community of early-stage founders who are crazy ambitious, and want to change the world.

Startups

Mentors

Shipra Mahindra

Senior Product Manager

Octopus Deploy

Abhi Lamba

International Growth Lead

Canva

Josh Kaplan

Head of Product

Narrative

Elise Peate

Head of SEO

HealthMatch

Prashant Rajkhowa

Product & Growth Lead

Nine25

Jaikumar Ganesh

Head of Engineering

Anyscale

Rohan Swami

Product Manager

Atlassian

Our incubator program equips startups with everything they need to become truly high growth companies.

New Zealand is capable of producing high-growth, valuable and global businesses.

There is immense value in founders becoming more problem, customer, and product focused. To build a powerful global startup, at the core there should be an outstanding product that solves deep problems for a customer.

Phase One mentors have actually “been there, done that” in startup land.

We are established by a team involved in some of Australia & New Zealand’s leading startups, that have deep expertise in modern startup systems and practices. We are operators who have actually “been there, done that”.

Problem Discovery

Developing a deep understanding of a problem area for a niche customer.

Productification

Having the capability and learnings of how to launch a product.

Product Market Fit

Traction to the original problem, and the ability to build something that customers truly want.

Vision

A clear and irrational vision of how the world should be, a roadmap to that vision, and a strategic narrative.

We help startups in four main areas...