
Asia’s startup landscape is one of the most dynamic in the world — vast, diverse, and full of promise. Yet it is also fragmented, unevenly supported, and often poorly aligned with accelerator models imported from Silicon Valley. Across the continent, founders face common structural challenges despite wildly different cultural, economic, and regulatory environments.
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As we’ve seen in earlier parts of this series, New Zealand’s startup ecosystem is small but sophisticated, distributed yet deeply creative. From Auckland’s fintech and SaaS hubs to Wellington’s design-led ventures and Christchurch’s engineering heartland, the country consistently produces high-quality entrepreneurs. But the hard truth is this: venture-style blitzscaling doesn’t fit the New Zealand context.
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Techie founders generally operate in their comfort zones: they like to write code. They often start developing software before they validate with customers. As such, they often build solutions looking for problems.
Do NOT write code before you immerse yourself in customers and develop a deep understanding of what pain you are solving.
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In the previous segment, we explored the structural realities of New Zealand’s startup ecosystem — a small domestic market, limited venture capital, and a compelling need for global reach from day one. In this part, let’s look at the geography of innovation across the country — the regional hubs, their strengths, their accelerator cultures, and how the 1Mby1M virtual accelerator complements and extends their efforts.
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Cyber security services provider Palo Alto Networks (NYSE: PANW) continues to be on an acquisition spree this year. After it acquired CyberArk, its biggest acquisition earlier this year, it announced the acquisition of next-generation observability platform Chronosphere yesterday.
>>>Sramana Mitra: Another important point: the probability of building a true unicorn—not an artificial one inflated with liquidation preferences—is extremely low. Many overfunded companies become “zombiecorns” or fail due to overfunding.
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New Zealand has always punched above its weight. With just over five million people, this island nation has built a surprisingly vibrant startup ecosystem. From Wellington’s creative SaaS ventures to Christchurch’s engineering-driven deep tech, innovation has become part of New Zealand’s national identity. Yet, for all its accomplishments, founders here face a familiar challenge — distance, funding scarcity, and the need for global reach from day one.
>>>–Kaushank Khandwala – Writer, Founder, and Pro-Founder Research Fellow
1Mby1M isn’t merely virtual — it’s built for the new generation of founders: Remote. Thoughtful. Independent. Global from Day One.

Should founders give up equity for mentorship?
Do zero-equity programs in Mumbai deliver real founder value?
It’s a decision founders shouldn’t have to make in their earliest, most fragile stages. And yet, many Mumbai accelerators continue to demand equity—even before product-market fit.
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