Perhaps disappointingly for some, Coneybeer promised that Roy will “obey all traffic laws” as the 4X4 tour makes its way from Auckland to Hawke’s Bay, Wellington (where they’ll visit nuclear fusion startup OpenStar), Christchurch (with a side-jaunt to the empty skies – and often empty runway – of the Tāwhaki National Aerospace Centre, west of Banks Peninsula), then finishes in Queenstown. Along the way, the road trippers will meet with early-stage firms, plus some budding entrepreneurs who’ll join the convey.

Coneybeer says it beats elevator pitches, or even a golf date. “When you’re on a road trip with someone for four or five hours, you get to know them quite well.”

His firm, Shasta Ventures, is based in Seattle. But for the past four years, Coneybeer has spent around half his time in New Zealand. His partner is a Kiwi and they live in Mount Maunganui (it’s just a 25-minute flight to Auckland).

“I’ve made a serious effort to learn as much as I can about this country,” the Shasta MD says. He then positions himself some distance from his home country’s new President by adding: “I’ve read, for example, Democracy in Aotearoa: A Survival Guide by Geoff Palmer.”

The Herald confesses to have not got around to that title yet, but is familiar with the Sir Paul Callaghan lore that the American can riff on.

“I know the appeal and the challenges of New Zealand. To move the economy forward, I think you absolutely, you – we – absolutely have to grow the tech ecosystem. There’s no other way out,” Coneybeer says.

“The tourism sector is not going to get more productive. And sending low-value timber and powdered milk to China – you can’t scale that. You can’t scale real estate.”

Small Coneybeer, big returns

Venture capitalists rely on a few big hits to outweigh the inevitable misses.

But, so far, every New Zealand start-up Shasta Ventures has backed has been successful, or is showing promise.

Coneybeer’s firm – often investing alongside local VC players like Movac, GD1 and Icehouse Ventures – has small stakes in Auror (the Taser-backed retail crime reporting firm that’s now used by almost every NZ retail store, even if it’s off Golriz Ghahraman’s Christmas card list); autoparts marketplace Partly, Dawn Aerospace, Zenno Aerospace; electric boat maker Vessev; Hobsonville Point’s Portainer, which lets you write software once then run it on many platforms; Tauranga’s LawVu, which automates processes for in-house legal teams worldwide; and brand-awareness tracking outfit Tracksuit.

It’s been a bad past 12 months for NZ tech firms that make stuff, with the collapse of Ubco, Manta5 and Sunfed. Is a remote country better to chuck in its lot with cloud software? Coneybeer focuses on R&D “deep tech” firms that create new markets. He says the likes of Rocket Lab and Halter have shown you can develop and build in NZ.

His road trip crew will be keeping their eyes peeled for their successors.

Coneybeer says it’s about more than tipping money in. “There’s a real opportunity for the country to be getting more into bringing talent here to work side by side with Kiwis.

“Every time I’ve asked about startups about their biggest challenges, they always mention money. But right up there at the top is talent and availability of talent, and talent that’s done it before.

“What I’ve found with companies like Rocket Lab and others that I’ve looked at and talked to is that the reason they’ve been successful is because not only do they have great Kiwi founders and great Kiwi engineers, but because they’ve done an amazing job of bringing in top talent from around the world.”

4X4 Far Out is also supported by Toyota, Icehouse Ventures, NZX, GD1, Blackbird, Shasta Ventures and the Mountain Club.

Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald’s business team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is the technology editor and a senior business writer.