Aaron Batalion

Co-Founder
Living Social

Aaron Batalion is the co-founder and current Chief Technology Officer of LivingSocial, an international ‘deal of the day’ website founded on the principles of social commerce which boasts 70 million members globally. Aaron has extensive online experience and the knowledge required to help budding technology firms to construct successful technology teams.

When we were lucky enough to get the opportunity to chat with Aaron, the first thing we wanted to know was what he was expecting coming to New Zealand. “I don’t think I have any expectations going in. There’s no history of breakout New Zealand companies at least for us here in the States – except for Xero – at least in the dot com sector that we’re familiar with.We’ve all discussed this and it was surprising how little we knew as to what we were expecting.”

The agricultural technology sector was of keen interest to a number of the visiting geeks, including Andrew -“New Zealand has some real unique insights especially in the ag-tech sector, something we really look for when we’re assessing these companies for investment.”

Aaron talked about what the visiting geeks have been doing to ensure they maximize their engagement with New Zealand companies while they’re here.  “We’ve taken a look at all of the companies who we are meeting while we are here – it’s a pretty substantial number. We’ve been meeting with them in different settings, socially sometimes so we can find in advance about what they do. Others have approached us.”

Doing a tour like this in New Zealand presented its own challenges according to Aaron, comparing the New Zealand start-up world with that of the United States, “Unlike in the States where you tend to see a lot of companies doing similar things. In this country, there’s a broader diversity of ideas.”

“The diversity is very unique – there’s a range of different startup types which is atypical. Typically we’ll go to these kinds of events and there’ll be 12 companies presenting and 6 will all sound like the same product.”

Check out the newzealandinc event hub for the NZ Rocket Pitch Competition for all of  newzealandinc.com’s coverage, including exclusive interviews with the visiting geeks, profiles from today’s winning companies and more.