From startup grit to industry disruption, tech entrepreneur Carmen Vicelich has redefined the property landscape with Valocity, and is now tackling carbon footprint reduction with Generate Zero. She joins Ryan Bridge to share the lessons behind her success, what fuels her ambition, and offers practical advice for aspiring entrepreneurs – plus why retirement planning really matters.
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Bridge talks Business: 14 April 2026
Episode Transcript
Ryan Bridge
Kia ora and welcome to episode 71 of Bridge talks Business. Great to have you. We’re doing something a little different for today’s episode. We’re sitting down with one of New Zealand’s leading entrepreneurs. Carmen Vicelich is a tech innovator. She’s making her name on the world stage.
First, here’s your top five business bits from the past seven days.
1. The peace talks in Islamabad between the US and Iran broke down over nukes. Markets are still on night watch for updates from the White House on this situation.
2. In response to the talks breaking down, President Trump ordered a naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. This could be interpreted positively in the sense that the US is applying economic pressure instead of military force by cutting off Iranian revenue and trying to bring China into the discussions as well, given Chinese reliance on Iranian oil.
3. We had the largest month-on-month increase to headline inflation in the US, highest since 2022. The main upside driver, energy prices up 11%, while core inflation was actually a little softer than expected.
4. The RBNZ kept rates on hold here, but language in the statement and the press conference, a little firmer around inflation than the speech that Governor Anna Breman gave a few weeks back.
5. In the week ahead, US earnings season commences, so investors will have a chance to shift their focus from the macro to the micro.
This week we’re sitting down with Carmen Vicelich, Valocity Global CEO and Founder to talk about her journey from corporate life to entrepreneur. Just a reminder, this segment is informational only and should not be considered financial advice. Carmen, welcome to the podcast.
Carmen Vicelich
Thank you for having me. It’s so exciting.
Ryan Bridge
It’s great to have you here. So I wanted to give people a sense of what it is you’re doing now and then go backwards and have a look at where you’ve come from. So what are you doing? What business? Because you’ve got a lot going on Carmen. Every time we talk, what are you doing at the moment?
Carmen Vicelich
So I’ve got three companies at the moment and they’re all very similar in that they use data technology and all very impact driven. So Data Insight helps large organisations that have lots of data and no insight and obviously in the age of AI, everybody wants to start using their data, make data-driven decisions. Valocity is a digital platform that powers property decision making for regulated markets. So we’re in New Zealand, Australia, India, UAE and Generate Zero enables organisations that have to measure and monitor and report on their emissions. Helps them do finance emissions, operational emissions and also now AI emissions so they can do their mandated reporting.
Ryan Bridge
Okay, so as I said, very busy and expanding globally. Tell us where it all started.
Carmen Vicelich
Well I think, my husband said actually, I’ve always been very entrepreneurial and driven, worked from home and worked for somebody for 10 years, had four babies along the way. And then after 10 years took stock and thought, what’s next? And the company that I was at wasn’t innovating, wasn’t solving customers problems, they were just selling what they had. And at the same time, there were these three big massive things happening. One was customer experience, that we as people, started really increasing our expectations. We wanted our life to be easy, we wanted things to be seamless. Uber was coming, Amazon was coming out, people were just delivering things seamlessly to us. So it’s all this opportunity to deliver seamless experiences with data and with tech.
And so I started data insight, resigned from my beautiful corporate job, I was the income earner and my amazing husband looked after the kids. What could go wrong? Well the company that I was at sued me for 10 months to stop me from starting. And long story short, they gave me a public apology and I got a pay out the day before court. So there was like a long time in that period going, well should I just take a job like a normal person? And why should I? But then I also thought, well why shouldn’t I be allowed to start my company? And they were an American company. Finally after 10 months, it wasn’t a straight road, I could finally actually even start with no team, no data, no customers, nothing. And a very big bill, I’d spent all our house money. We were building and we were renting while we were building and I spent all the house money, basically, responding.
Ryan Bridge
Carmen, your husband must have been a little worried.
Carmen Vicelich
He’s a very good husband. He didn’t tell me how much we were spending. But basically, yeah, accepted a payout and a public apology and then started. But nothing will drive you more than an income and four kids and I invoiced a million dollars in the first quarter with Data Insight. I was just hustling and working, you know, just blood, sweat and tears. And then that business helped fund my next business. So I bootstrapped Valocity, and also then the third.
Ryan Bridge
Wow, okay, so at what point or what was it that motivated you to keep going? Because I imagine during that time when there’s that amount of pressure on you, it might have been easy to go, I’ll go back to corporate.
Carmen Vicelich
Yeah, really good question. And I think resilience is such an important thing for business owners and we’ve seen the world today, you know, there’s always gonna be uncertainty and success is never a strong line – never a straight line. It’s always gonna be what’s coming at you. And I think it was really probably a mixture of stubbornness and also just thinking, well, why shouldn’t I? And I can just see a problem that I know I can solve, but why shouldn’t I be allowed to do this? Also, I guess, the unfairness and the principles of it that actually, you know, this wasn’t right. So yeah, probably also a little bit of craziness, no doubt. Undoubtedly, like people thought I was crazy. And when I was doing Valocity, I’m like, I’m gonna digitise the way we do property and the way we get a mortgage globally and do it better than anyone in the world. And they were like, well, she’s definitely crazy. (Laughing)
Ryan Bridge
Why has that been so successful in India in particular and the UAE you mentioned as well?
Carmen Vicelich
Yeah, it’s because every single bank in the world has to validate the value of a property before we lend money on it. And people were working on Excel spreadsheets, on PDFs, and in India, completely manually, like they’d come and pick up the documents, do the valuation, bring back the documents, key it in, takes weeks. And so by digitising this process and creating the infrastructure that’s secure, reliable, and gonna automate this process, it’s transformational. And so we could have gone to America, we could have gone to Canada, but we loved India because Modi’s doing housing for all. So if you don’t have a credit score and you’re getting your first ever home, you really need a robust and valid decision on that property and that risk, if you like, for the bank. So it was really, really impactful for us to go to India. It was super hard. You can imagine, like we’re literally pioneering a new way of working and people are sending things back on WhatsApp with PDFs and we’re going, no, you have to use the platform. So we had to make it easy for the valuers and we created an app for them for free. And then also the adoption for banks to digitise this process going from manual to digital.
Ryan Bridge
This really is data innovation. This is using information and data and analytics to drive growth. This is exactly what companies in New Zealand are wanting to do. We’re wanting more companies to do this sort of stuff, right?
Carmen Vicelich
It’s so exciting because if you think about it, well, you know, what’s possible is so transformational.
Ryan Bridge
At what point in your business career, your innovation, your entrepreneurial career, have you stopped and gone, okay, yeah, I’ve done it. Like I’ve achieved, I’ve got to a level where I’m no longer worrying about anything, I’m no longer stressing about things, I’m now free to innovate and to do more.
Carmen Vicelich
That’s a really interesting question, Ryan. And I think you kind of never stop if you’re an entrepreneur and one of our values at Valocity is Better never stops. And it’s because I have this terrible saying that I’m like, it’s a race and we’re in tech, we’re in data, we’re in AI. And it’s why when we had our babies, my husband said, he’ll stay home and he’s Croatian. And I’m like, what? And I’m from data and tech, I cannot pause.
But there are like moments where you’re like, okay, this is what freedom looks like to make the right decisions. I’m probably not so bad at using it, but you do the nice travel, all the things for your family, all the things with your kids, but also probably as a true entrepreneur, there’s always this hunger to fix more things and to do more and to keep on innovating.
Ryan Bridge
What does success mean to you?
Carmen Vicelich
Success means the freedom to make my own decisions. So, doing things how I want to do them, and that can be innovating and really solving problems like going to India. Like what tech companies in New Zealand go New Zealand, Australia, India? They just do not. And actually who even takes tech to India? India is like the tech capital of the world. And I’m going, most of my tech still in Auckland and Wellington developed out of New Zealand. So it’s not what you normally do. And I think it’s making those decisions that as an entrepreneur, you just know gut wise, that’s the right thing to do. But actually you’re so far ahead, you’re first. Generate Zero, we were the first in the world to do this. And I didn’t realise. I got invited to speak at New York Climate Week. And I’m like, well, I’m kind of busy that week, who’s going? And they’re like, Sir David Attenborough is opening the conference, then Dame Sylvia Earle and Jane. And I’m like, oh my goodness, I can come. I’m standing on stage going, why am I here?
And probably one of the other moments was winning International Fin Tech of the Year in India. We’d won Startup of the Year and then we won Scaleup of the Year. And then I said to my CEO, I need to be there. This is amazing, we’re a finalist. And he’s like, Carmen, this is really big, three and a half thousand companies are entering, we’re not gonna win. And we won, I wasn’t even there. But that was like a moment. And thank you for having me on your show with my award. It was a real moment that a New Zealand company had won that.
Ryan Bridge
Oh, it’s a big deal. It’s a big deal. Carmen, is there something just thinking back to, the starting up the business, the trials and tribulations, but then having a business and then going, I’m gonna do a new business. And then another one, is there something in you from when you were younger, or I don’t know, the way that you were raised or something, that means that you’re always striving to do that?
Carmen Vicelich
Definitely, I think definitely. And there’s probably a lot of, I imagine data on it, of as entrepreneurs born or are they made. But we moved here from South Africa. And I was the oldest of four children when we were 14. So I was looking after my siblings while my parents were doing two jobs and they were cleaning in the evening and one of their jobs was even Amway. And I was not allowed to watch 21 Jump Street like everyone else. I had to read Napoleon Hill and if you think you can, you can, and if you think you can’t, you can’t, either way you’re right. So I was reading all of this into my psychology and my parents always said, you can do anything you want to, as long as you’re prepared to work hard. But also, whatever you do, be happy. If you wanna be the postman driving on your bicycle in the sunshine, do that. If you wanna be an astronaut and go to the moon, then do that, but just be happy and life’s too short not to.
So I think that kind of self-confidence and really that “actually if it’s going to be, it’s up to me”, and then you learn, well now it’s now a team and now I’m scaling and now I’ve got to delegate -and you learn those things as you go. And I think the fear factor is definitely a big thing because I remember I used to think, well, fear is my development rushing towards me. I’m developing, I’m making decisions where I really don’t know where I’m going. I’m walking to the top of a mountain blindfolded. I’ve never been here before, but it’s just keep on moving forward.
Ryan Bridge
Carmen, do you have some advice for young entrepreneurs, especially young female entrepreneurs, about how they can be successful?
Carmen Vicelich
That’s such a good question because of my children, three of the four are females, and I think it’s that actually don’t be afraid to put yourself out there, whether you’re male or female. You know, just don’t think, well, everything has to be perfect before you start. Like, there’s just going to be no perfect time. And also, to think about who you listen to. Because quite often people take advice from people that have not done what they’ve done or gone where they want to go. And as you know, a close friend is Rod Drury, and I’ll listen to him. He’s been a mentor for many times. He’s built a New Zealand’s most successful entrepreneurial business from New Zealand in tech, scaling it globally. So choose who you take advice to. So choose who you listen to, and think big as well. I always think if you’re going to make sacrifices and entrepreneurship is about risk and sacrifice, then just try and think a bit bigger. And I see that particularly in the female entrepreneurs that not thinking big enough. And probably in New Zealand entrepreneurs as well. There’s a few that are obviously really thinking big. But think big. Think global domination. Because we always thought we’re building world class, and we’re going to be the best in the world from New Zealand with all of our businesses.
Ryan Bridge
Carmen, what about – this is a funny question for you, because I can’t ever imagine you retiring.
Carmen Vicelich
No, I think my husband, who I’ve been married to for 24 years, that might be the final straw.
Ryan Bridge
So do you have – is there an age you want to retire? Do you ever want to retire? And do you have a retirement plan?
Carmen Vicelich
A lot of questions there. I think probably I don’t have a retirement age. And my mum and dad, like, you know, stop, start. We celebrated retirement, and they came out, and they just– they’ve never really retired. They’re now in their 70s, and they’re still doing things. So I think it’s kind of how you’re brought up that you don’t retire. But I think retirement, you know, when you think about that, it does mean about your financial security. And in today’s world, that is so important. And especially when we think about our kids, and we think about AI, and we think about all the uncertainty of where we’re going. So thinking about, you know, how can you invest, and how can you do that early, as an enabler should be something everybody’s thinking about. And that enabler can be that it actually helps you start your business. But you know, it’s never too early to start. And I wish hindsight vision, I think we all do. You know, we wish that we’d started sooner to think about these things. So really advocate for getting advice, because, you know, you just don’t know what you don’t know. And there’s some really good advice out there.
Ryan Bridge
Carmen, it always invigorates me talking to you. Thank you so much for coming on the podcast and sharing a little bit about your journey.
Carmen Vicelich
Thanks so much for having me, my pleasure.
Ryan Bridge
And that was Carmen Vicelich, Valocity Global CEO and founder on her journey from corporate life into the world of innovation and tech. A very cool story indeed. Just a reminder, you can like, follow and subscribe this podcast wherever you like to listen. Until next week, don’t forget to invest in yourselves.
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