Nick Lissette

In the early days of entrepreneurship, Nick Lissette spent months living out of budget motels across the United States. He was pitching a new kind of product, that hadn’t even been built, to people who didn’t know they needed it, from a country that global tech players don’t usually meet with. You can only imagine the Everest he was trying climb. But he believed small businesses deserved better than the digital marketing status quo, and he was determined to build the tech that would make that possible.

That belief became Blackpearl Group in 2012. Headquartered in Wellington and now listed on the NZX, the company builds AI-powered tools that help small and medium-sized businesses find and convert new customers without relying on expensive ads or third-party platforms. Products like Bebop and Pearl Diver give SMEs access to the kind of sales and marketing capabilities normally reserved for much larger firms.

A decade ago, Blackpearl spotted the data and AI trend, building the systems to move fast before the AI boom. The company has scaled quickly, with strong recurring revenue. Nick runs a tight, high-performing ship, and every part of its platform - from data capture to pipeline execution - is built in-house.

While the company’s customers are based offshore, targeting the 33+ million SMEs in the US, the work and the benefits stay local. Blackpearl is creating local skilled jobs, building digital capability, and bringing export revenue into Aotearoa, with Nick proving Kiwi-born innovation can fly on the world stage.