In this episode of the Ways to Wealth Podcast, Charlie is joined by Victoria Jack!

Victoria has spent the last nine years deep in New Zealand’s early-stage tech scene through her recruitment business Maslow. She has seen what happens inside founding teams when everyone hires from their own circles, and why the result is often the same: homogenous teams, fewer perspectives, and weaker company stories. Her work has been shaped by a clear mission: getting more women into tech, and getting women seen as founders, leaders, and builders, not support roles.

But this episode goes somewhere more personal and more useful. Vic lays out the financial reality many women face when career and family collide. The decisions look small in the moment, stepping back, going part time, pausing KiwiSaver contributions, carrying more of the household load, but the compounding cost can be brutal. She shares what she wishes she had structured earlier, and the conversations she now encourages women to have before the trade-offs become permanent.

Charlie and Vic also zoom out to the state of the market: the post boom hangover in tech hiring, the pull of Australia, and why so many capable people feel stuck. They explore what “high agency” looks like in practice when jobs are scarce, including building something on the side, buying existing profitable businesses, and staying in motion long enough for momentum to show up again. There’s also a sharp look at how fast AI is changing the bar for what teams need, and why distribution and trust are becoming more valuable than chasing endless features.